SHOVE IT UP THEIR ASSES, BAMAH!!!

[Bizarro]

Duuuuuuuuude... RELAX. The words "You are among friends" have never been more true. We're just debating.

And sincerely, I consider you among the very smartest people I know. I can hardly consider any opinion of mine fully realized unless I have tested it in debate with you.

Relax. We're all good.

[matthew]

To be totally honest, I don't think it is precisely racism that feeds the birthers and the teabaggers.

It's "otherness."

Black. Poly-ethnic background. Child of an immigrant. Child of an atheist. Child of a Muslim. Odd name. Does not speak in the faux regular guy patois preferred by so much of the current electorate. Urban. Highly educated.

There is a pervasive myth in the United States that everything good comes from Middle America. From Christians. Protestants. White people. Names like Smith and Jones. Blue collar people. Rural people. Guys you could have a beer with. Sharp, but not book smart.

And Barack Obama is none of those things.

And I believe it scares the holy shit out of people.

They feel their idea of America slipping away. And they are transferring this fear of otherness onto fear of everything that comes out of Barack Obama's mouth. Why do you think they seize on the Muslim thing? The birth certificate thing? Why do they have to see this health care plan as the US being "turned into another Russia"?

There is a culture war coming in America, between people who hold onto an idealized 1950s ideal of America and those who embrace the 21st century reality of an America swelling with immigrants and different religions (even atheism). An America that is becoming more urban. An America whose workplace is more about your ability to create and process information than the cut of your jib or the sweat on your brow.

America is changing and people are scared shitless. And for all of the talk about how the left makes Barack Obama the unrealistic ideal for their hopes of change for the future, I think it's the right that has seized on him as a symbol. He is their symbol for the oncoming storm that is leaving their idea of America behind.

So is it because he's black? Yes and no.

It's because he is "other."

I agree with everything you said here. This is why I am obsessed with NWO conspiracy theory... the fear surrounding the presidency of Barack Obama is a part of the greater paranoid mysticism that is consuming America.

[matthew]

yeah, I've been a little stressed out recently. Maybe I will take a break for a bit.

[Bizarro]

"Paranoid mysticism"... I like the hell out of that.

I have always felt that a great deal of the conspiracy theory culture springs from the desire of people of limited intellectual means or even just oddly restricted focus to construct an alternate organizing mythology to explain the world around them. A substitute for religion and spirituality, if you will.

And now odd conspiracy theories are creeping into even mainstream political debate.

[bebopbalogna]

Duuuuuuuuude... RELAX. The words "You are among friends" have never been more true. We're just debating.

And sincerely, I consider you among the very smartest people I know. I can hardly consider any opinion of mine fully realized unless I have tested it in debate with you.

Relax. We're all good.

one of the truest posts ever. i think most of us here would completely concur with this.

[Bizarro]

Pat, did you ever check out that Cody Chenutt record?

[Bizarro]

I've linked this before, but it's apt.



My wife saw this asked, "Does this guy know you personally?"

[Jesse]

Re: Cody Chesnutt.

So odd and cool. There's a small section of Sunset Blvd visible from our house called Sunset Junction. Every year, they have a street fair with music. It's next weekend and advance tix were $20 for both days. Cody is playing on Sunday.

[Doctor Rock]

But on the other hand, I don't know if a universal single payer system is politically feasible in the US. 

exactly. but i hope the conservative analysts are right when they charge that this is but a secret plan to gradually lead us there down the road. hopefully the current plan will make that a little easier to swallow for the next generation of voters. there is NO WAY we are close to getting single payer for every american in the next 10-15 years at least.  but we've got to make small advances in the meantime.  that's all i think this current plan represents.  everyone knows that everybody in washington  (regardless of party) is in bed with (whoever has the money.)

This is the excuse that is tendered time and time again, but the fact is there is no political will to do what is right and so it will not occur without pressure.

Obama et al. are merely politicians doing what they can to stay in power in the time being, not hatching long-term goals that will be carried out by future generations of imaginary progressive legislators. This "slow evolution" excuse is pulled out to defend each and every crime perpetrated by Obama, and I am sick to death of it. These people are in bed with big money because they believe in their cause, not because they were merely bought out (that is a myth that should have died eons ago) - Obama is not moving in small steps because he cannot afford to do anything any more radical, but because he has no interest in doing it. Obama isn't secretly wanting to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and dismantle the entire imperial apparatus. No, he is doing what he thinks is best for the American Empire...just like Bush before him. Obama represents a rebranding of a flagging product, not the introduction of a new one.

I'm with Matt on this.  I don't buy the slow evolution bit.  And when I say "I don't think it's politically feasible", I mean that in the sense that your political system is almost entirely controlled by all kinds of economical interests that are usually opposed to this kind of legislation.  Ours is too, but not to the same degree.  

As far as I know, the Canadian single payer system was introduced at the federal level all at once in 1966, with the Medical Care Act.  But they only did it because the province of Saskatchewan already had a single payer universal scheme that was working well, and because the Liberal Party at that time needed the support of the left (the New Democratic Party, which is a social democratic party, held the balance of power in the House of Commons).  

[Doctor Rock]

I've linked this before, but it's apt.



My wife saw this asked, "Does this guy know you personally?"

Didn't I also linked that before?  By the way, I showed that to R____ and she said about the same thing... 

[Moetown]

Hmmm, I wonder whose birthday it's been all day today...

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Roy Berry?

[Bizarro]

Y'all ever seen this?


C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America is a 2004 mockumentary presenting a fictional tongue in cheek account of an alternate history in which the Confederates won the American Civil War. The movie is presented as if it were a British documentary being broadcast on Confederate network television. As such, it disagrees with the orthodox Confederate American interpretation of American history and opens with a (fictional) disclaimer that suggests that censorship came close to preventing the broadcast, that its point of view might not coincide with that of the TV network, and that it might not be suitable for viewing by children and "servants."

It's actually pretty funny and clever.

[Bizarro]

Is it your birthday, Evan? There's nothing on the old Crappity calendar.

[Bizarro]

Re: Cody Chesnutt.

So odd and cool. There's a small section of Sunset Blvd visible from our house called Sunset Junction. Every year, they have a street fair with music. It's next weekend and advance tix were $20 for both days. Cody is playing on Sunday.

I'd love to see that. He's got an entire album worth of stuff he hasn't released yet. He recorded it all live and there were announcements he was going to put it out that way, but it never materialized.