This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
Monday, February 04, 2013
Abortions are more frequent among the poor
Which makes a lot of sense - they often can't afford contraception and so they get unwanted pregnancies more often and, once pregnant, they often realize that they can't afford to care for a child. Nothing new here, really.
The TSA - violating American civil rights every day.
Check out the fourth amendment to the constitution - it's pretty clear.
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Krugman usually has it right
From The New York Times
Makers, Takers, Fakers
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 27, 2013
Republicans have a problem. For years they could shout down any attempt to point out the extent to which their policies favored the elite over the poor and the middle class; all they had to do was yell "Class warfare!" and Democrats scurried away. In the 2012 election, however, that didn't work: the picture of the G.O.P. as the party of sneering plutocrats stuck, even as Democrats became more openly populist than they have been in decades.
As a result, prominent Republicans have begun acknowledging that their party needs to improve its image. But here's the thing: Their proposals for a makeover all involve changing the sales pitch rather than the product. When it comes to substance, the G.O.P. is more committed than ever to policies that take from most Americans and give to a wealthy handful.
Makers, Takers, Fakers
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 27, 2013
Republicans have a problem. For years they could shout down any attempt to point out the extent to which their policies favored the elite over the poor and the middle class; all they had to do was yell "Class warfare!" and Democrats scurried away. In the 2012 election, however, that didn't work: the picture of the G.O.P. as the party of sneering plutocrats stuck, even as Democrats became more openly populist than they have been in decades.
As a result, prominent Republicans have begun acknowledging that their party needs to improve its image. But here's the thing: Their proposals for a makeover all involve changing the sales pitch rather than the product. When it comes to substance, the G.O.P. is more committed than ever to policies that take from most Americans and give to a wealthy handful.
Shootings
The shootings? Yep - still going on - still no new gun control laws and no new attempt to enforce the laws we do have.
Gun control
Really, wouldn't it be nice of gun owners were required to take some training classes and be licensed? I'd feel a little better about it.
Christmas in Redneckville
They welcomed Christmas with a Bible and and some guns, just as Jesus would have it!
Saturday, February 02, 2013
Fantasy is all that is left of their tattered self-esteem.
The following is profound and explains an awful lot about a lot of people. I added the emphasis to the one sentence because of it's unerring accuracy. It addresses most of the fear of big government, gun control, women's rights, and - oh man, most of the issues we face on a national level today. The whole article is excellent and not too long - if you've got 5 or 10 minutes, it's worth the time.
Found on Truthdig
As Southern whites sink into economic and cultural despair, more and more are retreating into a fictional past... in a desperate effort to restore what they view as a lost paradise.
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The rewriting of history in the South is a retreat by beleaguered whites into a mythical self-glorification.
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The steady rise of ethnic nationalism over the past decade, the replacing of history with mendacious and sanitized versions of lost glory, is part of the moral decay that infects a dying culture. It is a frightening attempt, by those who are desperate and trapped, to escape through invented history their despair, impoverishment and hopelessness. It breeds intolerance and eventually violence. Violence becomes in this perverted belief system a cleansing agent, a way to restore a lost world. There are ample historical records that disprove the myths espoused by the neo-Confederates, who insist the Civil War was not about slavery but states' rights and the protection of traditional Christianity. But these records are useless in puncturing their self-delusion, just as documentary evidence does nothing to blunt the self-delusion of Holocaust deniers. Those who retreat into fantasy cannot be engaged in rational discussion, for fantasy is all that is left of their tattered self-esteem. When their myths are attacked as untrue it triggers not a discussion of facts and evidence but a ferocious emotional backlash. The challenge of the myth threatens what is left of hope. And as the economy unravels, as the future looks bleaker and bleaker, this terrifying myth gains potency.
Found on Truthdig
As Southern whites sink into economic and cultural despair, more and more are retreating into a fictional past... in a desperate effort to restore what they view as a lost paradise.
---
The rewriting of history in the South is a retreat by beleaguered whites into a mythical self-glorification.
---
The steady rise of ethnic nationalism over the past decade, the replacing of history with mendacious and sanitized versions of lost glory, is part of the moral decay that infects a dying culture. It is a frightening attempt, by those who are desperate and trapped, to escape through invented history their despair, impoverishment and hopelessness. It breeds intolerance and eventually violence. Violence becomes in this perverted belief system a cleansing agent, a way to restore a lost world. There are ample historical records that disprove the myths espoused by the neo-Confederates, who insist the Civil War was not about slavery but states' rights and the protection of traditional Christianity. But these records are useless in puncturing their self-delusion, just as documentary evidence does nothing to blunt the self-delusion of Holocaust deniers. Those who retreat into fantasy cannot be engaged in rational discussion, for fantasy is all that is left of their tattered self-esteem. When their myths are attacked as untrue it triggers not a discussion of facts and evidence but a ferocious emotional backlash. The challenge of the myth threatens what is left of hope. And as the economy unravels, as the future looks bleaker and bleaker, this terrifying myth gains potency.
Better know your Bible.
As I was taught in Sunday School. "Jesus loves me, this I know, 'cause the Bible tells me so..." - unless, of course, he doesn't. Perhaps he HATES you - just you mind you, but still, YOU.
Shootings - di I mention that there had been more shootings?
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| Good boy! |
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| I've heard he could have killed them with a hammer... |
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Social Security is not the problem.
Social Security is not the problem with the nation's debt - and it won't be for another 30 years. But the Republicans want it - they want their hands on it so they can get it into private control where they can make billions off of it. Don't believe a word they say about wanting to save it for future generations - they want it for themselves in this generation. Woe be unto the American generations who give them control over it.
Friday, February 01, 2013
Education in the US
From Mother Jones
Texas Public Schools: Still Teaching Creationism
-By Josh Harkinson| Mon Jan. 28, 2013 3:01 AM PST
And there's much, much more. Go to the site to read the article - it's enlightening and sort of suggests why the US educational system is failing.
Texas Public Schools: Still Teaching Creationism
-By Josh Harkinson| Mon Jan. 28, 2013 3:01 AM PST
In Texas public schools, children learn that the Bible provides scientific proof that Earth is 6,000 years old, that the origins of racial diversity trace back to a curse placed on Noah's son, and that astronauts have discovered "a day missing in space" that corroborates biblical stories of the sun standing still.
These are some of the findings detailed in Reading, Writing & Religion II, a new report by the Texas Freedom Network that investigates how public schools in the Lone Star State promote religious fundamentalism under the guise of offering academic courses about the Bible. The report, written by Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, found that more than half of the state's public-school Bible courses taught students to read the book from a specifically Christian theological perspective-a clear violation of rules governing the separation of church and state.
And there's much, much more. Go to the site to read the article - it's enlightening and sort of suggests why the US educational system is failing.
Religion is a negative force
Religion is a negative force and the followers of these religions become so blinded by their faith in their storybook that they can't even see their own hypocrisy.
Big gun
I am not totally opposed to private ownership of guns - I own several myself. I am, however, constantly amazed at how comfortable some people are with these murderous weapons and their fascination of pushing them on young chidren as well.
The stupid just doesn't quit
It is not that I am unaware of the stupid people that walk the face of the earth, it is the level of power to which that rise that fucking flabbergasts me.
The working poor
How often have I covered this issue in my posts? Dozen of times. If we want a smaller safety net for people in this country, the first thing we have to do is pass a minimum wage law that provides for a "living" wage. This will dramatically cut spending on welfare programs and Medicaid and put the burden on those who should be paying it - employers and the private sector.
Not surprising, really
The following statistic is a little annoying, but not surprising. Liberals tend to be more generous at all levels - local, state and national.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Stephen King is Pro -gun-control
Quoted in The Political Carnival
Best-selling author and gun owner Stephen King has written a 25-page essay, Guns
Best-selling author and gun owner Stephen King has written a 25-page essay, Guns
[The NRA] will deflect attention from guns and propose expanding access to mental health services, stationing guards in schools, and of course clamping down on the media's glorification of violence. "One only wishes [NRA Executive VIce President and CEO] Wayne LaPierre and his NRA board of directors could be drafted to some of these [school shooting] scenes, where they would be required to put on booties and rubber gloves and help clean up the blood, the brains, and the chunks of intestine still containing the poor wads of half-digested food that were some innocent bystander's last meal," King writes. Maybe then they'll focus less on the make-believe death in media and the very real destruction that open access to military-style weapons can cause.
The Bible is violent
The NRA likes to talk about our "culture of violence" and to lay blame on movies and video games for shootings in the US. I think they left something else out - something that we force on young children from the time they are born. Should IT be banned as well?
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