March 31, 2009
March 30, 2009
Political Correctness
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end” R. J. Wiedemann LtCol. USMC Ret
“pick up a turd by the clean end” – meaning “talk about an offensive topic in a non-offensive way”
Why would you want to pick up a turd at all? The only reason I can think of is to clean up a mess – usually the one your own dog just made.
The reality of the situation is, “political correctness” is by and large a myth of the radical (and extremely vocal) right. A strawman under whose shadow pundits like Bill O’Reilly can hide all the enemies of that group under one umbrella conspiracy. Feminism, multiculturalism, or just plain trying to avoid offending people – all of it is pejoritavely labelled “political correctness” so they don’t have to explain why they are picking up that turd and waving it around.
Of course there are radicals on the left who would be glad to act as thought police – but the idea that everyone on the left behaves that way is pure hokum, pushed onto us by equally radical blowhards on the right who are trying to convince all white Christian men that they are indeed the true victims of society. Tune in to Fox News tomorrow night. Listen to Rush every day. Buy Ann Coulter’s new book – and maybe you’ll learn how to stand up for yourself against all those scary bogeymen out to emasculate you.
Ask yourself for a moment how “political correctness” has affected your life, outside of giving you something to laugh at. What turd could you not pick up because of it? And why do you want to?
In closing, I’d like to apologize for offending any of my conservative friends. I know it’s not easy when the majority of America rejects decent values and inexorably swings toward the destruction of everything that makes this country great. I’ve lived through a time when I had to keep my favorite bumper stickers off my car, for fear of offending a brick-toting radical. When it was considered treason to criticize the President. When the mainstream media unquestionably embraced dubious political positions. So I pass on this bit of advice, given to me freely and often during those years:
Suck it up, Princess. Get over it.
March 29, 2009
The Tattlesnake – GOP: Road to the Nut House Edition
Conservative Christopublican Michele Bachmann Offends American History By Quoting Liberal Deist Thomas Jefferson
Descending into obscurity, bereft of leadership, and driven to distraction by Obama’s cool, the fading Republican Party has opened yet another can of crackpot and let it pour over the religiously bewitched and acutely ignorant leftovers of nasty Nixonism, regressive Reaganism and bumbling Bushism.
Joining the cranky ranks of Michael Steele, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Mike Pence, John Boehner and all of the other daft neocons needing professional help, the new can in question is boiling-over-the-top-crazy Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who barely won reelection in 2008 over an obscure Tolkien character named, no kidding, Elwyn Tinklenberg. No offense to poor old Elwyn, but Tinklenberg is a politician like Limbaugh is a neurosurgeon.
Bachmann’s fringe-right dementedness is nothing new for her, as the excellent Dump Bachmann blog has archived, just not yet exposed to a national audience. In fact, Michele’s been in the forefront of every extreme Christopublican-corporatist nutcase movement since she was in the MN state legislature. In her Jesuitic devotion to the poor, she vehemently opposed any increase in the minimum wage, saying in January of 2005: “Literally, if we took away the minimum wage … we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would able to offer jobs at whatever level.” (No doubt she did not mean this to include Minnesota Congresswomen, nor any member of their immediate families.)
She has also been a stern Old Testament foe of all things gay, as this quote from a 2004 interview on a Minnesota radio program called “Prophetic Views Behind The News” highlights: “This is a very serious matter [homosexuality], because it is our children who are the prize for this community, they are specifically targeting our children.” (The gay is comin’ ta get ya!)
But just so the reader doesn’t think this might have been a singular anti-gay eruption elicited by one too many cocktails, there are also these tidbits from something called the ‘EdWatch National Education Conference’ in November 2004: “If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.” (As opposed to the bondage, despair and enslavement to corporate kindness caused by the lack of a minimum wage.) At the same venue, she took the hatchet to companies that neglected to contribute to her campaign fund, “They aren’t just kind of gay-friendly, they are gay advocates at Proctor and Gamble… Here’s just a few other companies that support the pro-homosexual agenda. They include Levi-Strauss, American Airlines, Sara Lee Bakery, Jaguar and Land Rover.” (“Sara Lee – Their Delicious Cakes Will Make You Gay!”)
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