March 2012
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FASCISM, AMERICAN STYLE
My point is NOT that Sarah Palin is fascist. Though the “Christian Warrior” church she belonged to in Alaska is certainly fascist… and anyone who would literally wrap herself in the flag is surely shameless.
Nazism was not the only kind of possible fascism. Each country going fascist would adapt it to itself. What I saw with the Republican regime of George W. Bush and those...
February 2012
24 posts
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TEK
One of baseball’s all-time great catchers has announced his retirement.
Since his lifetime batting average is .259, he may not make the Hall of Fame, but that would be a travesty. He belongs in Cooperstown. To wit:
1) He was among the all-time best at handling a pitching staff, calling games and settling his team. A catcher’s primary job. (None of that involves hitting.)
2) He...
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AMERICA'S WAR AGAINST RELIGION
OMG!! Conservative Christians in America are forever whining that they are persecuted! There is a “War Against Christians” in America! Last week, a group of men (no women) testified before a Republican Congressional committee hearing on requiring co-pays for birth control and said they are “ready to die” for their conscience. OMG. Christian martyrs in the Roman...
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GREAT PRESIDENTS (AS SEEN ON FOX)
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FORWARD TO THE PAST
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STATE RAPE
Can the Christian witch hunters be far behind?
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NEXT UP: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
In its continuing, activist judicial war against all the progress liberalism made since the 1960s, the Supreme Court will soon reconsider affirmative action. In their previous decision in this Texas case, they left standing the principle of affirmative action to redress racial injustice while disallowing many of the remedies. Now they’re poised to strike down the principle altogether.
...
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FREE ENTERPRISE BINGO
Beyond the inherent moral sadness of this bingo board, the contextual moral sadness? The contemporary right-wing mentality displayed here is the same as that which advocated England’s Poor Laws 600 years ago and Robber Baron capitalism 200 years ago.
And here we are in 2012 with reactionary economic forces still powerful enough to make us fight these elemental moral battles yet again.
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BIBLICAL MARRIAGE
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AMERICAN IRRATIONALS
What’s unnerving today is the sheer mindlessness and irrationality which renders our democracy all but dysfunctional. Fundamentalists are a big part of the problem… they actually take pride in their anti-rational, anti-“secular reality” mentality. And the GOP has managed to produce a boatload of seemingly insane elected officials, from Congress on down to sheriffs and...
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LETTER FROM AN EX-SLAVE TO HIS EX-MASTER
In 1865, Col. P.H. Anderson wrote Jourdan Anderson, a man the Confederate colonel once owned as a slave, and asked him to come back and work for him for wages. Jourdan dictated the following reply, which has been on the internet for years but went viral this week because of Facebook.
P.S. The photo above is not Jourdan Anderson but another elderly ex-slave.
Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To...
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GOP AWKWARD
ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is a right-wing corporate-funded lobby which seeks to overturn the “socialist” policies of our current president by “working with” Republican state legislators. They’re bringing high-powered Washington lobbyists to state capitols. Wanna know why so many states all of a sudden and all at the same time started attacking...
Taylor Swift on TV: The song was about the hardest period in my life. A lot of rejection, criticism. . .
Mom: Oh, keep writing, white girl, your life has been so hard.
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CONFUSED FREEDOM
Roman Catholic bishops and right-wing Protestants (who think the pope is the Anti-Christ except when their political interests align) say the Obama administration is violating their religious freedom by requiring some religiously-affiliated health providers to offer free contraceptive services. Tim Thomas, outspoken moralist and Boston Bruins goalie, is among those who have weighed in to...
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WHITNEY
Whitney Houston hit the big time like a force of nature. Stunningly beautiful, multi-talented and with pipes that allowed something previously unthinkable — comparisons to Aretha. Whitney Houston could sing!
Then she met Bobby Brown.
Back in the day, Bobby Brown was well-known around Boston, and not just for New Edition. He had multiple babies all over town, each by a different...
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CONGRATULATIONS, MITT
Mitt Romney just “won” the Maine caucus, giving him new momentum towards capturing the Republican nomination. Horse race journalists on the campaign trail take note.
Six thousand people voted in Maine. Mitt Romney won 39% of 6000 votes. It’s a mandate.
Facebook Is Using You - NYTimes.com →
Alabama State Senator Thinks Increasing Teacher... →
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NEW ENGLAND PSYCHE (Dialogue in my head)
As the hours wind down towards the Super Bowl kickoff, New England fans are waiting for it with both excitement and anxiety. With long-time fans of Boston teams it’s always psychological. Like the following dialogue I’ve been hearing in my head...
ME 1: Everyone’s picking the Giants.
ME 2: So what? I remember when every pundit and Jesus himself (according to Curt Warner)...
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CHRISTIAN RIGHT PORNOGRAPHY
I’m sure JC Penny knew what they were getting into when they announced they’d hired Ellen Degeneres as a spokeswoman. Predictably, a homophobic Christian group — this time an online crew called One Million Moms — has announced a campaign to boycott JC Penny because their members “have values.”
These are the same Christian Right-types who showed their...
Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At... →
Democracy… I mean Plutocracy in action. But remember… the Supreme Court says your money is just as free to speak as theirs is.
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PUNDITS' DISEASE
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OUR INVISIBLE POOR
The morality of a nation is best judged by how its poor are treated.
A generation ago, there were enough non-poor people interested in being a moral nation that poverty was on the radar screen. Dr. King’s great cause was his Poor Peoples Campaign. The Welfare Rights Organization and others were organizing low income communities against the REAL CAUSES of poverty and decay: federal...
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A PIECE OF PEACE
It’s admirable that these religious leaders of various faiths known as much for their conflict as for comity can get together like this. They’re trying to make a common witness to peace. But they can’t, and the picture itself shows why.
Who’s missing? Women! So long as religions remain patriarchal, they cannot witness to anything but division, delusion and in the...
January 2012
29 posts
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MICHELLE
Michelle Obama has taken a lot more abuse and disrespect than she or any woman deserves. It started during the presidential campaign and intensified when as First Lady, she announced her campaign against childhood obesity. Right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh mocked her for this, saying she herself is fat (with a large “posterior”). Really? Rush? You’re calling someone fat? ...
THE REPUBLICAN BRAIN
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AMERICAN IGNORANCE
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CORPORATE PERSONHOOD
Somehow “judicial activism” is associated with liberal judges, but conservatives were the ones who created ex nihilo a whole new life form, the corporate “fictional person” — and then gave these “persons” the freedom to impose their interests on real people like you and me. Pay attention to where the threats to democracy really come from.
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The 10 Most Racist Moments of the GOP Primary (So... →
Racism is an assault on the common good. Racism also does the work of dividing and conquering people with common interests. While the 2012 Republican candidates are stirring the pot of white racial anxiety, this is a means to a larger end—the destruction of the country’s social safety net, in support of vicious economic austerity policies, and protecting the kleptocrats and financiers at the...
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TOMMY
Back then, at Junipero Serra High School in California, he was known as Tommy. As in Tommy Brady. He wasn’t even the starting quarterback on a freshman team that lost every game. As a sophomore he rode the bench, and his overall high school career was not much to brag about. His high school coach said Brady is not even on the top ten list of best athletes he coached… but he was...
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FOX MOX THE POOR
So FOX’s point is what? That poor people shouldn’t have refrigerators? Their food should rot because they’re quote-unquote poor?
FOX News casts itself as a defender of Christianity against the “secular left” (“War on Christmas” anyone?), but FOX’s Christianity is cultural not biblical, and certainly not spiritual. There are literally hundreds...
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STFU TIM THOMAS!
I love the Bruins… I’m a life-long Boston Sports Fan (Bruins, Pats, Sox, Celts) and always will be. And I love Tim Thomas. I love that he comes from a state I once lived in (Vermont). What he did in the Stanley Cup playoffs was immense — a performance for the ages. I’ve got the DVD.
But what he did yesterday was not cool. He snubbed President Obama’s White...
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WHAT'S A REPUBLICAN TO DO?
Tomorrow night will present a real dilemma for Republican House and Senate members listening to President Obama deliver his State of the Union speech.
On the one hand, if they show ANY inclination to listen to Obama or cooperate with him — if they applaud anything he says — they risk pissing off their base. They’ll risk the wrath or electoral indifference of Tea Party or...
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OUR "LIBERAL" MEDIA
Remember when Bill Clinton and Congress (Republicans and Democrats) GAVE AWAY broadcasting rights to media corporations rather than auctioning them off and collecting billions of dollars for the taxpayer? Remember how the corporate media completely IGNORED the story?
“Liberal” media indeed.
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THE GREATEST
Picture 1 shows Cassius Marcellus Clay, a Louisville, KY abolitionist. When his slave-holding neighbors assembled at his home to burn down his printing press, they found Mr. Clay had put a cannon on his front porch.
Generations later, a black woman in Louisville named her son after the abolitionist. Pretty cool. Obviously, she saw history, courage and greatness in her baby’s...
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“With all this information, I think the Heritage Foundation drew the wrong...”
– I’m sorry, but this is BS. Get rid of the 5% of teachers (cops, lawyers, doctors, etc.) who do most of the malpractice — which the respective unions and associations make difficult to do — and you are left with the 95% who are professional, competent and caring.
Bashing teachers...
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THE REVEREND MLK
It’s the Biblical preacher part of Dr. King’s legacy I’m reflecting on this year, and how he represented his understanding of God and scripture to the world. Today it’s preachers from the Christian Right who command the public stage, and their witness doesn’t stand up very well by comparison.
Dr. King defended poor and marginalized minorities against the strong...
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GARBAGE TIME (MLK DAY)
The private corporation hired by the city to pick up our garbage sent its crews to my neighborhood today, on Martin Luther King Day, just like they do every Monday.
It’s ironic because Dr. King was shot while supporting striking sanitation workers trying to organize a union, (The strike began when a black worker who was required to ride in the back of the truck with the garbage...
FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » Newsweek's Surprising... →
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GOD'S TREE HOUSE
The pious patriarchialists in this photo are Jews, but I could have chosen a similar picture of Muslims clerics. Or Southern Baptists preachers. Or the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals. While religion is supposed to be about spirituality, transcendence and the Divine Mystery beyond human understanding, too many men in charge of organized religion are as small as childish boys who post a...
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FOX NEWS: SELECTIVE OUTRAGE
So, FOX News can stoke the flames of an irrational demand on the nation’s president (“Prove you are actually a legitimate president”) but can’t muster anywhere near the same outrage over a Republican frontrunner’s missing tax returns. Foe decades, every major candidate has released tax returns because the public has a right to know where the financial interests lie...
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WHERE'S THE HUMILITY?
After a month-long search, Penn State announced that New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator Bill O’Brien will replace Joe Paterno as the next head coach of the football team.
The backlash has been angry and fierce.
Former Penn State players, alumni and boosters have complained most bitterly that O’Brien, a non-Penn State “outsider”, can’t possibly understand...
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IRAQ (WAR IS OVER if you want it)
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THE DANGEROUS MISS PIGGY
One of FOX News’ highlights from 2011.
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ROMNEY THE JOB CREATOR
I’ve got major complaints about Obama and the Democrats (Got Spine anyone?), but at least they try to deal with reality. The GOP has wedded itself to an alternate reality which can only be sustained by lying about things over and over again.
Remember GW Bush? 1) “Saddam has WMDs.” 2) “I never said Saddam had WMDs.” Did the Democrats find a spine to empower...
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THE POLITICS OF WILDCARD FOOTBALL
I’m a born and bred New Englander, so no matter what happens or where I live, I’m always a Patriots fan. When I take an interest in another NFL game that my Pats are not involved in, my allegiance is up for grabs. There’s usually a political twist to who I like.
When the Saints went to the Super Bowl, I desperately wanted them to win. Who didn’t? Coming back from...
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HISTORY'S INTERSECTION
Who says City Planners don’t have a sense of humor?
I can tell you: this could only have happened in one of the former Confederate states. Kudos for embracing the Civil Rights Movement, and in many places, the South is better racially than the North, but damn… just can’t let go of the “heritage of OUR fathers” — their treason notwithstanding (and leaving...
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MEMO TO THE PARANOID, PIOUS RIGHT
Remember when Bush the Younger put “Christians” in charge of the government’s science offices and they quickly suppressed scientific studies that contradicted their fundamentalist Bible? That’s what we’ll go back to if any of the GOP lunatics now running for president actually attain their goal.
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POVERTY AND WORK
Easy moralizing from the top… aided and empowered by popular ignorance.
Most Americans think the poor are unemployed, which usually means it’s their fault. And few Americans realize that working 40 hours a week at minimum wage still leaves you well below the poverty line. Millions do precisely that because in this country, we don’t really believe that people who work hard...