the new low

what dicks. really? you're looking out for tax payers and saving america's auto industry? because it seems to this mere mortal that you're screwing these people (not necessarily in this order):
1- the taxpayers
2- the people who make america's cars
3- the auto industry in general

first of all, maybe the uaw could have caved. but i really don't want to live in a country where a union can be put over a barrel and sodomized with an open umbrella. and how the uaw can now suddenly just agree to shit without a member vote is way past me. it might just be that, instead, the republicans just don't fucking know how unions work.

but here's why these fucktards are screwing us, them, and the cars. they're screwing the taxpayers because a $14 billion loan is alot fucking better than the billions of dollars we'll have to pay in umemployment, food stamps, and medicaid. remember- it's not just the autoworkers. it's everyone who sells the autoworkers shit. it's their grocery stores, their hardware stores, their mortgage institutions, everyfuckingbody. that's alot more unemployed people at a time when anyone with working neurons in the u.s. government wants to desperately keep the jobs that george bush hasn't yet flushed down a toilet with his blow.

the human scumbuckets are also screwing the autoworkers. i love how these anti-centralized economy dickwads are now setting wage caps. call me crazy, but we haven't done that for private sector employees since nixon's price setting. these southern dixies have decided that this is truly the best moment to make belonging to a union useless. it relieves the pressure on the manufacturers in their states (mostly foreign car companies, mind you) to raise wages. manufacturers, i might add, that these mule-raping cross burners were more than happy to woo to their jurisdictions with so much cash (in the form of tax benefits, mostly) it was like toyota was a stripper and richard shelby was howard stern.

and the auto industry. now, as someone who doesn't own a car- which is a truly stupid thing to do in new york fucking city, i tolerate the auto industry because i've been able to drive a toyota prius once. and i drove around on business for three fucking days and went through maybe a 1/4 tank of gas. i liked that (btw, don't go for the full tank option when you have a hybrid- just get the option to only refill what you burned- and ALWAYS get the loss/damage waiver. that's another story). i don't understand our national desire to fucking drive everywhere, or to live in neighborhoods where that's the only option. that's always struck me as a sign of a true dumbass. but u.s. automakers do employ a shitload of people who i'd like to keep on their payrolls instead of on the dole. dealerships also employ a shitload of people. as well as the people who supply u.s. cars' parts. as well as everyone who does something for autoworkers that make union wages. and general clark may be right- maybe we should keep people manufacturing at u.s. owned plants- plants we may need during wartime. i don't know if our use of auto plants to make ww2 war shit can be redone for today's war shit. what i do know is that before the gm plant in janesville, wisconsin, closed, the people who worked there were proud of what they did. they were proud to own gm cars. in fact, old-time janesville residents made a point of owning gm cars. they were proud to work for a u.s. automaker. not because they hated japanese people, but because they were proud of what america could do. with the exception of homes, i don't know of any other manufactured product that people are so proud to make.

the u.s. auto industry doesn't have to die just because some senate republicans would like to help the foreign manufacturers currently working in their home states (until some other state lures them away). the auto industry had just secured some useful concessions from the uaw, freeing itself from future retiree burdens. what we need to do is remind the u.s. auto industry that if they're so near and dear to our hearts that we won't let them fail, then they need to feel the same for us. we need cars that emit less co2. we need cars that stop making smog. we need smaller cars. we need more buses. like the auto industry, we too are too big to fail. and it's u.s. automakers that would receive the help necessary to make the cars americans really need. i love hondas, but the u.s. government has no business giving honda money. that's for japan to do.

okay, maybe i'm being a little idealistic. maybe i have this idea in my head that u.s. automakers would be more interested in serving the general public than in manufacturing some highly profitable machine and creating consumer demand for it by convincing americans that they need tons of space and gadgets they'll never use. i know. but they're u.s. automakers- they fall under our jurisdiction. if we're going to be reminded that we need to help them out sporadically, we can remind them that they're supposed to act in america's interest, at least until the checks clear.

so they're collateral damage, right?

if you are related to these people, just go read something else. this will justifiably piss you off. but it needs to be said. so just keep browsing.

well, turns out we do body counts after all. they just have to be american bodies. will the military treat these people like the afghanis they killed in august? will we hear that this family was from the animal liberation front? will we hear that the number three is an inflated number, because the san diego locals aren't entirely reliable (or able to count)? will their deaths be tragic, but necessary for our freedoms?

no. the military will compensate the families, and maybe even spank the motherfucker who decided "fuck this shit" before ejecting to leave his plane to crash into civilians. the military will fall all over itself redressing this shit. first of all, because san diego is a major major military town. don't believe me? fuckin' go there. second, san diego is not a war zone, so alot of "journalists" will have access to the locals. third, and maybe most important, the locals speak the same language as the "journalists", and the viewers, and will most likely be the same skin color and religion as the "journalists" and the viewers. don't think that matters? then wtf rock have you been living under? the big one in australia? fuckin' figures.

this will be a goddamned tragedy that the military swears it will take all steps to prevent from ever, ever, happening again. everyone will go on about how sorry the pilot was that he might have hurt someone, and how this really cuts him up, and he can't sleep at night, and fucking so on. there will be no denials of a single goddamn detail, or a single goddamned denial of how fucked up it is that a military plane's pilot can just abandon an f-18 without first making sure it won't hit someone else. there will be no comparison to when the military purposely fires on civilian areas, killing dozens, and claiming it's all okay 'cause they got a few taliban, who had some nerve hiding somewhere difficult to just bomb without killing others. the military will not claim that fighting terrorists trumps your ability to live out the day in your own home. nope.

since no one, no one, else will call these deaths the proper u.s. military name for them, i will: they're collateral damage. freebies. gimmes. people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time (without even knowing it) and paid for it with their lives. people who had the nerve to think they were safe and deserved to be. people who thought staying out of trouble meant it wouldn't crash into the house. if only we really applied this definition, we might rethink how often we use it.

yes, actually, you do hate gays

dear conservatives,

please stop telling me you don't hate gays. please also stop telling me you're just trying to protect marriage. you are the people who run ex-gay ministries to pray the gay the away. you are the ones who don't want gays near your children. one of you even blamed gays (and anybody else with a sex life for that matter) for wall street's meltdown. you hate gays. you hate them bad. and you haven't managed to protect marriage from a goddamned thing. you even let this guy get married. you let this guy get divorced. twice. this guy you love has been married and divorced three fucking times. you still love him. you still listen to him. you don't really give a shit about marriage. especially not if you'd like these two to wed. here's something that marriage actually needs to be protected from. get to it. although, if you really wanted marriage to truly be biblical, you'd actually have to support the FLDS. the actual marriage laws set forth by the old testament, jesus, and paul, are almost never adhered to today. in fact, what we here in 21st century america call marriage bears almost no resemblance to any marriage that happened in biblical times. if you're a widow, your dead husband's brother is neither required nor expected to marry you. in fact, it's considered a little odd. women aren't men's property in marriage any more. we don't even have to change our last names if we don't want to. nobody has to be a virgin to marry (tried to think of a dirty joke here, but couldn't. sorry). you don't even need a religious ceremony. so you conservatives will just have to fucking stop with the defending biblical marriage horseshit. america abandoned biblical marriage ages ago, and is better for it.

personally, i'd prefer it if these two people could wed. they have a child already, they've been together for 15 years already, and both women seem mature and experienced enough to make that kind of long term decision. but this marriage is apparently some evil that cannot be loosed on america, or we'll lose the invisible sky daddy's protection. or he won't crack a smile at us anymore. i know three gay men at work, all of them with long-term partners, one of them raising a kid with a partner. they could handle marriage. they already do handle marriage. they do the work of maintaining a relationship, raising a kid, and maintaining property together. people who do these things are entitled to state recognition for it. straight people get state recognition for much less, or much worse. hell, even this was a legal marriage.

just who the fuck are gays and lesbians a threat to, anyway? straights are starting to enjoy anal sex as much as the village people ever did (men & women as bottoms, by the by. don't open the link at work.). they're not a real threat, since i live in a city where millions of gays and lesbians are fucking right now and it in no way affects me. they're an abstract threat, for a couple of reasons. first of all, gays & lesbians threaten traditionally held gender roles. if men can be homemakers and women can be breadwinners, that kind of ruins the women-are-meant-to-be-the-ones-without-a-career argument. it also ruins the argument that women are meant to be the soft, giving nurturers, while men exist to enforce boundaries, support the family, and teach kids about strength, or some such shit. and conservatives cling to their gender roles. they think gender roles are both biblical and biological, 'cause the bible is such a great fucking authority on biology.

but this is the current culture war, and conservatives have lost so many already. i think conservatives feel they're owed a culture war victory, even if it's fleeting. conservatives lost on slavery, married women's rights, women's suffrage, the right to unionize, anti-semitism, racial equality, women's equality, real religious freedom (not the fake kind for christians only), and hollywood. sorry, conservatives. we liberals have been on the right side of history just a few too many times. and yes, sometimes we're a little smug about it. i'll grant you that. maybe you could stop pretending that you can keep whatever group you currently hate the most in second-class status forever (well, actually i don't know- do you hate gays more than arabs? or liberals? or illegal aliens? please let me know). whenever you do that, you're practically begging to be the bad guy in any future historical movie. especially since you lost hollywood.

conservatives will say they oppose gay marriage being "imposed" by the courts. last i checked, the courts can't "impose" marriage on anyone, for any reason. only consenting adults or older teenagers with their parents' permission can get married. so who's getting gay marriage "imposed" on them? what bullshit. courts can't even force churches, synagogues, or any religious institution to perform a single marriage. catholic churches don't re-marry divorced people. no one "imposes" this on the catholic church, not even the courts. conservatives have no problems with courts deciding people can't sue corporations for faulty medical devices, or interpreting the time limit on sex discrimination claims. conservatives have no problem with those impositions. conservatives have no problem with courts striking down marijuana reform or assisted suicide. conservatives were over-fucking-joyed when the supreme court decided that washington d.c. cannot ban handgun ownership. that's some fucking judicial activism against democratically enacted laws. so conservatives, dears, you don't really have a problem with courts "imposing" things. you just have a problem with a court allowing something you don't like. please, try being honest. that way, we could have a real discussion.

conservatives also tell us that gay marriage is radical. actually, gays are trying to be just like straights. it's not radical to want to get married just like straights can. it's not radical to want a life-long relationship with another adult who you love and loves you in return, and it's not radical that the state recognize that relationship. note to conservatives: the state's been doing that for a long time, just not for my gay co-workers, or mary cheney. that high horse is lame- you might want to get off it. it would be radical is gays wanted to outlaw marriage for everyone. that would be radical. wanting to be just like the vast majority is not radical. it's conformist. i've provided links to online dictionary definitions, in case you're interested.

so conservatives, i'm tired of your excuses for opposing same-sex marriage. i'm tired of them because they're dishonest. they're so dishonest my intelligence as a homo sapien is insulted. i'm tired of them because even a cursory knowledge of the recent california supreme court decision, history, actual gays or lesbians, and even the bible is enough to swat these rantings down. try getting a real reason to oppose same-sex marriage. or at least move on to different lies.

sincerely,

culuriel

p.s.- oh, and by the way, mary cheney, your kid is a political issue. when you actively campaign for a political party that has done everything it can to legalize discrimination against you, refuses to include you in hate crimes law, insists you pose a greater threat to america than terrorism does, you better believe your fucking lesbian family is a political issue. your political party thinks that equality under the law and toleration are the "gay" agenda. i always thought it was the "human" agenda, but that's probably why i'm a liberal and you campaign for people who would hate you if you weren't dick's kid (trust me, they would).

this is why we have castration

recently, an islamic militia in somalia stoned a 13 year-old girl to death. the militia members forced her into a pit in an athletic arena, buried her upto her neck, and stoned her. at least once, nurses dug her out to pronounce her still alive, so she could be reburied and the stoning could resume.

this girl's brutal murder goes beyond anything i've heard of in just plain barbaric cruelty, and i live in a country with more than its fair share of serial killers. no other record of human depravity has stayed with me like this has. it's the young age of the victim, her poverty, her powerlessness, her vulnerability versus these powerful, armed, grown, intolerant, hateful men. she never had a chance.

the motive is pretty clear, at least to a woman's libber like myself: the girl had reported to this militia, which is a substitute for any actual government in the area, that several militia members had raped her. the militia killed her, in a brutal way, to silence her and intimidate every single female still living. don't report rape, the militia has told every woman under their "jurisdiction".

i think of this poor girl, named Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, slowly, painfully, degradingly dying by people throwing rocks at her. i think of how much blood, bone, and brain matter must have been splattered all over before she died. i think what kind of mindless piece of shit can actually submit a child to such a thing, a child who had already been horribly wronged. it is actually quite plain- it is themselves these militia members really hate, and violence against women and girls is a convenient substitute for taking out their self-loathing on themselves.

misogynist literature is full of references to women tempting men, bringing their downfall, emasculating men, etc. men are especially repulsed by the "power" women have over them sexually. men hate that they can be attracted to women who they hate, or who don't want them. men hate how difficult it is to control their sexual urges. men feel less than human in lust- they constantly refer to sexual attraction as throwing off their civilized, "human" selves and feeling like beasts. men have always resented women for this feeling, because men have always blamed women for the feeling. that it originates in them is irrelevant. that a man can learn self-control is irrelevant. it is woman's fault he feels lust, and less than human. it is woman's fault that he can lust after a woman who doesn't want him. and woman must pay. that 13 year-old girl who died a bloody, painful, horrible death represented to these miltia men everything they hate about themselves. she was somebody to blame, so her rapists could deny being animals not only to the public, but also to themselves. in the end, based on the press this is getting, they have only fooled themselves, and only until the next girl comes along.

so here's a little poetic justice, because this particular group of dickheads is muslim. how ironic and yet perfectly fitting is it that we call men who treat women and girls this way pigs?

the mirror

dear republicans,
just cling to your guns and religion, because that seems to be all you got today. but while you're doing that, why don't you also slosh this around in the almost empty tank known as your brains.

you can't keep going on dismissing and dissing the people of america's cities. about 20% of the country's population lives in cities. you are eventually going to have to deal with that. so here's a fucking clue: you might want to stop calling us elites, terrorist sympathizers, and anti-american baby-killers. that makes us kind of want to not even acknowledge your party's existence, let alone vote for you.

and you're going to need to confront the fact that we're a pro-choice nation. even fucking south dakota is. you can't even get parental notification passed in california, even when you've brought out the gay haters. your party literally wants to outlaw abortion even in cases or rape or incest. don't you think that affects how many women would want to vote for you?

you may want to stop blaming illegals for our country's economic problems, and scare the whiteys into thinking mexico is taking over. apparently, over 10 million voters are hispanic. who'd've thought they might not like a party that demonizes them with conspiracy theories?

and obviously, you will have to stop acting like people don't want to spread the wealth. in the end, that stupid line cost you. people want the wealth spread- that's what you promised free market capitalism would do, remember? when your precious free market didn't do this, you tried to turn it into a negative. asshats.

have fun avoiding looking in the mirror at all costs. i look forward to whipping your asses in 2010 too.

giddiness

christ that guy looks and acts like a president from the very first night. i love the reference to MLK's last speech- "I promise you, we as a people will get there". it's a new bright fucking day in fucking america. and there was even oprah.
oh to watch all those blue states pop up- hahahahahahaha! oh, sweet sweet payback. oh, to know that fox noise is in pain, bitter pain. i hope kristol is curled up in his closet in the fetal position, sobbing.
and it's not just obama. it's the house, it's the senate, it's a governor's mansion. it's lizzy dole going home to north carolina. it's joe lieberman wondering what the fuck he's gonna do now. it's the sad reality that the only demographic the republican party can reliably get is white, christian, straight males and male-servers. it's pro-choice victory. it's medical marijuana. it's dying as you choose, not some retarded bastard's decision who can't tell the difference between someone dying in agony and someone otherwise healthy in a wheelchair.
yes, there are some dark spots. we don't know if the senate will add a professional comedian to the amateurs already there, and norm coleman will have to stay the fuck home. i'm pretty sure prop 8 will succeed. i expected this shit from goddamned alabama- not california. but you know what- long term, i'm encouraged on gay marriage. we've gone from 1968, when gays risked death, even in liberal cities, by coming out, to 2008, when almost a majority wants full equality in marriage rights. we'll get there. obama promised.

real patriotism

wow, has it been a month? i'll confess, i've been lazy. L-A-Z-Y. but now i think i'll sit down and get something off my chest (36C, if you must know).

flyover country needs to stop acting like they're the real americans, and everybody else is just a poser. i'm sick and tired of some asshat waving a poster of obama in a turban acting like he's standing up for america. if conservatives and the regions they dominate want to be relevant to the 21st century, it would certainly help if they joined it.

why do these fuckers think they're more patriotic? because they display flags, recite "under god" in the pledge, and put their hands on their hearts when they sing the national anthem. seriously. and they stick yellow ribbon magnets on the backs of their suv's. it's about being white, christian, male or subservient to males, and straight. meanwhile, red states all over the country literally feed off of blue states' federal income taxes. cities hold about 20% of americans; cities are usually the hosts of protest rallies, not rural areas. while rural, small-town america has been holding onto their illusions about what an american is, the rest of the country has moved on. while small-town america held on to patriotism being how many songs you can sing, pledges you can recite, and flags you can fly, the rest of us realized something.

patriotism is when you care enough about your fellow americans to make a fucking sacrifice for them. patriotism is when you care enough about your fellow americans to help them in bad times. patriotism is when you put off a cellphone upgrade so the kids in your country can have school lunches. patriotism is when you tell your government when it's wrong, and you hold your ground. patriotism is when you say "so what if he is a muslim? this is america." patriotism is when you pay for a highway project. it's when you pay back your student loans. it's when you observe elections and help people use their right to vote.

fuck these outward symbols that small-town america clings to. the flag is not a woobie. osama bin laden could put the flag on his cave entrance, stick a yellow ribbon on his machine gun, and sing "god bless america" till he's blue in the face, doesn't mean he loves america. it's window-dressing.

you see, for conservative, small-town america, window-dressing patriotism is all they've got left. they hate paying taxes, hate public schools, hate courts (or judges), hate equal protection, hate government in general. the only segment of government they seem to like is the idea of the military (since they hate paying the taxes the military and vets need, i think this is accurate). flags and songs and magnets are all they have left. they hate the institutions that we share, and which urban americans have come to value as we diversify and densify.

our institutions keep the peace; they are open to us all, and help us hold together. in an age when it's just not feasible (or constitutional) to force social cohesion through conformity in religion, language, sexuality and lifestyle, these institutions are vital. it's vital that we have schools everyone is entitled to send their kids to, and which any adult can get involved in. it's vital that we have parks, where people can come together to relax and people watch. it's vital that we have transit affordable to all that links metropolitan areas together. it's vital that we take pride in our firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and teachers. patriotism is when you support these things, not just with lip service but with money and effort. when you pay taxes, you put your money where your patriotic mouth is. something that small-town america calls "socialism". if it's socialist to actually support your country instead of just saying you do, then call me comrade.