(no subject)
Sep. 8th, 2011 03:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* This podcast gets into body policing, the use of slurs for humor purposes, and the desexing of Lafayette and Jesus, and the weakness of Marnie's characterization, etc. in True Blood in the first two thirds. Contains spoilers: http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2011/09/fangs-for-fantasy-podcast-episode-31.html
* Yes, I know the Republican debate was tonight, but I decided it would be better for my blood pressure to miss it, especially since this far from the primary, it's just smoke and hot air. I'm sure the really egregious stuff will surface on the net anyway.
* My favorite fucked up sound bite so far is Michele Bachmann proclaiming that "Kids need jobs!" Presumably instead of schools, which would allow them to become educated voters. People are saying it's a gaff, but I think not, given the Reopublan push in many states to abolish child labour laws, abolish worker safety standards, and abolish public education. If we are going to close the schools, we clearly do need sweat shops to keep those kids occupied.
I'm not kidding when I say the Republican goal seems to be to drag us all back to 1850.
* I heard about the IHOP slaying just before bed last night. It's looking like eleven dead, three national guard. They suspect the guardsmen may have been the target, but the shooter is dead, so it's hard to tell.
* The government in Syria was extra violent today, but as they are still barring independent journalists, there are no firm figures, only smuggled video of terrible things.
* It is planting season in the Horn of Africa, but people are too weak to plant, so it is expected there will be another whole year of famine. As I mentioned yesterday, Republicans are responding to the crisis by insisting on cutting food aid 75%.
*Someone is auctioning BPALs to help hurricane Irene victims: http://www.ebay.com/sch/blueangelgal/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
* I keep turning over my reaction to Buddy Roemer. He really does sound like my father's sort of Republican, the sort of republican I grew up with. I keep saying that i miss having two sane and sensible sides having a reasonable debate about policy based on honest attempts to figure out what's best for the nation, and I absolutely mean it. I miss having Republicans who talk like Buddy Roemer did last night. he really does feel like the ghost of the party of my childhood. I keep saying I think Megan Mccain is the way forward. Last night's discussion was a look back. Both voices are utterly marginalized in the context of modern republican politics. The commentators are already saying Mitt Romney is sunk for the primary for the sin of refusing to argue for the utter dismantling of social security, instead of just fatally wounding it as is his plan, which is the only acceptable position for a Republican in the upcoming election. The mainstream is now all cartoonish bond and batman villains, the calm and reasonable voices are treated the way they used to treat the John Birch society when I was a child. It just makes me sad to watch how fringe moderation seems now.
You can't have a debate of any value with someone who sticks their fingers in their ears and yells, "Lalala! I can't hear you!" over and over until you go away. Similarly, it is unlikely that people so detached from reality that they think you can pay for modern health care with a tray of cupcakes are going to be producing any good ideas about health care reform anytime soon.
* Speaking of the Republican belief in baked goods for health care, I misspelled Roemer as "Rommert" yesterday, most likely because I've been referring to Louie Gommert so often lately because he frankly horrifies me. My sincere apologies for making Roemer look so much like Gommert, which is an entirely unfair slur. Again, the misspelling was entirely accidental.
* Speaking of disconnection from reality. I think they need to fire Leon Panetta for being clearly delusional and that's dangerous in someone with that kind of power.
* Speaking of dangerous, despite relentless oil company propaganda commercials on both canadian and US stations, I'm against that oil sands pipeline because it's clearly a large scale environmental disaster waiting to happen.
* I was hoping John Stewart would take up the cancer exception in the Zadroga Bill, as he was instrumental in getting pressure on Congress to get it passed in the first place. Looks like he is. In my opinion, all 9/11 first responders and workers who sifted through the rubble should get Congressional level health care free for life. Of course the cancer is airborne toxin related as the science indicates. I think that should be beside the point. I think the bravery and self sacrifice should be rewarded. That work was physically dangerous and emotionally shredding. Why the fuck are we nickle and diming them? I think they deserve the free health care way more than congress does.
I know free health care for those that sacrifice themselves for their country is extremely unpopular in republican circles right now. After all, there is a strong push to strip veterans of their free health care that they were given in exchange for risking life, limb, and sanity for the rest of us. I say fuck that. I think if we're taking anyone's health care away, we should start with Congress, since they are the ones to craven and greedy to let us have medicare for everyone like all the first world countries do. Let's start with free lifetime care for the 9/11 first responders and go from there.
I keep saying we don't dream big enough.
* This is pretty interesting: http://greenwick.livejournal.com/42972.html?style=mine#cutid1
* RM found, "The Evolution of Ape-Face Johnson:" http://thehairpin.com/2011/09/the-evolution-of-ape-face-johnson
* *snerk* http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/9927901542/eccleston-was-a-tiger-and-tennant-was-well
* I am told Superman now tortures in DC official comics. I thought this whole reboot thing was a terrible idea. I now have proof.
http://box-in-the-box.livejournal.com/527385.html
Yes, I read Hellblazer, but there is no pretense in or out of the comic that john Constantine is other than a horrible human being. He's an anti-hero, not a role model. Superman's supposed to be a hero and a role model. he's supposed to be using his power for good. Using superpowers to torture people seems about as opposite to everything superman's meant to stand for. May I add, Fuck you, DC!
* I dreamed about a collective of biochemists and their children living in a mansion near the college where they were researching. A disease escaped from the lab. It was a hemorrhagic that also caused delusions and hallucinations, but also ate metal and turned wood to putty. (It was originally designed to eat toxic waste, but mutated.) Even as they and their children were dieing, they were trying to find a cure with the house crumbling and flowing around them. Those who survived would be living in surreal landscape of melting tries, rubble, and those driven mad by the disease who survived....
They called it the Purple Plague because of the mottling caused by the hemorrhaging under the skin.
* The Clutch:
* Yes, I know the Republican debate was tonight, but I decided it would be better for my blood pressure to miss it, especially since this far from the primary, it's just smoke and hot air. I'm sure the really egregious stuff will surface on the net anyway.
* My favorite fucked up sound bite so far is Michele Bachmann proclaiming that "Kids need jobs!" Presumably instead of schools, which would allow them to become educated voters. People are saying it's a gaff, but I think not, given the Reopublan push in many states to abolish child labour laws, abolish worker safety standards, and abolish public education. If we are going to close the schools, we clearly do need sweat shops to keep those kids occupied.
I'm not kidding when I say the Republican goal seems to be to drag us all back to 1850.
* I heard about the IHOP slaying just before bed last night. It's looking like eleven dead, three national guard. They suspect the guardsmen may have been the target, but the shooter is dead, so it's hard to tell.
* The government in Syria was extra violent today, but as they are still barring independent journalists, there are no firm figures, only smuggled video of terrible things.
* It is planting season in the Horn of Africa, but people are too weak to plant, so it is expected there will be another whole year of famine. As I mentioned yesterday, Republicans are responding to the crisis by insisting on cutting food aid 75%.
*Someone is auctioning BPALs to help hurricane Irene victims: http://www.ebay.com/sch/blueangelgal/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
* I keep turning over my reaction to Buddy Roemer. He really does sound like my father's sort of Republican, the sort of republican I grew up with. I keep saying that i miss having two sane and sensible sides having a reasonable debate about policy based on honest attempts to figure out what's best for the nation, and I absolutely mean it. I miss having Republicans who talk like Buddy Roemer did last night. he really does feel like the ghost of the party of my childhood. I keep saying I think Megan Mccain is the way forward. Last night's discussion was a look back. Both voices are utterly marginalized in the context of modern republican politics. The commentators are already saying Mitt Romney is sunk for the primary for the sin of refusing to argue for the utter dismantling of social security, instead of just fatally wounding it as is his plan, which is the only acceptable position for a Republican in the upcoming election. The mainstream is now all cartoonish bond and batman villains, the calm and reasonable voices are treated the way they used to treat the John Birch society when I was a child. It just makes me sad to watch how fringe moderation seems now.
You can't have a debate of any value with someone who sticks their fingers in their ears and yells, "Lalala! I can't hear you!" over and over until you go away. Similarly, it is unlikely that people so detached from reality that they think you can pay for modern health care with a tray of cupcakes are going to be producing any good ideas about health care reform anytime soon.
* Speaking of the Republican belief in baked goods for health care, I misspelled Roemer as "Rommert" yesterday, most likely because I've been referring to Louie Gommert so often lately because he frankly horrifies me. My sincere apologies for making Roemer look so much like Gommert, which is an entirely unfair slur. Again, the misspelling was entirely accidental.
* Speaking of disconnection from reality. I think they need to fire Leon Panetta for being clearly delusional and that's dangerous in someone with that kind of power.
* Speaking of dangerous, despite relentless oil company propaganda commercials on both canadian and US stations, I'm against that oil sands pipeline because it's clearly a large scale environmental disaster waiting to happen.
* I was hoping John Stewart would take up the cancer exception in the Zadroga Bill, as he was instrumental in getting pressure on Congress to get it passed in the first place. Looks like he is. In my opinion, all 9/11 first responders and workers who sifted through the rubble should get Congressional level health care free for life. Of course the cancer is airborne toxin related as the science indicates. I think that should be beside the point. I think the bravery and self sacrifice should be rewarded. That work was physically dangerous and emotionally shredding. Why the fuck are we nickle and diming them? I think they deserve the free health care way more than congress does.
I know free health care for those that sacrifice themselves for their country is extremely unpopular in republican circles right now. After all, there is a strong push to strip veterans of their free health care that they were given in exchange for risking life, limb, and sanity for the rest of us. I say fuck that. I think if we're taking anyone's health care away, we should start with Congress, since they are the ones to craven and greedy to let us have medicare for everyone like all the first world countries do. Let's start with free lifetime care for the 9/11 first responders and go from there.
I keep saying we don't dream big enough.
* This is pretty interesting: http://greenwick.livejournal.com/42972.html?style=mine#cutid1
* RM found, "The Evolution of Ape-Face Johnson:" http://thehairpin.com/2011/09/the-evolution-of-ape-face-johnson
* *snerk* http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/9927901542/eccleston-was-a-tiger-and-tennant-was-well
* I am told Superman now tortures in DC official comics. I thought this whole reboot thing was a terrible idea. I now have proof.
http://box-in-the-box.livejournal.com/527385.html
Yes, I read Hellblazer, but there is no pretense in or out of the comic that john Constantine is other than a horrible human being. He's an anti-hero, not a role model. Superman's supposed to be a hero and a role model. he's supposed to be using his power for good. Using superpowers to torture people seems about as opposite to everything superman's meant to stand for. May I add, Fuck you, DC!
* I dreamed about a collective of biochemists and their children living in a mansion near the college where they were researching. A disease escaped from the lab. It was a hemorrhagic that also caused delusions and hallucinations, but also ate metal and turned wood to putty. (It was originally designed to eat toxic waste, but mutated.) Even as they and their children were dieing, they were trying to find a cure with the house crumbling and flowing around them. Those who survived would be living in surreal landscape of melting tries, rubble, and those driven mad by the disease who survived....
They called it the Purple Plague because of the mottling caused by the hemorrhaging under the skin.
* The Clutch:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-08 07:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-09 01:26 am (UTC)What happened is from the mid-14trh century on the plague related labour shortages led to increasing pressure from below to end serfdom, improve wages and conditions, etc.. At the same time, the financial needs for fighting the hundred Years War led to increased need for taxation, which in turn put pressure on the government to increase representation of commoners. The late Medieval commons was made up of upper middle class guild heads, mayors, upper peasants, and the like who rubber stamped decisions by crown and Lords. The idea was that having commoners rubber stamp decisions made commoners in general feel included which made taxation and other decisions more powerful. Having a village notable explain why the tax was needed rather than a noble, made uprisings like the Great Peasants Revolt of 1381 less likely to repeat.
By the way, even though Richard II convinced the Peasants to disburse rather than occupy London, and several leaders were executed, the Peasants really won. Richard quietly removed most of the laws regarding unfree land, thus quietly abolishing serfdom, so that there were virtually no unfree peasants in England by 1400. meanwhile the French doubled down on oppressing their serfs. It is my belief that the English abolishing serfdom early and gradually increasing political representation of commoners over time is why they didn't have something like the french revolution, but that's a whole other issue.
Anyway, I do not think the Republicans would want to repeal a document that guaranteed the Rich a say in government. I do not think a return to absolute rather than constitutional monarchy would suit American conservatives.