Civil Rights Beggar

Apparently in Siberia, even little old crippled Bolshevik women must walk the streets with their peddler carts, begging for civil rights.

MISSING: Freedom of Speech

Some lowlife scum suckers stole the Obama sign out of my front yard this past Sunday morning. Probably one of my neighbors on their way home from church. So, I did this:

Yeah, my carport is junky. Whatsit to ya?

A Step Back

I've been watching this week's economic catastrophe with quite a bit of anxiety. I've worried about something like this happening for about seven months, ever since the Bear Stearns collapse. So, when I heard about the proposed seven BILLION dollar bailout, my first thought was that it was something that needed to be passed immediately. But then I began to slow down and think.

First, as I said, I've known we were in a serious economic crisis since mid-March. Why is this emergency bailout just now being presented? There's no way the administration's economic advisors didn't know more about what was coming than I did. Also, why is it being presented with such a short timetable for review and approval? One thing I learned in Contract Administration is that you should never negotiate from a position of fear.

The real kicker is the clause that gives unregulated power to the Treasury Department. The whole thing has started to remind me very much of how the Patriot Act got passed, and how the Iraq war got launched. Both events were pushed through in an atmosphere of panic, as "the greatest crisis ever to face our nation." I'm hearing that exact phrase from the lips of both Democrats and Republicans this week.

Finally, not to go too far out on a limb of conspiracy theories, but several months ago I was sitting around with some friends talking about the upcoming election. We were speculating that if the race started to shift in the Democrats' favor, the Republicans would manage to pull out another one of their distractions, and change the focus to their benefit. Some of my friends predicted that it would be something like an invasion of Iran. However, I predicted that it would be some kind of bogeyman, like the endless "terror threats" that went on leading up to the 2004 election.

I have no doubt that the "One Market Under God" philosophy has brought us to the brink of catastrophe. However, I also know that there is an established strategy called "Disaster Capitalism" that we must exercise extreme caution against. This administration has demonstrated several times in the past their ability to cry "Wolf" and get the nation to hand over anything they want. No matter how much the President asks us to panic, we must remember where such panic has gotten us in the past. Every one of those situations has turned out to be a huge mistake, and so far, irreversible.

I don't know what needs to be done. I am the farthest thing from an expert on the economy. I do know, though, that when some guy on an infomercial screams, "Hurry! Act now! Don't wait! Limited time offer!", I know better than to pick up the phone and give them my credit card number.

Emotiplumbing

The Homosexual Agenda

Over on Ravelry there's been a humorous thread on the so-called Gay Agenda. Several folks asked if people weren't kidding about this whole gay agenda business, or referred to it as a myth. The thing is, there actually is something that the whole idea of a "Gay Agenda" is based on. I wanted to clear that up, since I think it's important for people to be aware of what they're talking about, and especially what's being applied to them without their knowledge. This is my post to the Ravelry thread, in response to someone posting, "OMG is this ‘gay agenda’ thing for real??":

Yes, it is very much for real. In 1989, Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen wrote a book called After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s. In this book, the authors proposed “a massive media campaign designed to correct stereotypes and neutralize anti-gay prejudice.” Instead of protesting for gay rights, they advocated using marketing strategies, and working from within the system to promote positive change.

This book is the basis for the homophobic religious right’s claim that there is a homosexual agenda. You really should go look at that link to see just how serious they are about it. While most people who talk about the “gay agenda” really don’t have any idea what that supposedly means, there are a lot of people who will give you a list of exactly what’s on that agenda, and that list comes directly out of that book.

If you look at the Amazon page, you’ll also see a list of 67 books that reference After the Ball, such as The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, Same sex Marriage: Putting Every Household At Risk, and The Politics of Deviance.

So to answer the question, yes, there really is a gay agenda. I’m sorry you all didn’t get the memo.

And now, for something completely different

I was trying to maintain this blog as just a place to post all the funny things I thought of. The problem is, sometimes I just can't think of anything funny. Sometimes I just want to rant on something political, social, religious, or otherwise snarky. I've actually had another blog or two where I've posted some of my more prickly thoughts. I've finally decided enough of that. I'm just going to keep this one blog of all my thoughts, rants, bitches, complaints, whining, and yes, humor. Except for my knitting & crochet blog, Knitfishy, this will be it. Oh, and the other super-secret blog that I never let anyone see. Nyah!