It's fixin' to come a goodun'

Pardon me while I steal a Matt Damon line from that Billy bob Thornton atrocity "All the Pretty Horses." Great book, what Thornton did to it was just a shame.

But it IS fixin' to come a goodun'. The very very rich are rousing their armies of the stupid, which are in no short supply here in America, and our fearless leader is playing it safe. That way we get more bad shit and he can say, "Oh, well, I tried."

But he didn't, not really. Desperate times call for desperate measures. No I'm not studying Latin, it's just working out that way recently. Latin is a dead language, and the U.S. is a dead country perhaps that symmetry is what's bringing all this Latin into the blog.

Measures must be taken before the elections to, at least, attempt to forestall the takeover of at least one house of congress by the GOP. If that happens we're really in for it. The GOP has proven time and again they have no interest in helping the people and that they will block ANY effort to do so unless it's accompanied by a measure to help big business finish off the country. And right now it's being run by people whose interest is not with the people. It's with the ignorant,with those who think it's 1955 and only white christian hetero people are important.

Barack Obama, the guy who has ignored all the warning signs that this is going actually happen will be the guy who rightfully is to blame when we find ourselves unable to escape the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. There are no jobs to be had. I find that my hours at the grocery are going to be reduced and I doubt at my age with my lilly white skin that I'll even be able to secure a job at McDonald's to help make ends meet. So it's time to batten down the hatches. No bills beyond the basic necessities will get paid if the hours are reduced.

I am certain I am not alone in this dilemma. This type of action, though I find it deplorable is unavoidable. I don't live like a king, I don't spend a great deal, and now with my newfound inability to remain solvent I'm sure I'll see that there are many others in the same boat.

This maters not to Tea-Partiers. In fact I present for your perusal typical Tea-Partiers at last weekends Beckoning:




Please Gods forgive these ignorant fat white people because they truly know not what they're talking about. It's all fear and hate and "Why can't they go back where they came from..." It's pathetic that this is what the Beckoning was all about.

This is the embodiment of what's wrong with America, of what's about to happen come November. The tragedy is that they have no idea the problem is them.

And so it goes:

Why did it have to be Al Sharpton???

Why was it necessary for the universe to play such a cruel joke on me? Why did it need to say haha in my face by showing me that the only person speaking publicly and saying things I agreed with in D.C. last weekend was Al?

It's like finding out that this guy is your secret admirer:

 This all so goes right to the heart of what I've been saying for so long.  That the populace is stupid.  That they're kept stupid because that's the way our elected officials want them.  That anyone capable of critical thinking does not serve their purpose and has no place in our culture. 

A great deal was made this weekend that the "rally" wasn't political in nature.  Except it was held in the nation's capitol, it was held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's dream speech, future pillar of salt Sarah Palin was there telling the morons how much THEY'RE being screwed, and the only positions represented were those of white religious America.Oh and King's niece who thinks gay people marrying will make straight people extinct.  Talk about solidifying my argument about the education system.

White Republican Christian Hetero America is pissed.  Why?

Could it be because they don't play well with others?  Could it be that they've got it all and don't want to share?  Could it be that  they percieve their monopoly in all the good stuff is in jeopardy and they're going to "take back America?"  From who exactly?

Well first, people of color, Obama in the White house goes against everything these racists believe in.  They'd literally cut of their noses to spite their faces to keep a black person out of the white house again.  And they will.

If anyone in this country has been brainwashed it's these idiots.  They vote against their own interests, which is to say that they vote to starve the government of funds it needs to function, to provide basic services, and to educate the people.  They vote to provide tax breaks to the very businesses that are killing the small towns throughout America, they vote to benefit the businesses that are throwing everyone including them out in the streets in droves, and they continue to do so based on some misguided notion that religion will save the day.

They're creating this self-fulfilling prophecy.  That by starving the government of the funds it needs to provide educational services and by having morons running what little education system we have, their religious leaders are rushing in to fill the void.  It's the smart thing to do.  Someone has to teach the people, they're simpletons and need guidance, and if the government isn't being allowed nor encouraged to teach them to be thinkers then why not carpe the opportunitis?

Because they're making this a third world country. They bitch about the deficit and stealing from our grandchildren and yet fail to take note how their actions will effect future generations.  By weakening the country with this religious fervor they're doing more damage than all the credit card bills they can imagine.

Beck, Palin, and their ilk are the representatives of the ruination of the U.S.

Cave canem.

And so it goes:

Men who inspire

Sometimes I just can't keep my mouth shut

And this is one of them.

Ken Mehlman, what a complete hypocrite.  He masterminded the 2004 election, in which hating gay people was the central theme, and, I might add, won George Bush his second term.  He took ALL KINDS of money for the fabulous job he did screwing us time and again.  And now that he's done with politics on a big scale he wants us to embrace him and let bygones be bygones.

Fuck that.

I have no interest in  joining hands and singing kumbaya with a guy who would do such heinous things to his own. (we didn't know for sure he was gay but he damn well did)  There is no excuse for what he did, and there should be no forgiveness for someone who would actively work with anyone, to promote bigotry and hatred whether it's directed at us or anyone.  But this guy did particularly damaging things to the very people he now wants to  be forgiving of what he did.

I'm certain it's all a part of a larger plan for the Republican party to seem inclusive now that they see that the marriage debate is a loser. I mean really, Glenn Beck says it's not a big deal, Bill O'Reilly has shut up about it, and one after another key people are laying down their arms.  So here's their big secret weapon, their token mo who they can parade out for all to see who'll come out and tell us all how inclusive and hate free the Republicans are.

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the republican party has not been against big government in about 30 years, and anyone who is any kind of a minority and votes republican is not paying any attention. We all embraced Capitalism a long time ago so develop some principles and stand up for yourself America.  Read "What's the Matter with Kansas" if you have any questions, Tom Franks book will answer them all.  That party is surviving by the notion that the good people of Kansas will vote against their own interests.
LOOK AT KANSAS!!!

The small towns are dying, because the very industry the populace embraces is killing them.  Why no one sees that I cannot understand.  The Conservative vote is almost exclusively based on a morality that the voters who embrace it would force us all to accept if it were up to them not what's best for us, nor what's best for the country, but governance of what happens in our bedrooms and in our heads.

This is of course denying the very obvious fact that they have dirty little thoughts of their own they can't face, and therefore have to repress.

It seems that they're finally just coming out in the open and being obvious with their hate instead of hiding it behind closed doors,  a la suburbia.

Ken Mehlman is nothing more than a symptom of the malaise that grips this country and keeps us from becoming what is possible.

I refuse to embrace that or give tacit approval to his complicity.

And so it goes:

hgf

When it starts winding down...

Signals come from everywhere don't they? Blogactive, that abhorrent outing site was right all along about Ken Mehlman, and now he's out. 

I've got my own little signals going and I do not like most of them. Last week I was informed by my immediate supervisor at the college that class wold begin that week and I had a class on  Thursday.  I said, "But I thought it was on Wednesday."

The response, "YOU HAVE A CLASS THIS THURSDAY." 

I went, and no one else showed.  Concerned, I sent them an email  this monday informing them that semester had started and we'd meet this week.  They came.  LAST FUCKING NIGHT WHEN THE CLASS IS SCHEDULED!!!!!

Yes, it's my fault for not following up my concern about the bosses statement but when  he uses his "I'm the boss and you will do this." voice, I'd prefer the fucker was correct. 

So after explaining to not only the registrar AND the new Dean, to whom I got to look like a doofus thanks to my immediate supervisor, I received an email from a student DEMANDING an explanation.
Needles to say my response was not positive. 

So as I said signals that things are winding down here are on the rise. Maybe it really IS time to move on.

And Ken Mehlman can go fuck himself and his new outness. 

And so it goes:

Tedious Tuesday

Blogs are getting taxed!

A city in the east is requiring blog owners to buy business licenses. They're like $300.

Innovative ways of taxing are the norm nowadays since the governments have discovered that they can't get money from us off payroll taxes they used to get because we don't have jobs that pay as much anymore, so they're going to get it from us another way even though we still have incomes 1/3 of what they were previously. They simply don't care they just want the money.

There's another government agency that operates that way and we aren't friends right now. I fear I have bad news coming today. I'll hate it.

Other than that the semester has started, the weather looks to be finally moderating, and I appear to be as poor as I always feared I would be.

C'est la vie

And so it goes:

Cause for concern

Should we be concerned that THIS is part of an article in Men's Health this month?

Not that Men's Health is much of a magazine, but just the idea that they thought to publish this...yikes.

Lesson number one: Anger fantasies should involve mostly strangers or people you're no longer close to or you barely know. It's fine to have an anger fantasy about the cop who gave you a ticket or some dictator in a foreign land or some religious freak who killed a doctor and so on, but if your anger fantasies persistently focus on someone you know, say your wife or girlfriend, your boss, or a colleague, then you're perhaps taking the first steps to going postal and should seek professional help.

Lesson number two: Anger fantasies should feature specific strangers. If you're consistently angry at entire groups — say, Jews or Arabs or blacks or women or cops — then you have a problem.
Lesson number three: At the end of an anger fantasy, you should feel better, not worse. The point is to release tension and deal with a perceived injustice over which you have no actual control. In an anger fantasy, you are your own Captain America. You punish a bad guy in your head because he's not being punished in reality, and better a fictitious punishment than no punishment at all. So feel good about that.
Lesson number four: An anger fantasy should be strictly contained within your head. You don't want the anger churning inside your head to spill over onto the waitress who happens to interrupt you, or onto your mother who happens to call. An anger fantasy has no bearing on reality. You are doing in your head what you don't want to be doing in reality — and that's the point. So know what it is and keep it inside.

Other than that, go for it. Shout at, spit at, break with a bat, gouge out with a fork, hack at with a machete, dismember, set fire to, bury alive to your heart's content. I've been doing it for years. Yet you'd meet me and think, What a nice guy. So friendly and genuine. And I am a nice guy. I don't like guns, I've never swung a fist at anyone, I like Gandhi and Mandela as much as anyone, I'm a vegetarian, I'm a liberal. Hell, I'm even Canadian.
Just don't rub me the wrong way. If you do, you'll meet me again in my fantasy — and you'll be sorry about that, motherf--ker.

By Yann Martel 

Are we all so angry that we fantasize about beating the shit out of each other?  Have we become such a nation of assholes that we can't want to be nice to each other?  Or have we gone out of our way to be violent, and filled with anger over the slightest provocation? 

Am I saying that my guilt is sterling over the anger fantasy issue..alas, no. I've done it, and in fact do it every day.  I agree that it's healthy and allows me to shake off that chance encounter with some ass whose character could only be improved by a beating. 

So, though I do think it's a concern that we run into so much naked aggression on a regular basis that we need to resort to fantasies of violence to rid ourselves of toxic encounters, I think it's a good thing that we're inventive enough to come up with such a safe and effective relief valve for our aggression.

Something that should concern us far more are the headlines of the "fluff pieces" that in my experience tell the story of what's really becoming of the culture.

Headlines such as:
Home ownership fading as a means to build wealth-

Cozy homes by the sea just snapped up-

Rare-car show draws fans with fat wallets-

These are indicators that wealth is moving farther away from the masses and as a result will widen the gap between the haves and have nots.

THAT should be a subject for concern.  

Almost 30 years ago a friend sat me down, (I was 22, he was approximately my age today) and advised me to "be careful out there" in regard to sexual appetites.  I recall his exact words to this day, "I've been reading strange things in the back of  Time magazine about this GRID that seems to be getting worse, so don't get yourself in a situation you feel uncomfortable with. This is bad I think."

How right was he?

Things they change all the time, it's regrettable but necessary.  The world people grow up in today is very different from the one I grew up in many years ago.  

We're all looking for that comfort zone in which we can feel safe and secure, and  barring that we look to reate a world in which we can take care of ourselves.  Such is not always the case.  

Personally I think I may have found the answer. It depends, in part on something coming to pass that's been mentioned to me as a possibility recently, but it could happen independently.  It mostly depends on my willingness to let go, to stop being such a control freak and wait for just the right moment to act. To maybe just say "Hey, THIS is what I want at this point in my life and I'm gonna go get it."  Sounds just like me doesn't it? lol

Letting go of that is cause for concern.

 And so it goes:

 

 

 

Pepsi Throwback rules! and hgf too

I'd drink that shit again if they'd make it with real sugar all the time! Very tasty, Don't feel as though I've just had my pancreas manhandled.  Much nicer.

Things they are a changin'

Well, in point of fact I have a determined employer at the college.  I got a call the other day telling me the classes made.

Since last I'd looked they hadn't, I didn't spend the time last weekend to put together the syllabi and calendar etc. 

Oops!
So yesterday morning i sat down and slapped all that together,  And today i discover I'm not in the same classroom so there's no computer save my own laptop, which doesn't recognize the lcd projector in the room.  Joy. 

I have copies to make, computers to secure, and forms to fill out, places to be and miles to go before I sleep, added to which indignity I have to work at the grocery until just before I teach tonight. 

Not to mention that fact that I'm beginning to get the idea that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

Fasten your seat belts it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

And can we drop the 9/11 mosque thing already!

And so it goes:

That damn Olberman

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." -The Constitution of the United States

What, pray tell, could people possibly be thinking when they rail about not allowing a mosque near ground zero?

First of all Barack Obama needs to stay out of it, it's a matter of constitutionality and no one should be saying yes or no to it at all.  I bet if Nazi's wanted to build a meeting hall near the Museum of Tolerance uptown, the Jews would stand up and say "Hey! it's ok, we don't agree with them and we'd rather not have them around, but this is America and they have the right to have their meeting hall anywhere they choose."

But not good old Christian America.

The disservice we're being done because our populace is undereducated is, well, I'd say it's immeasurable, but judging by the good work we're doing this past decade in dismantling the very freedoms the country was founded on is a pretty good measure. And I really shouldn't blame the churches for seizing the opportunities they have, after all if the government isn't going to assume it's rightful responsibility of educating it's populace someone has to fill the role and this is a perfect opportunity to spread their propaganda.

Sarah Palin, asks Obama "...Should they have the right to build it?"  (See yesterdays post regarding integrity.) It's so typical of those who would inflame moral outrage that they wouldn't at least have the decency to state the case along with the facts.  The mosque site is nowhere near the World Trade Center site. And this all begs the question "Why are these self-same people not outraged that World Trade Center is still just a hole in the ground a decade later?"  What kind of a memorial is THAT to those who died that morning?   Why are they not ashamed over that?  What are they doing to see that their loved ones are memorialized properly and in a timely fashion with the return of the dam buildings which should have been rebuilt immediately after they were knocked down!

So, YES! Sarah you stupid bitch, they should have the right, this is the only place in the world with the built in right to do that and it MUST stay that way..  It's the very principle on which the entire country was founded!  Why must this be repeated time and again?  It's obvious you refuse to understand it.  I'd like to see the reaction in Wasilla if someone tried to build a mosque.  See, Olbermann can say it so much better than I.



And so it goes:

murder and indoctrination....Ooo goody!

If you feel the need to be afraid of something be afraid of the Catholics:

Some things never change

In my personal experience, which is not inconsiderable, with Catholics they don't tend to lean toward probity.

Integrity is something everyone thinks they have, why I don't know.  It
is not an innate characteristic.  It's something one develops through a cogent and heartfelt analysis of one's actions or potential actions regarding their morality based on the facts of a situation, the effects those actions have on those around them and the perception they develop of you as a result.

It's about relating to oneself, about looking in the mirror and liking what you see.

It's not something, in my mind to be taken lightly.  It's a signal of character, of maturity, and the willingness to stand up for what one believes is right no matter the consequences.

Whether one perceives integrity as as deliberate decision about how to live life, or if you perceive that one who possess integrity must live according to a moral certitude that precludes  any form or tolerance of immorality as one perceives it, the people at the American Society for the Defense of Tradition do not fit the bill.

I'd pose the question " How can these people look in the mirror every morning?"  yet I know from personal experience that   this is not a quandary that troubles them.  Catholics who will cheat to win, or at least look like they're winning don't really possess a moral compass, nor any grasp of what in means to be integritous.

In other words they're Catholic.

Cheating is nothing new in the church, and along with their ability to mourn their existence they manage to rationalize all of their indiscretions by not allowing that they're "only human" but that they're prone to sin, and therefore are in some irrational sense allowed to commit the heinous acts they're infamous for.

Does it sound like I have a true and profound hatred for the Catholic Church and it's inexhaustible tendency toward hypocrisy?

Good.

So along with this little diatribe I bring you an article to support it from Towleroad, which in fact inspired it, as an example of the  Machiavellian behavior from the church that has had so much influence on cultural development for hundreds of years. I doubt I'll rest easy until they're eradicated, or at the very least rendered ineffectual in influencing matters of morality and culture.

If these are the good guys, how much trouble are we in?

They're Not Just Gay-Hating Catholics, They're Cheaters Too

So, remember the fashionable closet Catholics from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property on NOM's penultimate stop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania I posted about yesterday?
The group had a poll up on its website asking people what they thought about Judge Walker's decision to overturn Prop 8.
Overwhelmingly, people supported Judge Walker's decision, which, as you can probably guess, wasn't what they were expecting.
So, what did they do? Homogenius at DailyKos notes, they just changed the text on the questions around.

See, it's so easy to make it look like the whole world agrees with you. They don't.

And so it goes:

enough with the pity already

Not that I've really been having a pity party recently I've just been discouraged over the way that events have been unfolding.

Though they're going to go they way they're going to go, I'd rather they went differently.

I'm torn too over direction. Do I take off for the southwest (not without a job) or do I stick with the bird I have in hand? (as it appears) For now I have to stick with the bird, my little gemini insecurities about money prevent me from throwing caution to the wind and taking off. I like my car too much to go back to playing the "I wonder what'll happen when I turn this key" game.

I have decided that I simply can't pick one profession and just do that from now on. Can't do it, don't care the consequences. I simply cannot do it.

I can't give up teaching and directing for pottery and I can't give up writing and/or riding for a sure paycheck. I won't do it.

I came up with an ideal combination in my head for all the current possibilities and it's pretty cool. Now to see how to make any version of it happen.

And so it goes:

Texas on CNN

Laugh?  I thought I'd wet myself.

Texas was on AC360 and demonstrated itself to be what we all suspect it is.  If y'all can sit through the whole thing you're made of better stuff than me:




And so it goes:

ward off left-right! hell it's coming from everywhere

Tai Chi isn't much help today.  How does one ward off attacks from the universe? 

The verdict appears to be in. 

I'll be moving...soon.

And don't I wish I knew where.

I was counting on at least one of my classes making enrollment and that doesn't appear to have happened.  So either the apartment or the car has to go.  and since the car is a sticky wicket nowadays (i.e. if one relinquishes a car one is still responsible for the loan so that doesn't help, and if one doesn't have a car one can't get to the job that allows one to keep the apt so one is still screwed)

So the apt it is.

They'll have a fit, they'll want two months rent and they'll want this and that which they'll have to get in line to get.  And it'll be a mess, and i'll hate it, and I bet I survive.  Probably.

Never been in a situation like this.

Never really saw this coming. 

And so it goes:

Creativity

I love how cons couch their desire to spend the social security trust fund money (over 2 trillion) by saying social security is broken and needs to be gotten rid of.

(then we've got all this extra cash to spend!!!)

there is no shortage of idiots in this country that's for sure.  Sadly any one of them can speak out and be heard..and listened to.

Gods Forbid!

and so it goes:

Leave it to Ben

The spawn of Dan Quayle seems to have inherited his idiot genes.

Don't get me wrong there are thousands of Arizonians who will run not walk to the voting booth to promote his ridiculous no position position and get him out there to DC to "knock the hell out of the place."  hehe

I'd love to be a fly on the wall to see just how embarrassing it is when he tries to get all up in somebodies business in DC and finds out how unimportant he really is.

But Arizona will be impressed. 

November is gonna be a mess.  We're not gonna wind up with any majority from either party, it'll be a block this block that hot mess, and the American Public will get bupkus as usual. 

Until we get our next Conservative President in 2012 who tries to get rid of everything we accomplished this time, and succeeds pretty well.

Being a proud member of the Professional Left I have to say that Gibbs shot the Obama administration in the foot the other day when he went off about criticisms from us.  

Why would we not criticize you for the things you said you'd do and have not done sir?   You said you'd repeal DADT repeatedly, has that happened?  This is only one example, there are hundreds of them.  George Bush was more effective and he didn't have the majority Obama has.

This morning I ran across a blog I hadn't read in quite a while mostly because I have nothing in common with the author but today he asked about a bumper sticker he'd seen that features Obama and several communist leaders and labels Obama a socialist.  Of course, as is common with such moronic notions Mao is on the sticker, and he wasn't a socialist, a distinction lost on such a one who would put a thing like that on their car anyway. 

If I had a neighbor who'd do that I'd have one made that featured Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and George Bush.  They'd never get the joke.

Glenn Beck now quotes Jefferson when referring to gay marriage.  It seems he knows they've lost this one.  "if it neither breaks my legs nor picks my pocket what difference is it to me?" he says.  Quite the change of tune I'd say.

His previous position, which was of course voiced to anyone stupid enough to listen to any of the fearful shit he spouts was this:

"...marriage is different, according to Beck. Lowering his head with dramatic intensity, he said, “I believe this case is actually about going into churches and going in and attacking churches and saying you can't teach anything else. When you say marriage – civil unions is different – when you say marriage must be defined as this, well then you also have to go into the schools.” 

I've been catching up on Entourage the past cople of days and the term douchebag is stuck in my  head I can't think why I find it appropriate at this moment.

and so it goes:

we need a statesman

An no one knows what one is anymore.  We need someone to stand up and say "Look, here's where you're going wrong on this gimme gimme gimme thing. And here's what you need to do to fix it. "

Of course, then we'd actually have to listen, and we'd have to probably be in such a bad fix that we'd have no choice but to listen before we would.

It's a shame really that the one person we currently have in a position  to take the role is incapable.   I don't think Obama is really uninterested in being a statesman, I think he doesn't have any idea how to go about it, nor does anyone around him.

It involves making the hard decisions and it involves saying what people need to hear not what they want to hear, and it involves surrounding yourself with people who believe that too.  Like most politicians today he's surrounded by lackeys who will do whatever he wants or tell him what he wants to hear instead of saying, "Hey, dumbass!  Stop being wishy-washy on same sex marriage and tell the people it's unconstitutional and since all they want to do is be bullies the courts will have to decide and let it go at that.  Tell the people that whatever your predecessors did you've got the situation you've got and what it will take to fix it is more money, and taxes WILL go up.  Tell the people that they MUST be educated and that they're gong to all pay for it one way or the other so we're going to throw open the doors of ALL institutions of higher learning and admit everyone and require that they really work hard for their knowledge, not just hand out diploma's and those that make it make it and those that don't will know why, they'll have no one to blame but themselves.  Give everyone REAL equal opportunity and let the best person win. That's how you're going to save this country from itself, not by being the all season tire of the American Presidency, which is to say that you do everything, but not anything well."

That would be a friend. To both him and the country.

What  do we have?  We have the same old shit we always seem to get.  Somone who tries to tinker with this and make a few people happy, and then tinker with this,  and make a few more happy, and then stay the hell away from THAT and make more happy than not and always have most bitching about everything.  That's our fault not his.  He's just giving us what we think we want. 

Because we don't want to be bothered, we don't want to work that hard for anything, and we certainly don't want to hear the truth.  We want to be told that everything is fine and that nothing needs to change too much and that our lives will continue to go along the same as they've always been and  we're just lazy assholes who will sit in place waiting for a miracle to save us from ourselves instead of standing up and getting busy doing for each other which would benefit not only others but ourselves as well. 


I myself am sitting here paralyzed with fear over departing for parts unknown with no job, which it seems I may have to do within the month.  The classes aren't making at work and the grocery will not cut it when it comes to paying the bills. The issue now is what to do to survive when I get there.  I've got a house, I've got the car as long as I can pay for it or as long as I can hide it if it comes to that, and I can put most everything in storage and load the car and GO, but with what assurance that I have an income when I get there?  I suppose I could just stop paying the bills and save what I can and hope for the best when I get there.  But thing here are deteriorating faster than I wold like to see.  So decisions may be made for me. 

I need my own statesman I guess.

And so it goes:

Share and Share Alike

We've become a nation of people concerned only with ourselves.
Only interested in "What's in it for me?"

This must stop.

Ask Colorado Springs, now I'm not a particular fan of Colorado Springs, it's filled with Jesus Freaks (don't hate 'em, just wish they'd stop shoving their moral righteousness down my throat)and though I've been there many times I've never been enamored of the place even before the ungodly moved in.

But they are turning off their street lights.

They have to they can't afford them anymore.

And I'd be willing to bet that the dummies there will vote this fall for all the Republicans on the ticket because they oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, ENDA, the repeal of DADT and the like. Never once thinking about the fact that these Republicans want to make permanent the very tax cuts that are depriving them of the basic services that this country was literally built on.

We don't share. We don't want to give anyone else anything, we don't seem to have any concept that "Treat others as you would be treated." is a good thing. It's all divisiveness and hate, and the decline of a civilization that once stood proud together against the world.

We used to be a nation, and yes I know I'm an old guy lamenting the passing of what's familiar, that presented a unified front to the world. Now we travel the world openly distorting the truth, encouraging other nations to discriminate and even kill on the basis of religious disparity.

How can we once again become the nation we once purported to be? What will finally turn the tide toward outrage and allow the people to finally see that they've been hoodwinked?

Personally, I know I've got a relatively short 25-30 years left on this plane of existence, if I'm lucky. A time during which my relevance will be ever-decreasing, and that's ok. in my mind it means that I'll be freer to do the things that are important to me without interference, but ideas, ideas that matter, that promote the growth of people and the nation, that's all we can really leave behind and I'd like to see us, as a nation, embrace that notion.(you wanna make the hold hands and sing kumbaya joke go ahead)

We're not leaving behind much otherwise.

Take a look at what Paul Krugman said recently on the subject in the NYT.

Paul Krugman-NYT

The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.
Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.
And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.
We’re told that we have no choice, that basic government functions — essential services that have been provided for generations — are no longer affordable. And it’s true that state and local governments, hit hard by the recession, are cash-strapped. But they wouldn’t be quite as cash-strapped if their politicians were willing to consider at least some tax increases.
And the federal government, which can sell inflation-protected long-term bonds at an interest rate of only 1.04 percent, isn’t cash-strapped at all. It could and should be offering aid to local governments, to protect the future of our infrastructure and our children.
But Washington is providing only a trickle of help, and even that grudgingly. We must place priority on reducing the deficit, say Republicans and “centrist” Democrats. And then, virtually in the next breath, they declare that we must preserve tax cuts for the very affluent, at a budget cost of $700 billion over the next decade.
In effect, a large part of our political class is showing its priorities: given the choice between asking the richest 2 percent or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom, or allowing the nation’s foundations to crumble — literally in the case of roads, figuratively in the case of education — they’re choosing the latter.
It’s a disastrous choice in both the short run and the long run.
In the short run, those state and local cutbacks are a major drag on the economy, perpetuating devastatingly high unemployment.
It’s crucial to keep state and local government in mind when you hear people ranting about runaway government spending under President Obama. Yes, the federal government is spending more, although not as much as you might think. But state and local governments are cutting back. And if you add them together, it turns out that the only big spending increases have been in safety-net programs like unemployment insurance, which have soared in cost thanks to the severity of the slump.
That is, for all the talk of a failed stimulus, if you look at government spending as a whole you see hardly any stimulus at all. And with federal spending now trailing off, while big state and local cutbacks continue, we’re going into reverse.
But isn’t keeping taxes for the affluent low also a form of stimulus? Not so you’d notice. When we save a schoolteacher’s job, that unambiguously aids employment; when we give millionaires more money instead, there’s a good chance that most of that money will just sit idle.
And what about the economy’s future? Everything we know about economic growth says that a well-educated population and high-quality infrastructure are crucial. Emerging nations are making huge efforts to upgrade their roads, their ports and their schools. Yet in America we’re going backward.
How did we get to this point? It’s the logical consequence of three decades of antigovernment rhetoric, rhetoric that has convinced many voters that a dollar collected in taxes is always a dollar wasted, that the public sector can’t do anything right.
The antigovernment campaign has always been phrased in terms of opposition to waste and fraud — to checks sent to welfare queens driving Cadillacs, to vast armies of bureaucrats uselessly pushing paper around. But those were myths, of course; there was never remotely as much waste and fraud as the right claimed. And now that the campaign has reached fruition, we’re seeing what was actually in the firing line: services that everyone except the very rich need, services that government must provide or nobody will, like lighted streets, drivable roads and decent schooling for the public as a whole.
So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we’ve taken a disastrously wrong turn. America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.


Unlit unpaved roads, what does that image bring to mind? A third world country, not the leader of the free world. Is that to be our legacy?

And so it goes: