Bill Maher is wrong about religious people when he says they are all either deluded, crazy, intellectually lazy or just plain stupid...
... and I say that as an atheist who thinks religion is responsible for more evil than anything else in human history, that all religions are plain fucking crazy and that most religious people are either deluded, crazy, intellectually lazy or just plain stupid.
Over the past several years I've become convinced that the ways we classify political beliefs and ideologies (or perhaps the very definitions themselves) are in dire need of revamping. For instance...
What's a "conservative?" Used to be there was a standard reply to that query, one that included the paeans to "small government, low taxes, laissez-faire" portraits of the federal government. Nowadays, however, when I think of a "conservative," I think of a bizarre hybrid, a "free trader" crossed with a would-be Puritan, whose ideal federal government micromanages the individual's private affairs, but still uses a hands-off approach in dealing with corporatism...
The same could be said of "Republican" -- is there a shorthand descriptor of a Republican today? Aside from the fact that people like me use it as a one-size-fits-all epithet, I cannot think of anything that remains of the old definitions of Republicanism. Certainly there are, as there have always been, different subsets among the whole -- but if you had to distill its essence, how would you describe a "Republican?"
And how about a "Democrat?" What does a Democrat stand for? Is there a quick sound bite that aptly summarises what it means to be a Democrat? ("Not a Republican" seems to be it, nowadays.) How about a "liberal?"
Here are some of the definitions of "liberal" that I'm happy to claim:
Biden calls paying higher taxes a patriotic act WASHINGTON - Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans. The Republican campaign for president calls the tax increases their Democratic opponents propose "painful" instead of patriotic.
Under the economic plan proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, people earning more than $250,000 a year would pay more in taxes while those earning less - the vast majority of American taxpayers - would receive a tax cut.
"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
To call a spade a bloody shovel means more than speaking plainly; rather, it means saying something that is true but unpalatable -- or impolitic.
During an otherwise stellar appearance on David Letterman's show last night, Barack Obama missed an opportunity to deliver a kidney punch to John McCain. In my view, this missed opportunity vividly exemplifies a weakness in the election style Democrats have used over the past three decades.
(I'm not saying Obama's campaign exemplifies this style; to the contrary, despite a few missteps -- and who among us could do better? I submit that, given the fact that Barack Obama has steamrolled over every obstacle thus far, this man just might know better than anyone how to correct the Democratic Party's mistakes of the past and finally, FINALLY beat these bastards in this rigged game. But I'm making a point here, so... bear with me.)
Letterman asked, and I'm paraphrasing,
"If you'd been able to pick your Vice-Presidential running mate after McCain picked Palin, would you have chosen differently?"
Obama answered -- and again, I'm paraphrasing:
"I chose the person I want in the room with me, giving me wise advice and different points of view..."
Intelligent, cogent and sincere.
But I think he should have phrased it thusly:
"Maybe this is another difference between Senator McCain and me:
I didn't pick my running mate because I thought he would help me WIN; I picked him because I thought he would help me GOVERN."
Stark, simple and true. Did John McCain pick Sarah Palin because he thought she was the best of all possible candidates for the role of Vice-President in a McCain Administration?
The very suggestion is a joke. Nobody could make that suggestion wit a straight face unless he worked for McCain or Fox News. McCain picked Palin to help him win the election.
Just one more in an endless series of proofs that John McCain's campaign slogan of "Country First" is an empty, shallow and insulting lie.
"I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character."
This election marks a potential turning point in American history. The American people will either elect the first black President, following the dictates of logic, self-interest and absolute common sense... or they will elect John McCain and prove that at least a slim majority of the voters in this nation are ignorant fools, religious extremists, blind believers of the partisan propaganda of the right wing, outright racists -- or some horrifying combination of those descriptors.
Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.
Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees.
"Do you believe?" he cried.
Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate.
She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasn't sure.
"What do you think?" she asked Peter.
"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."
Many clapped.
Some didn't.
A few beasts hissed.
The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved.
But Terry was born on December 7th, 1999. He has never NOT KNOWN a time when George W. Bush wasn't President.
And we've been sitting on the couch after Adam gets home from work, watching the DVR playback of the convention highlights... both of us WEEPING LIKE CHILDREN. Holding hands, looking at each other occasionally, realising that we LOST OUR GODDAMNED COUNTRY when they stole that election... and we knew it, we knew we knew it, but we DIDN'T KNOW what we didn't know.
Oh, we railed, we thundered at the television, we shushed each other because the baby was sleeping, then we'd go out to the patio and whisper-shout at the heavens at the INJUSTICE of it all...
But we just DIDN'T REALISE what would happen -- HOW COULD WE???
And we sit on the couch watching this Democratic Convention...
