Observations and commentary by a post-modern neo-feminist libertarian cyberpunk on society, culture, politics and whatever.
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Robert Gates Plans to Militarize America
It was reported yesterday that the current, and Barack Obama's choice to remain, Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, intends to deploy 20,000 military troops within the United States, to help local law enforcement deal with domestic emergencies.
We've been down this road before. During World War I, army intelligence agents had arrest powers and free reign throughout the country. They used that power to harass labor leaders, opponents of the war, and politically active minorities. They carried out some six million investigations during the war, and caught a grand total of one German spy.
In the 1960s, the military got back into the spy business. Senate hearings in 1971 revealed that military intelligence agents kept thousands of files on suspected radicals, including such dangerous characters as Adlai Stevenson, the ACLU and Americans for Democratic Action.
As proud as Americans are of the military, we have never wanted to militarize the country. In an attempt to to prevent the executive from ever establishing a federally enforced military police state, in 1878 Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
But in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 George Bush, and those around him who favor an end to the Republic and the ascendancy of the imperial presidency, immediately saw the need for a domestic military law enforcement function.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita called Posse Comitatus a "very archaic" statute that hampers the president's ability to respond to a crisis. Sen. John Warner (R-VA), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, went to work on changing the law.
Accordingly, in 2006 Congress passed HR 5122, giving greater authority to, and leeway for, the president to declare marital law and federalize and deploy the National Guard, whether or not the governor objects.
HR 5122 ( John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007) also known as the Marital Law Enabling Act,was signed into law by the president the same day as theMilitary Commissions Act, and was essentially the end of Posse Comitatus, and gives Barack Obama's Secretary of Defense the authority, which he is now invoking, to domestically deploy military troops.
The Posse Comitatus Act was already riddled with exceptions. In 1981 Congress made an exception for the drug war (just as the Supreme Court feels that the drug warcreates an exception to the First Amendment) and firearm regulation. It was this exception which was the the legal basis for the tragedy atWaco.
TheATF raid on the Branch Davidianswas run as a military exercise, planned and executed with the advice of the U.S. Department of Defense, directly under the logistical and strategic command of Bill and Hillary Clinton---Janet Reno advising.
It was certainly never the intent of the founders to give the federal government the power to use the military to enforce domestic law and order. Nor did they envision a time when all the executive agencies would create their very own paramilitary forces, trained by the military to go swashbuckling into such disasters as Ruby Ridge.
Indeed, during the debate over ratification of the Constitution, the Federalist Papersassured Americans that the militarywould never be used against theAmerican people. Besides a fear of the power that could accrue to the executive with this type of authority, Publius and company were concerned about the different functions of civil authorities and the military.
Civil law enforcement officers are trained to use force as a last resort, and to stay within the boundaries set by the constitution—with the military, as it says above the front door at West Point—war is our business—and many of the constitutional niceties are irrelevant.
It would be nice if Barack Obama would nix this terrible idea.
But, don't hold your breath.
The Dyke Behind Harvey Milk
If Diane Feinstien had not been such an ambitious little lesophobe, it is just possible, that instead of Nancy Pelosi, a biker dyke might be third in line to the presidency.
Twenty-three year oldAnne Kronenberg ( played by Alison Pill in the recent and outstanding Gus Van Sant movie Milk starring Sean Penn) was the motorcycle riding lesbian, selected in 1977 by Harvey Milk to run his successful campaign for the District 5 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors--the first openly gay public office holder in the US. Milk chose her because he knew she could handle all the screaming Queens that surrounded him, and to reach out to the lesbian community in San Francisco.
While Harvey Milk was theMayor of Castro Street, at the time,most of the rebel gay womyn were found down in the working class Mission District. And they were not really all that fag haggish. As Miss Kronenberg says ofMilk:
"He was great! He had none of that weirdness that so many gay men have, or certainly at the time had, that we were a different breed, and stay away from me. "
This exchange from the new movie pretty well sums up the queer misogyny of the day:
But the sassy biker chick took over the Milk campaign and it was she who mobilized a contingent of bitchy lesbians to break up a speech by Milk's opponent Rick Stokes, the Gay Uncle Tom who favored Proposition 6 (a/k/a Briggs Initiative), which would have prevented gays from teaching in California Schools--- which was ultimately defeated thanks to the work of Harvey Milk, and grass roots gay and lesbian foot soldiers—as well as Ronald Reagan's opposition to the proposition.
Reagan, unlike Barack Obamain the recent fight againstProposition 8, did not just quietly express his opposition to the measure (at a time he was preparing to run for the presidency), but loudly and prominently urgedCalifornians to reject discrimination:
Anyway, after Dan White gunned down Mayor Mascone and Supervisor Milk, Acting Mayor Diane Feinstein, fearing a leather-clad, curly haired dyke-on-a-bike at City Hall, refused to appoint Anne Kronenberg as Milk's successor , even though he had named her in his videotaped last will and testament. Instead, Feinstein appointed a moderately liberal, but well behaved, gay man named Harry Britt.
As mayor, Diane Feinseincontinued to hob nob with with her Snob Hill supporters, refused to join any gay pride parades, and vetoed a domestic registry bill which had been passed by the Board of Supervisors.
In 1987 Harry Britt narrowly lost a congressional election to a new comer named Nancy Pelosi. Anne Kronenberg continued working as an administrator in the San Francisco Department of Public Health
But just think of what might have been but for that waste of oxygen, now known as Senator Diane Feinstein.
Vroooooooommmmmmm
The MySpace Hoax Lynching
Pogo was right--we have met the enemy and he is us.
The enemy is not George Bush, Rick Santorum, the NSA, CIA, or any of the shady government agencies that spy on us or desire to be our electronic babysitters.
Usually the government storm troopers only jump in because we demand it. There is some awful incident that involves something like the Internet, and we invite in the long dick of the law.
Most recently, there is the sad case of the thirteen year old girl who hung herself when rejected by her MySpace lover, who happened to be a Mom posing as a cute adolescent boy. She was doing it all to even the score her own daughter had with this emotionally unstable girl.
I can not stress enough how monumentally fucked up this is. The woman will undoubtedly end up in a Hell overseen by Tom Anderson, and inhabited by and each and every one of Tila Tequila's friends.
But everyone said, like they always do when something like this happens, there must be a law.....
Well, there wasn't a law. Being mean, nasty and stupid has always resulted in an ass whoopin and social ostracization , but it was not necessarily a crime. But this has changed. After nonstop national hand wringing sessions resulted in demands that something be done-- federal prosecutors managed to put something together.
Essentially they alleged that the Mom from Hell violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 by intentionally accessing MySpace's servers "without authorization." And by “without authorization” they meant she violated MySpace's terms of service.
I am willing to bet myMontana Dental Floss Ranch that ninety percent of the readers of this blog have violated the TOS of some Internet company at one time or another, and the rest don't have the technical savvy to mess up.
And then to really ding the defendant-- charges were brought in LA, rather than Missouri where this all happened and all the witnesses were located, because they said this was where MySpace's servers were located.
I am sure in making the choice of venue the prosecutors also took into account that in LA they were more likely to get a jury panel comprised of government nanny poo enthusiasts, than would be the case in the Show Me State.
Thankfully for the rule of law and the antiquated concept of freedom, the jury saw through the ruse, and only convicted the disgusting Mom on three misdemeanor charges.
But it was a sad and telling commentary on our society. It is not a crime to humiliate a child, and by pretending it is--- federal prosecutors sacrificed the rule of law in favor of the populist will of the people, and thereby endangered each and every one of us who uses the Internet.
It is easy to blame the prosecutors.
But the real enemies are all the people, who didn't care if there was a law, but demanded that something be done.
It is the lawless rule of the mob...
a lynching officially sanctioned, under color of law, by spineless, pandering politicians and their bureaucratic servants.
The Ann Coulter Piehole Wired Shut
In some ways I hate to bring this up, since Ann Coulter needs publicity in the same way that pubic crabs need a thick thatch.
But, I would be remiss in not pointing out to skeptical agnostics that the proof is in—there is a god.
And he has finally answered the prayers of fair-minded, intelligent and sane conservative leaning people everywhere.
Just as the anorexic “look at me”she-beast was about to embark on another book tour, the Lord smitten her with abroken jaw, and doctors were forced to wire her piehole shut.
No one seems to know who the avenging jawbreaker is, but the suspects are legion, and he or she is truly a Hero of the Republic.
Although I don't usually condone using this type of playground taunt, the truth must prevail— the bitch gives us right wing wack jobs a bad name.
And I personally volunteer, in the name of all women, to physically revoke Ann's coochie, before any more vile thoughts crawl from the publicity whore's dirty womb.
I mean who wants an almost fifty year old, unmarried (and I am not one of those who thinks Ann is saving herself for marriage) New York boozehound, in a black leather micro mini, lecturing us on how to be better Christians? If Ann Coulter is the ideal image of womanhood in the Bible Belt—then we are further gone than I thought.
But, I don't really think that is the case—she is just the type of mutant that gains fame in times of extraordinary stress and perverse values.
Thank God-- we are getting a little bit better.
Russell Shaw: Savior of the Economy
Although I have been watching the human bullfrog on the tube ever since I moved to Arizona, it has finally dawned on me that Russell Shaw is the one man who can save the economy.
At one level you just gotta love Russ. Back in the day apparently he was a DJ on a Phoenix underground FM station, co-host of the Love Workshop, and ran for governor on some Hippie Dippie Party, where the platform called for sex, drugs, rock and roll—and some righteous bud in every person's bong.
But that was a long time ago. Like so many children of the Boom, Russ has long ago hung up his flowers and beads—and gone into real estate.
With new found enthusiasm for the acquisition of money, Russell Shaw invested heavily in television and radio advertising—about $600, 000 a year and now has a quirky celerity status in the Phoenix area, that is usually only achieved by used car pitchmen.
Now that is all cool. But what bothers me is that if Russ is not the answer to the housing crisis, then he is theGeorge T. Babbitt of his generation.
This is one of the ads that Mr. No Hassle Listing has been running for two years, and I saw it as recently as last Wednesday:
Obviously, if the guy, who blogs on a web site called Agent Genius, can sell a house in forty-four days there is no reason for any housing crisis. And if any seller is so stupid they try to unload their home through any other agent—well, they deserve what they get.
However, although the old doper may be“nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people can afford to pay”---I just have my doubts about that forty-four day turnaround. And what is even more remarkable is that he has managed to keep up the average for two years, in the second most depressed housing market in the country.
I know I shouldn't be skeptical. After all, FOX Newsfinds him to be quite authoritative.
Besides, who am I to question Russell Shaw? He has, like so many of his generation, made the world such a better place--all because the ex-hippies and Forest Gump children of the sixties are so acutely aware of how very special they are.
Just the same, you have to wonder what Russ has been smoking.
A Jammin' Thanksgiving
Ok, I give up. Even though I am an Obama skeptic,I can't help but give thanks that for the first time since September 11, 2001 the country is jammin' together---and this time we are not barreling down the turnpikes and highways of America, flags flapping in the wind, screaming like fucking bangees, with Death to Allah on our minds.
On Thursday, Americans will gather together to eat turkey, watch the parade, suffer through the Detroit Lions, and give thanks that the stock market is closed. And just like credit cards will be smokin' on Black Friday, for the time being we will not worry about all the unbelievable government plans to further uber- leverage an already massively leveraged nation, that has gotten in trouble because it is so outrageously leveraged.
Of course, on the lead up to this special day, there has been some of the usual crap.
In Claremont, California the police were called in when protesters descended on the Condit Elementary School to bully some kindergartens who were dressed in construction paper pilgrim and Indian outfits.
And the Cheetah Girls, the unfortunately named Disney Girl band, of which Adrienne Bailon is a member, have been tossed from the Macy's Day Parade, thanks to the work of Jonathan Jaxson, possibly the worst publicist in music industry history. In an effort to sexify his client's image a report was released advising that Miss Bailon's laptop, containing some compromising images, had been stolen.
Then lo and behold a pic of Adrienne's butt, which could easily be confused with the posterior of her boyfriend's sister Kim Kardashion, appeared on the Internet. Macy's didn't find this to bevery family-friendly, even if it was just a phony publicity stunt.
This week we were all treated to Sarah Palin starring in aturkey snuff flick. While the governor was pardoning one bird, an enthusiastic poultry butcher, was in the background slicing the throat of the lucky bird's brother.
While executive turkey clemency is disturbingly creepy, the whole thing is less than appetizing:
I don't know, despite being a redneck libertarian tomboy I'm becoming a softie. This year I think I may do Thanksgiving at Hooters (although I find short shorts over pantyhose to be extraordinarily weird)...
In either of these establishments “pass the breast” has nothing to do with dead bird flesh.
Although I must say the folks that run Hooters may be the biggest boobs in the world. Always looking for a way to keep the T and A in PETA, a while back the animal rights organization wanted to have a private party at a Manhattan Hooters, where veggie buffalo wings would be the main course. But the Hooter suits felt it was too politically charged. It was their loss since Pamela Anderson, who makes most of the Hooter waitresses look underdeveloped, was scheduled to attend.
Anyway, just like I prefer Christmas Eve over the actual day, Thanksgiving Eve is the day I rock.
I am hoping that theWild Turkey American Honey Girls will be at one of my hangouts, handing out samples of the appropriate beverage of the day.
Tempe Marketplace will light up a 60-foot tree and have an artificial snowfall on Wednesday. I don't know if I will make that, but I do know I will not be treating myself to the nation's most celebrated celesbian cheeseball—the return ofRosie O'Donnell to network TV.
And that means I will have to stay away from the lesbian bars, since all the girls will be yacking that one up.
Guess I'll have to hook up with some guy pals and take in the pole dancers.
Oh wait, that chick is one of thezGirl Clubbarflys.
After all who is Todd Seavey, but a former John Stossel gofer, who now makes his living promoting the health benefits of transfats, contributes an occasional article to Reason Magazine and the National Review blog, and posted the most intended witty, but unintentionally idiotic (but quite revealing) personal online dating ad I have ever seen?
Since the Libertarian Party has never been able to crack one percent in the popular vote, one might think it would be a good political strategy to reach out and be more inclusive. In a rational world gays, minorities and women would be recruited and should be flocking to libertarianism, if not the actual party, they would at least constitute the transformative fix that the Republican Partymust receive, if it is to survive.
It might seem curious that these groups are not drawn to libertarianism, which is by far more egalitarian than the ideologies espoused by either of the major political parties.
One part of the problem is that the libertarian movement has been blessed with more than its fair share of Neanderthal Meatballs, such as Todd Seavey—who are not only not reaching out to anyone other than angry white heterosexual men—but actively driving everyone else away.
Even though Todd has an Ivy League education, and studied at the feet of John Stossel, his self-proclaimed “punk conservatism” quite often consists of the type of banal philosophizing, albeit in a more intelligently framed format, often overhead in sports bars—or anywhere guys gather to moan about their wife, the ex who is always whining about child support or the unqualified affirmative action bitch who bosses them around at work--and just all the reverse discrimination that has arisen in the last thirty years.
Todd is the kind of coffee shop philosopher who drones on and on, and I would like to say I have the patience to engage in the type of scholarly pugilistic discussion he invites. But, it would be boring. And I don't really think it is necessary.
How does this passage grab you?
“This is really my main complaint about the civil rights movement, as philosophy… I get the sense whenever listening to the movement's arguments that there are conclusions I am being morally goaded into drawing about how the world works even before I have been allowed to investigate — that the intelligence of the white man and the Negro “must” be found to be equal, or that if whites are smarter at some things, Negros “must” be smarter at others in such a way that it all evens out (in some grand, ill-defined metaphysical sense) so that everyone feels like an equal partner in democracy at the end of the day. That’s just bad science. …”
Substitute “men” for “white" and "women" for “ negro” and that is how Todd wrote it in the paragraph pompously labeled “Making A Priori Moral Assertions About Thoroughly Empirical Questions.” He then claims there is some empirical evidence supporting his conclusions, without citing the sources (although it is stated in the “principles” of his blog that “claims should not be made without good empirical evidence”).
But, I do know in general what he is talking about—and these studies are about as valuable as the reports Seavey and the American Council on Health and Science do on the health benefits of Twinkies—and just as good as the ones Lester Maddox, George Wallace and Bull Connors relied on.
What a shame that this guy has to mix this offensive crap into the thoughts of Locke, Mills, Jefferson et al .
If the punk really cared about the promotion of libertarianism the very best thing would be for him to shut his big yap.
eHarmony Settles With Gay Activist Bullies
Already walking on real thin ice, after my good natured chiding of Barack Obamafor not turning out to be everything gays and lesbians had hoped for, and even suggesting that his nonaction was largely responsible for the defeat of Proposition 8, I am now about to take a dive which will likely result in no muff dives for this girl in the foreseeable future....
But here goes...
eHarmonyhas settled a suit brought by aNew Jersey man alleging that the matchmaking service discriminated against homosexuals by operating a setup that did not extend searches to include partners of the same sex. With the legal gun up against their head, eHarmonyis going to roll out a "separate but equal"gay version of their hokey service--called Compatible Partners. A class action initially brought by a lesbian in Californiais still pending, but it is reported that eHarmony is seeking an out of court resolution.
To say the least, our fundie friends are none to happy about this most recent capitulation in the culture war. And even though I am a culture war agnostic, I have to agree with them.
Why should eHarmony be required to match up gays and lesbians, anymore than Planet Sappho has to find dates for straight girls? And if I wanted to open up a matchmaking site for gay gun-toting libertarian girls would I have to accept applications from all the liberal dykes who can do nothing but huff O-phoria all day long?
I just don't get it. Look, you don't go to a Chinese joint if you have a craving for Tacos and Enchiladas. And should Playboy be forced to have beefcake centerfolds? Does Victoria's Secret have to stock jock straps?
There are a multitude of online gay dating services. If a straight girl happened to stumble into one,while looking for the man of her dreams, they would tell her to get lost—they just don't have anyone to match the chick up with.
But, as far as I know, though I suppose it is bound to happen someday, no offended straight girl has ever gotten all Nanny Pants about it.
There are tons of sites specializing in hooking up people of all kinds of various tastes and interests—even pot smokers. No one is suing them—but gay activists can not help themselves.
At one level the concern about eHarmony is absurd and ridiculous, but it is also troubling and disconcerting.
If we are honest about it, the social conservatives have not been very successful in imposing their narrow brand of Christianity on the nation. Abortion, sodomy, and pornography are now all constitutional rights, and that same constitution also prohibits praying in public schools. Same sex marriage and civil unionsare well on their way to becoming the law of the land, though we got a tiny temporary setback with Proposition 8.
For the most part, other than these lost causes, all the religious right wants is to be left alone, worship their god, homeschool and spank their kids—and maintain their virginity until eHarmoney selects a suitable mate.
These people are not really all that powerful. I can get pornography on my laptop, and if I drive a couple miles I can purchase enoughsex toysto fill the trunk of my car. If my daughter got pregnant the school, without notifying me, will arrange for an abortion. However, if she takes an Advil with her to schoolshe will be expelled after first being strip searched.
Well-meaning Liberal bullies are the real liberty killers:
Seat belts, motorcycle helmets, bicycle helmets, no smoking at the beach, car emission inspections, transfats illegal, banning fast food restaurants, no saying a prayer at a public high school graduation, no placing a gnome or bathtub Mary in your front yard, no spanking of your child but mandatory vaccinations, limiting campaign contributions, onerous gun possession restrictions, drinking a beer in a public park prohibited, schoolgirls in possession of Midol suspended, photo ID here, photo ID there, permits to have a garage sale, and etc.—not to mention seizing a huge chunk of our hard earned wages.
More and more laws are being passed to "protect" us…from…us. Roadblocks, checkpoints and random stops are now de rigueur here in the land of the free. Kinda reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
And that comparison is not over the top. One of the first wars against the ravages of tobacco was waged by theThird Reich. Nazi Youth manuals proclaimed that "nutrition is not a private matter!"
But in America we are fast forgetting what freedom means. I guess a lot of people want the government "experts" to take care of us--since we are all so stupid and helpless.
Its too bad-- for liberty is found in the small joys of life.
And now liberal gay activists are demanding that the government force eHarmony to be the matchmaker for the gay and lesbian community of America because it is the politically correct thing to do--even though no gay or lesbian will use the service---since eHarmony is a creepy fundie organization founded in 2000 by Evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren and has strong ties with our friends at Focus on the Family. eHarmony purportedly uses some voodoo formula based on research of heterosexual couples to achieve their bull's eye matchmaking results.
Apparently the activists feel that gays and lesbians want a piece of this hokum.
But in the final analysis why shouldn't eHarmony have as much right as I do to start an online dating service dedicated to pairing up tomboys who live in their daisy dyke short shorts?
However, I do console myself with the hope that the successful conclusion of these lawsuits will somehow bring an end to the nauseating Natalie Cole sing-along eHarmony adverts.
Janet Napolitano's Police State Going National
One of the downsides of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitanodragging her dumpy little self off to Washington DC, to head Homeland Security, is that Secretary of State Jan Brewer and her band of Republican crazies will be in charge of Arizona—the ones, who, along with Napolitano, ran the state into the ground financially, but are primarily concerned with chasing out Mexican melon pickers.
Jan Brewer is one of those sixty four year old bleach blond babes who can sure bang her bible good---made from that same fine Secretary of State mold as Florida'sKatherine Harris. If you care to learn more, Jan has an incredibly inactive MySpace page, which features a thirty year old pic of the Secretary of State.
But I am being selfish, the biggest problem with the appointment of Janet Napolitano is that all those silly fears about the United States becoming a police state through video surveillance and photo enforcement will be the new reality.
With conservative tyrants like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaioand liberal tyrants like Governor Janet Napolitano, Arizona, long regraded as a bastion of free wheeling western frontier freedom, would be unrecognizable toBarry Goldwater.
The number of enforcement cameras being installed , on a daily basis, alongside the freeways in Arizonais mind boggling. It is expected that by 2010 they will be raising $165 million annually in state revenue. Essentially Arizona has become one big speed trap.
Although it is wrong, it is not all that bad when Barney Fife turns Mayberry into a speed trap for the sole purpose of making money off motorists passing through on their way to Raleigh.
But the rub is that there is more to it than just sending in a couple hundred bucks to the municipal court clerk. Your insurance rates go up. And then most often you will be required to spend a Saturday morning sitting in some traffic safety class run by a DMV private contractor—which will set you back a couple hundred more—which wouldn't be all that bad, but they periodically take attendance throughout the day.
And never mind that it has been documented that these cameras cause a 54 percent increase in rear-end collisions and a 9 percent increase in injuries from rear-end collisions.
Everyone knows this has very little to do with public safety and everything to do with putting money into the public coffers and pockets of political cronies—and not just the safety instructor, but the operators of these surveillance cameras.
Janet Napolitanocontracted with Redflex, an Aussie company, to spy on Arizona motorists. In these times of economic woes, the fortunes of Redflexare surging. In the 2008 financial year Redflex reported record revenues of $88.2 million.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety plans to turn the statewide speed camera program into a vast spy camera network. The system has built in automated number plate recognition capability, which not only allows for cost-saving automated ticketing, but the ability to track the movement of motorists who have done nothing wrong.
Now there are still some of us that are camera shy and are not going to take this laying down. For example, I always wear a Janet Napolitano mask when driving the freeways—and though I lose a day's work going to court to challenge the automated citation—the judges are still holding onto the antiquated idea that the criminal has to actually be identified—so that is a winning strategy—at least for now.
And then I give comfort and support, in all manner of pleasant ways, to the hot rod hellions who run organizations likeCamerafraud.com
and provide a safe house for those pirates of the Loop 101, who under cover of darkness, through various nefarious means manage to put a stick into the eyeballs of Janet's spies in the skies:
Oh and note that the Arizona Republican Party Chairman is with us—thank god, despite it all, there are still some Republicans that care a little bit about freedom--- they are the only ones in the legislature who do.
Any rate, Janet Napolitanohas demonstrated an enthusiastic, unhealthy and unusual obsessiveness with installing surveillance cameras throughout Arizona—and a total lack of understanding of why anyone would care.
She will go a long ways in making Homeland Security into the type of agency which George Bush originally envisioned.
Barack Obama Lies to Gays Again
Just wondering if any of my gay and lesbian friends are beginning to get it on the big nothing that Obama Pride is.
We have discussed how Barack Obama, after much vacillating, promised to get DOMA repealed, but when there was a bill in the Senate to repeal one small part of the law, he declined to support it.
And I wouldn't really hold my breath for it to happen then.
Isn't this guy just everything you had hoped for?
Another lying panderer, who wastes no time in tossing you under the bus.
Libertarianism vs. Feminism---Howley vs. Seavey
If libertarians were to exert even one percent of the time and effort they do on wonkish philosophical debates, on effecting political change, we would rule the world.
While it is a good thing to be well versed in philosophy, in the end it is just trying to explain why everything is so stupid—you can better spend your time calculating pi—indeed if there are any remaining Pythagoreans , who are not also schizophrenic paranoids, they would greatly admire you for pursuing divine enlightenment in this diabolical manner....
The most recent libertarian debate, which has been raging on the Internet, and attracting the attention of almost no one (but excited a lot of those libertarians who don't toke enough and think way too much) has been the battle of words between the delightfully cute and extraordinarily intelligent Kerry Howley, an editor at Reason Magazine, and self-styled punk conservativeTodd Seavey.
Now Todd Seavey could serve a useful purpose as the intellectual voice of Dumb Young White Guys—but he is a bit of a bore.
Of course, one problem with defending the libertarian inclinations of this group is that it is mostly about justifying the god given right to indulge in boorish selfish behavior.
For example they are deeply offended that both government and corporate policies frown on such things as a good natured slap on the backside of the office girl.
And it is the latter type of thing which Miss Howley and Mr. Seaveyhave been discussing. Todd feels it is impossible to be both a feminist and a libertarian.
This is certainly news to me.
One problem with modern libertarianism is that there tend to be a lot more fed up conservatives (such as Mr. Seavey), than liberals who were converted after taking an introductory course in economics.
And they bring their baggage with them. A few years ago I was doing some work with these Idaho panhandle conservatives turned libertarian. They were all pretty cool with libertarianism except stuff like gay marriage.
So I told them, that the way it worked was once we gained power, there would be naked pot-smoking lesbians frolicking on the shores of Lake Cour de'Alene --but they would also get to keep theirsemi-automatics.
The sons of the Aryan Nation were pretty sure they could get down with that.
Guys like Todd Seavey, and these militiamen, tend to be solely concerned with government coercion, and pooh pooh any real problems with social and cultural coercion as just being whining—this is because they are heterosexualwhite men, and quite often dumb, young, stupid and have no future and are proud of it. In their mind if you just don't legally discriminate against a group, then everyone is on a level playing field.
The tendency of many libertarians to minimize the importance of non-governmental oppression is the reason that gays, minorities and women tend to identify with the Democrats and leftist politics, rather than libertarianism—even though libertarians offer much more to these groups. For example, the official Libertarian Partyhas always strongly supported same sex marriage, something that is still absent in theDemocratic Party platform, and the policies of most Democratic politicians, including Barack Obama.
Of course, the Republican Party, which in words at least, is the more libertarian of the two major parties, has been hijacked by the social conservatives, who not only promote socially oppressive institutions and thought, but wish to codify as much of it as possible into law, or at the very least protect the private right to discriminate, dictate and oppress.
So minorities, queers and women tend to go with the left, which promotes a collectivist type of civil libertarianism—and is quite enthusiastic about so-called “reproductive rights”--which they see as the philosophical rationale for gay and women's rights, rather than the libertarian or classical liberal concept of a universal individual right of freedom and liberty.....
and the right to purse happiness.
Libertarianism is all about Fuck You—toward anything that causes unhappiness and misery by attempting to force us into oppressed conformity—not just laws. This includes oppression through corporatism, religion and social norms.
Feminism is about confronting the Patriarchy, which ideally would like all adult women to be bare foot and pregnant, cloistered nuns or happy hookers. Libertarians say that is fine if it is what the girl truly wants...
Like so many of my readers, friends and casual sex partners, Normaless can not fathom why I am not head over heels crushing on Barack Obama.
And of all things, he attributes my lack of fashionable political taste, and obstinate ignorance, to sexual orientation.
Today, for the first time in several days, I checked out my homepage on Blogcatalog and found that Normal Ass had publicly left this message for me:
"I guess you didn't vote Obama. Ashame. If he's tyranny, well hopefully he'll round up all you 'gay' people and happily espirit you to some galaxy far far away. What's he suppose to say: gays need marriage at all costs. I am special interest candidate. Put up a gay Prez candidate then talk to me. "
By the way, Mr. No More Mr. Nice Guy—witticisms are usually funnier when big words like “esprit” are correctly spelled and properly used.
Now I am not suggesting that this progressive peanut brain is typical of Obama supporters, but it just goes to show that the Republican Party does not have a monopoly on offensiveness.
The homepage tagging was spurred by my post Barack Obama: Tyranny You Can Believe In, wherein I expressed my concerns that the actual deeds of Barack Obama, despite the inspiring words and wonderful promises, do not show him to be much of a friend of freedom and liberty. But, I didn't mention anything about gay marriage—not that at other times I have not been a lonely gay girl crying in the wilderness on how the failure of The Oneto lift a finger in opposition toProposition 8 was the single biggest cause of its approval by California voters.
I am just concerned this is not the kind of change I can believe in—but I have no choice but to let President Barack Obama prove me wrong--and I actually hope the new boss does just that.
However , when I get gay bashing nastygrams from Obamiacs like Normaless—it makes it harder to be Miss Nice Girl.
Booting the Shoe Tax & Economic Kick Start
It dawned another beautiful day here in the desert—where there is always one hundred percent chance of sun and a bountiful supply of lizard hatchlings.
So with a song in my heart, I headed off to the mall to do my part in stimulating the economy.
My mission was a good pair of winter boots—one of the items that is a must have in the Arizona Winter, where unlike other mild climates, we like to pretend that we are shivering along with the folks in upstate New York. You see, admitting that the state is one heck of a lot nicer in the winter than on the shores of Lake Erie just seems un-American to us.
Last December I went to see the festival of lights at the Phoenix Zoo, and since it was in the low seventies I felt comfortable in a pair ofkhaki short shorts. I kid you not— you should have seen the concerned looks I got. I was afraid one of the well meaning fellow patrons , who were all outfitted in gloves and scarves, might whisk me away to the nearest looney bin.
Anyway, I got myself a pair of hotStella McCartney knee high wool trimmed wedge boots and headed home.
I clicked on the TV, and a reporter from the local ABC affiliate, which is astonishingly amateurish considering that Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country, was breathlessly reporting on the shoe tax. And then I was pissed.
It seems that one of the ineffective measures passed by Congress in the thirties, to stave off the Great Depression, was this punitive tax on imported shoes. Just like our modern Democrats
