“Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of WAR in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind….the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”
- Julius Caesar
Filed under Chastise Man, John McCain, Philosophy, Politics, Presidential Election 2008, War by 
A young man of conscious:
And the conscious of the King – in solidarity with his subjects :
Said with a straight face as if he has no idea, no idea at all, that the world would be a better place if he had stayed on the golf course and never set foot in Washington.
And what’s up with the jerk doing the interview? “Uh, Mr. President, was there a particular moment or incident that brought you to that decision, or how did you come to that?”
He “came to that” because you’re an idiot, Mr. Interviewer, the President is an idiot, and this country and the entire world will pay for it for years to come.
How is it that we have sunk so low as to take the president’s alleged abstinence from golf as some meaningful act of solidarity with those whose lives he has ruined? WHY IS THIS MAN STILL IN OFFICE??!!
If we get the leaders we deserve, then we have gone woefully astray my friend. January 2009 will come eight years too late.
ARRGHHHHHH!!!
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
And that’s just in his own congressional district. (California District 8, Nancy Pelosi – yikes! A San Franicsco Liberal!!).
Maybe we don’t need 19,045 music and arts teachers in this one district, but in California it seems we’re more and more hard-pressed to see to educating our children at all, let alone in the arts. And don’t think music and arts isn’t important. Without music programs (and an excellent teacher) in his school many years ago, Chastise Man could easily have pursued a life of crime. (who knows?)
But what of other issues?
With the $1.3 billion my congressional district has spent on the war in Iraq to date, there could have been 135 new elementary schools built, staffed with 19,363 new teachers to educate the children in those schools, 503,943 of those children could have health care, or 161,260 more Head Start organization for those children to go to. Seems like we could have blanketed the district with education with plenty left over for other districts (who, of course, could have blanketed their districts… Hell, America could have actually lived up to Bush’s rhetoric of “no child left behind”)
Ah, but what about national security, the “hotbed of terrorism” the “central battlefield on the war on terror”; keeping America safe from those who would do us harm and all that?
My $1.3 billion would have put in place 17,027 Port Container Inspectors, or 24,085 public safety officers.
Our dependence on foreign oil? $1.3 billion from district 8 would have built 2,402,036 homes with renewable energy. That’s two million, four hundred two thousand, eighty five homes – from the tax bill thus far for the Iraq war from one congressional district.
Health care? 554,874 more people with health care.
Affordable housing? 4,035 more units…
I think the point is clear.
Obviously America is much better off after five years of war in Iraq, our kids are better educated, our streets and ports are safer, we’re well on the way to kicking our “addiction to oil”, the less fortunate have affordable housing, and we all have access to health care.
Not.
Happy April Fools from Chastise Man. In the time it’s taken you to read this happy post, America has spent nearly a half-million more dollars on the war in Iraq.
click here to learn more
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
The Musical:
The Time: May 1st 2003
The Place: USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego; Iraq
US Army Pfc. Jesse Givens died in Iraq in the service of his country on the first of May, 2003, in his 34th year. He wrote this letter to his wife Melissa, his five year-old son Dakota (nicknamed ‘Toad’) and his unborn child Carson (nicknamed ‘Bean’). He asked Melissa not to open the envelope unless he was killed. ‘Please, only read it if I don’t come home,’ he wrote. ‘Please put it away and hopefully you will never have to read it.’
Andrew Garland, baritone
Lee Hoiby, composer and pianist
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
Go get ‘em Keith. It’s too bad your outrage is not more widely shared.
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, News, Politics, War by
The “Intelligence Community” (aug ‘07): “Um, Mr. President Sir, we have new information on Iran” (read: we’ve been dead wrong for the past four years, but hey, we were dead wrong about Iraq too! At least we’re consistent!”)
The President of the United States and “Leader” of the Free World (aug-nov. ‘07): “World war III! Serious Consequences! Will not stand!!! WAR WAR WAR!!!!”
The Vice President and Suspected Anti-Christ (ongoing – from a dark cave somewhere): “Snarl” (foam), “snarl” (foam), “snarl” (foam)…
The President of the United States and “Leader” of the Free World (dec. ‘07): “I was told something had changed about Iran in August, but nobody told me what it was until last week. We’ve been right all along. We’re always right. Even when we’re wrong. And by golly, if I want to go to war with Iran, I will!”
Chastise Man: thump, thump, thump, thump… (the sound of Chastise Man’s head banging on his desk)
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, News, Politics, War by
“The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice–and always has been.”
-Mark Twain
The Red Friday emails aren’t new. It’s been going around for awhile. The idea is that all God-fearing (preferably a protestant God, even better if there’s some of that evangelical fire-in-the-belly fervor added to it), patriotic, real Americans that love this country and support our troops show that patriotism and support for troops through fashion. Specifically by wearing the color red on Fridays, like some sort of badge that identifies yourself as part of the group.
The choice presented in the Red on Fridays idea is simple. Either do it or admit you aren’t patriotic, you don’t support the troops, and you hate America.
So did you wear red last Friday? (Which ironically enough, was “black Friday” the day that people wait for hours in a line for admission into a store that opens at 4AM to allow all real Americans adequate opportunity to consume as much as they possibly can; even while they have yet to fully digest the enormous turkey dinner from the day before. Gobble, gobble.)
But I digress.
Couched in the simple-minded, emotionally charged rhetoric of what I am to think and how I am to act in order to properly display my patriotism and “support for the troops” denies me my own facility to think and feel for myself. What better way to separate the saved from the damned, the believers from the non-believers, the patriots from the traitors, the conservatives from the liberals?
A variation on this particular email sent to me recently by a well-meaning yet misguided acquaintance added a tear-jerker of a story. Complete with selfless young soldiers, lonely wives, and little girls that missed their fathers. I will take whomever originally wrote the touching story of Courtney and the sobbing masses at the Atlanta airport on their word that this chain of events actually happened.
It is, indeed, a touching human story. One that has been repeated, in one form or another, as long as war has ravaged society. To paint this particular act of humanity as uniquely American is to not only misunderstand what it means to be uniquely American, but what it is to be simply human.
Nationalistic fervor is not new. It is the domain of monarchs, despots, communists and fascists. It knows no idealogical affiliation and takes no moral high ground.
To blindly subscribe to it is the worst way to support our troops, it is the worst way to “love America”, and it forsakes what men throughout the nation’s history have fought and died for: Freedom of thought, the pursuit of ideas, and the nurturing of the creative human spirit.
It is fine to demonstrate support for our troops serving all over the world, and especially those in the line of fire. All too often, as in the case of the “Wear Red on Friday” phenomenon, it seems to me as a bit of a ruse. Maybe some are well meaning in the gesture, perhaps many. But it is too easily manipulated into something else. Instilling fear where there should be courage, division where there should be community, and intolerance where there should be acceptance.
For those not directly involved in the conflict, that do not have a friend or relative serving in the military, there are better ways to actually support the troops. Here’s one, and another, and one more.
So go ahead and wear red next Friday. It’s a free country. For now.
But don’t fool yourself that you’re really doing anything that supports the troops, is particularly patriotic, or shows an extraordinary love, or even knowledge of, the principles of America. It takes more than a red shirt, is all I’m sayin’.
Yeah sure, I probably sound mighty smug and sanctimonious to all you folks laying out your red shirts for next Friday.
Get over it.
At the very least, let’s consider that the idea of a “Sea of red across America” as a gesture in support of troops in a war zone as just a little bit off.
Better to have a Sea of Blue. Blue was the color of Lincoln’s army that held the nation together in a war that literally almost tore the country in two. It’s the color of the two great oceans that touch our shores. It’s the color of progress, and the color that binds the fifty stars together as one nation.
Now that’s what this country really needs.
Filed under Chastise Man, Mumbling to Myself, News, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
George Bush announced today he would direct Congress to allow the CIA to dispatch agents to “embed” in the homes of American citizens in order to keep them safe from terrorism.
When one mealy-mouthed Congressman expressed concern over the “possible” incursion on civil liberties and citizen’s privacy, Administration officials sought to assuage such concerns citing “tough safeguards” that will one day be written up on a cocktail napkin, and that these actions are necessary to keep us safe from "those that would do evil".
At a press conference Tony Snow then proceeded to question said mealy-mouthed congressman’s patriotism, true allegiance, raised certain uncomfortable questions about his mother, and reiterated that this was just one more example of why George Bush is a Strong and Just leader in dogged pursuit of Evil Doers and anyone who doesn’t think so is a weak-kneed, leftist, terror-loving bastard. The Constitution of the United States was not mentioned at the press conference.
In the meantime, CIA Director Michael Hayden told reporters that embedded agents will not peek while citizens “went to the bathroom and did, uh, other private things – but they will be listening. Just in case a terrorist plot is being discussed”.
Bush asserted that the only way to insure our nation’s founding ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is to make sure “all Americans are safe from Evil – there are people that want to do Evil out there – they’re… Evildoers.”
When one reporter asked if it was actually to the terrorists advantage if America curtailed civil liberties and violated constitutional law and norms in pursuit of irrational and misguided policies in the name of “security”, and that it may, in fact, not make our country more secure to utilize secretive and Draconian measures in any case, the reporter was immediately sent to Guantanamo.
God Bless America.
Photo credit: Daniel Kurtzman, About.com
Filed under Chastise Man, George Bush, News, Things That Make Me Cranky, War, War in Iraq by
The irony seems completely lost on the range of republican presidential candidates whom, save Ron Paul of Texas, either implicitly or 
expressly support the use of “tactical” nuclear weapons should Iran appear to be on the verge of acquiring a centrifuge enabling them to produce nuclear weapons.
I don’t think it’s a good idea that Iran posses nuclear weapons; I don’t think it’s a good idea that anyone posses nuclear weapons. But the genie is out of the bottle and using nuclear weapons to prevent the use or acquisition of the same is foolish and calling it “tactical” is a lie. There is no such thing as a tactical nuclear weapon; their very use has strategic implications. Using a nuclear weapon is a strategy. And not a very good one.
Should we preemptively strike another nation with nuclear weapons – call them “tactical” if you want –we guarantee that sometime, someplace, the same will be used against us. It may not be the thirty minute response those of us old enough to really remember the Cold War came to expect in the sixties and seventies, but it will come.
And will we then preemptively nuke other countries as they insist on their right to exploit the genie we unleashed in the New Mexico desert in 1945? Where does it end? It is only in restraint that any moral leadership is possible.
George Bush has gotten the ball rolling in the abrogation of that moral leadership. It seems the Republicans that wish to be president have plans to finish the job.
I think we’d better decide just what sort of nation we intend on becoming.
Filed under Chastise Man, News, People, Politics, Things That Make Me Cranky, War by
