dballance
dballance's JournalIt Drives me Nuts to hear Pols and News Talkers Refer to "America" when meaning the US
I'm not sure when it happened but of course I'm not surprised. The politicians, the news talkers and just about everyone else now refers to the US as America. That is so wrong and so arrogant.
When did we forget that Canada and Mexico, at the very least, are part of "America?" Then there is Central America where we've been fucking with the people for years and either sending them weapons or using the CIA to overthrow their governments. Often both at the same time so we could hedge our bets.
"America" didn't vote for Romney or Obama. The US electorate did. I don't recall seeing any polling results from Regina, New Foundland, British Columbia, Jalisco, Veracruz or Chihuahua in the Presidential race.
So can we possibly get over our complete and total arrogance? I doubt it.
The US's Exceptionalism
Tonight Paul Ryan said:
"Tonight, Ryan said American exceptionalism is grounded in the fact that most Americans believe that the worst off have a path to a better life."
Yep, the US is exceptional alright. You can vote, except if you're a minority, poor, elderly or any other class that might vote for Democrats. You can have a living wage job, except if you work for Walmart or just about any fast food chain. You can have health care except if you work for one of the many businesses that keep your hours under 30 hours in order to not have to offer you health care. Sure, those computerized scheduling systems are only about maximizing the number of workers to serve the customers - yep, right. You can get honest representation in congress except if you don't have thousands of dollars to buy your representatives and senators.
There is a lot our business "leaders" and congress do except actually help the majority of their constituents.
Yep, the US is exceptional alright.
Dear Ann,
Apparently Ann is taking the loss hard so I wrote her a letter.
Ann,
You and your husband paraded around on talk shows like it was inevitable that you must become the President and First Lady. You said it was "our time" in an interview. That seems rather dominionist. In the end, it doesn't seem like God really came down on your side.
Your husband being the rich former CEO he is employed a legion of people who told him what he wanted to hear rather than tell him about reality. Just like when he was a CEO. Thank goodness he didn't win. I can't imagine the crap his acolytes in his cabinet or his advisors might have been willing to tell him as President just to please him.
Every lickspittle on the right was lining up for an administration job that would propel them to a lucrative consulting or lobbying or talking head FOX network job. So sorry to have crashed their career plans.
You have at least four multi-million dollar homes. One of them allegedly has a car elevator.
You told us the heart-warming story of when you and Willard were in college and had to sell his stock to get cash to live on. Oh, that was so touching to all of us whose parents didn't give us stock so we worked multiple jobs and tried to study at the same time. I'm sure you never had to utter the phrase "would you like fries with that?"
In every interaction on the campaign trail where you had to interact with the common people you looked so uncomfortable. Your demeanor suggested the first thing you would want to do after an event and getting back to the hotel was take a shower to wash off all the contact with those nasty unwashed masses.
You and Willard never connected with people in the majority of the electorate. You couldn't. Given your privileged lives, and the distance always kept from the unwashed masses it's no wonder you couldn't connect. It was unfair to think you could.
Since your rich family and then Willard's rich family spent what ever it took to make sure you got whatever you wanted since the '70s it must have been quite a shock to not get what you wanted to become First Lady. There must be some terrible cognitive dissonance going on. Maybe you should consider the feelings us regular plebes have when we don't get that job after a job interview. There might be some of the same feelings of disappointment.
It must be a real bitch to stand down the decorators and send back the fabric swatches now that you won't get to re-decorate the White House.
I wish I could say I had the least bit of sympathy for you and Willard. But I don't. The US electorate recognized Willard as the lying, flip-flopping person he is. No one, not even the GOP, had the foggiest clue how he'd govern if elected. I believe most people who voted for Willard didn't really vote for him. They voted Republican or they voted against Obama. I'm sure there was a lot of nose-holding in voting booths on 11/6 as people either cast a ballot for Willard or just didn't vote at all in the Presidential race.
So here it is. No one really likes you or Willard. You are the epitome of rich assholes. Your personalities throughout the campaign proved that over and over again.
Looking at polls it seems that the places where Willard spent the most face-to-face time with voters broke against him. The logical conclusion is the more time people spent with Willard face-to-face the less they liked him. Imagine that. Let's review (paraphrased):
- I have friends who own NASCAR teams
- Those are nice rain coats
- Are those 7-11 cookies?
- I love cheesy grits
- 47% of people are takers who I'll never represent
and I know I'm missing some of the other great quotes.
So Ann, it's important to note you and Willard made a valiant effort. Despite the half a billion dollars Karl Rove and company spent it seems the US electorate ignored all the TV ads. They seemed to have awakened to the fact the banks and corporations are screwing them. In fact, it seems the awakening pissed them off so much they were willing to stand in line for 8-12 hours to vote.
You,Willard and the GOP are facing the electoral equivalent of the guillotine the French ruling class faced. You want to suggest we eat cake or do you want to suggest something more intelligent?
Best regards,
Dave
Secessionist Trail of Tears
As the US grew and expanded we took more and more lands from the Native Americans. We marched them out of fertile lands to reservations that could barely support their populations. But it was all Manifest Destiny. We superior white people really knew what was better for all those heathen red and brown people. We set them up on reservations with some of the poorest land and wildlife conditions and called them Native American Nations. Sovereign within the borders of their apartheid like reservations.
So now, there are thousands of people who want to secede from the US. They don't like the fair re-election of our President. They want out.
I say okay. Let's let them out. Let's gather them all up and march them to a dusty, dry useless parcel of desert like we did with the Native Americans and call them a Nation. Sovereign within the borders of the piss-poor lands we give them. And then if we find there is oil or natural gas under that piece of shit land let's find a way to take it back so ExxonMobil and BP can mine it and make a profit.
Yep, let's let them secede onto their own reservations where they don't have to follow US law and can form their own governments.
Seems reasonable to me.
Premature Compromisation
Defined: The ability of Democrats to cave on their positions before even a debate on either floor of congress or committee hearings can take place.
Let's help the Dem's get over this congressional dysfunction.
Is anyone else really tired of "Alleged?"
I remember back in the good 'ole days when a murderer was caught with the gun and blood on his hands the news called him/her a murderer. They didn't demure to the "alleged" murderer term. They stated the facts.
So it really galls me that "news" media is still referring to James Holmes as the "alleged" shooter in Aurora. For goodness sakes. He was apprehended in back of the theater with guns used to kill people and his apartment was booby-trapped to kill anyone who might try to enter it. He's not freaking alleged to be a killer. He was caught red-handed and is a freaking killer.
Now there is the shooter at the Sikh temple who is "alleged" to be a racist and white supremacist. There are plenty of pictures surfacing on the web of him with a white supremacist band and compatriots. There is the picture of him with the Nazi flag in it.
So there is ample proof he's NOT just alleged to be a racist white supremacist he IS one.
Call it like it really is "news" people. James Holmes is a mass murderer. Daniel Page is a mass murderer. Jared Loughner is a mass murderer. There is nothing "alleged" about it. The facts clearly show they did the crimes.
Maybe one day there will be a courageous news anchor who says "fuck the legal department. I'm going to report the real news." Of course the court battles will ensue. Maybe the tide will turn back to realism though.
So is this contemporary concept of "traditional marriage" based on considering only Adam and Eve?
I'm just wondering if all these people wanting "traditional marriage" and "biblical marriage" are basing their belief that the Bible defines marriage as one man and one woman is because they look at Adam and Eve as the first "marriage" and then don't really look past that in the scriptures.
It is quite obvious they are not really reading their Bibles or they might think about shutting their traps. King Solomon, according to First Kings 11:1-3 had 700 wives and 300 concubines. That's a traditional marriage a lot of cheating, philandering husbands could get behind.
Abraham's wife Sarah instructed him to bear a child with her hand maiden because Sarah seemed infertile. Sounds like adultery to me. Of course the kid and the hand maiden got kicked to the curb as soon as Sarah finally got pregnant. Not a very kind and moral thing to do to your first son and his mother. Gee's Abraham, would you have been so hesitant about sacrificing your son if it were Ishmael rather than Issac on that alter????
And if these "traditionalists" really read their Bibles they'd find that nowhere in the Bible is the definition of marriage as "one man and one woman." Instead there are some rules obviously handed down by God since the Bible is the literal inerrant word of God such as (some paraphrasing here - not direct quotes):
1. Marriage shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Gen 29:17-28; II Sam 3:2-5)
2. Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines, in addition to his wife or wives. (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21)
3. A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed. (Deut 22:13-21)
4. Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30)
5. Since marriage is for life, neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any State, nor any state or federal law, shall be construed to permit divorce. (Deut 22:19; Mark 10
)
6. If a married man dies without children, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's widow or deliberately does not give her children, he shall pay a fine of one shoe, and be otherwise punished in a manner to be determined by law. (Gen. 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10)
7. In lieu of marriage, if there are no acceptable men in your town, it is required that you get your dad drunk and have sex with him (even if he had previously offered you up as a sex toy to men young and old), tag-teaming with any sisters you may have. Of course, this rule applies only if you are female. (Gen 19:31-36)
If you are going to spew nonsense based on one of many religious texts that exist in this world I think you ought to at least read what that text says about the crap you are spewing. Not just repeat what everyone else is saying without going to the source.
How Much You Want to Bet Most of Their Crap is Made in China/Overseas?
I bet the t-shirts are cheap quality sweat-shop crap. I clicked on one of the anti-Obama t-shirts. The description had in it "Made in USA/imported." As in "we'd like for you to think we had this made in the USA but it's really imported. Please don't read past those first three words."
Profile Information
Name: DaveGender: Male
Hometown: Gallatin, TN
Home country: USA
Current location: Portland, OR
Member since: Mon Nov 6, 2006, 03:59 PM
Number of posts: 5,756
