Republicans & stuff

There is a great conspiracy in the USA, and it isn't terrorist organizations, and it isn't some rabid militia nutbars hoarding canned fruit in some bomb shelter. The conspiracy is for a New World Order, imposed by a select group of men in Washington, who came to power through devious means, using bait & switch politics to disguise their true agenda.

The fact is, my friends, that the United States is being dumbed down to a point where we will all be lemmings, willing to follow blindly without question every bit of pablum they want to feed us. Just look at what the television choices are: competitions designed to showcase the mean side of people so they can get ahead and "Survive"; or just mindless drool that can in no way offend anyone (except those of us with an ounce of self-respect or intelligence). Lifestyle programming is sweeping the airwaves, but who's lifestyle are they promoting? Does anyone else remember when MTV used to play videos?

I guess it is most evident when looking at radio, TV's poorer brother, to see what kind of chilling effect is being put into place. I want to mention Howard Stern, here, but I do not want to come off like some fanboy who's life revolves around that 3 hours in the morning. I would rather like to think of it as someone who admires Stern for what he has accomplished in his career, not only becoming the most listened to person on radio (and that is nationally, folks), but also for bringing the public's attention back to a dying industry. Radio was on the way out in the 1980's, everyone with tape decks in their cars, and the brand spanking new device, the CD player. Stern revitalized that industry one offended listener at a time. His shtick hasn't changed in 20 years, and the world never came to an end.

Then the nipple fell.

And it was the Superbowl.

The crys went out. Offensive. Disgusting. Distasteful. Enough crys to make the conservative right wing declare a clampdown on indecency. And who was the first target? Someone who had been bugging them for years who they couldn't touch without looking like it was a takeover. Howard Stern. Does anyone remember what happened to Janet Jackson after the Superbowl? I don't either.

See - Bait & Switch.

Now hold on to something...this could get a little bumpy.

Enron, a world leader in energy production and distribution, goes tits up after losing ALL the employee pension fund, despite ties to the Republican party.

Some religious extremists flew some planes into our buildings. The action was claimed by Osama Bin Laden and a terrorist group known as Al-Queda.

The US invades Afganistan to find Bin Laden. Can't find him, so they overthrow the reliegous extremist Taliban government. A good military decision, and one the world needed.

But what about the President's ties to Enron CEO Ken Lay?

Bait & Switch.

Soldiers are dying in a foreign land that they were sent there to liberate from a madman with a nuclear arsenal comparable to the mid 70's USSR. But there were no weapons of mass destruction. Nor any links to Al-Queda.

But don't let them there faggots git married.

Bait and Switch Politics at work again.

Now, this is not a tirade against the Republican party, I mean I treat Air America the same way I treat Rush Limbaugh, I don't listen. Rather, this is a call to arms against our own flavor of religious extremists. Don't think we are living in a theocracy? Think again.

Terry Shivo was a wonderful example. This poor woman who was completely brain dead was being kept "alive" by a feeding tube inserted down her throat pumping strained peas into her stomach. And the religious right marshaled their zealots to try to stop her husband, life partner, married both by the law and in the eyes of God, from removing the tube and allowing the vessel that once housed Terry to end. The zealots marched on Washington, proclaiming "Culture of Life", a term quickly adopted by the government (I mean, who can argue against someone who's slogan is about preserving life?) This poor tortured man who has watched as his beloved slipped away was called a murderer, like he hadn't suffered enough. The courts got involved. And when the verdict came down that what the husband wanted was more important than what the zealots wanted, the zealots freaked.

Politicians started to denounce the legal system. They actually went so far as to threaten judges who don't see the world as clearly as they do. And they got away with it. They encourage violence against the branch of government that checks their balance, and no one lifts a damn finger. I was shocked at the statements by those Texan jerk-offs, but I was offended that Britney getting knocked up was the top story the next day.

And why did they fight so hard for this "Culture of Life" nonsense? So that their arguments against abortion might be taken seriously, of course. Never mind the school shootings, kids killing kids. Nevermind that someone dies violently in the United States every few seconds. This is a Culture of Life.

This is not a tirade against the Republican party. Or maybe it is. The Republicans have been hijacked by religious extremists with more in common with the Taliban than with the founding fathers. The Republicans I remember growing up with always had an enemy to focus their hatred on - the Soviet Union was a convenient fall guy. The Cold War was a great distraction for them, and when it ended, it seemed that the Republican party was lost, without direction. If there was any time better for the religious zealots to take over, I can't think of one.

Religious extremists scare the living shit out of me, because I know what they are capable of. The Middle East is not the only example the world has ever seen. Has anyone else seen the pictures from 1944 and 45, when the concentration camps were liberated? That was religious extremism at it's worst. Or we can look at brother killing brother in Ireland.

Religion is the cheap, dirty way to garner favor and blind trust in a population. If you don't think like I do, you don't think like God, you are un-Christian, or un-Muslim, or un-Catholic, or whatever your chosen faith. And no one wants to be excluded from their divine reward, so rational thought goes out the window, to be replaced by the party line