Random thoughts...

One of my favorite (I think original) quotes is to say that...
When you argue with a Liberal, he'll tell you why you're wrong; while if you argue with a Conservative, he'll show you why you're Liberal.

I post that (or some variant of it) on MMFA a lot. And the best part of that?

If a Liberal is arguing with a Conservative? Using this reasoning? THEY'RE BOTH RIGHT!

LOL

(That just dawned on on me earlier today.)

So... I'm sitting in what we call the "Salmon Run" - that's the long line of cars that forms at 4:30, going down the small road in front of our office that leads to the main road - today and I'm reading the various bumper stickers on the back of the truck of the guy in front of me:

"Support the Troops."

Which REALLY means: Support the Republicans.

Which I can't do, due in part to what a shitty job they do supporting the troops!


"Taxed Enough Already!"

Did you hear? Rick Perry is now picking up the Cain 9-9-9 line and is pushing a flat-tax scheme of his own.  And  I guarantee you this guy in front of me doesn't make enough to be one of the BENEFICIARIES of this plan. (Unless Perry's just blowing smoke when it comes to the deficit.  But then... we KNOW the Republicans NEVER do ANYTHING that adds to the DEFICIT, don't we?)  (Is one in the Reagan worth two in the Bush?)


"Evil flourishes when good people do nothing!"

I laugh my ass off whenever I see this one.  The funny thing? Is that it's really a profoundly LIBERAL sentiment.  I mean... what could be more PROGRESSIVE than that, right?  And yet, it usually ends up on the bumper of Right-Wingers.  (Something to do with the Iraq War, IIRC.  Apparently violating sovereignty and starting unnecessary wars is GOOD, I guess.)  But here's what REALLY strikes me as absurd about that sticker appearing on the bumper of a Conservative's car:

THE CONSERVATIVE'S ANSWER TO EVERYTHING IS TO DO NOTHING!

Global Warming?

Do nothing.

Shitty Economy?

Do nothing.

Entire U.S. Auto Industry about to go belly-up?

Do nothing.

Unfair trade practices?

Do nothing.

Middle Class shrinking?

Do nothing.

People Losing Jobs?

Do nothing.
Poor people starving?

Do nothing.

40 Million Americans can't get health Insurance?

Do nothing.


The only time they ever do anything is following some manner of societal PROGRESS that finally DOES AWAY will some kind of evil! Think about it:

Abolish Slavery?

Jim Crow.

Stop lynching?

Segregation.

Civil Right Act?

George Wallace.

Affirmative Action?

Southern Strategy.

Equal Rigths for Women?

KILL the ERA.

Reproductive Freedom?

Politicize Religion. (More so.)

Black man elected President?

Tea Party.


The only time ANYONE acts against evil, it's a Progressive.  And the only time Conservatives do anything except money-change and power-broke is when a Progressive finally makes some Progress!

Anyway... Those are my thoughts for today... Stuck in traffic... Behind a Conservative...


BTW...
 
 
Had some fun over on MMFA today, thinking about how well former Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) might fit in over at his new gig as a contributor to Faux Snooze.  In a very rare act of self indulgence (LOL) I'd like to re-post my comment here, as it kind of fits with the theme of this post:
 
 
A Liberal aspires to be right.
A Conservative aspires to be Conservative.

Argue with a Liberal and he'll tell you why you're wrong.
Argue with a Conservative and he'll show you why you're Liberal.

A Liberal bases his position on his judgement of the evidence.
A Conservative bases his judgement of the evidence on his position.

To a Liberal, a liar is anyone who knowingly contradicts the truth.
To a Conservative, a liar is anyone who is knowingly Liberal.

An honest Liberal Politician is one who cannot be bought.
An honest Conservative Politician is one who, once bought, STAYS bought.

I believe that Governor Sanford will be very comfortable in his new position.

Some Random Stuff...

1) Check this out: The 10 Most Irreplaceable Performances in Comedy Films.

The article is almost as funny as the movies it's talking about. But then... That's Seanbaby. Who before his gig at Cracked, created the website that won my Silver Star #5: Seanbaby's Super Friends. (So technically, between that and his contributions to Cracked, he's got two Silver Stars.)


 
2) So... the repeal of DADT failed. Nice.  Nice political calculus, Obama.  (God, he's so useless.)  But I want to point of someting about these Republicans. Does anyone else find it ironic that they're so willing and eager to send other people's children halfway around the world to fight for "freedom," but they're unwilling to fight for actual freedom themselves, from the comfort of their own desks? Disgraceful.

 
 
3) My son is upstairs watching Rankin & Bass's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (and the island of misfit toys) for the 2nd time tonight.  IDK... Holiday Specials don't seem so special on DVD - when you can watch them anytime you want, or five times in a row.  But there's something I noticed just now...
 
I think everyone is aware that Rudolph himself is a pretty heavey-ham-handed metaphor for racism.  He's like the Jackie Robinson of Reindeer.  Coach Comet telling eveyone how they're not going to let Rudolph play in the reindeer games?  Yeah, it seems pretty silly today, but this was 1964: Pre-Civil Rights Act, etc...  
 
And to be honest, I really don't know if that was intentional or not.
 
But there's another charecter that's a near perfect metaphor that couldn't POSSIBLY have been intentional at the time: Hermey the Elf (who wants to be a Dentist, even though Elves are all supposed to make toys) is a near-perfect metaphor for Transgenderism.  I don't know if I'm late in coming to this realization or  what, but evrything about his character, and how he is treated by others (until they finally accept him as a dentist) is a perfect fit for transgenderism. 
 
I just noticed that.
 

 
4) The following is... incredibly filthy.  (But IMHO, freaking hilarious.) But if you're easily offended, fuck off you probably shouldn't click any of the following links.  The latest post / issue (what do call the latest offering of a web-comic anyway?) of OGLAF made me LOL.  To get the joke, you have to read one of the back issues first.  All I can say is...
 
(1) Poor Wizard.
(2) ROTFLMAO
(3) Shame of you! That's some filthy, smutty excuse for humor!
 
The "backstory" (I'm sorry, but the look on the Wizard's face in the 2nd to last panel is priceless!
The Latest, page 1
The Latest, page 2
 
Yeah... that strip's generally NSFW.  It's... filthy.  There's no two ways about it.  Most of it still make me laugh my ass off though.
 
 
Later!

A few Random Thoughts

1) There are spiders in my car.  A LOT of them.  I clear spiderwebs off of the inside of my windshield every morning, and kill one or two of them crawling accross my dashboard every morning on my way to work.  And while they're not HUGE, they're not exactly SMALL either,  And I can't help but think, "What the hell are they EATING?"  I mean - they live in my CAR for Christ's sake!  Not exactly a lot of FLIES in there!


2) I have a theory that wildly fluctcating, and especially really HIGH ($4.25/gallon?) gas prices are the cause, and especially the TRIGGER, of many of our worst economic problems.  Now, at some point I'll get around to explaining that, but if you ACCEPT it for now, you can see one of the differences between how a conservtive and a liberal think: A conservative concludes that this is a reason to DRILL MORE, while a Liberal concludes that this is a reason to develop alternative energy and stop relying so much on oil.


3) Another difference between liberals and conservatives...

When I was getting my MBA, I had this real libertarian, free-market loving Professor for two semesters of Business Strategy.  He claimed to have "an almost religous belief in the power of the free market to solve all the world's problems."  And he really was a brilliant man.  His name was Karmalash Kumar and 99% of Graduates in my lcass would have named him as the one professor they respected the most; including me, despite our political differences.  I really, truly respected him.  But one day in class he was citing a study that purported to show that the idea that a company that acted "socially responsibly" did NOT in fact see any increase in profit for this, as the 'liberal' conventional wisdom would believe.  The study tracked [something like] 100 companies, half of which were considered 'socially responsible' or 'admired' and half considered 'despised' or 'socially irresponsible.'  And it tracked their stock prices over a ten year time period.  And do you know what? The results were exactly the same!  So he concluded that the was no pay-off to acting resposibly.

And which point I raised my hand and asked, "But... if you're going to make exactly the same amount of money either way, why wouldn't you just want to do the right thing?  Especially since it, apparently, doesn't cost you anything to do so?"

He was floored. And his only reply was, "Gee, I... never thought about it like that."

I'm really PROUD of that. 

(And it just goes to show how two people can completely agree on the FACTS yet reach wildly different conclusions in their JUDGEMENT.)


4) I just saw 'Inglourious Basterds' a couple of weeks ago.  That is a kick-ass fucking movie, and possibly the best writing job Quentin Taratino has ever done.  And that's saying something.



5) I'm trying to teach myself how to draw [better.]  What do you think?

6) In the Case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled such that Corporations would no longer be limitied as to how much money the could spend trying to influence elections.  Now... putting aside that it's basically self-evident how despicable and indefensible that decision IS, in their opinion the majority claimed that "the first amendment was written in terms of speech, not speakers" and that "Its text offers no foothold for excluding any category of speaker."

So... my question is... How the FUCK do you square that "logic" with those same justices' opinion in Morse v. Frederick (aka: Bong Hits for Jesus) where not only the fact that the "speaker" was STUDENT was particularly significant, but the fact thay his MESSAGE, one that the felt was 'obscene'  or 'offensive' or whatever, was also somehow significant?!

I was under the impression, mistaken apparently, that it was most most important to defend "FREE SPEECH" when the speaker or the message was one that you DISAGREED with.  I guess that's just a bunch of academic bullshit to these clowns.  I so hate the Reactionaty Wing of the SCOTUS.


6) "Thank you" to ClassicLiberal, BTW, for giving me that term to call them!


7) Why is it that my web brower only ever responds really quickly when I mistype the URL I want?