Category: American Culture
What would Jesus think?
Never mind what Jesus would think about the Christmas decorations thief. What would he think about yard displays in general?
Ingrid Alemendarez had decorated her yard up in grand style. She had hundreds of dollars worth of decorations set up in her yard and, luckily, also had surveillance cameras set up.
On Tuesday, the cameras caught two thieves making off with about $500 worth of the decorations.
“This is what we would consider a grand theft,” a Sweetwater Police detective told WSVN. “[They stole] Mickey Mouse on a horse, some hugging penguins, Snoopy on a dog house, and Santa on a sled.”
Responses to Rick Perry campaign ad
Rick Perry’s bizarre “I am an anti-gay Christian” campaign ad has drawn quite a few parodies that have been gathered at Huffpo. And here’s yet another:
The case for less-is-more democracy
I have long been fascinated by the herd instinct of human animals. What could be more obvious than the fact that we mimic each other for all kinds of reasons, even for reasons that seem absurd to outsiders. Further, we follow each others’ lead even while we chant that we are “individuals.”
In reality, many of us panic at the idea that differences among the citizens. How dare some citizens question even some of America’s war efforts! That is “unpatriotic.” How dare some Americans encourage multi-culturalism! Gay marriage? Forget it. And don’t ever forget that the United States is the world’s greatest country—let us all say that in unison! For many of us, everybody has a categorical moral duty to fall in line on all matters relating to God and country.
Perhaps I find the topic of the human herding so compelling because of my own personal instinct to aversion to joining groups. For reasons I don’t understand, I instinctively rebel against many efforts to convince me to go along with “everybody else.” I’ve been this way ever since I can remember. Going along with the crowd is not something that gives me joy and comfort. Rather, it makes me feel wary and out of control. If people at my workplace were to announce that next Wednesday will be “Blue Shirt Day,” I’ll go out of my way to not wear blue. I perplex those who root for the home town sports teams and I don’t join political parties. I commonly hesitate to join in most displays of patriotism, including America’s warmongering. This is not to say I’m immune to such impulses, but it is fair to say that where many other Americans revel in community bonding, I tend to fight inner battles while questioning the need. Instead of joining in, I tend to question.
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Underlying assumptions of popular board games
Huffpo offers this broad view of what motivates the competition regarding some of the most popular board games. For example, the game of Monopoly encourages players to become the 1%.
Mark your calendars for the Anti-Fourth-of-July
Mark your calendars for The Fourth-of-January, the antipode of The Fourth-of-July.
The Fourth-of-January will be a new national date of remembrance. This new occasion will be about the United States of America, but there won’t be any fireworks and it’s not going to be a happy occasion. In fact, as happy as the Fourth-of-July is, the Fourth-of-January will be the diametric opposite. Citizens will somberly recognize the Fourth-of-January by gathering together to watch mock funerals wind through their city centers, where they will mourn the death of democracy. An American flag will be placed prominently on the hearse, serving as a symbol of the deceased.
On the Fourth-of-January, American citizens will actually bury these American Flags to recognize the fact that ordinary citizens of the United States have no meaningful input in how their federal government is run. At the destination of the funeral procession, citizens will carve these words onto the tombs:
Here lies Old Glory, destroyed by Citizens United and by the unwillingness politicians to pass a Constitutional Amendment and enabling laws to remove private money from the American political system.
The Fourth-of-January will be a day when people consciously refrain from reading The United
States Constitution, lest they become deluded that federal politicians are public servants of ordinary citizens. It will be a day when, instead, mourners read proclamations that the existence of vast amounts of money in the political system has made it impossible to meaningfully debate even the simplest of political issues. It will be a day when Americans recognize that big corporate money has turned America’s politicians into psychopaths. It will be a day when Americans remind themselves that their every year their politicians spend more tax dollars to air-condition soldiers’ tents in the Middle East than they allocate for the total budget of NASA, to explore the mysteries of outer space.
The Fourth-of-January will be a date when Americans consider renaming of all of their major holidays based on fact that quest for corporate profits now dominate all celebrations, and that America’s news media celebrates this fact. On the Fourth-of-January, Americans will recognize that, contrary to the will of the People, America has become unstoppably addicted to warmongering, and that it has become a nation that doesn’t treasure safe food, medicine, chemicals, air and water. It has become a nation that allows big banks, fossil fuel companies, telecoms and insurance companies to write national laws that cause massive financial damages to the People. On this new Day of Remembrance, Americans will pause for a moment of silence to recognize the brutalizing and almost unstoppable financial and political power of America’s corporate-military-prison-industrial-Complex.
The Fourth-of-January will recognize that laws passed contrary to the wishes of the majority of citizens have resulted in sub-standard schools, catastrophic national debt, state sponsored torture, spying on citizens, governmental secrecy and abuses inflicted on citizens and journalists who are attempting to exercise their Constitutional rights. On the Fourth-of-January Americans will recognize that their highest court has become deaf to the needs of the People, and that the “rule of law” is rapidly becoming available only to those of significant financial means. The Fourth-of-January is a day when we warn our grade school children that much of what they are reading in their American civics textbooks is stunningly false.
The Fourth-of-January will be celebrated every year unless and until the corrupting force of private money is removed from the American political system.
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[Photo credits: Derivative work funeral photo by Erich Vieth, incorporating flag photo by Tarajane at Dreamstime.com (with permission) and Original funeral photo, which is a public domain work. Corporate flags photo by Erich Vieth, photo taken at the 2011 downtown St. Louis Fourth of July celebration].
A new Declaration for America: to wake up from its delusions
With the help of a DI reader who wishes to remain anonymous, I have created the following Declaration for modern Americans to wake up from their delusions. I’d recommend that all adults and school children put their hands over their hearts in the morning and say the following instead of pledging allegiance to the powers-that-be (but see here for an alternate form of the Pledge).
Terrorist = a Muslim who commits violence
Glenn Greenwald points out that Americans are commonly persuaded and controlled through the use of vague terms. One example is the word “terrorism,” which tends to be applied only where the person committing violence is a Muslim and not when non-Muslims commit comparable acts. A “militant” has come to mean any person who dies when an American weapon explodes. “Class warfare” and “Civil liberties” are other commonly used vague terms that are actually used as “tools for misleading political arguments.”
Another such vague term is “rule of law,” which originally referred to the idea that “we are all equally bound to a common set of rules, regardless of power position, or prestige.” It originally meant that “nobody is above the law or below the law.” Citing the work of Thomas Carruthers, Greenwald noted that the biggest challenge is to prevent elites from living above the rule of law. The founding fathers, who personally “loved inequality,” agreed that a central requirement for the new country is that everyone would comport with the law; without this requirement, they agreed that the country would not be “legitimate and just.”
Greenwald explained that with regard to “rule of law,” things aren’t working out so well in modern day America. The biggest problem is that “we no longer believe in the principle itself.”
With regard to journalists (see below), they now tend to be situated as insiders rather than outsider watchdogs who, in less dysfunctional times, embraced the motto: “Afflict the powerful, comfort the powerless.”
Greenwald has been out and about, promoting his new book, With Liberty and Justice for Some. For many additional videos of his talks, see here.
Woman pregnant with her 20th child
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar are expecting their 20th child. Wikipedia features the family:
The Duggars raise their children using a buddy system, wherein an older sibling is assigned to a younger sibling and assists in their primary care. According to Michelle, “they help them with their little phonics lessons and games during the day and help them practice their music lessons. They will play with them or help them pick out the color of their outfit that day and just all of those types of things.” In 2004, Michelle Duggar won the “Young Mother of the Year Award” in Arkansas, which is sponsored by American Mothers Incorporated.
In the meantime, Global Population Speak Out is asking concerned citizens to sign its pledge:
I pledge to show I care about people and planet by taking part in the global discussion about population growth. I am joining the Population 7 Billion: It’s Time to Talk campaign. With world population set to surpass the 7 billion mark in October 2011, it’s time for a broader public discussion, especially about the importance of family planning and the role that educating girls and empowering women can play in creating a healthier and more sustainable world. As part of my pledge, I will start conversations with others and help spread the word.
Antidote poster for what most ails America
Today, I spotted this poster on Facebook:
The artist is Al Haug, who has published the poster on a Facebook page here. He is not selling the poster, but does indicate that those who post it should attribute this work to Al, and further states:
I can accept gifts to support my artwork thru paypal:
https://personal.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us%2Fsend_money
Use westbankal@gmail.com as account. Send as a “gift” only. But you don’t have to send anything. And don’t be a poophead and try to sell this image- your karma would suffer greatly.
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