Messin' with Texas

From a story in the Texas Observer:

On September 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m., God’s messengers visited Rick Perry...A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government.

The Norway Tragedy

What happened in Norway and who is to blame?

Glenn Beck: multiculturalism is to blame

American Thinker: I remain skeptical about Brevik, just as I remain skeptical of the narrative that Timothy McVeigh was a "right wing Christian" terrorist.

Atlas Shrugs: While the leftist and Islamic supremacist ghouls rush to portray Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik as a Christian and even as an anti-jihadist, the unanswered questions multiply.

Laura Ingraham on Fox: "..two deadly terror attacks in Norway, in what appears to be the work, once again, of Muslim extremists."

FREEDOM FRIDAY WITH CARL GALLUPS: Shooter was an Evolutionist/Pagan:

The shooter was a fanatic. Fanatics can be atheists, Catholics, Protestants, Sunnis, Shiites, communists, capitalists, anarchists, or fascists. Trying to blame a particular philosophy for someone's crimes is absurd, unless people cynically elevate their opinions to divine revelations or fanatically demonize their ideological or religious opponents into something less than human.

Summer Liberal Reading List

1. Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand

I heard they're making this novel into a movie. I hope they keep in the good parts. I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing, but it was easy to find the best bits in the library copy I looked at because certain pages showed more wear and tear than others. Here's one well written passage: He jerked her closer, to stifle the sight of his own shudder. His hands were going through the automatic motions of intimacy – and she complied, but in a manner that made him feel as if the beats of her arteries under his touch were snickering giggles.

2. Sisters by Lynne Cheney

A rough and tumble western novel about two womyn dealing with patriarchy, feminism, rape and the world capitalist system peppered with sizzling hot scenes:

Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl. . . .

...The young woman was heavily powdered, but quite attractive, a curvesome creature, rounded at bosom and cheek. When she smiled, even her teeth seemed puffed and rounded, like tiny ivory pillows.

Lynne Cheney is the proud parent of a lesbian daughter and married to some guy she playfully refers to as "Dick." She's written another steamy potboiler called The Body Politic.

3. Those Who Tresspass by Bill O'Reilly

O'Reilly is a double threat! Not only is he an author, but he also hosted Entertainment Tonight before getting a talk show on some basic cable network.

O'reilly's novel concern a broadcast journalist sytematically murdering members of the lamestream media.

Since he is an accomplished on air personality, the audio book is obviously the preferred format.

Excerpts can be heard here:

Those Who Trespass,

4. Getting it Right by William F. Buckley

Buckley had the politics of a right wing swine, but he was cool. Here's a moving scene:

But this time she led him upstairs to a room he had never laid eyes on, a bedroom with a king-size bed and not less than six oil pictures of Ayn on the walls, one of them showing her bare-breasted, the Ayn of twenty years ago. The shades had been drawn and Nathaniel could savor the scent. Today her lover was being welcomed with synesthetical concerns for all the senses, only the music missing. But as he lay and later groaned with writhing and release, he brought the full force of his mind to transmuted, volutptuarian elation in this physical union with the very woman who had created John Galt and Dagny Taggart and Henry Rearden, and had touched down her scepter on him, Nathaniel, igniting his mind, and his own scepter, which paid, now, devoted service.

5. The Apprentice by Scooter Libby

A thriller by Dick Cheney's chief of staff with references to beastiality, pedophilia and rape.

At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest. Groups of men paid to watch.

6. The Starr Report

Read the sordid story of President Clinton pleasuring himself in a sink in his bathroom, taking calls from members of Congress while receiving oral sex and other shameful acts in glorious detail.

FOX's Liberal Bias

From the Huffington Post on NewsCorps' political giving:

Donations reported Friday for calendar year 2011 went primarily to Democrats.

More Fair and Balanced News

Michelle Obama eats the equivalent of a live raccoon, only on FOX!

The Daily Show
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Exceptional Arrogance

Promoting his new beverage in Joplin, Missouri, on Independence Day, Rush Limbaugh remarked:

This country has produced opportunity and prosperity unlike the world has ever seen before. . . . The history of the world is oppression, tyranny, dungeons – not here. We are an exception to the way human beings have always lived on this planet. This is a nation blessed by God.

What bothers me about Limbaugh's "Exceptionalism" is that it goes beyond patriotism and into the realm of mindless nationalism and superstition. Patriotism is valuing what is good and best about your country, not ignoring or denying that it has acted unjustly or promoted inequality. Limbaugh points out that this country has produced "opportunity and prosperity" but we are currently suffering through a crisis that originated on Wall Street, and may see another shock wave if the Tea Party Politicians continue playing Kamikaze with the debt.

There's also a cruelty to such exceptionalism. The people in Joplin are the best of America, while the victims in New Orleans who don't resemble Limbaugh and most of his listeners are portrayed as "whining" or worse by Limbaugh and his fans on his show and website.

Limbaugh also mocked the Japanese refugees following this year's quake and tsunami. Why? The Japanese are guilty of recycling and creating the Prius:Such callousness and disregard for the suffering of people who don't fit the stereotype of a full-blooded American blessed by God is simply ugly and a betrayal of the values of what we are supposed to be celebrating.

"Get Off My Antidisestablishmentarianism"

I'm not a fan of most rap and hip hop, preferring "All You Need Is Love" to "Gangsta's Paradise"

Gangsta Rap in particular seems like it could be an insidious invention of the Klu Klux Klan, designed to promote young black men engaging in self destructive behavior and reinforce internalized racism and sexism. Still, the soundtrack of choice for some of the most destructive and murderous campaigns in history has been European Fine Art Music.

Roots of Breakdance (Run DMC - It's Like That) - Click here for the most popular videos

I Have A Scheme

Back when we had our TV upstairs and could actually receive a broadcast signal, my kids saw ads for My Gold Envelope and some sort of device to flatten one's abs. The ads were shown between cartoons and made a big impression on my offspring. For the next few days they reminded me that I could burn off my belly fat, and that simply filling an envelope with my wife's and Oma's gold jewelry would provide the necessary funds to take them to Chuck E. Cheese's and Gamestop. My kids were disappointed to find out that I had no gold, except for the magic ring on my finger that makes me Mommy's property.

So why doesn't the US start unloading some of its gold? Internet conspiracy theories aside, gold stacked up at Fort Knox isn't doing any good.  I say unload the stuff, and if the price of gold falls significantly, buy some of it back.

Independence From The Past Day

I've only been able to celebrate Independence Day a few times in the States since 1998. Usually I'm enjoying friendly German hospitality at a Schutzenfest, a popular celebration that combines shooting, drinking, Catholicism, patriotism, marching bands and Senior Prom. The one thing that makes me a little uncomfortable are the salutes to fallen German heroes from the World Wars.

It reminds me of the dilemma faced by President Reagan years ago when he visited a German cemetary:

These [SS troops] were the villains, as we know, that conducted the persecutions and all. But there are 2,000 graves there, and most of those, the average age is about 18. I think that there's nothing wrong with visiting that cemetery where those young men are victims of Nazism also, even though they were fighting in the German uniform, drafted into service to carry out the hateful wishes of the Nazis. They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.

-Ronald Reagan