Fun with the Rude Pundit on the Beck-Us Festival

The only attention I've paid to the thousands of people who rode buses cross country to listen to Beck/Palin gobbledygook is reading the hilarious and interesting blogging picking apart the scab that is Glenn Beck and his sheep. Note this irresistible fun from the Rude Pundit on "Glenn Beck's Tent Revival Meeting and Hoveround Demonstration":

The best analogy the Rude Pundit can come up with for the whole goddamn ridiculous waste of time is the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. For what was this but a journey from across the nation of Christians going to the city of our stone holy sites in order to pray.

Enough to make me want to pre-order Markos's upcoming book American Taliban.

Of course, the reason I love the Rude Pundit is that he's a keen observer of what many people miss, to wit:

Fun juxtaposition:

Glenn Beck, speaking on Friday at the Kennedy Center, just before raping a kitten, using his tears for lube: "We are 12 hours away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America."

Sarah Palin, speaking at the Beckture: "We must not fundamentally transform America, as some would want."

Finally, the Rude One asks a question:

 If anyone can tell the Rude Pundit how that was an important or interesting event at all, please do it. Because, in all honestly, he's boggled and confused.

Again, I didn't watch the thing, although I'm willing to bet is was as interesting as ear wax. As for important, well, it's certainly important in the sense that the code word "honor" coinciding with the MLK anniversary is a huge flashing neon sign of confederatism, a blatant hint that they believe humans can, and should, be owned.

90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

A quick note to say that today, the 90th anniversary of women getting the right to vote via the 19th amendment, is a great day to make sure all the women you know have the right to vote. Especially considering that many of the GOP candidates out there are against abortion IN ALL CASES, meaning they want to force rape victims who get pregnant to have their rapists' babies. Meaning they want women at risk to die rather than have an abortion. Meaning they're fascist fucks who want the government involved in your personal decisions while they scream about limiting government.

So make sure all the women you know are aware of this and are registered to vote.

Now, for some history on how women got the right to vote, in a story guaranteed to choke up even the codgiest old dudes like me, read Gail Collins' piece, My Favorite August.

Addiction Treatment Blog

My friends at Reelizations Media have started a blog about addiction treatment. If you are involved in addiction treatment, you'll find this to be a helpful blog where addiction treatment professionals share thoughts, frustrations,  challenges and strategies. Today's post on thereapuetic communities explores why some are dying out, while others are thriving.

Just what is Reelizations Media? From their home page:

Reelizations Media provides video resources for drug abuse intervention and addiction treatment and education. Our videos and other addiction educational resources help alcohol and drug addiction rehabilitation counselors, life skills coaches, clinical directors, therapists, social workers, and psychologists who work in hospitals, prisons, jails, correctional institutions, drug treatment centers, halfway houses, shelters, mental health centers, county governments, community centers, and addiction treatment programs.

Reelizations has a huge video catalog of addiction treatment videos covering all kinds of addictions from drugs to gambling. They also specialize in prisoner re-entry education, women's issues, work readiness, and life skills. If you're involved in these fields, please check out the new Reelizations Blog, Addiction Treatment Central, and join in the discussion!

Fair fines

I love this story... If the idea of a speeding ticket is to cause financial pain in order to prevent people from speeding, then a flat fine is stupid, because rich people will just pay the relatively small fine in order to speed (or park in a handicapped spot, or whatever).

Having tickets indexed to the income or wealth of the perp just makes sense if we want the tickets to be fair for everyone. Governments looking for new sources of revenue should explore making fines progressive.

in reference to: BBC News - Swede faces world-record $1m speeding penalty (view on Google Sidewiki)

A Quote for Obama on the Possible War with Iran

What can a soldier do who charges when out of breath? -- Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus

More proof that the right will hate Obama no matter what he does

Record deportations are exactly what a lot of racist assholes want Obama to do, but do you think those people will read this story? If they do, will they believe it? After all, Faux News tells them that the opposite is true.

Obama could deport every illegal in this country and the right wing would still howl that he's not doing enough. This is proof that actual facts about policies don't matter at all to these people. They hate Obama, period, and no facts are going to get into the way of that bias.

in reference to:

"the deportation trend does run counter to many perceptions in border states and beyond about federal anti-illegal immigration efforts."
- Obama as border cop: He's deported record numbers of illegal immigrants - CSMonitor.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tony Perkins Says A Majority Can Discriminate

Say 80% of Californians voted to make mixed race marriages illegal. Does that mean we have to do it? What if the majority wanted to force black kids into their own schools? Would the fact that a majority of voters said so make it OK? Would they be right?

Judge Vaughan Walker does know better than the people who voted for Prop 8 what should be the level of protection for minorities, based on the laws of the land as they are now. Tony Perkins could have testified and told us all why he thinks bigots, if they're in the majority, have a right to discriminate. But he didn't. Instead, he lies and whines.

Even if a majority of people voted to put Tony Perkins in a concentration camp, it would still be wrong to do it. He has a right to be a flaming idiot and to lie all he wants. But he does not have a right to discriminate, no matter how many voters say he does.

That's America, Tony. People have rights that voters cannot take away. Love it or leave it.

in reference to:

""I think what you have is one judge who thinks he knows - and a district level judge and an openly-homosexual judge at that - who says he knows better than not only 7 million voters in the state of California, but voters in 30 states across the nation that have passed marriage amendments. This is far from over.""
- Same-Sex Marriage Decision: "Far From Over" - Face The Nation - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Civil War Monuments

I live in a town with a monument to the Civil War dead from here. Many towns in upstate NY have them. I even see bumper stickers for daughters of the Civil War--that's how seriously people up here still take their fight against the south.

So, I wish there was going to be a tea party protest up here near me, because as someone who grew up in the south and knows damn well that this flag represents slavery, not state's rights or some other conservative bullshit, I would really like to see this symbol of racism die. I would like to see the flames engulf this disgusting relic, and I would like to watch the faces of the racists while it burned.

Anyone who does this should be prepared for a fight, especially in the south, where this cloth that isn't fit to wipe my ass carries all kinds of emotional baggage for the Obama haters, many of whom probably don't even realize how racist they are. We've all seen it: someone who seems like a tolerant person suddenly engulfed in the flames of their Republican talking points on hate crimes, or welfare, or ACORN, or Obama's birth certificate...

Fact is, they can't stand the fact that a black man got elected. They can't stand the fact that he's managed to do OK despite the crap sandwich he's been handed. They can't stand the fact that their precious GOP is a rump party that represents less and less of the country. So they get mad, and they try to say they're mad about spending, or mandates, or some other misdirection, when it's all, really, about that southern flag, and, ultimately, slavery.

They don't want a federal government telling them how to treat the "lesser" race. They believe the Bell Curve crap. They buy into the supremacy.

And they hate to see it burn.

in reference to:

"An anonymous liberal blogger in Washington state hopes that progressives across the country will show up to tea party rallies on September 12 and -- if it's legal -- light up a confederate flag so tea partiers can watch it burn."
- One Progressive's Nat'l Scheme To Burn Confederate Flags At Tea Party Rallies | TPMDC (view on Google Sidewiki)