...we're gonna have to do a lot more than
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Zappa's Politics
In the lyrics to Dumb All Over, there's a glimmer of positive in the middle of the black sea of Frank's cynicism:
marxism
the rub: dialectical materialism is as close as economics ever gets to actual science. Therefore, the POV with the most credibility. Feeling our way, etc. The Whole Foods guy deserves a lot more criticism; he's an idiot. It's now wholly possible to have public and private personae that are completely dissociated by design, and under complete control by...whomever.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Dispense with Bullshit
First, let's talk about socialism. If you, or anyone else, says that Obama is a socialist, or is trying to advance socialism, then you have no idea what socialism is. A committed Socialist will understand what dialectical materialism is about (to an extent), will know what Marx and Engels were referring to when they wrote about workers, the bourgeois, class struggle, the proletariat, the means of production, and continuing revolution, and think and work towards the day when the wealth of labor will be distributed equally among the laborers. More to the point, a socialist will NATIONALIZE an ENTIRE INDUSTRY; offering more service to the public for their tax dollars just doesn't qualify. Obama is NO SOCIALIST. He is a Capitalist; he's the chief executive of the biggest capitalist state in the history of mankind. None of the proposed healthcare legislation seeks to nationalize any industry- Obama is not trying to put the insurers out of business. Consequently, if you try to label Obama a Socialist then you are COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT and IGNORANT.
Second, let's talk about economics. A lot of you guys out there (Dille! Codner!) have put forth a bunch of alarmist gobbledygook about the markets, and how the signs are all very bad. I'm sure that you are right. I'm not qualified to argue about markets, stocks, or macro- (or even micro-) economics. Quite frankly, that shit bores me to tears, and it seems to have replaced the obsession with sports statistics that used to be the sole intellectual pursuit of certain guys. But none of it will make Obama a socialist. There are many reasons to be alarmed these days, and concerns about the health of the economy are on everybodys mind- even TPM wants Geithner fired.
Finally, let's talk about Ayn Rand. Here is a sexually repressed demagogue who writes an overheated romance novel with political pretensions, that lucks into a boyfriend with an inheritance. Then some years go by, and the cult around her grows to include a few Washington pinheads who use her bullshit "philosophy" to excuse the most inhumanly evil behavior writ upon the modern scene; up to and including genocide, racial hatred and wholesale theft of public assets. This is not something anyone should be proud of; I myself hang my head shamefully, for the (not one but two!) copies of The Fondledhead on my shelf....but the real point here is that it's all DOCUMENTED and A MATTER OF FACT. To wit: Ken Lay, noted Objectivist/Randian, ripped off MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. Donald Rumsfeld, devoted Randian (are any of you in favor of Rumsfeld? Please explain why, and show your work...). Wolfowitz, Cheney, Greenspan, I could go on and on. The Whole Sick Crew, as it were.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Chapping my Hide
There's the willful ignorance of terms- I am a socialist, and I can tell you that Obama is no socialist. Then there's the....wait, lemme get this straight. You think our country is, how you say, going to hell in a handbasket? Paranoid? Never mind that Obama has basically restored Habeas Corpus, when it was gutted by Bush. But what really REALLY chaps my hide is the fallback position: Ayn Rand. Of all the BULLSHIT. Smarter people than I have given philosophically rigorous explanations of why Randism=mind poison. As for me, I'll keep it simple:
1. Many young folk are enamored of her because they think they've discovered something big that isn't in the canon. If they stick with their studies they eventually figure out why she isn't in the canon; it's because her philosophy is a half-baked screed against the Soviet Union (for a similar off-the-rails diatribe, see Orly Taitz).
2. But it's much worse than that- Randism/Objectivism is an attempt to repaint amoral behavior as an alternate moral code. It's a way for people with property to feel o.k. about not sharing with anyone else, and as such, it's not just a completely bald-faced case of moral relativism, it is de facto WHITE SUPREMACISM.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
this is just dumb
This is what people are thingkit:
paranoia, paranoia, paranoia, based on bullshit. "I'm scared for my county, and he's a boogiiee maaaan" loose combo of John Birch/Ayn RAnd/ resulting in half (dissappointed progressive) half (disaffected know-nothing populace)
admission: sometimes the reference won't place itself quickly enough, and i forget....what are we rilly talkin about? Thje first thing that galls me is " the taking loosely of accepted terms to mean what you want". Is there a clinical name for this logical fallacy? Yes, it's called a "lie".
When people try to paint a liberal as an authoritarian. When in fact liberalism is the diametric opposite of authoritarianism. When in fact President Obama has spoken and acted just as what he is, a Liberal. The last liberal since Nixon, like my friend Larry says....
Quote:
Kim Allen-Butler It's official-the inmates are running the asylum. Obviously not the same voting committee as for the Olympics-too bad.
....end quote.
Here's one for you: Sternn: "Don't worry, I've got an angle!"
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Fuck the Poor
I've known for years that it's pointless to try to turn somebody's head around about poor people; but that's not gonna stop me from trying. I also know that I'm not necessarily in the minority; most folks in this country have been indoctrinated by religion, so they're predisposed to have compassion for the poor. It's only an unfortunate few that have been indoctrinated by Ayn Rand, and thus have contempt for the poor. Notice I don't preclude myself from the ranks of the indoctrinated; we are all indoctrinated into one set of assumptions or another. The real point is how you behave in your everyday life; in other words, what kind of human are you?
Yes, the real point is how you act. "By their acts shall ye know them", or so says Scripture. I am extremely agnostic, personally, and something of a commie besides (thanks, Mom!); but I still find it useful to borrow the conceits of religion, in that they are so pithy and descriptive. Even as committed an atheist as Sartre makes the same point- the challenge, he said, was to be good without God. And I agree! I have great hopes for the future because I think we as a race are beginning to throw off the shackles of religion and learn how to treat each other as human.
Which brings me to this utter bullshit that's flying around in the "political" sphere. I'm quite sickened by the haters on the airwaves; Blush/Reck, teabaggers, O'Rly, etc. But they are to be expected any time the culture breaks new ground. What chaps my hide even more are friends of mine that have swallowed the logic-free and inhumanly stupid rhetoric of Palin/Rand/etc., just so they can feel superior to people with nothing. I've been having a debate with old Marine Corps buddies, and a couple of them are having a grand old time trashing ACORN in the wake of the Bleck "expose". They try to defend their position as consistent with Randian "values", and say that they have no real obligation to help the poor. This makes me physically ill. It just blows my mind that a middle class person would think it o.k. to steal from those with less. My bud The Crack Emcee can safely be ignored in this debate, as his blog is nothing more than a rant against his ex-wife and the regurgitation of Republican talking points (an analysis of his site shows a ratio of about eighty percent links/quotes to twenty percent actual writing). And sadly, the comments of President Carter are also irrelevant; as John Legend just mentioned on Anderson Cooper's show, the accusation of racism may be accurate but it is a distraction. The teabaggers are desperate people that have been duped into being tools for the corporations. They've been duped into agitating against themselves, against their own best interests! "Government out of Medicare", indeed!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I really hate it when people gang up on one person
Here's a pretty funny blog entry, but in the comments everyone gangs up on rmrd0000. I happen to agree with him; the Civil War was worth fighting, and Henry Louis Gates has every right to not be treated like a slave, especially in his own home. Also, I think cops should be held to a higher standard- maybe their right to not be assaulted should be limited, since they are authorized by the state to use deadly force. That said, I'm a homeowner and a taxpayer, and decidedly pro-cop. I've experienced profiling and even brutality at the hands of the police first-hand, but I still think that they are our best option for dealing with violent crime, which is a problem for ALL AMERICANS.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
What the Fuque, ovah?
So, all my worst fears have been confirmed- my buddy Troy has completely lost his fucking mind (like what Stanley Crouch says about Amiri Baraka). Y'know, I try to play nice but my posts keep getting deleted just because I disagree with him. Must be nice living inside a goddamn air-conditioned bubble! The offense? I called bullshit on his constant Barack-knocking. His only (stated) rule on his blog is that you can't be anonymous; and, as anyone who knows me knows, anonymity is the furthest thing from my mind ('cept of course when I'm in the middle of committing crimes).
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