Speaking of education

West Virginian rants

I talk about the hate that lives in a lot of the right-wingers (conservatives, Republicans - however you want to label them) and here is a video that discusses the rantings of a West Virginian. Just in case you thought I was full of shit in my accusations.

Right wing militia membership is on the rise

From Mother Jones...

Number of Anti-Government Groups Hits Record High
from MotherJones.com | MoJoBlog - Social Issues and Political Commentary by Erika Eichelberger

The number of conspiracy-peddling anti-government groups hit a record high last year, according to a report put out Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which also found that hate groups in general remain at near-record levels.

Between 2000 and 2012, the number of hate groups, defined the by SPLC as those that verbally attack minority groups, rose from 602 to more than 1,000. The number declined slightly last year-from 1,018 to 1,007-but the number of so-called "patriot groups," groups that generally believe the government is conspiring to take Americans' guns and freedoms and impose one-world rule, hit a record high of 1,360 in 2012, up from 149 in 2008.

"We are seeing the fourth straight year of really explosive growth on the part of anti-government patriot groups and militias," Mark Potok, senior fellow at the SPLC said on a conference call Tuesday. "That's 913 percent in growth. We've never seen that kind of growth in any kind of group we cover."

Why so much hate and paranoia? The culprits are pretty predictable: a liberal black president, the wider shift in demographics in the country, and the mainstreaming of formerly marginal conspiracies like Agenda 21, says Potok.

CNN: Right Wing Extremists becoming a bigger threat

Just more proof that most of the crazies come from the right wing.

Black and white

The world is not black-and-white, it is made up of shades of grey. If we apply our wits to try to understand the problems we face in the U.S., we know that there are a number of facts, some contradictory, to consider when forming an opinion. Take the economic problems faced by Washington these days - we ARE over-borrowed and the Fed Is printing money and people ARE out of work and we are NOT creating enough jobs to seriously reduce unemployment. We DO want government to stop spending so much money but we DON'T want Medicare cut or Social Security eliminated. These are complex issues and they require something other than simple-mindedness to deal with effectively.

But then you get this...

And you realize that a lot of people on the right in our political system are incapable of understanding an issue of any complexity. They must reduce it down to two sides (black-and-white) because that is all their minds are capable of handling at any one moment. It calls up images of the reports in the news recently that nearly 75% of those who receive government benefits don't even REALIZE that they are benefiting from the very social programs they vote against. Remember the tea party sign from last year that read, "Keep the government's hands off of my Medicare?"

As I said - it takes a simple mind without the ability to see shades of grey to be a right-wing conservative in the U.S. today. What amazes me most is how many of these folks are out there.

Helping to understand the right-wing

Click on the image to view larger

Admit it - right-wing religion is a little perverted

The radical right wing - our new terrorist threat

From Crooks and Liars...

Five people in the Fairbanks area were arrested Thursday by state and federal law enforcement on charges connected with an alleged plot to kidnap or kill state troopers and a Fairbanks judge, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

Francis "Schaeffer" Cox, Lonnie Vernon, Karen Vernon, Coleman Barney and Michael Anderson are accused of conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping, and arson, as well as weapons misconduct, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, according to trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters in a written statement late Thursday.

Religion is the drug of the right-wing

Right wing braggart

From Acerbic Politics

You can see why I think right-wingers are nuts...

The following is a little dated, but still good information. If you are at all rational and educated, you understand the absolute stupidity in some of the responses enumerated beneath the opening paragraphs You can read more HERE.

What do Islamic fundamentalists have in common with the far-right core of the Republican Party? And what do your average, non-extremist Muslims have in common with the (slim) majority of the GOP who are not right wingers?

The answers, of course, are obvious - the first two treat their worldview as the only correct, God-given view and treat anyone who demurs from this as worthy of any sort of attack up to and including destroying them, and the second pair remain silent, as in Burke's admonition that "all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good [people] to remain silent."

As reported elsewhere on HP, The Daily Kos, a liberal/progressive blog, employs a very reputable and neutral polling organization called Research 2000 to do polling for them on a weekly basis and posts their results no matter what they show, including demographic information about those polled.

Recently they posted the results of the Daily Kos/Research 2000 Republican Poll 2010. For this poll, conducted between January 20 and 31, 2010, the interviewed 2003 self-identified Republicans by phone.
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---39% of those surveyed say Barack Obama should be impeached with 32% saying no, and 29% not sure.
--- 63% said yes to "do you think Barack Obama is a Socialist, with 21% saying no and 16% not sure.
---36% believe Obama was not born in the US and 22% aren't sure.
---24% believe Obama "wants the terrorists to win" and 33% aren't sure.

Right-Wing Christmas Celebrations

From Acerbic Politics

Propaganda For The Right Wing

Right Wing Propaganda - Poster