Week of 12/13/2010

The 2010 Brutally Honest Awards
– by David Matthews 2

Well folks here it is, the end of another year. And as has been tradition for all of these years, it’s time to wrap up the year with a look back at the best and worst… and mostly worst.

The Biggest FAILURE in 2010: President Barack Obama and the Democrat-run Congress – I know this is going to be a shock to some folks, but let’s get brutally honest here… this whole year has been nothing but a huge sinking pile of FAIL for the Democrats in general, for Obama in particular, and especially for the rest of the world.

I know the “official” excuse is that it’s supposedly the fault of the GOP and their “Party of HELL NO” mindset, but that line only works one time. After that, it’s on you to not COUNT on the GOP.

Worse yet, this President and this Congress literally FORGOT about the FIFTEEN MILLION Americans that have been out of work, with more than half of them considered “long-term” unemployed, which means they are considered “non-hirable” according to all of the so-called “experts”. Writing off FIFTEEN MILLION Americans is FAR WORSE than when the Bush Imperium wrote off the people stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. At least THEY got help nine days after the fact and the media was on the president’s ass about it every single day. On three separate occasions, including the current one as of this article, the Congress and the White House literally WROTE OFF those FIFTEEN MILLION Americans as part of a political game with the GOP.

What’s worse is that the Democrats then expected people to actually THANK THEM for this ongoing gross incompetence! They think that the people just don’t know about all of the “good” things that they’ve done. Well, I know about FIFTEEN MILLION Americans who would think otherwise!

And they have the audacity to wonder WHY they lost control of the House this past November!

The Worst Villains in America for 2010: The GOP – Like you didn’t see this one coming. The whole “Party of Insurrection” game of theirs really sank them to a whole new level of scum.

Help for the Unemployed? – No.

Help for 9/11 Responders? – No.

Stopping the abuses of banks? – No.

Ratifying an arms treaty with Russia that was started under another President? – No.

Approving judges? – No.

Recess Appointments (something they had no problems with previously)? – No.

Time of day? – No.

They only things they ever say “yes” to are their own cushy needless raises and approving tax breaks for their rich friends.

The Second Worst Villains in America for 2010: The Transportation Security Administration – When it comes to making people jump through hoops to prove they’re not bad guys, just because “you can” is not a sufficient reason why “you should”.

In my trip to and from Oklahoma City for ShockNet Radio, I had to take off my shoes, empty my pockets, take off my belt, remove myself of everything except the clothes on my back, and put them all on trays to be scanned along with my laptop case and cellphones. No I didn’t get “scanned nekkid” nor did I get subjected to the grab-and-grope, but at the same time a lot of these restrictions that are being imposed are needless.

The Third Worst Villain in America in 2010: British Petroleum – You turn the Gulf of Mexico into a Premium toilet, decimate an already crippling economy from those who make their money on the Gulf, complain about having to put up $20 billion to cover the damages, wonder WHY Obama decides to stop offshore drilling, point fingers at everyone BUT yourselves, and your CEO then complains to the media that he wants to have his life back.

And you think that people should just forgive and forget about it?

What actually surprises me is that there hasn’t been a single arrest in this yet. But then again we are dealing with the Obama FAIL.

The Biggest Unrepentant Sacks Of Hypocritical Monkey Dung in 2010: The WikiLeaks Complainers – I’ll make this as PAINFULLY simple as possible. For all of you who want Julian Assange of WikiLeaks arrested and tried as a terrorist, you better be going after Dick Cheney, Robert Novak, and everyone else associated with the outster of Valerie Plane. Assange didn’t violate two federal laws and one Executive Order. Everyone associated with Plame’s outster DID!

And while you’re at it, don’t expect people to be cooperative when it comes to spotting bad guys if you’re going to continue with your “Don’t Snitch” mindset over this subject.

Hey, here’s a little suggestion… if you don’t want people to find out the dirty little games that you play behind the scenes…. DON’T PLAY THEM! Is that too hard to figure out?

The Worst Celebutant in 2010: Lindsey Lohan – Let’s see… lie about drugs, go to jail (which was measured by a stopwatch), go to rehab (measured by another stopwatch), gets a bunch of quacks to proclaim she NEVER took drugs, then gets busted in a drug test and ADMITS doing drugs, and somehow manages to repeat the process? And people wonder why Hollywood is messed up?

The Misogynistic Redneck Award in 2010: (Newly-elected US Senator) Rand Paul - A week before the election, one of Paul’s county campaign leaders decided to put his FOOT DOWN on the head of a MoveOn.org protester who was being illegally forced to the ground. That is not a play on words; he literally STOMPED ON HER HEAD! And then he had the nerve to go on the air and demand an apology from the woman whose head he intentionally stomped on. Oh, and the police didn’t do a damn thing about it! And Paul still ended up winning?

Keep that scene in the back of your mind, folks… that is what the GOP is going to do for the next two years!

The Worst Flakes in 2010: Glenn Beck, Christine O’Donnell, and Sarah Palin – “I’m not a witch, I’m you.” Beck’s dementia. “How’s that hopey-changey writing on my hand?” THESE are supposed to be the voices of “The Alternative”????

The Worst News Service in 2010: FoxNews – PT Barnum was an optimist. There’s a sucker born every minute, and that sucker is watching FoxNews and not figuring out that some of the “headlines” are political propaganda by GOP consultants and others are fabrications taken from “The Onion”.

The Biggest Out-And-Out LIE of 2010: Details of President Obama’s Trip to India - $200 million A DAY, 35 warships, 3000 staff members, a fleet of aircraft (one exclusively for the White House dog), 500 rooms at the Taj Mahal, and all according to one “anonymous source in the Indian government”. All LIES! And they can’t even say they got it from The Onion!

Like I said, PT Barnum was an optimist.

The Biggest Testosterone Film of 2010: “The Expendables” – Let’s see… Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with eye-candy Charisma Carpenter and Giselle Ite added for good measure… guns, explosions, and an automatic shotgun with explosive shells… the only things missing here were Wesley Snipes, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Seaven Segal, beer, and T&A. Forget Viagra and Cialis, just pop in “The Expendables” and by the credits you won’t worry about “performance”.

The Mad Profit of 2010: Glenn Beck – According to Glenn Beck, the Beckpocalypse is at hand! Heralded by the antichrist Obama with his three horsemen – Van Jones, George Soros, and Reverend Wright – the economy will collapse, civilization will follow, and the Earth will plunge into endless darkness and despair! So you better turn to (the Mormon) GOD, invest in a Doomsday Food Bank, and stop using money because it will soon become worthless in the Post-Beckpocalypse world! (This message brought to you by Goldscam.)

The Most Honest Description of Politicians in 2010: Republicorp! – Sadly, this turned out to be a political campaign by MoveOn.org, but it still encapsulated the whole GOP/conservative/neo-conservative movement! The unholy marriage of Big Corporate, FoxNews, and the GOP was exposed for what it is, and sadly nobody noticed.

Republicorp – We Decide, You Comply.

The Worst Comic Book Idea in 2010: The Return of Dead Heroes – Once upon a time the dead came back only through convoluted plot twists where a corpse was faked, or the person was cloned, or their “resurrection” is but a hoax. Now death is but a convenient plot twist for comic book writers. Captain America is dead! No, wait, he’s replaced by Bucky. But isn’t Bucky dead? No, he was saved and brainwashed. But Steve Rogers is back too! What? Yeah! Batman is dead! No, wait, Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing) is Batman. But Bruce Wayne is back too! What? Yeah!

Please! Will someone PLEASE put an end to the revolving death’s door?

The Worst Cartoon Idea in 2010: The “Re-imagining” of 80’s Greats – There is a new cable channel called “The Hub” that has been showing “new” series of old favorites. “G.I. Joe” is now “G.I. Joe: Renegades”, which remakes the 80’s heroes as an “A-Team”-style gang of outlaws going against Big Corporate Cobra. “Transformers” is now “Transformers: Prime”, and they don’t even look like the Michael Bay versions, never mind any semblance to the 80’s toys that they are supposed to be!

Please folks! ENOUGH! If you’re going to bring back the classics, DO THEM RIGHT!

The Most Annoying Instrument In The World for 2010: The vuvuzela - “Will you PLEASE stop slaughtering your pet pig? We’re trying to watch the World Cup!” “That’s not me! That’s on TV.” “What?” “Yeah, a whole bunch of morons brought some plastic tribal horns with them and they’re disrupting everything.” “When’s the next commercial break?”

The Most Annoying Ego-Trip Movie for 2010: “The Social Network” - Seriously? A film about the start of FACEBOOK? And we’re supposed to be excited about that? What’s next? A film about Twitter?

And finally…

The Best Online Radio Show in 2010: The American Heathen® 5^th Anniversary Extravaganza and Riproarin’ Roastapalooza! - Okay, this is somewhat biased, because I was the host of the last part of that special, but if there was any way for the year to come to a close, it would be with a collection of personalities past and present, and to end with the biggest belly-laugh possible!

And with that, 2010 comes to a close for this commentator. It’s been a hell of a year… and not all of it good. Well, most of it wasn’t good. But let’s hope 2011 will be better - IN SPITE OF the GOP.

Week of 12/06/2010

If Dictionaries Were Bipartisan…
– by David Matthews 2

It is said that history is written by the conqueror. That probably explains why people like Glenn Beck are hell-bent on re-writing it. No doubt if they had their way, school children would eventually be reading about how the Conservative Pilgrims (formerly the Puritans) sailed to North America in gold-plated battleships to “save” the “godless heathens” (formerly the Native Americans) from the “evils” of the liberal French trappers and establish a great “Republic of God”.

Thankfully their revisionism hasn’t yet reached the dictionaries. I think partially this is because dictionaries are still something that has to be READ. But if there is enough incentive, I’m sure we’ll soon see an interactive Foxonary Channel.

Sadly our social processes has become so politically polarized that we seem to have alternate ideas about everything. Polarized news, polarized radio, polarized stores, polarized TV shows, even toy dolls are being polarized! At this rate it’s only a matter of time before the very English language we take for granted is polarized with separate dictionaries… one for Dems and one for the GOP.

After all, for a few years we did just that with Thanksgiving! If you don’t believe me, then do a Google search for the word “Franksgiving” and you’ll see for yourself. There was one Thanksgiving for Democrats and one a week later for the GOP.

And of course there are the continual jokes about elections being held on separate days depending on your political affiliation and on who is telling the “joke”. (Oh, and I’m going to be kind and say that it IS a joke, and not some crass political tactic worthy of hunting down the perpetrators and waterboarding them.)

So let’s take that polarization and show how it would be applied to a few random entries in the English Dictionary… with one entry for the Democrats (DEM) and one for the GOP (GOP).

Now let’s get brutally honest here… I know that some of the definitions are going to be exaggerated. And they’re done intentionally to prove a point. They’re done to show that those who claim to want “common ground” fail to recognize that there is very little ground left that is “common”.

So here we go…

--

WAR (noun)
DEM: A state of armed hostility between two factions often resulting in needless tragedy. Something to be avoided at all costs.
GOP: A perpetual state of being for those who fight for our way of life. It is preferably waged with huge amounts of ordinance designed to “shock and awe” the enemy and to impress viewers when it is replayed on the nightly news and again on the Military Channel.

SOLDIER (noun)
DEM: A necessary evil in a free society.
GOP: The ultimate form of citizenry. When properly trained and deployed, a soldier will obey any and all orders without question. His or her sacrifice is to be remembered at all times. His or her death in service is to be canonized and glorified for all time (unless said citizen later becomes a liberal; see also “Traitor”).

DOG (noun)
DEM: A cute furry four-legged animal no bigger than a woman’s purse designed to be dressed up in cute little outfits and treated as furry children.
GOP: Lumbering creatures the size of small children who serve as friend and guardian. Fiercely loyal, and will chase down and devour liberals on sight, smell, or voice command. Also sometimes used for entertainment when pay-per-view wrestling is not affordable. (See also “chupacabra”, “Cujo”.)

CAT (noun)
DEM: Adorable furry four-legged animals; highly temperamental but extremely loving.
GOP: Shedding, scratching, oversized rats best served by being fed to a dog.

BELIEVE (verb)
DEM: Accepting a premise or action or idea without proof.
GOP: Something that all citizens must do when dealing with a government under GOP control.

COMPROMISE (verb)
DEM: A method of negotiation which allows for progress between different but peaceful factions.
GOP: Something that only Democrats and liberals engage in. (See also: “obscenity”.)

FAIL (verb)
DEM: Something that can never happen when Democrats are in charge of the government.
GOP: Something that only Democrats and liberals do.

LIE (verb)
DEM: Something that only GOP and conservatives engage in.
GOP: Something that Democrats and liberals engage in on a perpetual basis.

GUN (noun)
DEM: A vile, vile weapon designed to kill anything and everything. Such an item can never be allowed to exist and it is the mission of all humans to eliminate it at all costs.
GOP: The power of God in the hands of man, especially when wielded by a conservative.

FAIR (noun)
DEM: Something that WE determine.
GOP: A fictional concept invented by the liberals to justify depriving you of everything you have.

RIGHTS (noun)
DEM: Anything that you do that WE deem to be important enough to defend.
GOP: A fictional concept created by the liberals to justify doing whatever they want.

TRUTH (noun)
DEM: Something that is real and can be defended with proof.
GOP: Anything FoxNews says.

And finally…

FREEDOM (noun)
DEM: Whatever DEMOCRATS (and ONLY Democrats) determine it to be.
GOP: Whatever the GOP (and ONLY the GOP) determine it to be.

Week of 11/29/2010

Why NOT Thank A Human?
– by David Matthews 2

My friend RJ Evans is more than just a fellow libertarian and my boss for ShockNet Radio. He is also an unashamed atheist.

This past week on our weekly Friday show, RJ gave his editorial about the things and people he was thankful for this past Thanksgiving. I wasn’t listed by name (and I won’t hold it against him), but I paid more attention to something that he said about giving thanks, and to a point that he really didn’t pick up on too much.

Religious people, even those we call friends and family, continually interject their own faith into every aspect of our lives, and on special days, like Thanksgiving, this is even more so. Politicians of all stripe are equally eager to name-drop the politically-expedient personalized deity for thanks as well. Everyone loves to give thanks for the meal put before them, and the company around them, and their general lot in life, no matter how abysmal things may really be.

And yet something key is missing here…

What about the PEOPLE?

That turkey dinner that you enjoyed didn’t just magically appear on the table. Someone had to raise the turkey. That person had to then deliver that turkey for evisceration and plucking and bagging. It then had to be delivered to the store, handled by various employees to put it on the shelf, where it ended up in a shopping cart, and rung up by someone else before taken home. Then someone else had to cook it, carve it, and put it on plates for you to enjoy it. A deity didn’t do any of those things. Humans did them all.

The friends and family members that surrounded you during your day of thanks… they didn’t just magically appear around you, did they? They weren’t just sitting at home and then all of a sudden found themselves teleported over to your dinner table, were they? No, they had to fly or drive or even walk over to your home. And they didn’t get there by angel-power. They got there by man-made devices.

When you watched the various parades and sporting events and celebrations of the week, were all those being conducted by angels? Or were they done by human beings who took time out of their lives for the sake of celebration and competition?

Were any of those above-mentioned groups amidst your list of thanks this past Thanksgiving? Did you thank the farmer for your feast? Or the grocer for selling it to you? Or the people behind the means to bring your friends and family to you for that feast? I would hope that you at least thanked the person or people who cooked that feast that you so enjoyed!

You didn’t? You mean you completely forgot about those other people?

Well I’m really not surprised.

That seems to be a common problem. So focused are we on ourselves or on our beliefs that we forget about those “other people” who REALLY helped to make the day what it is. Or, for that matter, ANY day. It’s not just the special occasions that we seem to divorce ourselves from our fellow man and woman.

Think, for a minute, about a successful business. Big Corporate loves to dote all the attention on the people up at the extreme top of that business. The executive president, and vice-president, and directors, and the Board of Executives, and, of course, the CEO and CFO. They get all of the perks and bonuses. But what about the people who actually DO the work? The unnamed masses at the extreme BOTTOM of that business? The ones that barely get paid minimum wage with or without benefits and are told they have to work for free or without overtime or get laid off so those at the top can keep their profit margins. What sort of appreciation do they get for their hard work and sacrifice? Why, none at all! None except for “the opportunity” to bask in the glory of their executives.

I’m sure you’re wondering where we developed that kind of social disconnect, where we can literally de-humanize others, and you really don’t have to look very far. Just pay attention to what goes on at your own dinner table and ask who you really thank.

Let’s get brutally honest here… it’s really easy to give thanks to a deity that is viewed from our own biases and life experiences for simply ending up where we are today than it is to recognize and thus appreciate our fellow human beings, who were the ones that actually put in the effort to physically MAKE the things that we are enjoying. In fact it’s quite narcissistic.

If there was someone that you knew that did nothing at all, that neither contributed to your fortune nor helped you in times of trouble, would you be annoyed with that person demanding continual appreciation simply for being there? Sure. And yet when that “person” is a being perceived only through our own personal filters, we put IT over everything else and everyone else, and we expect others to do it too. And who really gains from that? Only ourselves.

Of course it’s easy to say that it’s not about “ourselves” when we use religious references. And yet our fortunes neither improve nor degrade if we inadvertently fail to thank that same being for some element of our lives.

Ask a CEO how he or she got to where they are today and they’ll be the first to tell you that it was through “hard work and determination”. They’re never going to say “Well I was cleaning toilets for minimum wage and I prayed to be rich and the very next day I was in charge of a Fortune 500 company.” That never HAS happened and that never WILL happen. But religious leaders will tell you that those kinds of things COULD happen just like that.

In fact the best way to describe what this personalized being contributes to is to say that it does… nothing. So we can either be thankful for that being doing “nothing” and watching as humans do all the things that is taken for granted, or we can be thankful for that being doing “nothing” that would intentionally cause harm to us or the people that we know. I mean, yeah, we COULD be hit by huge asteroid tomorrow. But does that mean I have to give thanks to some force in the universe that it hasn’t happened yet? That sounds a little bit like blackmail.

So the next time someone asks you to give thanks, how about putting some thought into the human beings who PHYSICALLY helped to make the event that you’re grateful for happening? After all, they had a LOT more do to with it than a metaphysical being that may or may not have done something… or nothing.

Week of 11/22/2010

Airport Of The Future?
– by David Matthews 2

Welcome To YOUR Local USA Airport!

For speedy processing, please observe the following rules and requirements.

By going beyond this point, you voluntarily forfeit any and all protections provided under the United States Constitution for the duration of your time within any and all USA Airport branches. Any rights or privileges provided during time within any and all USA Airport branches are at the sole discretion of USA Airport and can and will be revoked at any time with or without a stated reason.

All citizens, non-citizens, visitors, guests, refugees, and members of the US Armed Forces will be thoroughly screened for safety and security considerations. This is in compliance under all authority provided under the USA PATRIOT Act, the USA Airport Safety and Security From Terrorism Act, and the US Department of Homeland Oversecurity.

Prior to screening please turn off any and all cellphones, pagers, laptop computers, Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, iPods, iPads, iPlats, and any device used for recording or storage of data, including and especially any device used to store video and/or audio recordings. Recording security procedures by persons not employed by USA Airport is illegal and perpetrators will be arrested on the spot. Posting of said security procedures on social networking websites can be considered a death penalty offense.

Please be sure to provide the following documents and/or information upon entry into this or any USA Airport: your full name, the names of any other names you are known as, your address, all previous addresses you have lived at for the past ten years, your occupation, the address of your occupation, annual salary of your occupation, your National Identification Number (formerly your Social Security and Drivers License number), any and all phone numbers you currently use, any and all email addresses you currently use, the username and passwords to all websites that you are signed up for, any and all bank accounts you currently hold, any and all credit card information you have, your measurements (if female ages 18 or older), your marital status, the name of your spouse (where applicable - plural if in Utah), the names and ages of all children (where applicable), any and all social or political memberships you may currently or previously been associated with, the dates and number of times you called a radio or television station featuring a talk show host, and your position on the Instant Replay rule for all professional sports. Failure to provide any of the above-mentioned information can result in detainment. (Note: USA Airport cannot be held liable for any potential abuses or public mockery of your personal information.) Form TSA-666 will be provided for you to provide said information, which you will be able to fill out while waiting for your security screening.

Upon arrival to the screening area you will be required to remove all clothing, hair pieces, makeup, and prosthetics. Portable surgical equipment will be available to remove any breast implants, metal plates, and surgical pins. Please remove all said items and place them in the personalized container which will be handed to you prior to screening.

All persons going through screening will be subjected to visual and X-Ray scanning. This is required under the USA Airport Safety and Security From Terrorism Act and the authority of the US Department of Homeland Oversecurity. Any and all X-ray scans or photos taken during this screening by USA Airport personnel are for security purposes only and will be deleted after thorough review. (Note: USA Airport cannot be held liable for any potential abuses or public mockery of screening procedure. All scans are provided under officially licensed equipment provided by Beijing-Tijuana Security, Inc. and are not liable for any medical complications that may coincidentally arise during this time.)

Upon leaving screening, you will be provided official travel apparel containing your tickets, boarding passes, National Identification Number, and next-of-kin information. Official travel apparel will be based on your passenger status. First-Class passengers will be wearing neon orange coveralls, and all passengers flying coach will be wearing white coveralls with black stripes. Disposable feet coverings will be provided for all passengers and will be required to wear at all times within all USA Airports. All personnel not employed by USA Airport will be required to wear said travel apparel during all time within any and all USA Airport to avoid offending Airport or Airline employees with any social or political messages expressed or implied by one’s personal apparel.

All baggage will be searched upon check-in. Passengers are required to leave all baggage unlocked and available to be searched at all times. Due to security reasons, USA Airports will no longer allow carry-on luggage. Please do not transport any liquid, edible, or electronic substances in your baggage. All items will be thoroughly searched for explosives, counterfeit material, political paraphernalia, or potentially sensitive information. All suspicious material will be immediately seized and detained under current federal laws. USA Airports cannot be held liable for any material found missing, damaged, or exploited.

For a safe and event-free time during your travels at all USA Airports, please refrain from the following subject material: discussions about politics, discussions about sports, discussions about the economy, discussions about the security procedures at USA Airports, discussions about talk radio, references or impersonations of either comedian Jeff Dunham or any of his puppet characters, and any conversation that uses religious epitaphs, profanity, sexually-suggestive tones, or the phrases “hopey-changey”, “you betcha”, “Tea Party”, “shock-and-awe”, “lets get brutally honest here…”, “let’s roll”, or “Get’r done”.

(Note: The requirements listed above to not apply to members of the United States Congress or their immediate families.)

Thank you for visiting USA Airports, a division of the US Department of Homeland Oversecurity and the Federal Department of Corrections. Please be sure to visit often and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Week of 11/15/2010

The New Holiday Monster
– by David Matthews 2

When it comes to the holiday season, there are two well-known monsters.

The first monster is Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge was the protagonist of the classic tale “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. He started out as a miserly old coot who hated Christmas and everything connected to it. He was a child of business. He was abandoned by everyone that he ever loved; his mother, his father, his sister, his girlfriend, and eventually the only friend he ever knew. Only money stayed with him, so that was all that he ever cared about. He lived miserly, and he hoarded every shilling he had, and he expected those around him to do the same.

Dickens created Scrooge as the personification of the new mentality of the Industrial Society; as the thing that people should not become. By the end of the story, of course, Scrooge found his place in society again.

The second holiday monster is the Grinch. The Grinch was the creation of famed author Dr. Seuss in the story “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Unlike Scrooge, there was no real reason WHY the Grinch “hated” Christmas; just that he did. There were speculations about his clothes, his head, and his heart, but Seuss never developed a reason why this green furry creature would have a mad-on disgust of all things seasonal, only that it offended his sensibilities and he needed it to go away.

There are other enemies, of course, but for all of the Burger-Meister Meister Burgers and Winter Warlocks you could come up with, people identify Scrooge and Grinch the most because they represent the kind of people that they occasionally see in real life. They see the miserly curmudgeon that thinks money is more important than humanity, or they see the eternal grouch that hates celebrations and wants them all to go away.

But there has been another holiday monster that has reared its ugly head of late. It’s a self-centered creature that sucks the life and merriment out of the season. Ironically enough, this monster claims that it is acting in defense OF that same season of merriment and fun.

Behold… the CHRISTMAS CLERIC!

Now note that I did not say “HOLIDAY” Cleric, because that is the Cleric’s WORST WORD EVER! The CHRISTMAS Cleric will tell you in no uncertain terms that they are champions of CHRISTMAS! Not the “Holiday Season”, not the “Winter Season”, not the “Winter Festivities” or any other politically-neutral term. No, this Cleric will say CHRISTMAS, with the heavy emphasis on CHRIST-mas, because they are unashamedly CHRISTIAN, and they want everyone to know that this is THEIR SEASON!

THEIRS!

EXCLUSIVELY theirs!

Oh, you are more than welcome to participate, and in fact the Cleric WANTS you to take part. But it has to be according to the Cleric’s terms.

That means you MUST say CHRIST-mas. Heavy emphasis on the word “CHRIST”.

You cannot say “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Winter” or even talk about a “Yuletide Greeting” or a “Winter Event”. Those other words are obscenities to the Cleric. You don’t EVER mention those words around the Cleric. EVER!

You MUST… MUST… have a CHRIST-mas Tree. Not a Chanukah bush, not a decorated Norse Odinsleep tree, but a CHRIST-mas Tree with either a star or an angel on top. No bows. Bows are for the wreaths, which are another requirement of the Cleric.

You MUST… MUST… play CHRIST-mas music! Not remixed pop versions of generic songs like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Winter Wonderland”. No, no, no. You MUST play all of the CHRISTIAN music! You MUST play “Silent Night” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Away in a Manger” and all of the other CHURCH-inspired music. And preferably the organ versions so you get that CHURCH feeling. Oh, and this is the one time that the Cleric will actually insist that the music be blasted on a volume level normally reserved for heavy metal rock concerts, because the Cleric wants EVERYONE to know what and WHO’S time of the year this is!

You MUST… MUST… say “Merry CHRIST-mas” to other people! And every store not only HAS to have CHRIST-mas material available, and it has to actually SAY “CHRIST-mas”, but they also MUST… MUST… wish ALL their customers a “Merry CHRIST-mas”! The Cleric DOES NOT TOLERATE anything less! Your free speech ends with the Cleric’s periphery. The Cleric needs to see it, the Cleric needs to hear you SAY it, and the Cleric expects you to do it in all sincerity and meaning.

Now in case you’re ready to just write the Cleric off as being a holiday fanatic, here’s another little wrinkle… the Christmas Cleric also suffers from a perpetual persecution complex. The Christmas Cleric is firmly convinced that there is a WAR going on by “godless heathens and atheists” to destroy society. The Cleric is goaded on by self-righteous evangelical ministers to believe that ANYTHING except an out-and-out CHRISTIAN celebration of this time of the year is nothing short of an ASSAULT on THEIR PERSONAL religious beliefs. The Cleric REFUSES to accept the REALITY that the season was full of STOLEN concepts, even material condemned by the Cleric’s own Bible, and declares it… ALL of it… EXCLUSIVELY CHRISTIAN.

Once upon a time it would have been easy to ignore the Christmas Cleric. We used to dismiss this bitter person as someone who was just overly anxious of the season. But the Cleric is the product of some truly evil forces with ulterior dreams of Dominionism, and they are the ones that send the Cleric to stores to badger employees and managers to meet the Cleric’s personal religious standards. They are the ones that encourage the Cleric to suck the life out of the enjoyment of this time of the year from those that don’t adhere to the Cleric’s religious standards.

Let’s get brutally honest here… the Christmas Cleric is just as much of a seasonal monster as a Grinch or a Scrooge. The Cleric is fueled by Dominionists, wound up by propaganda and FoxNews stories, and sent forth not to celebrate the season, but to CONQUER it. The Cleric is just as much of a jihadist as any Middle East terrorist, minus the bomb and gun; although if ignored long enough that could be subject to change.

Sadly, in the Cleric’s obsessive quest to get everyone to adhere to the Cleric’s specific religious DETAILS, the Cleric loses the whole purpose of the season. It’s no longer about a celebration. It becomes indoctrination.

The problem is that the Cleric is someone we know; someone we have to live with or work with or that we have to deal with on a continual basis. The Cleric is a friend, a co-worker, a family member, or a business customer. And the Cleric knowingly uses that connection to get his or her way. We can’t ignore this kind of person, as much as we want to, because the Cleric REFUSES to be ignored.

The truth of the matter is that the Cleric is not just the creation of the Dominionists, but also those of us who have an unrealistic expectation of the season. Nothing stops the Cleric from celebrating the season in his or her own way. It’s just a pity that the Cleric cannot find it within himself or herself to reciprocate.

Week of 11/08/2010

Too Big For Jail Too?
– by David Matthews 2

Adlantus Newton was the victim of auto theft.

The Tacoma mother had just worked to pay off the loan she had on her 1999 Chrysler LHS and had gotten the title to the car back from the bank when her car was stolen from her.

It wasn’t hard to find her car or the people who stole it from her. In fact they were pretty blatant about stealing the car and were preparing to resell the stolen property.

She went to the police, but they weren’t any help. In fact the police sided with the criminals!

She was finally able to get her car back, but it would take the fear of exposure for it to happen, and, even then, NOBODY will go to jail for this heinous crime. Justice will clearly NOT be served in this case.

Because the criminal in this case is not a hardened gang member or professional auto thief looking for a quick score.

The criminal in this case is her bank.

The same bank whose loan she had paid off and gave her the title was the one that then declared her in “default” of that loan and sent the repo men to seize and try to re-sell that car.

Legally, the bank engaged in auto theft. That is a felony under Washington State law. They did not have ownership of that vehicle, they had already transferred the title to the rightful owner of that vehicle, and yet they still seized it and attempted to re-sell a vehicle that was legally not theirs under the false pretense that it was.

It took a television reporter and the fear of bad publicity to convince the bank to give Adlantus’ car back to her, with an empty gas tank no less. And the reporter ended his report with a chilling footnote: that his office has been hearing PLENTY of these kinds of crimes.

Even more disturbing is that law enforcement in the area not only ALLOWED this blatant criminal act to go through right under their noses, but they WILL NOT bring these admitted criminals to justice! By doing that, the police are guilty of being an accessory to a Class B felony under that same state law.

Then again, the government is protected from accountability. They have a built-in “Get Out Of Jail Free” card called sovereign immunity.

What’s the bank’s excuse?

Adlantus’ plight is the most blatant example of the systematic abuse of power and the continued and seemingly malicious action being carried out on behalf of banks against the very people they claim to be their clients. Adlantus was one of many people who did everything according to “the rules”. She paid off her loan. She got her title as proof of that completion. And yet the bank was determined to take her car away, by hook or by crook, simply because the payments stopped.

Across America, hard-working people who also tried to play by “the rules”, who struggled to keep up with payments, are suddenly finding themselves served with foreclosure notices, even though they’ve been keeping up with payments. They find themselves the victim of a bank foreclosure machine that doesn’t even bother to determine if they own the loan on the people they’re taking action against. And even when proof exists that these abuses are happening systematically, the banks are more interested in keeping the process going than to determine if they actually are right.

And they are allowed to get away with all of this with complete impunity… because governments large and small REFUSE to do their jobs!

In Pennsylvania, a debt collection company is being accused of sending out sheriff deputies to bring in people for debts they claim are due. They are taken to a courthouse and told that they could face jail if they do not settle those debts on the spot. Except the deputies are fake, the courthouse is fake, and the “judges” are fake. This is false imprisonment and false impersonation of law enforcement, both serious criminal charges.

And yet Attorney General Tom Corbett is only filing a “consumer protection lawsuit” against this predatory company. No criminal charges; just civil ones.

Yeah, that’s really “taking a bite out of crime”, huh? That’s showing you “REALLY” mean business!

Let’s get brutally honest here… the negligence of law enforcement to take action regarding these blatant criminal acts being committed by or on behalf of banks is UNACCEPTABLE! These are CRIMINAL actions!

If it was a street gang that stole Adlantus Newton’s car, do you really think that the Tacoma police would be sitting back and doing nothing? Or would they be reaching for their flack jackets and hauling out the heavy assault rifles? If it was a gang of grifters pretending to be sheriff deputies and judges, do you really think that AG Corbett would be wasting his time with civil lawsuits? Or would you see him handing the State Police the battering ram and looking for a trophy to impress the media with?

But no, we’re not talking about street gangs or a gang of grifters. We’re talking Big Corporate. We’re talking the all-mighty BANKS! And they’re special, aren’t they? They can’t be touched. After all, they’re “too big to fail” according to the federal government!

Forget plutocracy; this is KLEPTOCRACY we’re talking about here! This is government by THIEVES, of THIEVES, and for THIEVES! This is the same kind of selective governing you see in African nations.

And it’s not just a local problem. Big banks are getting big bailouts and getting a blind eye by the government for their abusive treatment of the very people whose taxes are supposed to be PAYING for those bailouts. Rather than prosecuting them for their predatory ways, they’re actually NEGOTIATING with those banks.

Remember the romanticized bank robberies of the 1930’s? Names like Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde were propped up as heroes not because of what they did, but of whom they targeted… banks. They were seen as GOOD GUYS because of the unrepentant predatory nature of the banks. Those sentiments are back again, and, in case you’re wondering, bank robberies are once again on the rise.

In order to turn around our collapsing economy, we need CONFIDENCE, not just in the lending institutions, but also in government in being able to DO THEIR JOBS! The various lending institutions need to be held to account for their actions. There needs to be ARRESTS! There need to be executives from these predatory businesses frog-marched out in front of the media. And if these branches of government FAIL to do their jobs, then they need to have their sovereign immunity stripped from them so they too can be prosecuted and convicted for their roles as willing accomplices in these criminal acts! Our society will continue to degrade until there is actual JUSTICE.

Week of 11/01/2010

Just Focus On The One
– by David Matthews 2

Every year at election time I hear the same old tired mantras from the statists in the political world when it comes to alternatives to their usual zero-sum “lesser of two evils” argument. That “they’re spoilers”, that “they take votes away from the other candidates” (boy, talk about an ENTITLEMENT program), and of course the most pompous of pompous pronouncements…

“They cannot win.”

Good luck on using history to refute their arguments. They have their own to fall back on. Good luck on using voter dissatisfaction. After all, the whole purpose of negative campaigning is to get those dissatisfied voters so disgusted that they will stay home instead of voting.

No, these political cultists have their minds fixated on their zero-sum “with us or against us” extremist mindset and they will go to their graves reciting those mantras.

Even worse is that these political cultists are in positions of influence in the media, able to recite their zero-sum “two-party only” beliefs to the masses and having it unquestionably accepted as being “truth”. The destructive effect of this mantra is even magnified by the glaring corruption, abuses, and gross incompetence of both halves that of that “two-party only” cult. When you are convinced that there are “only two sides” and both of them end up being detrimental to human discourse, there’s really no incentive to fix things.

But things DO have to change. These “two-party only” evangelicals need to be shut down, or at the very least hounded away from center stage so that REAL change can take place in society. THEY certainly don’t want change, because it takes power away from them. But change MUST be made, because the way things are today, it is just not healthy for any society to continue like this.

So how do you do it? How do you TRULY fix a problem this extensive?

The quick-and-dirty way would be to say “government”, but that’s really not a solution. That’s actually another part of the problem. In fact every attempt to impose a government solution has ended up reinforcing that same extremist “two-party only” cult. That’s because the government is also infested with status-quo cultists, and getting them to accept more than two political parties is like getting Christians and Muslims to accept Buddhists as equals.

So how do you bring about change given the insurmountable odds stacked against it?

You do it in the same way that the status quo crept into society in the first place…

You start with yourself.

Let’s get brutally honest here… these “two-party only” evangelical cultists have a vested interest in getting you to vote their way. Their power rests in convincing you to give up your own when it comes to the ballot box. So the first step to bringing change is for you to not give them that power.

Bringing about change first must from YOUR OWN vote. Not your neighbor’s vote; YOURS. Change doesn’t just happen because you want it to, and change is not going to be easy. It means having to explain why you aren’t following the “preferred” choices, putting up with accusations of “wasting your vote” or of being a “spoiler”.

Yes it means enduring the slings and arrows of making your choice, but if you think about it… making a change against a destructive system means weathering some abuse. Look at some of the biggest changes in history. How many of them were without misery or torment? Being accused of “wasting your vote” or of being a “spoiler” is pretty much on the low-end of consequences.

Besides, if your vote is ultimately so inconsequential to the “bigger picture”, why are the statist evangelicals so concerned about it? Well the answer is simple: because EVERY vote counts, no matter how small they are; and their sense of entitlement demands that they lay claim to EVERY vote out there, including - and especially - YOURS.

Consider one of the previous elections where there were “X” percent of the populace that did not vote, thus fulfilling the ultimate goal of those negative ads. What if half of those non-voters actually showed up and wrote in “NOTA” to any particular office? Sure “NOTA” wouldn’t win, but it would send a message to both sides of that “two-party only” cult that there is a segment of the populace that isn’t happy with the choices being forced on them. Plus it would open the door for better candidates that would normally be excluded from running by those party bosses. Just by you writing in “NOTA” (or “None Of The Above”), you send that message of dissatisfaction that starts the wheels of change rolling.

All of that starts with just one vote… your own.

Once upon a time this commentator believed that a truly “wasted” vote was the one that didn’t vote, but after listening to the statist evangelicals over and over and over, I have been forced to revise that definition. A truly WASTED vote is not just the person who doesn’t vote, but also the person who sells out his principles and votes for the “lesser of two evils” instead of voting for the candidate that he or she feels best represents them.

True change starts not with the collective, but with the individual. Don’t worry about the million votes needed to win, or even a thousand votes. Just focus on that one vote… your own. And make it TRULY represent you.

Week of 10/25/2010

It’s Sewer Time!
– by David Matthews 2

There’s a foul stench in the air.

It’s a repugnant odor that is emanating everywhere. It’s in everything we see and everything we hear.

It fouls our meals, our mail, our polite conversations with friends and family, even our places of work and places of prayer.

It pervades into our phone lines, harassing us endlessly with its foul prefabricated noise, making sure that there is no place in our world that they have not perverted and corroded.

And it only gets worse from this point on. It gets more and more putrid, more and more repulsive, sapping the strength, the will, the resolve of people to try to avoid it and to move on to more important things.

I am, of course, talking about politics.

This is politics at its worst right now… that rare time just weeks before Election Day when everything that a politician says or does becomes instant analysis. When media personalities on radio and cable television become willing whores for political parties, exploiting their positions to send campaign messages under the false banner of “neutrality”. When so-called “experts” proclaim to know what we think and try to steer us towards their preferred candidates. When we are inundated with daily and semi-daily and even moment-to-moment polling to try to tell us how we will vote. When lies and damned-dirty lies are force-fed down our throats every other minute, and even when fact-checked and proven to be lies, there is no attempt to remove them from their airwaves, or even to apologize for airing them.

This is the time when the sage advice of comedians and writers and philosophers one and all about the irredeemable qualities of all of the candidates on the ballot are validated. They’re all greedy, self-centered, corrupt, dishonorable liars. They’re all on the take. They all will say anything and everything to get elected. They all will promise the moon, a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and of course a return to happier and prosperous days… oh, and all babies must eat! They are all “outsiders” and also “career politicians”. They are all “experienced” and at the same time “inexperienced”. They are all “honest” and yet lie through their teeth. They are all beholden to special interest groups, and yet claim to be “mavericks”. They side with extremist factions, and yet also promise to be “mainstream”.

This is the time when all of the dirty little secrets about the candidates come out. All of the incendiary things that they did, all of the questionable antics and backroom deals that were brokered… all of the things that were held back until JUST BEFORE the election!

Did the candidates really think that these little secrets wouldn’t see the light of day? Did they think that their opponents wouldn’t use these little secrets in their campaigns?

Or perhaps that’s just part of the whole game in the first place.

Either way, the whole thing has become rancid, and the stench makes this commentator want to just turn off everything! Turn off the TV set, not read the newspaper, stop listening to the radio, stick to online role-playing games, unplug the telephone, and not talk with ANYONE until after Election Day!

Of course the whole thing is meant to be rancid at this point. It’s MEANT to make you sick to your stomach, to turn you off the whole process, to not want anything to do with the world around you.

It’s all meant to keep YOU from voting.

Let’s get brutally honest here… this whole election process is a matter of numbers, and if the party players and their constituents cannot count on your vote, then they don’t want you to be anywhere NEAR the ballot box, period!

That’s why the GOP is touting those so-called “tea party” candidates. They know that those folks are pissed-off enough to show up at the polling place, so of course they want them to vote GOP. But that’s it. They don’t want anyone else voting.

It’s worked before. Look at the 1994 mid-term election. Here you had the worst turnout in history, with twenty percent of the electorate bothering to show up at the polls, and those were people that were already disgusted with the system and were willing to vote for ANYONE! They would have voted for Benito Mussolini in a heartbeat, even with him dead for fifty years, just to get the trains to run on time again. And given some of the candidates out there today, voting for a foreign fascist dictator that has been dead for over a half-century would actually be a better alternative!

And that is what the GOP wants to have happen again. They want voters to be so disgusted with the process that the bulk will just want to stay home, leaving only their extreme diehard supporters to decide who gets control of the Congress.

Unfortunately once again the Democrats are so useless they can’t offer any real alternative, and they have defaulted to their “standing still is the better alternative” tactic. Sure they’ll sling mud, but they won’t offer anything substantive, because they know that the leadership in the Congress is incompetent.

But while we’re getting nauseated by the stench, there ARE alternatives out there. They’re lost in the utter sewer sludge, but they are there. We’re talking REAL alternatives; THIRD-PARTY candidates, not these prefabricated phonies that call themselves “tea party candidates”. THOSE are the people you need to vote for if you are disgusted with the whole “business as usual” game. “Tea Party” people ARE NOT ALTERNATIVES! They’re just pissed-off versions of the GOP still living in denial that they’re still getting jerked around by the media personalities on radio and cable TV.

That probably explains why the politicians are quick to get us from the traditional voting machines to the digital ones… because the levers on those old machines look way too much like the lever of a toilet.

This is a sewer of OUR creation. WE allowed this to happen by continually supporting Democrats and the GOP over and over and over again because we REFUSE to vote for REAL alternatives.

It is high time we did something about this sewer, because the stench is too much to have to continually put up with.

Week of 10/18/2010

One Versus The World
– by David Matthews 2

Let’s start things off with a simple statement…

Two plus two equals four.

Simple enough, right?

It’s easy to figure out if you didn’t understand it. You just put two items in front of you and then two more items and then count the ones you have and come up with four.

It’s PAINFULLY simple, isn’t it? Something that pretty much everyone with a working brain would agree with.

But what if someone was to tell you that two plus two DOES NOT equals four? That it, instead, equals five?

No matter how hard you try to prove just how wrong that person is, that person is firmly locked into the belief that this otherwise simple math equation equals five instead of four. He or she comes up with long and complicated arguments, complete with chalkboard illustrations, to prove their point.

You’d think that person to be crazy, right? Demented? Delusional?

But now what happens if another person also believed the same thing? You’d probably dismiss that person as well.

And how about a third? And a fourth? And a fifth? How about five hundred people believing the same thing? How about five thousand?

What if the whole world firmly believed that two plus two equals five and that you were the only one who knew and accepted that truth? Boy that would be awkward, wouldn’t it?

And even if the whole world minus you believed that two plus two equals five, does that make it any truer? Does a fifth item magically appear when you put two items together with two other items? Does the physical universe rearrange itself to accommodate the whims of a whole world of people who believe that two plus two equals five?

No, it does not.

So why do social charlatans try to convince us that it does?

The biggest fallacy that media personalities, politicians, religious leaders, and special interest groups make is to convince people that TRUTH is merely a matter of NUMBERS. That someone’s honesty and reliability and truthfulness are somehow subject to how many people listen or agree with them.

Politicians pompously proclaim that anything they do is good and right simply because they are re-elected over and over again. Media personalities want people to think that they are right simply because of ratings, and they condemn their critics by accusing them of having no listeners or think that it’s all in some effort to get better ratings. Special interest groups want people to think that popular ideas are right simply because of NUMBERS.

And of course there are the POLLS! You can’t have a day go by without seeing some reference to at least one poll… and that’s not counting the election season, where you have daily and even semi-daily polling! And they also spread this fantasy that what they report is what the masses feel is right.

But does any of this MAKE something right?

No.

Let’s get brutally honest here… I am sick and tired of people trying to spread this LIE that truth or reason or reality or being right is merely a matter of NUMBERS. This universe and the rules and limitations that they impose on us are not dependant on the acquiescence of a certain percentage of the populace! That is nothing more than a sickening display of arrogance.

Having ten or a hundred or a thousand or even a million supporters doesn’t mean that you’re right. It just means that you’re persuasive. That’s not a measure of honesty or truthfulness. It’s just a tool that can be used in too many different ways for right or wrong reasons.

For those who happen to be religious, I probably don’t have to remind you that there was a guy who was considered immensely popular and then was vilified and subjected to torture and summary execution all within the span of one week. And he reportedly didn’t do anything different during that time to give the masses reason to turn on him. You probably heard of him… people have been invoking his name for the past two thousand years. Were his words or deeds disqualified because of the masses turning on him? Were all of the reported acts of miracles he performed or were performed because of him suddenly reversed simply because his popularity plummeted?

If you answered “no” to those two questions, then you also need to accept that the same thing applies to the rest of the world. The sun does not rise or set just because a POLL said it was okay. Likewise, saying that two plus two equals five does not make it so just because you can convince a certain number of people that it is.

Being right is not a matter of NUMBERS. It is simply a matter of BEING.

Week of 10/11/2010

The Perverse Fixation on Unions
– by David Matthews 2

Have you ever heard of the White Elephant trick? It’s a doozy!

If I were to tell you to not think about a white elephant, you will. No matter how hard you try, you’ll think of a white elephant. In fact, the harder you try, the more times you’ll THINK of a white elephant.

Apparently conservatives, neo-conservatives, and even some libertarians have the same problem when it comes to unions. They just can’t get unions out of their heads. Everything… EVERYTHING… every single thing that deals with politics has to involve unions, either in thwarting them, starving them, denying them, or otherwise attacking them relentlessly.

Conservatives and neo-conservatives will sabotage critical legislation, potentially sabotaging the nation itself, in order to get some sort of assurance that a union won’t get any kind of gain from it. National tragedy? People in desperate need of assistance? Lives at risk? Sorry, but you’ll just have to suffer because cons and neo-cons would rather see you DEAD than to have your needed emergency aid touched by even ONE union worker!

One has to wonder what kind of depraved mind would play such games with the lives of others… and then the answer comes automatically when you realize that we’re talking about a group of people operating with pretty much zero accountability, and not much can be said about their honor or ethics either.

But seriously, these guys have UNIONS on the brain! Every time you talk about reforming a costly system, bringing aid to people that desperately need it, they can’t help but then blurt out “And what are the UNIONS getting out of this? You can’t get a program passed without the UNIONS benefiting from it!”

These are the same people that had no qualms whatsoever bailing out Wall Street and the mega-banks, but then screamed bloody murder over giving even one penny of bailout money to automakers because it’s “payback for the unions”.

You can’t talk about job creation without them screaming about “UNION JOBS!” Oh yes, you can build houses using questionable workers from other nations, you can import workers to fill American jobs, and you can rubber-stamp deals that would outsource American jobs overseas, but you can’t talk about creating a single job in this country without them accusing you of creating UNION jobs.

Knock it off!

Do you hear me? KNOCK THE HELL OFF!

I am so sick of hearing about UNIONS!

Do you know what a union is? Really? Truly?

A union is nothing more than a poor substitute for good management.

Seriously, that is all that a union is, stripped down of all pretenses and platitudes; it is an organization that was created on behalf of employees to combat the abuses of really BAD managers. Every union that exists today can be traced back to a series of workplace abuses that did not have to happen, and would not happen if those businesses had management that was more appreciative of their workers. I know that sounds overly simplistic, and of course there were other factors involved in the rise and growth of unions as a political force, but if the business community basically treated it as an inside challenge to do better instead of as an outside invasion, there wouldn’t be such a thing as unions today.

But, hey, this really isn’t about unions, but rather it is about the cons and neo-cons using the unions as their perpetual bogeymen and ready-made excuses to destroy this nation.

Now it’s sort of strange that for a political faction with a mad-on hatred for unions, they somehow don’t necessarily share that revulsion with ALL unions. For instance, they don’t seem to have any problems with police unions. They can slam teamsters, dock workers, automakers, flight attendants, pilots, teachers, government workers, but somehow they tolerate police unions. Not only that, but they are seemingly oblivious to unions in professional sports, and they stop short of throwing a party when Hollywood unions go on strike. If unions are such the bane of existence that they paint them to be with such a broad stroke, why still support or otherwise root on certain unions?

Well there’s a reason why. The reason is this: these guys attack and otherwise demonize the unions that THEY would otherwise have on their side.

Remember Ronald Reagan’s presidential win in 1980? Well some of us do. Anyway, Reagan won because he managed to get the support of the Teamsters. Yes, that’s right; the man that was considered the ICON of conservativism actually sought out and got help from a UNION to become President of the United States!

Okay, so some of you are saying “Yeah, but that’s thirty years ago! That was a whole different time!”

No, not really. Because not long afterwards, Reagan pissed off union groups through the Air Traffic Controllers strike.

So… suck up to the unions when they can HELP you and then piss all over them when they can’t. That seems to be the game plan here.

But then again, there’s another reason why unions get demonized… and that is the company that the conservatives keep.

Think about it… what part of America do unions mostly represent? Hard working lower-to-middle-class people! Sure some unions bosses are in the upper echelons, but the base are really on the lower-half of the financial pyramid.

And how about the people who constitute “the base” for conservatives and neo-conservatives? Wall Street, Big Corporate, the super-wealthy, business owners and managers… and, yes, some middle-class people, but for the most part they spend their time with the upper-half of that same financial pyramid.

Oh sure they love to praise “small business owners”, but when you realize that under the rules that conservatives and neo-conservatives helped to put in that “small” is usually in name only. I mean, does anyone consider the Chicago Tribune to be a “small business”? And yet it is. In fact a lot of big multi-million dollar companies get away with being declared “small businesses” thanks to those same rules. So while you and I consider “small businesses” to be mom-and-pop stores, understand that the cons and neo-cons are thinking more Wall Street than Main Street.

Yes, I’m talking about class warfare here.

But this isn’t class warfare from the bottom-up as has been traditionally perceived over the past century. No, this is old-OLD-school class warfare… subjugation from the top-down. The people with the money and the power want their cake and eat it too. It’s really that simple.

The people up top don’t like unions. They don’t want unions to exist. But they also don’t want to do the things that would make unions needless. They don’t want to curb their own abusive incompetence as managers, thinking instead that being an unrepentant a-hole is somehow a good thing. Yes, denial of their own status as oversized sphincters also plays a role in this.

So they “contribute” (purchase) a group of parasites that promise to put the hurt to unions. They turn to that group of parasites that put up obstacles to unions and give them as much power as possible to subjugate the bottom-half of the economic pyramid, mostly because it is easier (and cheaper) to do that than to actually BE effective managers.

The problem, then, is that those same parasites now know how to press the buttons of their economic “friends”. All they have to do is say “unions” and they get all the money and support they want.

Of course it should also be mentioned that unions then “contribute” (purchase) their own gang of parasites that promise to give them more and more power and to cement their own position in the business world. And they too are often led around by those same parasites come election time.

But let’s get brutally honest here… this whole issue with unions, both as the convenient bogeymen and as a social group, is a NEEDLESS matter! As much as the people up top refuse to admit it, the unions were CREATED by their own abusive incompetence. And as long as they REFUSE to admit that fact, they empower their own parasites in politics to use unions as their ready-made scapegoats and political reaction.

Thus we get to the real reason why those political parasites and their special interest enablers are so fixated on unions… because it gets a rise out of the upper-crust and gets them to open up their pocketbooks without actually doing anything to get rid of the unions. They certainly don’t want to tell their “friends” what it would really take to deal with the subject, because it then deprives them of their leverage.

Listen, folks, the business world can get rid of unions all on their own. There is no big secret to it. It doesn’t require politicians or their enablers. It doesn’t require new laws or regulations or even the removal of laws or regulations. It can even be summed up in three simple words: STOP BEING A-HOLES!

But I suppose that is too much to ask for, isn’t it?

Week of 10/04/2010

The Company They Keep
– by David Matthews 2

There are times when I defer to the folks at the Reason Foundation for their sound words of advice regarding freedom. The folks there often have a better understanding of freedom than the vast majority of so-called “experts” who falsely claim to support the Constitution or fraudulently pretend to channel America’s “founding fathers”. (You listening, Beckites? I’m talking about YOUR lot!)

Unfortunately the folks at Reason also take stances that a freedom-lover like yours truly seriously has to question.

Recently Reason did one of their little video snippets attacking Hollywood for their fascination with painting capitalism as the villain in their movies. It’s a quick dig on the fact that the sequel to Oliver Stone’s classic movie “Wall Street” was coming out. In “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, the legendary Gordon “Greed is Good” Gekko (again played by Michael Douglas) is out of prison and discovering that what he did in the 80’s to go to prison for is now perfectly legal. (You can thank the GOP for that little Christmas present.) Then the folks at Reason tied it in with the overall robber-baron land grab theme of “Avatar”, the bio-weapon manufacturer in “M:I-2”, the “gotta save the alien killers to use as weapons” bureaucrat from “Aliens”, the sociopathic lawyers in “A Civil Action”, the hospital executives in “Coma”, the developers in “FernGully”, and so on and so forth.

And then Reason declared that capitalism somehow “enforces rules” about stealing, fraud, and violence, and to channel greed towards “productive means”. “Play by the rules,” Reason said, “and greed gets you the iPad. Break the rules and you get Bernie Madoff.”

WHAT?

What delusional world do the people at the Reason Foundation live in where they can come up with THAT fairy tale? Wherever it is, I want to be there, because here in the REAL world, capitalism has but TWO simple rules that it lives by.

The first rule of capitalism is profit at all costs. It doesn’t matter HOW they make that profit; just that they do. You can screw over your own family members, sell your children into slavery, and even sell your soul (repeatedly) just as long as you make that profit.

The second rule of capitalism is this: if it isn’t above the board, if it is bound to cause scandal, go ahead and do it, but don’t get caught. You can do everything you want to in order to make those profit numbers, but if it’s something that you don’t want to publicly take credit for, just don’t get caught doing it.

Just look at the plight of “Poor Bernie”, the example that Reason used for “bad greed”. There were red flags flying FOR YEARS about Bernie’s questionable practices. FOR YEARS! And they were ignored time and time again. Why? Because it followed the first rule of capitalism… profit at all costs. All of the safeguards that the Reason Foundation touts as being “Capitalism’s enforcers”, all of the watchdogs and auditors and overseers, even the ones on the INSIDE, that were SUPPOSED to prevent that kind of thing from happening… THEY FAILED!

So when the house of cards that was Madoff’s financial services finally collapsed, people started asking how that could happen. And just as soon as fingers started to get pointed towards anyone but Madoff, Madoff suddenly became the sacrificial lamb. All of the looks into other participants, all of the other groups that knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it, all of that focus immediately died down when Madoff pled guilty. Those groups followed the second rule… don’t get caught. Bernie got caught. He went to prison for it. The others didn’t, because the system didn’t LET anyone else get caught. It all stopped with Bernie.

Glory, Glory Capitalism.

But let’s get back to Hollywood here…

The folks at Reason somehow got it into their heads that Hollywood has a mad-on hatred of capitalism that they just can’t figure out. They apparently don’t like seeing business leaders being portrayed on TV and the movies as being self-centered, greedy, manipulative, backstabbing, narcissistic sociopaths. That’s just not fair, after all, to all of the GREAT and WONDERFUL things that they have given the world… like… like… like the gas-powered automobile! And the factories that manufacture the gas-powered automobile, which have been slowly outsourced to other nations. And the refineries needed to produce the oil needed to make the gas to power those vehicles, one of which recently blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, and the full extent of that devastation is STILL not measured.

Ooh… not good examples, are they?

Well the point is there is a REASON why capitalism is the easiest villain around… and that is because we see FAR too many examples of it in the real world! In fact capitalism is seemingly the one institution that allows you to engage in all of the deadly sins and then some and then wash your hands clean of it all and say that it’s “just business”.

Capitalism destroys whole communities much faster than they do building them up, and they’re not the least bit remorseful when they do it. It’s “just business”. They dehumanize people, transforming them into nothing more than account numbers on a spreadsheet, justify collecting every bit of information they can on those “account numbers”, and then sell that information off to other companies to make a quick buck. And they do it with a wink and a smile and say that it’s “just business”. They reward people for being ruthless, manipulative, obsessively fixated on succeeding at all costs, and then justify it all by saying that it’s “just business”.

These are all the traits of a classic villain.

You don’t hear too many stories of “good guy” businesses, because the business world, capitalism itself, doesn’t reward people for being honest and ethical. Those are usually the first ones laid off or bought out or shut down or otherwise made victims to the ruthless and cruel.

Remember “Tucker: A Man and His Dream”? That wasn’t a flight of Hollywood fantasy concocted out of the ether. That was based on real events of a real person named Preston Tucker, whose dream of designing a better car was destroyed by the automakers and the politicians who worked on behalf of the automakers.

And, yes, the folks in Hollywood KNOW that they get their movies made by capitalistic investors. They KNOW that the studios are just another part of capitalism. They KNOW that they have to make money to keep making movies. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t bring up the abuses - real or hypothetical - of that same capitalistic system.

Granted, the “corporate bureaucrat that would rather sacrifice a whole Marine unit to transport some xenophobic mass-murdering aliens to be studied for use as possible weapons” is a bit of a stretch, but if there is anything that would foul up an otherwise straightforward military operation, it WOULD be a spineless backstabbing corporate bureaucrat. And, as was pointed out in that same movie, at least the nameless xenophobic mass-murdering “Aliens” don’t screw themselves over for a profit margin.

But let’s get brutally honest here… the reason WHY capitalism is the preferred villain stereotype in entertainment is that capitalism not only ENCOURAGES villainous behavior, but also… those in the capitalistic community seemingly do not MIND being cast as the bad guys!

How many corporate executives still watch the original Oliver Stone “Wall Street” film and cheer when Gekko utters his “Greed is good” speech? How many of them watched Martin Sheen’s character Bud Fox and think he was a spineless coward?

By the way, how far do you think any of these projects that bash capitalism would get if the investors themselves said “no” to the portrayals? Not everyone in Hollywood can have the money or influence to churn out a movie on their own, and we’ve seen the end result of some of the productions. (“Waterworld” anyone?)

And while Reason is fixated on the evil that government does, and would rather whitewash all the evils of Big Corporate (mostly to appease their friends), the truth is that villainous traits are not a matter of vocation, but rather they are rooted in the use and abuse of POWER.

Once upon a time, the bad guys were all priests and noblemen. So were military leaders and small town law enforcers. Nosy neighbors haven’t exactly shaken off their stigma either. For a while even the scientists were considered the bad guys. Remember the “Mad Scientist” trope? From Doctor Frankenstein to Fritz Lang’s Rotwang to the early versions of Lex Luthor, scientists used to be portrayed as being inherently evil. That didn’t stop the scientific community from pushing through with their projects. That didn’t stop the advances in medicine or the new discoveries in technology.

Each of these villain groups have one thing in common: POWER. At some point, they all have the power of “GOD” (or the next best thing) and they decide to use it at the expense of others for all the wrong reasons. That sullies ANY profession or organization that they are connected to. And when done enough times, seemingly without remorse or regret, and without an effort to make things right again, then one cannot help but to paint that entire profession or organization with the same brush. Just look at the continual tar-and-feathering of the adult entertainment industry if you don’t believe me.

And if the key players involved in capitalism, and their friends in the Reason Foundation, have such a bug up their capitalistic butts about this typecasting, then maybe what they should be focused on is NOT Hollywood, but rather in getting their commercial brethren to clean up their own sullied houses. You don’t have to look very far in the real world to see evil afoot.

In fact, for the past ten years we have been barraged by a series of corporate failures and malfeasances from a whole array of companies, from Enron to oil companies to AIG to the “too big to fail” banks to the insurance companies and even to private contractors for the government. Most of these have gone on with seemingly no consequences for their actions. And even when the industry itself sets up its own rules and puts in place their own watchdogs, the system still FAILED, and nothing’s really done about it. Deals are struck, minimal fines are sometimes paid, sometimes a weak “mea culpa” is even issued, and then it’s back to business-as-usual. The ruined lives and shattered dreams are all written off as just the cost of doing business. THAT’S EVIL!

And that’s really not the kind of result that Hollywood would ever want to portray, because Hollywood usually likes to paint a happier ending when telling their stories. They want to give the illusion that the good guys somehow triumph and that the bad guys get their just deserts. That’s just good business for them.

Week of 09/27/2010

Memo To Government: You Can Stop Lying Now
– by David Matthews 2

I have a really simple message to the federal government in regards to our economy.

Stop.

Just stop.

Stop the lies. Stop telling us that it’s raining when all that you’re doing is peeing on our legs.

This past week the “OFFICIAL” word from the National Bureau of Economic Research is that there really WAS a recession. It “started” in December of 2007, and it “ended” in June of 2009.

Bull$#it.

Stop it.

Just STOP IT!

Stop lying to the American people!

I’m not questioning the presence of recession or its severity. It really is THE WORST economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

I’m challenging the “official” dates of it.

First of all, the recession DID NOT START in 2007. The seeds of our economic destruction were sewn LONG BEFORE then!

We can trace this economic disaster going back to the 2001 “mini-recession”, when businesses like Enron and WorldCom began to fail. Back then, we the American people were fed a placebo and told it was a cure. That placebo was cheap credit and housing values in the place of a growth in real wages. And we bought into this placebo because we had two wars to fight and terrorists to thwart.

We can trace this economic disaster through the changes made to banking and bankruptcy rules. The changes that allowed big banks to get even bigger and to make more and more risky decisions, while at the same time making it harder and harder for the rest of the American people to get out of the burdens that have been placed on their shoulders.

But if you wanted a REAL date of the start of this recession, then you’d have to go with September of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina barreled through the Gulf of Mexico and our President, having already weaseled in a generous thank-you to his friends in the oil industry, decided than it was more important to attend a fundraiser in California than to worry about the sudden shutdown of oil that ended up affecting the whole country. As far back as then, people started talking about a looming recession and wondering what could be done to stop it. And of course nothing WAS done to prevent the recession, because it was just too profitable to keep the status quo going.

Here’s a little friendly tip to these “experts”… every economic downturn in recent years, no matter how slight, were precipitated by spikes in oil prices. Go ahead and look it up and you’ll make the same connection I made. There’s your true warning sign.

Of course we can endlessly haggle over when the recession BEGAN. But what I REALLY object to - what I have to call foul on - is your declaration that this recession “ENDED” in June of 2009.

Bull$#it! It did not end.

Do you hear me? IT IS NOT OVER WITH!

Unemployment is still a huge problem in this nation. Fifteen million Americans are out of work, with that number expected by some to reach as high as THIRTY-ONE MILLION by the end of the year. Almost HALF of those people out of work have been out of work for at least a year or more, which pretty much makes them unemployable. And that number is not even an accurate account, because as more and more unemployed Americans run out of benefits, they are no longer counted. They cease to exist in the minds of the government.

Foreclosures and bankruptcies are still a problem in this country, and they will continue to be as long as more and more Americans are not able to find work. The people who still have work have been forced to make do with less. They’re not going to be spending money on things that would stimulate the economy. They’re going to be worried that they may not have a job by the end of the year and end up being part of that estimated THIRTY-ONE MILLION.

Plus the recklessness of Wall Street HAS NOT ABATED! The very bad habits that created the mess that we are in are still in effect. The business community has been given ONE TRILLION DOLLARS that they’re just holding on to. They’re essentially carrying on as though it has always been business as usual.

Does ANY of this sound like things are improving? NO!

So why are you LYING to the American people?

Stop it.

Just stop.

Of course it’s easy to see HOW you came to that conclusion when the conditions you list fail to factor in those FIFTEEN MILLION that are unemployed and instead focus on “survey” standards and you factor in corporate profits, which are NOT an indication of a healthy economy because the business world has been sacrificing jobs to MAINTAIN those profit margins.

Wall Street and Main Street are not interchangeable. What part of that statement do you NOT understand? And why do you still have jobs if you fail to comprehend that simple statement?

It’s easy to simply write off those MILLIONS of Americans, especially when the benefits start ending even though those MILLIONS haven’t found work. Out of sight, out of mind.

I can even understand WHY you would lie to the American people and try to spin this HOAX that the recession is already “over” with. It’s psychological. You want the people spending again, and they can’t do it if they think times are still tough.

But the joke is really on you. Because let’s get brutally honest here… WE KNOW YOU ARE LYING!

We KNOW the recession never ended.

We don’t need fancy degrees to know this. We just need eyes and ears. We just need to see the people still out of work. We just need to see the various financial systems still screwing people over. We just need to see the letter from our local bank saying that they got taken over by the FDIC. We just need to see our neighbors being forced out of their homes. We just need to see the continued misery and the continued despair for us to KNOW that you are LYING to us!

So stop it.

Stop lying to us.

Even worse, your lies about the state of our economy can be used to justify not doing all that needs to be done. You are feeding the insurrectionists that claim that people who are out of work are just lazy. You are feeding the insurrectionists that say that unemployment benefits should be eliminated and the FIFTEEN-TO-THIRTY-ONE MILLION Americans should just be left to rot. Your lies allow you to just throw your hands up and tell us “Well, we don’t have to do anything more… problem solved! It’s business as usual.”

Do you get it yet? Your continual LYING to the American people about the recession being prematurely over could potentially hurt them just as much as the recession itself!

So just stop it.

Stop lying to the American people.

We KNOW the recession is still going on. We KNOW that it never ended. We KNOW that as long as the things that continue to keep us in this recession are still in place and as long as the people that instigated this recession are allowed to continue as though it is business as usual that the recession WILL continue.

Since we’re dealing with politicians, I’ll explain it in ways that you should understand...

Those fifteen-to-thirty-one MILLION Americans that are out of work or will soon be out of work will have plenty of time to show up at the ballot box in November. They’re going to be angry. And they’re going to be angry at the people who appear to be out-of-touch with their plight. They’re not going to be making “deals”. They’re going to vote against anyone in office. They’re going to vote against anyone that appears to be not doing their jobs. They’re going to vote against anyone who is keeping the status quo intact.

Does that get through your dense skulls yet?

So stop trying to convince us that things are getting better when they clearly are not.

Stop trying to tell us that it’s sunny when the rain is still falling on our heads.

Stop lying to us about the economy.

Just stop lying to us, period.

Is it really that hard to do? It shouldn't have to be.

Week of 09/20/2010

“Just Sayin’…”
– by David Matthews 2

I really hate it when people invent loopholes to justify saying what they really want to say.

In the South, we have a little phrase that older Southern women who are heavily religious use when they normally “aren’t supposed” to speak ill of others. Any time they want to void the rules they just add in “bless his/her heart”. As in…

“Oh, you know Mary down-the-street? Did you know she’s pregnant for the third time? She probably doesn’t even know who the father is… she spends half her time strutting around half-naked… she leaves her kids with her parents so she can sleep around with anyone she feels like. That girl is nothing but a cheap whore and an embarrassment to the neighborhood… BLESS HER LITTLE HEART!”

It’s really disgusting, because this is the same group of people that are quick to talk about “tradition” and “ethics” and “values” and then turn around and invent ways to justify their own hypocrisy, and you can’t call them out on it!

Of course being RUDE and OBNOXIOUS and pretty much being a JERK can get you big money if it is done right.

Now I don’t mean people like Howard Stern. Stern is too blatant about it. Plus he never really pretended to be anything more than an entertainer. He’s an actor, and his best character is this exaggerated version of himself that he then brings out unapologetically for a good laugh.

If you REALLY wanted to understand the magic of Howard Stern… that’s it right there. Howard Stern is an actor playing a slightly exaggerated character called “Howard Stern”.

But he doesn’t try to pretend that “Howard Stern” is REALLY him. Nor does he try to convince people that they need to be more like “Howard Stern” and that America is really full of oppressed versions of “Howard Stern”.

On the other hand, there are plenty of people who go around serving as the measuring stick and echo chamber for the rest of society. These are the people who host shows on 24 hour cable news channels, host conservative and neo-conservative talk radio programs, and write endless books which somehow make a lot of money even before they show up on the shelves or appear online. And they continually claim (and their fans will back them up on it) that THEY represent the mythical “silent majority” that was made famous by President Nixon.

One of the phrases they use to get away with being rude and obnoxious is “just sayin’.” As in “if President Obama has nothing to hide, then he shouldn’t have had a problem releasing his birth certificate… just sayin’.”

Yes, these are the same people who will tell you that they’re “not Birthers” (people who believe that Obama wasn’t born in this country) and yet at the same time acquiesce to their theories by adding the phrase “just sayin’” at the end of it. It allows them to espouse extremist ideas without being seen AS an extremist.

But… why should they be the ones to have all the fun? I think turnabout is fair play when it comes to politics. I mean let’s get brutally honest here… if politics has truly become the bloodsport of the mind, why should one side be allowed to verbally decimate others without getting so much as a scratch in return?

So here are a few social and political observations that I’m “just sayin’…” about these factions.

For instance… why is it that the same political party that supported then-Attorney General John Ashcroft when he scolded “those who scare peace-loving people with the phantoms of lost liberties” are able to then pretend to be the reincarnation of America’s Founding Fathers and bemoan about those very “lost liberties”? How is it that the “threat” is only real when they’re not in charge of the government? I’m just sayin’…

How is that “no ratings” (or “no viewers” or “no listeners”) is considered the über-insult for cable news and talk radio people when they’re supposedly not doing these things FOR the sake of ratings? I mean, I can understand the rationality that doing stuff for the sake of ratings is considered cheap, but why is it that when their OWN credibility is on the line they turn around and say they have more listeners/viewers than their critics? Since WHEN did validation become a matter of NUMBERS? You can have 99.99999% of the populace believe that the world is flat, but that doesn’t mean that it suddenly is. I’m just sayin’…

Here’s a good one… how is it that someone who RESIGNS from public office barely halfway into their first term simply so they can make a fortune doing public speaking, book deals, and regular appearances on a certain cable “news” channel be considered “more experienced” than someone who served almost a full-term before moving on to become the President of the United States? I mean, it’s one thing if you resign from one public service job to move up to another public service job, but the person in question just out-of-the-blue decided to quit simply because they were looking to make MILLIONS on media appearances. Doesn’t that make that person… I dunno… doesn’t that make that person something of a media prostitute? I’m just sayin’…

I know that one will have the conservatives and neo-conservatives in an uproar, but, hey, I’m using their own “Get Out Of Condemnation Free” immunity catchphrase, so I should be good, right? And besides, it IS the truth, as painful as it may be. I’m just sayin’…

Besides, at that time, experience was considered to be something of a detriment. So how could saying that you’re “more experienced” make you a better candidate if it was better to be seen as an actual “outsider”? I’m just sayin’…

Oh, speaking of said unnamed person, how is it that regurgitating talking points and political catchphrases and only appearing in venues that don’t question said regurgitation make one a credible leader? That’s not leadership… that’s putting on a puppet act. That makes you less of a leader and more of a stooge, or even an assembly-line product. I’m just sayin’…

Hey, speaking of talking points… how is procedural gridlock considered a plan for good governing? Isn’t that called SABOTAGE? That would have even been called ACTS OF TREASON five years ago. It’s one thing to say that you’re for less government. It’s another to do everything in your power to literally SHUT DOWN a government. That’s called INSURRECTION. I’m just sayin’…

And speaking of plans for governing, how does a five-point program where every point starts out with “We will force the President to…” called a plan of action? How is it that FORCING other people to do something be considered a personal plan of action? That’s not a plan, that’s an ULTIMATUM. I’m just sayin’…

This one is for the air-fluffed ego-driven media… how is it that you can pride yourself in JOURNALISM when you tout your greatest assets as being egotistical media personalities that engage in nothing but OPINION? There is a difference between REPORTING the news and COMMENTATING about it. It’s a line that I have to point out every day. So why advertise that your 24-hour cable NEWS channel is superior over the competition when you’re glorifying the people that have NOTHING TO DO WITH REPORTING THE NEWS? I mean, that’s like trying to sell a car for its gas mileage by talking about the plush interior. I’m just sayin’…

Speaking of 24-hour cable news channels… how is it that you can have ALL of these so-called EXPERTS from think-tanks and political action committees that are willing to show up seemingly EVERY DAY to talk about the issue of the moment, but have absolutely NO IDEA how to RESOLVE the very problems that they’re talking about? You would think that with all of these EXPERTS around that there shouldn’t be single a problem left in the country to resolve! Where do these people COME FROM? And where can I get a job doing what they’re doing? Talk about a sweet goldbrick position! I’m just sayin’…

By the way, media personalities and politicians, can you guys stop trying to pick fights with Jon Stewart over at Comedy Central? Ditto for Bill Maher. I know this is going to be hard for you to comprehend, but these guys are COMEDIANS. That means they get paid to poke fun at things! Being interviewed by Jon Stewart is not like being interviewed by Oprah or Larry King. Sure you can promote your new projects just the same, but Oprah and Larry are not there to get a laugh out of the audience. Maybe you should pay closer attention to the name of the cable channel that Jon’s show is on… it says COMEDY Central, not COMMENTARY Central. I’m just sayin’…

And finally, how about a little consistency? I mean, if you want to talk about wasted spending, fine, but don’t talk about wasted spending while you’re inserting your own blank check political earmarks. If you want to talk about law and order, don’t do it while at the same time excusing out-and-out criminal activity. If you want to talk about family values and the so-called “sanctity of marriage”, then you better make sure that your personal number of marriages is less than TWO and that you don’t have some extramarital skeletons in your closet. Oh, and if you’re quick to condemn theocracies in other nations, you better make sure that you’re not backing the same thing by piecemeal in this country.

In other words, you’re not really doing a damn thing to clean up the mess called our political system if all you’re doing is swapping one batch of corrupt hypocrites with YOUR OWN batch of corrupt hypocrites and than expect things to somehow be different. Because I’ve got news for you… we just DID that between 2006 and 2009… and things only went from bad to worse.

I’m just sayin’… bless your little hearts…