Like Wonkette, Rosebud can never read or hear too much about the Drunken Bush Twins. Watch here for future updates, which will be based on... the Bush Twins getting drunk in public and acting like White Trash.
Harold Meyerson has a wonderful column in today's Washington Post on the 2008 GOP presidential primaries and how far candidates will go to get the votes of the "faith-based community." At some point, I suppose that 2008 GOP presidential candidates will support the burning of witches at the stake--as long as it's done by "God's Armies of Compassion."
So let the first presidential primary of the Dark Ages begin! I want to know if George Allen believes in the Rapture, and whether he thinks such likely primary rivals as Rudy Giuliani will be left behind. I want to know if that well-known dinosaurphile, Newt Gingrich, is dangerously geologistic, if he really believes that the big lizards have been extinct for millions of years. I'm waiting for Bill Frist to deny, if pressed by an indignant Iowan, that blood circulates. And I wonder if John McCain believes Rick Santorum is descended from apes. And if yes, how far? Read entire column
Perhaps the silver lining from the Hurricane Katrina disaster will be the recognition by more Americans that environmental degradation is a mortal threat to us -- our society, our lives, and yes, our economy. Fortunately, the media has been running quite a few stories on how the flooding in Louisiana after Katrina was worse because of the destroyed wetlands.
And maybe, just maybe, the Americans (including El Presidente) that never want to do anything to protect the environment because it's "too 'spensive for bidness' will finally realize something: Environmental degradation is bad for business, too.
Yes, these passages from The Independent in Britain sound like ignoring the environment is truly bad for business:
What has happened in recent decades has made matters worse. Not just in New Orleans but all along the Gulf Coast, human encroachment has accelerated without pause. This has meant taming natural water flows - including the gradual straightening of the Mississippi itself - and draining wetlands.
Among those lamenting past mistakes is John Barry, the author of Rising Tide, a book about the Mississippi flood of 1927. "People have said for a long time that we can't continue to do the things we're doing, but the reality is that we don't take natural disasters seriously until they happen," he said.
Anyone ready to talk about global warming? The German Environment Minister sees a link. Maybe our government will agree with the rest of world? Perhaps after a few more disasters?
Pray for those trapped people in the Superdome. Pray for the people who are homeless and displaced. Finally, pray for this wonderful city. Get well soon, New Orleans.
You're going to get what you deserve for the next 3-1/2 years. The problem is, so am I.
Oh, I notice that Bush's White House Web site bio does not mention his drunken driving problems. Not that I think we should still be talking about it or anything.
From August 30 Washington Post:
Washington Post-ABC News Poll
Bush's Numbers at All-Time Low
Spiraling gas prices and continuing bloodshed in Iraq continue to take their toll.
– Richard Morin and Dan Balz • Photo Gallery: Standoff Continues in Crawford
Yes, this is a silly post. But, we need the humor. This comes from a Chicago correspondent, CC.
GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. (Aug. 29) - A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" and insured for $1 million is missing from a Grand Rapids museum.
Police Chief Leigh Serfling said the slippers were stolen late Saturday or early Sunday. Someone entered the museum through a window and broke into the small display case holding the slippers.
"There's not a whole lot of evidence," Serfling said. "We're hoping that someone in the community has seen something."
Children's Discovery Museum director John Kelsch said the slippers belong to a Los Angeles man who loaned them to the museum for several weeks this summer.
The children's museum houses the Judy Garland museum, which displayed the same pair of slippers last year. Garland was born in Grand Rapids in 1922.
"The slippers are a major attraction at our museum," Kelsch said in a news release Monday. "It is our hope that the slippers can be recovered immediately."
Four pairs of ruby slippers worn by Garland in the movie are known to exist, including one pair on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Another pair sold at Christie's auction house in 2000 for $666,000.
Surely I am not the only person who was horrified at the images of the thousands of New Orleans residents who huddled inside the Super Dome to escape Hurricane Katrina. It's horrible that anyone falls victim to such a natural disaster. But these people were there for one reason: they were poor and could not afford to flee the hurricane. As the forecasters were predicting a Category 5 hurricane -- and 25 to 30 feet of water, I could only think, "My God, those poor people are going to drown in there. And all because they are poor." Where is the outrage? By the way, want to bet that MANY of them have relatives and friends fighting in Iraq? (Photos: Top, Associated Press; bottom, The Washington Post.)
Showtime's new weekly series, "Weeds," is full of wonderful irony and dark humor. Mary-Louise Parker plays "Nancy" a 40-ish mom of two soons who is recenlty widowed. They live in an upper middle class subdividion in southern California. Nancy begins to sell pot in order to keep the house, the housekeeper and the Land Rover. Kevin Nealon plays Nancy's ditzy CPA who teaches her to launder her ill-gotten profits (he's also a city council member). The cast also includes Elizabeth Perkins as a "perfect" neighbor who is addicted to laxatives and has trouble keeping her snout out of the bottle. I predict this one is a keeper.
This is the best news I have heard all day. According to the Los Angeles Times, a bizarro right-wing group called Christian Exodus -- even a dean at Bob Jones University thinks they are crazy -- wants to move its followers to South Carolina with the ultimate goal being to take over the state and secede. I say, "Go for it." Now, if we can only get about a dozen other states to join them...
From The Christian Exodus Web site landing page:
ChristianExodus.org is coordinating the move of thousands of Christians to South Carolina for the express purpose of re-establishing Godly, constitutional government. It is evident that the U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christians to withdraw our consent from the current federal government and re-introduce the Christian principles once so predominant in America to a sovereign State like South Carolina.
Christians have actively tried to return the United States to their moral foundations for more than 30 years. We now have a "Christian" president, a "Christian" attorney general, and a Republican Congress and Supreme Court. Yet consider this:
- Abortion continues against the wishes of many States
- Sodomite marriage is now legal in Massachusetts (and coming soon to a neighborhood near you)
- Children who pray in public schools are subject to prosecution 1
- Our schools continue to teach the discredited theory of Darwinian evolution
- The Bible is still not welcome in schools except under unconstitutional FEDERAL guidelines
- The 10 Commandments remain banned from public display
- Sodomy is now legal AND celebrated as "diversity" rather than condemned as perversion
- Preaching Christianity will soon be outlawed as "hate speech" 1 2
Attempts at reform have proven futile. Future elections will not stop the above atrocities, but rather will exacerbate them and lead us down an even more deadly path.
Well, there you have it!
I would be able to laugh harder if this did not ring so true in my ears. By the way, whatever happened to "The Ownership Society"?
I sent the following letter to New York Times columnist David Brooks after his recent column on what he trumpeted as the rebound of virtuous behavior in America. His column follows this post. Mr. Brooks has not replied.
To: Mr. David Brooks
I always read your columns as I find you to be thoughtful and rational. (Never mind that I have found you to be somewhat of an apologist as of late for the antics of the Bush Administration and the far right wing of the Republican Party.) Oh, yes, I became hooked on your columns after reading Bobos in Paradise.
Your recent column, “The Virtues of Virtue” was well written and contained much good news. However, I have one question: Am I virtuous? Alternatively, am I a plague on America, our society, and our citizens? I am a 46-year-old gay man. I live with my partner of two years, and our 12-year-old dog (I adopted here from a shelter – no one else wanted her). Without boring you with too many details, I will tell you this about our lives:
- We both work and pay a great deal of taxes. A typical day is one where we get up at 6:00 a.m. and are asleep around 11:00 p.m. We will both be getting additional education/training this fall; I am in corporate communications and my partner is a photographer. The global economy waits for no one, you know—not even gay people.
- We volunteer for an immigrant assistance organization (my partner is a legal Latino immigrant) where we teach American history and government. Our students are all preparing to take the citizenship exam. We extol in them the virtues of assimilation, the English language, and education.
- We both consider ourselves centrist to liberal Democrats. (Is our political affiliation an automatic disqualifier that prevents us from being virtuous?)
- We help look after our neighborhood, including an elderly neighbor. We sweep the sidewalk, pick up trash, and plant flowers. We sometimes baby-sit for two couples who have small children.
We do not attend church, but we both believe in a higher power. In addition, we sometimes pray, and there is a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in the living room. (You can take the boy out of Latin American, but never completely take Latin America out of the boy.)
We put up with a great deal of hatemongering in our society from political and “religious” leaders, yet we do nothing hateful in return.
So, Mr. Brooks, am I virtuous? Is my partner virtuous? Are we a virtuous household?
If you believe that we are virtuous citizens, then I believe that you—as a rational, tolerant Republican/conservative—have a duty to help stop the bigotry and demagoguery toward gay people that is so much in vogue from so-called social conservatives. If you will not do it for the millions of virtuous gay Americans, perhaps you will do it for yourself. I believe that some day you will look back in shame that you did nothing to stop the hatred and intolerance in our country.
Please forgive the slightly sarcastic tone of my letter. You see, I—and many other gay people—are feeling a bit beaten up these days. We keep waiting for people such as yourself to tell your political friends, “enough.” In the meantime, we are fending for ourselves. In addition to leading virtuous lives, this one additional task of fighting for our rights and our dignity is proving to be tiring.
Finally, you will note that this is a confidential note. You see, I fear that I could be fired from my job if my company were to read this note as a letter to the editor.
EDITORIAL DESK
The Virtues Of Virtue By DAVID BROOKS (NYT) 778 words
Published: August 7, 2005
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of family violence in this country has dropped by more than half since 1993. I've been trying to figure out why.
A lot of the credit has to go to the people who have been quietly working in this field: to social workers who provide victims with counseling and support; to women's crisis centers, which help women trapped in violent relationships find other places to live; to police forces and prosecutors, who are arresting more spouse-beaters and putting them away. The Violence Against Women Act, which was passed in 1994, must have also played a role, focusing federal money and attention.
But all of these efforts are part of a larger story. The decline in family violence is part of a whole web of positive, mutually reinforcing social trends. To put it in old-fashioned terms, America is becoming more virtuous. Americans today hurt each other less than they did 13 years ago. They are more likely to resist selfish and shortsighted impulses. They are leading more responsible, more organized lives. A result is an improvement in social order across a range of behaviors.
The decline in domestic violence is of a piece with the decline in violent crime over all. Violent crime over all is down by 55 percent since 1993 and violence by teenagers has dropped an astonishing 71 percent, according to the Department of Justice.
The number of drunken driving fatalities has declined by 38 percent since 1982, according to the Department of Transportation, even though the number of vehicle miles traveled is up 81 percent. The total consumption of hard liquor by Americans over that time has declined by over 30 percent.
Teenage pregnancy has declined by 28 percent since its peak in 1990. Teenage births are down significantly and, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the number of abortions performed in the country has also been declining since the early 1990's.
Fewer children are living in poverty, even allowing for an uptick during the last recession. There's even evidence that divorce rates are declining, albeit at a much more gradual pace. People with college degrees are seeing a sharp decline in divorce, especially if they were born after 1955.
I could go on. Teenage suicide is down. Elementary school test scores are rising (a sign than more kids are living in homes conducive to learning). Teenagers are losing their virginity later in life and having fewer sex partners. In short, many of the indicators of social breakdown, which shot upward in the late 1960's and 1970's, and which plateaued at high levels in the 1980's, have been declining since the early 1990's.
I always thought it would be dramatic to live through a moral revival. Great leaders would emerge. There would be important books, speeches, marches and crusades. We're in the middle of a moral revival now, and there has been very little of that. This revival has been a bottom-up, prosaic, un-self-conscious one, led by normal parents, normal neighbors and normal community activists.
The first thing that has happened is that people have stopped believing in stupid ideas: that the traditional family is obsolete, that drugs are liberating, that it is every adolescent's social duty to be a rebel.
The second thing that has happened is that many Americans have become better parents. Time diary studies reveal that parents now spend more time actively engaged with kids, even though both parents are more likely to work outside the home.
Third, many people in the younger generation, under age 30 or so, are reacting against the culture of divorce. They are trying to lead lives that are more stable than the ones their parents led. Post-boomers behave better than the baby boomers did.
Fourth, over the past few decades, neighborhood and charitable groups have emerged to help people lead more organized lives, even in the absence of cohesive families.
Obviously, we're not living in a utopia, where all social problems have been solved. But these improvements across a whole range of behaviors are too significant to be dismissed. We in the media play up the negative, as we always do. The activist groups emphasize the work still to be done, because they want to keep people mobilized and financing their work.
But the good news is out there. You want to know what a society looks like when it is in the middle of moral self-repair? Look around.