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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Peter Maranci" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:03 am
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Politics
Okay. Per request, I will never make an unfiltered political post here again. I'll also go back and filter some of the more recent unfiltered political posts.
I'll post an announcement now and again about the existence of the political filter, however, if that's all right.
PS - what about humorous posts that relate to politics, like http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/701080.html and http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/700852.html ? Should I filter those as well?
PPS - Okay, I've filtered about ten recent posts. My apologies to the few who had commented on them, but who aren't on the politics filter; sometimes there are no good choices, I guess.
There are still some humorous political posts left. I can remove them if anyone wants me to; let me know. I'll filter any future posts of that sort. This means that for those not on that filter, I'll be posting much less often.
Current Mood:  tired
Tags: politics
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03:25 pm
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Cars
Someone asked an anti-Obama question about the government owning GM (which is SOCIALISM!!!). I didn't feel like getting into it, so I was brief:
Don't know. Don't care. If you're stupid enough to buy a GM car, you deserve whatever breakdowns you get.
She responded that I didn't seem to like GM, so I gave her a bit that I made up long ago:
In Japan, if a worker makes a bad car, he must ritually disembowel himself in order to extirpate the shame that he has brought upon his family. If an auto executive's company brings out a bad car, he does the same thing on national TV, so that all may see his disgrace.
In America, if a worker makes a bad car, he scratches his @ss and goes for a beer. If an executive is responsible for a bad car, he raises the price, runs more ads prominently featuring the American flag, and applies for a government bailout - which he gets. Then he turns around and uses some of that money to lobby the government to eliminate or delay safety features and fuel efficiency improvements (see Iacocca, Lee), thereby killing thousands of Americans, ruining the environment, and increasing our dependency on brutal Middle Eastern despots.
What's not to love?
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: Too Much Joy - Long Haired Guys From England
Tags: askville, cars, economy, humor, politics
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09:17 am
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The Boy Death Squad Scouts of America
I just wrote this as a comment further down, but it's worth posting by itself.
This morning there was a story in the New York Times; the Explorers (who are part of the BSA) have been training thousands of children aged 13 & 1/2 and up as paramilitary death squads!
Technically they're to be border patrol or "law enforcement" teams, but they train with guns and...well, take a look at the article. The photo is a bunch of kids dressed as a goddamned death squad!
Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More (link fixed)
Current Mood:  angry
Current Music: Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes
Tags: links, politics
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09:09 am
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The Senate and usury
The Senate just voted down an attempt to cap credit card interest rates at 15%. Their own bill does not cap interest rates at all.
Here's a link to the actual roll call (it's in message #2). One of my Senators, Jack Reed, voted to uphold the interest rate cap; the other, Sheldon Whitehouse, did not vote.
How did your Senators vote?
Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Hall & Oates - Adult Education
Tags: politics
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12:18 pm
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Political irony
According to multiple sources (including the NYT and CNN) Senator Arlen Specter is switching parties and becoming a Democrat. If Al Franken ever gets seated, that means the Dems have, in theory, a filibuster-proof majority.
Two observations:
1. Enough of those 60 seats are Blue Dogs and conservative Dems, who have already shown that they'll be quite ruthless in blocking anything progressive. And it's not as if the vast majority of Dems and Obama himself are progressive in any case; they're not. Anyone who expects there to be a meaningful change in Washington is deluding themselves.
2. I find it ironic that the Dems have in theory gotten so close to absolute power less than a week after I stopped being a Democrat...after a lifetime of supporting them. So it goes.
Current Mood: bitter
Tags: politics
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03:36 pm
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Politics
Okay. I'm going back to putting future political posts (including most posts about the Genocide) under my Politics filter. If you didn't see a post on the subject in the last ten minutes, you're not on that filter. If you're at all inclined to tell me that I'm full of shit, politically, please don't bother asking to be included.
Current Mood: angry
Tags: armenian, genocide, politics
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11:06 am
[Link] | Given Obama's flat-out lie about recognizing the Genocide, of course he's lost my vote forever. I'll support anyone who runs against him in the next Presidential primaries, and when he gets the nomination (as of course he will) I'll vote for a third party candidate before I vote for him. If no third party candidate is available, I'll consider voting for the Republican candidate...and if s/he's not acceptable (which is likely) I'll write in someone instead. But I will never vote for or support Obama in any way ever again.
Of course he doesn't give a shit, because he clearly calculated that he could do without my support when he broke his word on torture, wiretapping, and the Genocide. Still, I have to make my gesture.
But what else to do? Here's are some other options that I'm considering:
1. Disenrolling from the Democratic Party and becoming an independent.
2. Voting by default for ANY third-party candidate in preference to a Democrat or Republican.
3. Hell, I should probably just join the Greens and never vote for a Democrat again. They've screwed me and lied about a million times over, and I really have no excuse for supporting them any more.
A few people begged me to vote for Obama in the general election last year; they urged me to have hope. I gave him and the Democrats the benefit of the doubt, and they royally abused it. So please don't bother to tell me that I'm throwing my vote away, or that I'm supporting the Republicans by not supporting the Democrats: fuck that. The system is beyond salvation, and I am not a Democrat any more. The only reason I can see to stay enrolled as a Dem is to try to screw up their primaries.
Current Mood: angry
Tags: politics
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09:57 pm
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Obama and the Genocide
April 24th was the 94th anniversary of the date on which the Armenian Genocide began...the genocide that killed one and a half million Armenians, including many of my relatives and ancestors.
Candidate Obama, January 19 2008:
"I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." (emphasis added)
President Obama, April 24 2009:
A lot of bullshit. Of course he broke his promise, the lying piece of shit. He thinks he's so fucking smart he can dazzle everyone with a lot of elegant bullshit language, but when you come down to it, this is what it comes to: the bastard stands with the genocide deniers. He has less moral fiber than a cockroach.
Fuck him and his whole fucking party.
Current Mood: angry
Tags: politics
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10:54 pm
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The Washington Post: Protect Torturers!
The WaPo editorial board feels that torturers shouldn't be prosecuted - American torturers, that is. Because they were acting from the noblest of motives.
My comment:
Wow, I want to be a torturer! Because if I was, the whole Washington establishment and media hacks like Fred Hiatt and the WaPo editorial board would be falling ALL OVER themselves to praise and protect me!
Instead I have the misfortune to be a regular working-class American. So all I get is ignored by the wise men like Fred who tell us all that torture is really okay, in a noble cause.
Clearly, my parents led me astray when I was young. If only I'd known...I could have been a torturer!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Kate Bush - Jig of Life
Tags: humor, politics, washington post
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10:31 pm
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Holy multifarious teabagging ironies!
I've been working up a list of all the ways in which the teabagger parties are incredibly ironic.
1. The vast majority of the attendees surely make less than $250,000.00 per year, so they are effectively protesting having their taxes cut - although they almost certainly don't realize that.
2. This despite the fact that their putative primary motivation is anti-tax.
3. These same people sat silent, dumb, and happy for eight years as George W. Bush and his cronies destroyed the economy and gutted the American working class - i.e., themselves.
4. They voted for and supported George W. Bush, but are now blaming HIS mess (which is, by extension, also THEIR fault) on the new Administration - the very people that are desperately trying to fix the situation.
5. The actual sponsors of the "protests" are the very same Republican leaders responsible for the massive deregulation - effectively putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse - that caused the current financial meltdown.
6. All of those sponsors make well over $250,000.00 per year, so the poor and middle-class people at these teabagger parties are actually protesting (without realizing it) to raise their own taxes and LOWER the taxes of the incredibly wealthy Republicans who are sponsoring the events.
7. All of the FOX News personalities who have promoted these rallies in person and on the air make more than $250,000.00, so they too have an obvious conflict of interest - or, at the least, contemptibly greedy motives.
8. Pretty much everyone involved with these protests either actively proclaimed or passively agreed that criticism of the President was equivalent to disloyalty or even treason - during the Bush years, that is. Now, however, they have suddenly rediscovered that dissent is patriotic. What a coincidence!
9. The protesters and Republican backers of the protests now piously proclaim the sacredness of the people's right to assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances. This from the party that created barbed-wire-enclosed "Free Speech Zones" far out of the President's sight, during those miraculously-forgotten Bush years.
10. The irony of the supposed party of family values and superior morality unknowingly naming their protests after a notorious sexual act is, of course, quite obvious.
I'm sure that there are many more ironies, but this is what I've come up with so far. Please feel free to add anything I've missed!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams
Tags: humor, politics
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11:21 pm
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Painful Irony
Some right-wing idiot over on Askville was just whining about the "right of assembly" in reference to the teabagging parties today. My response:
Damn! My irony meter just pinned itself three times over. I'll be sending you a bill, Pales.
"Freedom of assembly" from a supporter of the party that invented "Free Speech Zones"....jeeze, there goes another irony meter!
Actually, it makes my mind reel to think of all the ways in which these teabagging parties are incredibly ironic...I'll have to think and write more about this soon.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: amused
Tags: askville, humor, politics
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10:49 pm
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A comment unlikely to be approved
I just read an interesting article over on the New York Times about A.I.G. It explains what happened quite well...but I wanted to express it in slightly more graphic terms.
Propping Up a House of Cards
Let me see if I've got this right. In simple (and earthy) terms, A.I.G. used its golden reputation - its rating - to gild turds for other entities. Those entities then traded those turds back and forth as if they were solid gold. And in the end, somehow A.I.G. was stupid enough to buy many of those turds itself!
But it's we, the American taxpayers, who are now left to clean out the sewer. Meanwhile, AIG management and most of the rest of the financial community, the self-professed "elite" who raked in billions or trillions over the past 30-odd years, won't even deign to apologize to the American people.
And why, exactly, are we NOT hanging these people (and the politicians and regulators who were supposed to exercise oversight) from lampposts?
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks - Whenever I Call You "Friend"
Tags: economy, politics
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12:47 pm
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Intelligent Design
Here's a link to a fascinating episode of NOVA about the intelligent design trial in Dover, PA.
Current Mood:  okay
Tags: atheism, links, politics, religion, tv
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09:13 am
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A Political Decision
Since the tone of politics seems to be changing in the USA, and since my political posts are likely to become less popular (or more annoying; your pick) under the new regime, most or quite possibly all of my political posts going forward will be made under my Politics filter. It seems a bit strange that I am feeling forced to climb inside a virtual bunker under these circumstances, but I can't deny the reality of what is going on; dissent is clearly going to be far less "acceptable" from now on. I don't want to have to worry about being flamed or having flist issues every time I make a political post, so I'm going under the filter.
This will eliminate my future political posts from search engines and the public view. Yes, this bothers me. No, I don't see a practical alternative.
If you want to be on the Politics filter, let me know. Unlike most of my other filters, however, I will not be automatically adding anyone who asks to be on it. Sorry, but if I feel that I'll have to worry about pissing you off, that would defeat the purpose of the filter in the first place.
Twelve or thirteen people are currently on that filter, by the way. I'll probably do a post on it later today; if you see it, you're in the filter.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  uncomfortable
Tags: administration, flist, friends, livejournal, lj, politics
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10:23 am
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Obama gives Bush/Cheney free pass
According to the New York Times today, Obama is not going to be investigating or prosecuting the crimes of the Bush Administration - despite what he said on the campaign trail. I am shocked, shocked.
Even so, I had to make a comment:
He hasn't even been SWORN IN yet, and he has already betrayed his oath of office (to uphold the Constitution, if anyone remembers). Can we impeach him before he gets sworn in, too?
Why would he and the Democratic leadership want to help cover up the crimes of the Bush Administration? I have the sneaking suspicion that it's because they plan to commit the same sort of abuses too - wholesale warrantless spying on Americans, the abolition of habeas corpus, and torture.
The American Dream continues to turn into a nightmare. This is NOT the change I hoped for.
Current Mood: angry
Tags: politics
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09:48 am
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The abortion-go-round
Once again I've been drawn into a debate on abortion over on Askville.
( Read more... )
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Moody Blues - Your Wildest Dreams
Tags: askville, politics
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08:09 pm
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Politics filter
Just a reminder that there is a politics filter in use here. Only eight people are on it at the moment. If you want to be on it, let me know...but be warned, it's where I post things that might offend.
Current Location: Home
Tags: politics
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09:34 pm
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Hooray for dead students?
Someone posted a question over on Askville referring to a FOX News story which apparently urged that American students be armed in order to be able to resist attacks by random gun-welding maniacs.
I started by commenting:
Do you think that right-wingers are terribly insecure? They seem to need a lot of reassurance about the validity of their world-view.
The asker (a fairly active right-winger on Askville, I've dealt with him before) sent me a "compliment" asking whether students should just passively wait to be shot. Here's a copy of my reply:
Subject: Hooray for dead students?
Oh yes, by all means; schoolchildren should wait passively to be killed by maniacs. Better yet, they should chant "We hate America" in unison and burn flags while politely waiting to be shot. That's the answer you're looking for, isn't it? From fatheaded bleeding-heart idiot liberals like me? Of course we liberals hate America, so the only answer you'll accept is that I would just LOVE to have schoolchildren killed by lunatics, rather than arm them.
But that's a ridiculous and stupid choice, and it has nothing to do with reality. So I reject it.
Did you ever actually GO to school? I did, and I can say with certainty that if schoolchildren are armed, there will be a lot more shootings and deaths than there are now. I can think of a few bullies that I wouldn't have minded shooting myself, back in the heat of the moment. One of them even ended up shooting himself; if he'd had a gun at school, what are the odds that he'd have decided to take some of his victims with him? Pretty good, I'd say!
Schoolchildren are children. Their brains have not finished developing - the brain doesn't reach full maturity until the mid-to-late-20s - and they are subject to all sorts of emotional swings. Particularly the ones who are going through puberty. Anyone who seriously suggests giving students guns must be stuck in adolescence themselves, I'd say. It's up to adults to take care of children, preferably adults who are trained in defense techniques.
It's ironic that so-called "conservatives" usually try to cut police and school funding, including funding for child safety. But at this point blind hypocrisy from Republicans is the norm, not the exception.
School and workplace shootings are usually the work of the insane. They're also pretty rare events, fortunately. No perfect solution is possible, but putting guns in the hands of students is probably the worst possible option.
When someone goes crazy in a school, students, adults, and the police all need to do whatever they can to stay alive and to keep their fellow students and teachers alive. Personally, I think running (serpentine) and staying low would be a damned good idea; that's what I'd do. Having armed police assigned to schools would probably be a good idea. They're the professionals, after all; the ones who are trained to deal with this sort of situation.
I find it sickening that some try to capitalize on this sort of tragedy to push their political agendas.
I also have to wonder why so many right-wingers - conservatives, neo-cons, Republicans, call them what you wish - seem to have an overwhelming need to believe that those on the left side of the political spectrum are morally degenerate, hopelessly confused, dim-witted, soft-headed, anti-American and intellectually bankrupt. Do you really need to believe that liberals want our schoolchildren lying dead on their classroom floors? Does that somehow validate your apparently paranoid world-view?
Would it kill you to consider the possibility that you might not have all the answers? That liberals have, historically, often been right about the issues? And that most left-wingers - who make up a substantial part of the population, by the way - are actually decent people who love their nation and their families?
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: awake
Tags: askville, politics
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06:19 pm
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Airport Security
The following comment just burst out of me while I was reading a question over on Askville about airport security at Heathrow (in the UK, as I assume everybody knows).
I went through Heathrow about fifteen years ago, so I don't have an up-to-date story to relate. But they did pull me out of line and search me extensively.
Years later, I had an employee who had also had bad experiences at Heathrow. He was a short little red-headed guy from Ireland (I'm a red-head too, but not at all Irish - although everyone who sees me assumes that I'm either Irish or Scottish).
Anyway, he told me that one time he was pulled out of line, taken to a separate room, and strip-searched. They took his clothes and left him alone in the room. After about forty-five minutes, he got tired of waiting and went strolling around the corridors naked, looking for his clothes.
I'm still not sure if I believe him. :D
I did go through Customs as well as airport security in the US last week. I have to say, it's like living under some third-world junta. Some of the Homeland Security people are decent enough, but a surprising number of them are rude, arrogant, and apparently drunk with power.
The rules themselves are ridiculous. My wife had a small tube of hand lotion; it was confiscated, very rudely, because it was an ounce or two over their limit. My son, that so-suspicious seven-year-old terrorist in training, had a sealed bottle of water in his backpack (we'd forgotten about it); confiscated. Yet I was able to bring a large tube of ointment through in my medical bag, despite the fact that it was obviously half-used and did not have my prescription information on it.
Most of these idiotic new precautions do NOTHING to hinder terrorists; all they do is inconvenience innocent travelers, and give a large number of jerks a license to dress up in a Nazi-like black uniform, carry a gun, and threaten people. As I said at the time, it's good to know that we're protected from the terrible hand-lotion menace. It's too bad that the government didn't use one-thousandth as much vigilance in monitoring Wall Street!
Sorry, I seem to have gotten off the point.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  sick
Current Music: The Go-Gos - Vacation
Tags: politics, rant, vacation
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04:07 pm
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Let the chips fall?
A comment I made over on Askville in response to a post someone made about stopping the bailouts and letting the chips fall where they may.
I'm afraid that it's easy to talk of "chips" falling. That way, you don't have to think of them as people. Hard-working people, most of them, many with families...children. Children who, when the "chips" fall, will lose their health care, if they ever had it to begin with. Their homes. A decent education. All the things that any child needs to grow up to be a healthy, happy, productive human being and citizen.
The problem is that when the "chips" fall, it won't be the corrupt millionaire and billionaire executives who suffer. It won't be the crooked politicians who pay the price. No, it will be the ordinary hard-working Americans and their families - for generations to come! - who will pay, and pay, and pay.
No question, the bailouts suck. Taxpayer dollars are being shoveled out by the trillions to the very people who caused the disaster in the first place, by the very politicians who willfully and deliberately closed their eyes while all this was going on. No matter what happens, it's the working class and middle class who will be screwed for it. Because that's how the world works.
I have no happy solution to offer. It would be nice to believe that there are honest people of good conscience in government who might work to serve the people and the nation as a whole, rather than just the wealthy elite that pull the strings. Doesn't sound very likely, though, does it?
But at the least, if millions of ordinary working Americans are going to face years, perhaps decades of fear and poverty...if millions of children's lives will be forever blighted and ruined, for generations to come...please do them the courtesy of remembering that they are human beings, not merely "chips" who somehow deserve to fall.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: blank
Tags: askville, economy, politics
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