Oh, SuhNAP!
I Don't See The Problem…
Teabaggers are incensed, but I think CNN was just calling 'em like they see 'em…
Oh, SuhNAP!
Some Thoughts About Boycotts
While I support them, I'm not sure that the threat of boycotts—whether they come from the left or the right—are really all that effective in changing the hearts and minds of whatever company is being targeted. I'm not sure that when I and a hundred of my closest friends say we're not going to patronize Company X, it really makes any difference to the individuals running those companies—no matter how fervently we believe in the cause.
On the other hand, when millions of people join forces to boycott a company and said company sees its bottom line being affected over the course of one or two quarters, then it might examine how it's doing business. But except in a few select instances, that rarely happens. (Someone please fact check that for me.)
That's why I laugh when I hear organizations like OMM (One Misguided Mom), NOM (National Organization of Morons) or the AFA (American Family of Assholes) loudly proclaiming they're going to boycott Starbucks, or General Mills, or whoever. They simply don't have the numbers to affect corporate policy—especially when that company's policy is inclusion, rather than exclusion.
If their members want to stop drinking Starbucks, fine. If they feel better about not eating Oreos, more power to them. From what I've seen of their membership they could stand to lose a few pounds anyway. (Not that I have room to talk.) But are they going to force their medieval views of what is right and wrong onto a company by those actions? Hardly.
(By the way, OMM, NOM, AFA and the rest of the alphabet soup of hate groups: good luck ripping Tickle-Me-Elmo out of your toddlers' hands now that Jim Henson's company has publicly come out in favor of equality. Your children will remember it forever and a part of them is going to hate you for the rest of their lives. But hey, you're saving their immortal souls, so what difference does that make, right?)
The same goes for the left and the call to boycott Chick-Fil-A.
I boycott Chick-Fil-A (and Walmart) because I personally feel better about myself for not continuing to enable the funding of bad corporate policies. Do I have any real expectation that this will affect how they do business? Hardly.
By all means boycott if you want. But do it because it makes you feel better as an individual, not because you think it's going to change policy overnight. That being said, if enough people simply do what is right, it will eventually affect a company's cash flow and the company will be forced to look at how they do business.
There is Some Sanity in Texas
A Voice of Sanity
From Dave Holmes:
I'm reading the NYTimes' coverage of the Aurora shootings, and this quote jumped out at me:
Luke O'Dell of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a Colorado group on the other side of the debate over gun control, took a nearly opposite view. "Potentially, if there had been a law-abiding citizen who had been able to carry in the theater, it's possible the death toll would have been less."
It's nothing I haven't already read a hundred times on Facebook and Twitter in the last 24 hours, but there it is, in print, impossible to block or delete.
Okay. First of all, when Mr. O'Dell says such a thing, there is a zero percent chance that he is picturing anyone other than himself as this heat-packin', justice-servin', massacre-mitigatin' motherfucker. And let's just say for the sake of argument that his self-image is completely accurate. Let's assume Mr. O'Dell would stay ice cold in the middle of that turmoil. Let's say that in a pitch-dark, packed theater that has been thrown into chaos by unexpected gunfire- and that also has big-budget gunfire on the big screen, and pumping through the THX sound system- Mr. O'Dell would instantly know exactly where to shoot, would have an unobstructed line of fire, and would have perfect aim. Great, then! The theoretical you is so sanguine in the face of death, Mr. O'Dell! You are theoretically an American hero.
But what if there's a third person who's able to carry in the theater? And what if this person isn't a justice machine like you think you are? What if this person doesn't handle real-life bloodbaths like a professional to begin with, and on top of it, now there are two people shooting into a dark, crowded theater? Does he choose the right target? Does he hit that target?
And what if there's a fourth person? What if she just got her gun that very day and hasn't ever shot it? What if she wants to be a hero? Which of the three gunmen currently firing away in a dark room does she try to take out?
What if there's a fifth person, and it's one of these garbage people who brings an infant to a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises? He's defending his family now, and there are four people who might murder his child. Which one does he aim for? Does the Baby-Bjorn affect his accuracy?
What if there's a sixth person, who had a few drinks at the ESPN Zone before the show?
Or a seventh person? Or a tenth? Or a fiftieth?
Are you sure more guns would have made this situation better? Are you sure?
Submitted Without Comment
Quote of the Day
"It is inappropriate to call Ms. Romney a cunt. She lacks the required warmth and depth." ~ Charles Pierce
Word.
It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid!
If Obama had hidden millions of dollars in offshore accounts and refused to provide any explanation the way Romney has, Republicans would be calling for his head on a pike. But with one of their own? All you hear are crickets chirping.
One again, Republican HYPOCRISY rears it's ugly, ugly head.
Love This
From a black man to Mitt Romney: Fuck you.
Black people don't want free shit, you out of touch Dr. Reed Richards hair having motherfucker.
We want the same shit that your white constituency wants: Opportunity, good schools, safe streets, JOBS, a house that doesn't fucking double and triple in interest rate while the value plummets, a place to shit with a door on it and the ability to not be denied coverage when we have a medical problem. We're no different than anybody else but you wouldn't know that because the only black person you probably know personally you just happen to be running against him for president.
I'm tired of these piece of shit Republicans talking DOWN and whitesplaining to people of color AS IF they had it hard all their lives. NO Mitt Romney, you never had to worry about the price of milk ever in your fucking life. You were raised with a silver spoon in your mouth and your father probably owned a silver spoon factory.
If you were really in touch, you'd talk about JOBS because we have a 14% unemployment rate in the black community but your party couldn't pass a fart through cotton much less a fucking jobs bill. You'd talk about the safety net but we all know that you and Rand Paul are looking to take a pair of comically large shears to that motherfucker.
Instead you walk in front of the NAACP and talk PAST them and your message hits your goddamn racist, sexist, homophobic, bible thumping, hate ridden, against their own interest base that ignores when we spend half a million on cruise missiles but complain when they see somebody cashing an unemployment check that happens to own an iPhone. FUCK YOU.
I have a goddamn question for you, Willard:
What about your perpetually poor white voters in states like West Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri and Louisiana that vote for you even though you give no fucking care about them. As long as you hammer on how black Obama is, how the liberals want to shoot their white women with abortion guns and the fact that gays want to marry your children they'll continue voting for you. They staff your fucked up infantry and you've spent the past 60 years brainwashing them into thinking they deserve to get welfare checks but the second black people get them, it's a problem.
Fuck you and your face. Fuck your hair. Fuck your party. Fuck Newt Gingrich and fuck the whole conservative movement that has allowed their side to turn into this giant self-eating mutated blob.
Partake in the finest selection of horse penises.
(Source.)
This Pleases Me
Why Are You Still Eating at Chik-Fil-A?
Equality Matters reports:
In early 2011, Chick-fil-A came under fire for its donations and political ties to a number of anti-gay groups. Though Chick-fil-A continues to deny supporting an anti-gay agenda, the company has donated over $3 million to organizations like the Family Research Council and Exodus International between 2003 and 2009. And in 2010 alone, Chick-fil-A donated over $1.9 million to anti-gay causes, more than any other year for which public records are available.
The bulk of the 2010 donations came in a $1.2M grant to the Marriage & Family Foundation. Another $500K went to the Fellowship For Christian Athletes, who requires applicants to sign their Sexual Purity Pledge:
God desires His children to lead pure lives of holiness. The Bible is clear in teaching on sexual sin including sex outside of marriage and homosexual acts. Neither heterosexual sex outside of marriage nor any homosexual act constitute an alternate lifestyle acceptable to God. While upholding God's standard of holiness, FCA strongly affirms God's love and redemptive power in the individual who chooses to follow Him. FCA's desire is to encourage individuals to trust in Jesus and turn away from any impure lifestyle.
Don't Be Ridiculous
Some of the Best of the Best
Quote of the Day
Regarding Wisconsin
Well Wisconsin, you really stepped in it, didn't you? Thankfully you managed to put a Democratic State Senator in place to put the brakes on your governor's fascism. But seriously, guys. WTH?
And when the shit hits the fan because thousands of Democratic voters were too lazy to get off their asses? Linda Clifford's 1983 hit, "Don't Come Cryin' to Me" comes to mind.
Thought for the Day
It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid.
Republicans may be evil, but they're most certainly not evil geniuses.
From AMERICAblog:
The Republican National Committee (RNC) used a call center based in the Philippines to hold a media conference attacking President Obama's economic record, the Chicago Sun-Times reported today. The RNC didn't help its image by pointing out that the call was run by Verizon.
CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins, who began his career in a Maryland-based Verizon call center, summed up RNC's move this way:
"It's hard to imagine anything more hypocritical than the RNC making calls about U.S. unemployment from a Verizon foreign call center."
iPhonography
If Only…
And Secular Democracy Dodges Another Bullet
Not that there was ever any real chance of lil' Ricky making it into the White House, but still, we godless heathens can breathe a small sigh of relief.
Worth Repeating
Any Advice? Drink.
Texts from Hlllary: they've gone viral, and rightfully so.
Oh snap!
That one left a mark.
LOL!
R O F L M A O !!!
Amen to that.
Ouch.
Shit's Getting Real
Finally.
Oops!
Looks like Lil' Ricky's mask fell off!
From Mrs. Betty Bowers
Keep Talkin' Frothy
Just keep on talkin'…
Quote of the Day
Stolen in its entirety From Bill in Exile:
"All those people who supported the war, and most especially all those who voted for it, bear the moral responsibility for the results of the war. At least 100,000 dead Iraqis (and probably closer to a million). 4,000 and rising dead US soldiers. Rape. Murder. Torture. Orphans who got to watch their parents being killed. Husbands who saw their wives die, or wives who watched their husbands gunned down or blown into bloody carrion. Families who have buried multiple children.
All because members of Congress didn't care and because they were gutless. Because they thought to themselves "I might have to face attack ads if I vote against this war." Can you think of anything more weak, anything more pathetically evil, than to care more about your reelection than about thousands dying? Than about the certainty that from your vote will come rape and torture and murder?
And can you think of anything more pathetic, more redolent of bad judgment than to say "but I didn't know. I trusted George Bush?"
As far as I am concerned most of Congress doesn't just have blood on their hands, they are in it up to their chins. Their gutlessness, cupidity and selfishness is such that most of them, in a just world, would be preparing their defenses for a Nuremburg trial. They attacked a country which had not attacked the US, based on lies that were debunked at the time, for petty personal reasons of political ambition or cowardice.
We all know that won't happen, but what I will tell you is this. Without the Iraq war, the financial crisis happening right now either wouldn't be, or would be much less harsh. It is quite likely that Iraq is the last mistake of the American century and marks the end of America as a superpower.
This is only fitting. Those who have proven they cannot be trusted with power must have that power taken away. America had its chance, in 2004, to take that power away from the worst of its elites. It didn't. For an outsider, whether the election was stolen in 2004 or not is irrelevant, all that matters was the lesson of the result—that Americans are no longer capable of disciplining their own elites."
Ian Welsh in a re-posted blog post from 2008 titled It is in Blood that Empires, Like Humans, Are Born, It is in Blood That They Die.
Go read it.
Because I think Ian is absolutely correct: America can no longer be trusted with the power and influence it has wielded since the end of World War II.
And therefore we must have it taken from us.
We've abrogated our responsibilities as a nation and as a people and are therefore now no longer deserving of the leadership position we once held.
We allow war criminals to run free — and make a good living as tee vee pundits on Fox.
We normalize torture as a legitimate means of interrogation.
We have a president who claims for himself the right to order the murder of American citizens without trial or even charges being brought.
We see trillions of dollars stolen by malefactors of great wealth who not only get off without even so much as a slap on the wrist but who then get paid billions in bonus money from the pockets of the very citizens that they robbed, while the people whom they defrauded lose their homes and their life savings.
I adore the idea of the country we were supposed to be, and perhaps one day we'll find our way back from the wilderness that we now inhabit.
But I have little respect for the country we've become for what we have become is toxic.
I will live out my life here deeply saddened that we all, every single one of us, allowed it to come to this.
We are, in a word, spent.