Wright Isn't Wrong

The campaign that won’t die has the controversy that wont die, “The Sermons of Reverend Wright”. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard at least one of the sound bytes from Barack Obama’s former Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The clip of Rev. Wright in a traditional African Dress at the pulpit delivering a “controversial” sermon after 9/11 has been played ad nasuem.

Jeremiah Wright, who had maintained a very low profile for the past month had a coming out this week. First was the generally calm Bill Moyers interview. The PBS interview proved nothing in the way of controversy, they prefer substantive discourse to shouting(which is why they currently need your donations). Then came the NAACP speech, and the Smackdown Q and A at the National Press Club. Wow.

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SMACKDOWN

These two performances(and they were performances) caused enough “damage” that Barack Obama was had a Press Conference on his Pastor yesterday. There could have been an emergency, “Iraq”, or “Global Food Crisis” Press Conference, but alas, the media knows that the most important thing to talk about is Jeremiah Wright (he totally kills 30,000 people a day like starvation right?).

Obama was forced to do what he had to do, divorce himself completely from Wright. I’m sure on a personal level he was upset that his former Pastor had chosen to make such a public spectacle when he did. On Wright’s part, it was stupid because it allowed the media to frame him, and forced Obama to publicly divorce his entire campaign from Wright.

Whatever his motivation Wright could have picked a better time to come out so hard. It is the media’s job to butcher reality into 10 second snippets.

Therfore Let’s just, and I know this will be difficult for some of you, slide to the universe where Wright is Right. That’s a little place I call complex reality (home).

Rev Wright: “The US Government is responsible for AIDS”.

Well it’s not like the US government has done anything bad to black people. Oh yeah that’s right, Slavery! And Jim Crow! And a Prison Industrial Complex built on the excessive Incarceration of Minorities for Minor Drug Offenses!

Is the “US Government” responsible for Aids. Well, what do you mean by “US Government”? My mailman is a part of the US Government. I don’t think he gave black people Aids.

But the US Public Health Service did intentionally infect African American men with Syphilis under the scientific premise of, “let’s see what the fuck happens” and "Fuck em' they're black. Over a 40 year period between 1932 and 1972, 399 black men in Tuskegee Alabama were given Syphilis without medicine(by 1947 Penicillin was the standard medical treatment). By the end of the “experiment” only 74 were still alive, 40 wives were infected and 17 children developed congenital syphilis.

With this happening as recent as 1972, is it not at least understandable why older African-Americans are skeptical that AIDS and HIV ravaged the African American community un-proportionally worse than any other racial group because of the behavior of their community alone?

To this day we still give more funding to provenly ineffective methods like faith based abstinence. Pray to whoever the fuck you want that you don't get AIDS, but prayers don’t prevent HIV, Condoms do.

All these facts together shed some light on why not Just Wright, but a large percentage of African Americans (and a couple Whiteys) share this view.

Rev Wright: “The US government is engaging in Terrorism, and this terrorism caused 9/11”.

Well, we did fund a little rag-tag group of Rebels fighting the Soviets back in the 1980’s. That movie with Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson’s war I think covered it. Oh yeah, we trained and funded rebels in Afghanistan and equipped them with all the necessary tools for guerilla warfare. Then when they won we just completely abandoned them. Who was that one guy our CIA trained, oh yeah, Osama Bin Laden.

One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. Whether they are right wing Para-military groups in Nicaragua, or Tribal warriors in the South Pacific our CIA aids violence for political purposes. That is supporting terrorism. And as Ralph Wiggum so eloquently pointed out in “The Simpsons Movie”, that brings blowback.

Rev. Wright: “God Bless America, No No No, God DAMN AMERICA”.

This is by far the most “offensive” statement that Rev. Wright made. Of course no one listened to the broader text of the sermon, but lets examine those comments.

Damn comes from the word Condemn, as in God damns or God condemns things. The Christian God follows some fairly simple rules, the 10 commandments, and Jesus’ golden one, “love thy neighbor”. The entireity of the media has fueled this outrage, “God does and will always Bless America, he certainly would not Damn it”.

How is it then that in the wealthiest nation in the world, over 40 million don’t have healthcare? How is then that in the fattest nation in the world, millions go hungry? How is it in the Freeest nation in the world, we have higher Incarceration rates than almost anywhere? How in the most righteous nation in the world, can we allow for institutionalized torture(it goes much deeper than water boarding) in the war on terror?

The truth is we can’t be. I love the people in this country. But our country has some deep flaws. And I do not for one think that if you applied a biblical god’s standards to this country, that god would not “bless us”. That God would Condemn Us, that God would Damn us.

Pope, Nazi and Confederate?

Ok, this was brought to my attention today.

Notice anything wrong with this picture. Besides the missing thumb.

Wow, ok this is going to take some research. Could it be that the Nazi's and Confederates are working together. And Indiana Jones is busy fighting Aliens and Soviets? Shit.

Well it looks like it could be the Mississippi State Flag. But really, of the 50 flags, their picture was taken in front the only one with the Confederate Flag still in it.
(You can see how crappy your state flag is here)

In Mississippi, there was a 2000 state referendum on whether to take the Confederate Flag off of their State Flag. It was voted down by a 2 to 1 margin.

Top 5 Evil Hillary Laughs

I know, I know, all I do is talk shit on Hillary. But after seeing her laugh in response to a question about the Columbia Trade Deal today, I gotta do it.

NUMBER 5

NUMBER 4

NUMBER 3

NUMBER 2

NUMBER 1

Rise of the Machines

Ooookay. First it was the terrifying robo dog that could chase me down thru any terrain.

All that thing needs is a gun on its back or even more terrifying something like this.


And now we have met the face of our overlords.

Notice how fucking creepy it is when it comes to the camera. Oh and take a good look at that angry face. That's what its gonna look like right when it becomes self aware.

I would like to take this oppritunity to welcome our Cybernetic Rulers and say on the record may the rule with a mighty processor.

You're Wrong

NOFX has a great acoustic song called "You're Wrong." Among the things they sing "You're Wrong" for are thinking pride is about nationality, thinking there will be a judgment day and agreeing with Ann Coulter because she's a (well, I can't say that here).

So, in the spirit of NOFX, I present a list of "You're Wrongs."

You're wrong if you think we're fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

First it was weapons of mass destruction. Then it was Saddam's links to Sept. 11 and Osama bin Laden. Sprinkled in between those were "fighting for freedom" and "spreading democracy." Every single rationale we've been told for this war has been, at best, intellectually defunct and at worst outright lies.

Of course, the mainstream media were too scared to do their job then, but they learned their lesson, right?

Nope.

They echo the continued misconception that we are fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq. First of all, Al-Qaeda in Iraq is not the same Al-Qaeda that is supposed to be responsible for Sept. 11. The one in Iraq is actually known as "Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn." That one is hard to pronounce, let alone explain.

So, what is the size and scope of this group? Well, in 2006, the U.S. State Department estimated they made up less than 1 percent of the insurgency. But they are said to be growing, and, just like the folks in Guantanamo, "the worst of the worst."

In July of 2007, both the National Intelligence Estimate and the Defense Intelligence Agency reports stated the Al-Qaeda in Iraq were responsible for 15 percent of the violence. Trouble is, the independent Congressional Research Service said it was more like 2 percent and that false reporting of this group has gone up since the surge.

Oh, and there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq before we went in and invaded (Saddam hated anyone who didn't worship him).

You're wrong if you support corn ethanol.

This is the favorite of politicians and big business alike. Rule No. 1 in politics: Everything is done out of self-interest. Be extremely skeptical of anything anyone in power ever says, especially if they use a feel-good marketing approach to convince you.

Ladies and gentlemen, quite frankly, corn ethanol sucks. It sucks resources, tax dollars and most of all, makes no sense. David Pimintel, a Cornell University professor of ecology and agricultural sciences, concluded that the production of corn ethanol uses 30 percent more energy than it creates.

The idea that we are moving to energy independence with ethanol is just wrong. BP uses corn in almost all its new green-washing campaigns. It serves as a method for oil companies to continue their stranglehold on us while the same time they get subsidized by our government to "fix the problems" they create (such as global warming).

Oh, and run-off from corn creates all new types of environmental problems. It is massively inefficient, and, furthermore, a subsidized ruse.

Corn ethanol is so big because big agribusiness is built on corn. That is why our Coca-Cola tastes terrible compared to Canada and Mexico's. They use sugar; we use high-fructose corn syrup.

Hemp is at least five times better than corn, and I'm sure there are things five times better than hemp. I just know corn's definitely not it.

You're wrong if you're trying to convince people there is or is not a God.

NOFX opens up the live version of their song "You're Wrong" with "If you believe there is a God, you're wrong." But the Bible says that if you don't believe in God you're wrong. Could it be that both are wrong?

The pious feel self-righteous for "saving people" by converting them to their deity.

The atheists feel self-righteous for "freeing people" from religious manipulation.

And they both won't shut up about it.

I think that those who condemn others for having different beliefs are ignorant at best. I believe that this kind of "holier-than-thou" thinking has directly contributed to the historical subjugation of women, the suppression of progressive intellectual thought and countless wars. That is my main problem with religion in a nutshell: Religion is used as a tool for the wicked to manipulate our very structure of thought.

Yet, when I see atheists such as Christopher Hitchens spew arguments about how stupid and misguided the religious are, it almost always comes across with the same supremacist tone that James Dobson has. Many of the new prominent atheists suffer from the same superiority complex of those they rail against.

I have met many rational atheists. I have met many rational religious people. What they all have in common is that they are looking for answers to complex questions. The kind that has more than a "yes" or "no" answer.

So, whatever you believe, believe it. Just quit trying to tell me how much better that makes you. If Christopher Hitchens looks at his life, this Earth and this universe in all its complexity and beauty and decides to himself, "Nope, nothing special" - fine. But he and Pat Robertson can keep it to themselves. They're both wrong.

This Dude is Dope

Strollin thru youtube I came across this dude.


Super Dope.

I could jam to that for hours.

I Don't Want to Beat a Dead Horse, But this 3 AM Shit, C'mon

Okay. The first 3 AM ad by Clinton was arguably effective in scaring people in Ohio and Texas. But since it has been the long running joke of the campaign.

So they release a new ad today,

same theme only this time, it's a money crisis. Except they used the exact same footage as the last ad(except for the fist clutching a dollar shot and the last girl in bed(because that girl in the original ad is a volunteer for Obama now)).

Okay, it's no secret that the Clinton Campaign is strapped for cash. But recycling what has become the joke of your campaign. What the fuck?

It just gets better though. McCain has a response ad of his own.

And whaaaa? the same fucking footage. How much in royalties to we have to pay these pajama wearing bastards? Would it really cost that much just to FUCKING FILM YOUR OWN SET OF KIDS SLEEPING AND PUT YOUR OWN SHITTY BLUE FILTER OVER IT.

JESUS, two Broke ass campaigns, Antiquated, Oblivious and unitentionally depressingly funny.