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All’s quiet on the virtual front?

You’ve got to be kidding me! I find it hard to believe that the ONLY newsworthy event is Travolta’s son dying at 16. Tragic, yes, but is that the only thing going on?

No drama? No gnashing of teeth or rending of clothing? No tales of woe? LJ, you can do better!

Well since no one has anything to say, I’ll post a big ole political post to at least give everyone something to read. No cuts, either, bitches.

A bunch of Muslims got tossed off an AirTran flight and detained for talking about which seats are the safest in a crash. Stupid, yes, but illegal? I think not. The fucking TSA must be reigned in. Those assholes can detain you as long as they wish for any reason they wish. That is WRONG. Oh, and these Muslims were CITIZENS, people, not some random ferrinners.

I get searched about 50% of the time at the airport, which tells me that I’m probably on a watch list for my views on this blog. Well, SUCK IT, TSA!! Go ahead and harass me all you like. I will not stop criticising a fascist department of government with unbridled power to treat citizens any way they wish. It’s wrong and it should be stopped. The fallacy that it “makes us safer” is just plain stupid.

Let’s have some quotes about democracy, shall we? Remind ourselves of a few things:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – CS Lewis

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” – George Bernard Shaw

“In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.” – J. William Fulbright

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi

“The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.” – Noam Chomsky

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” – Voltaire

Why do we allow the TSA and the Patriot Act to continue? Because Americans have become sheeple, that’s why. I’m certain that the people of Germany told themselves that Hitler’s regime was acceptable because “I’m not doing anything wrong, so what am I worried about?” And the trains, did indeed run on time.

“Lack of dissent provides permission by acquiescence.” – Angela H. Pratt

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Superdelegates are unnecessary

The election processs in the US has the reputation of being democratic and fair. It’s a nice idea, but it’s far from the truth. With the Electoral College making the actual nominations, it’s becoming more and more irrelevant who the actual populace votes for to represent a party.

From Wikipedia: “electors are simply important persons whose wisdom, it is hoped, would provide a better choice than a larger body.” And this gem: “The system can ignore the wishes of a general membership, whose thinking may not be considered.”

Ya think? The electoral college is an ancient technique used by the church for crying out loud! It should be abolished.

Add the Democrats’ superdelegates to the mix and you get even less input as to who will represent the party. Republicans have something similar (Republican National Convention), but not nearly to the extent as the Dems.

I think we have the technology to count the actual votes in this country. I think the Electoral College has ceased to be relevant. I think that we’d have more participation if a person felt that his actual vote was counted. As it is – despite the fact that most young people don’t even know how the election process works – the more one finds out about the process, the more marginalised one feels.

Here’s a final quote from Wiki to get your dander up for the day:

“At the 2008 Democratic National Convention the superdelegates will make up approximately one-fifth of the total number of delegates. The […] closeness of the race between the leading contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama following Super Tuesday has focused attention on the potential role of the superdelegates in selecting the Democratic nominee, inasmuch as in the aggregate they could come to be kingmakers to a degree not seen in previous election cycles.[2] Such an outcome would result in the first brokered convention [make SURE to read what this means!] since 1952.”

Put that in your democracy and smoke it.

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Roe v Wade 28th Anniversary

Well, Geedubya is in office and there is much rejoicing in the ranks of the ignorant masses who really think that the president gives a rat’s ass about abortion rights. It’s just another spin issue for ole Geedubya – or any other MAN in charge. All the politicians want is to do what the other party is NOT doing. I saw the pictures of the “christians” sitting on the Capitol steps praying that women’s rights be taken back 28 years and it made me cringe.

I am not pointing the finger solely at Christians, but it seems that religious beliefs are one of the major causes of excessive moralizing and berating others who choose a different path. It seems very UNchristian to wish death upon those who make choices that are not the same as what dogma would suggest. It also seems Unchristian that these very same protesters are not adopting all the unwanted children that result from women who do not get abortions yet cannot or will not take care of the children that they bear. I’ve always thought it very clever for the church to be against abortion and birth control. When’s the last time you saw a black crack baby in a middle class Baptist’s home? Or an inner city Catholic family?

Who is supposed to care for all these children that Operation Rescue works so hard to keep alive? Apparently not Operation Rescue.

And as far as that goes, since when is it acceptable to commit murder of a doctor or anyone just because she does not have the same belief system as the murderer? Hmm, I thought murder was a mortal sin.

I have been harassed for going to a public clinic myself. Never mind that I was there for a regular checkup. Never mind that most of the women were there for just run of the mill stuff. Oh no, that made no difference to the dumbass MAN that was posted outside the clinic to scream at people going in and out. And what the blue fuck does a MAN have to say about it in the first place?? This is in no way a male issue. Men have no business even discussing it much less demonstrating and harassing women about it. I think it’s even a little weird that men want to be gynecologists or OB doctors. Men have no idea what being female is about, what having menstrual pain is about or what having children is about. They really have no place in this realm at all, in my opinion.

I’ve also been accosted by a mob of demonstrators as well. I took a friend of mine for an abortion and the crowd tried to trap my car in the lot. So I just pressed the accelerator and watched them jump back in horror. I have to say that their screams of fear gave me more than a little pleasure. My friend was going through a bad divorce and found out she was pregnant. There was no way she could care for another child (she had a toddler already) and she was quite upset over the whole thing. It was an all round horrible experience and those idiots outside just added fuel to the fire. I was very afraid that they [the crowd] were going to bash my car, but fortunately they did not.

Most women I know have always had the right to choose what to do with their bodies. We have never had to worry about death from a botched abortion. I think we take this right for granted. Did you know that the percentage of the American public that think abortion should NOT be legal has become dangerously close to the percentage of those of us who think it should be legal? That is very disturbing to me. And it should be disturbing to all of us who enjoy our freedom. This is from CNN:

“An exit poll in the presidential election found more voters favored keeping abortion legal, 55 percent to 42 percent. But only 20 percent thought it should be legal in all cases and 35 percent said it should be legal in most cases. ” (The link WAS: http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/22/bc.abortionpolitics.ap/index.html, but it is gone now, unfortunately. – A)

And while I’m on a ranty roll, I’d like to say that Geedubya is a little weenie moron who knows very few details about what goes on in the US government, yet feels that he should still be able to run things. I’ve already heard him compared to Ronnie I’m-a-vegetable Reagan. Oh, god, now *that* really makes me cringe. Trickle Down Economics, anyone?