The Justice Department has decided it can’t do anything about some of the fraud in the Florida presidential election. No surprise there. Newsflash: BUSH IS A TOOL OF THE DEVIL! Wheew. I’m glad I let that out. I feel a lot better now.
Primo Umberto Eco found via the ever wonderful Ethel the Blog:
Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. Both Fascists and Nazis worshipped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon blood and earth (Blut und Boden). The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life. The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. …
For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old “proletarians” are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. …
You wouldn’t know a Republican was in the White House what with the growing deficits and graft and routine conservative poofery. Let’s see so far the Bush administration has allowed Islamic terrorists to crash planes into buildings, increased the power of the police state while raping the Bill of Rights, engaged in corruption in the highest places of power, and has given the budget surpluses over to crippling deficits to fund the laughable war juggernaut. Not only that, but now according to CNN the unemployment rate is rising to 6% from just over 4% a few months ago. At least now if the economy starts to stink and we have an evil bastard in the White House we might be able to get some good music out of it. What I mean is, remember the late 80’s early 90’s? With all the tumult during the reign of Bush I, that was some good friggin’ music! Nirvana, Public Enemy, Gheto Boyz, Pearl Jam, Ministry…those were the days. I remember when NWO by Ministry would come on Mtv. It’s actually a little uncanny how similar things are now to how they were then.
Unsurprisingly, the House Republicans voted to remove the sunset provisions of the estate tax. This means all those rich shits who spend their lives moving corporations overseas to avoid paying taxes while they fleece 401k plans of the middle class Babbitts will now have the last laugh as they pass on 100% of their ill-gotten wealth to the next generation of American elites.
I’m amazed at how well the Republicans serve their corporate masters. Their knees hit the ground faster than the Democrats and that’s saying a lot. Of course, Republicans are more likely to be filthy rich themselves so I guess its really not all that surprising.
The people in Ruby Ridge decided to create a coop to provide their own DSL service. Very cool. I wish we could start something like that here.
You know the Army has the ‘Green Berets’ and the ‘Special Forces’ and the Navy has the ‘Seals’ and the Air Force has the…uh..’Rescue Rangers’ or something. Anyway, the jar heads over in the Marines have been feeling left out in all the laudatory media coverage and would like to have their own very special, elite, shock troops. You might ask, what took them so long to hop on the bandwagon? Well, the Marines believe that every Marine is an elite fighter. A Marine creed is “Every Marine a rifleman.” So this new Marine unit will be like the elite of the elite, I suppose. Anyway, I don’t buy all this ‘Special Forces’ crapola. I think it mainly operates as propaganda. I mean, how hard is it to be elite when you belong to the military of the country which spends trillions of dollars on war? Let’s be honest, most of these guys went into the military because they didn’t know what else to do after they got through sleeping through high school. All the guys who had it together in school and went into the military joined ROTC and went on to become pencil pushing military bureaucrats. I guess you have to make up all sorts of elite groups and medals to make up for the pathetic pay and living on welfare while your family waits for you to come home for a few weeks at a time.
Ah, wow. I thought this article was hilarious. Evidently, there’s an artist who bakes pies and leaves them to be grabbed by opportunists off the windowsill of her custom-built playhouse. To me, it demonstrates the adverse effects of American gimme gimme consumerism.
Lisa Osorio, a Brooklyn lawyer in her forties, is one of several people circling the cottage with the calculated patience of a prowling lioness. “The other day, there was a girl here eating a whole pie. I was like, you should share.” The girl didn’t, so Osorio watched and learned. “You have to kind of be around when she’s about to put the pie out,” she explains. “I’m just going to wait till I get one.”
Surely there are easier ways to acquire an apple pie. Maybe going to a store and just buying one? No way, says Osorio. “I want one of these, because I want to be a part of something special.”
When Mack finally puts the afternoon’s first pie out to cool, it is immediately snatched from the windowsill by Cynthia Otrupcak, a substitute teacher from upstate New York.
Like a victorious beauty queen, a flushed and gushing Otrupcak is surrounded by envious well-wishers who actually hate her, and it isn’t long before the scene turns ugly. Several witnesses accuse her of grabbing the pie from in front of a small boy whose nose had been pressed against a window for hours. Otrupcak is defending herself when she is approached by a man who has still other plans for her pie. “Excuse me,” he says, holding his maybe-6-year-old son by the shoulders and pushing the boy toward Otrupcak. “He’s been here four times now, and — ”
Otrupcak refuses to relinquish — or share — her pie.
“I’m appalled,” says Ellen Beyda, a Park Slope psychologist, shaking her head in disgust.
George Bush, the Prince of Darkness, is expected to propose a new cabinet level law enforcement agency to increase the power of police state.
In other words, its a newer, better, bigger, more powerful, invasive uber-authoritarian agency. I can’t wait to see Homeland Protection agents goosestepping about town with their colorful armbands and stylish Oakley sunglasses.
Ari “The Mouth of Sauron” Fleischer put it simply for all the cogs to hear, “The purpose is to protect the homeland from terror.” What we really need to do is to create an agency that will put some of these Wall Street terrorists behind bars. Kenneth Lay, Bush, Cheney, and those sheisters from Merrill Lynch could use some vacation time eating Froot Loops in Gitmo. I’d love to see George Bush in an orange jumpsuit. It would be priceless. That reminds me. I’ve always wondered how we’ve gotten away with building a prison camp in Cuba? Does the US pay its enemy Castro for this privilege or what?