Listen Carefully

Everybody knows that political speeches are notorious for being full of cliches and powerful words stripped of their meaning due to overuse. So, I decided I want to start having drinking game parties for every Bush speech. Drink when each gets mentioned/said:

- "freedom"
- "liberty"
- "justice"
- "hatred"
- "democracy"
- "God" (twice for God told me to/God is on our side)
- "Saddam"
- "elections"
- "terror" (twice for "war on terror"; shotgun for winning the war on terror)
- "tax cuts"
- "activist judges"
- double shot of 151 for "communist" or "communism"

OK, I think that's enough rules. Next speech: State of the Union.

Pop politics

Instead of popping over to The Magic Bag for Team America (which I may still do, depending on...things, information to follow), I watched South Park's Trapper Keeper episode. This is the combo episode of Cartman getting a Trapper Keeper which takes over the world and the kindergarten elections.

For those of you who don't remember, Trapper Keeper aired on November 16, 2000. 9 days after Gore and Bush went head to head. It has Ike go head to head with Fillmore, and the election ended as a tie wth Flora not being able to make up her mind. Then, we had to get the sick, absent kid's vote. Then, Fillmore called in his aunt Rosie O'Donnell. Here's Mr. Garrison's little dialogue with Rosie O'Donnell:

Rosie: "OK, so then what we need to do is count everybody's vote by hand. Then, we need to go over the votes manually..."

Mr. Garrison: "Oh stop it, stop it, stop it! Look, kids, we're all in this kindergarten class together. We have to respect one another, or else we're in for a terrible school year."

Rosie: "We're just making sure that the kids who voted for my nephew don't get cheated."

Mr. Garrison: "Half the kids in the class didn't vote for your nephew, so what about them? You don't give a crap about them because they're not on your side. People like you preach tolerance and open-mindedness all the time, but when it comes to middle America, you think we're all evil and stupid country yokels who need your politial enlightenment. Well, just because you're on TV doesn't mean you know crap about the government. Now, get your ass back on first class and respect this class's ability to make up their own mind."

There is nothing quite like seeing the follies of your ways when you see them pitched from a long time ago. Four years ago, Parker and Stone hinted at it. But, did the liberals take notice? No. They sat there and continued on their merry ways, even though they had lost the majority of the elections. Though, we may be currently closer to when the democrats realize that they have been preaching at middle America instead of easing them around. The Republicans have more in common with Middle America (in terms of personal views), and, thus, are more believable. They are a less bitter pill to swallow. The Dems have been pushing their superiority to the Republicans, but that isn't very effective as it seems more like whining when you don't agree with them. Yet the Pubs can get away with it because you already are on their side, hence the popularity of evil talk radio people.

Speaking of talk radio, here come the liberals to Detroit. Air America is now on 1310AM for most of the day. They also will have the Jerry Springer show. So, for all you drivers who want a change from the awesome music you listen to, here's some liberal chit chat.

I'll leave you with the kindergarten finale:

Fillmore: "I don't want to play anymore, because this game is stupid."

Jenny: "Yeah, it doesn't make any sense."

P.S. My new espresso machine is really neat, now I just need to get the hang of it. I made a nice single shot, I think.

Crime and Punishment

20/20: The Matthew Shepard Story (2004)
Producers: Stephen Jimenez, Glenn Silber
Reporter: Elizabeth Vargas

What do you get when you have one of the most savage murders in America become an icon for a lifestyle? What if the murder may not have been committed for the originally stated reasons? Do you dig up the truth, and report it?

Well, for Elizabeth Vargas, she decided to do some investigative reporting on the Matthew Shepard case, and what she found delves into the world of childhood abuse, money, and crystal meth...though not on the side of Matthew Shepard. Yes, boys and girls, according to Elizabeth Vargas, Matthew Shepard was not a hate crime, it was a drug-induced crime. In a reporting style that borders this side of fishy (oh, wait, this is a newsmagazine, right?), Liz interviews people ranging from gay limo drivers, to the attackers' wives. She came up with a story that drugs and money played important roles in both Aaron McKinney's life and the life of Matthew Shepard.

The purpose of the report could be stated that it is just to get the truth out. However, it seems to be less an anti-drug commercial (which it should be if the report was done in this manner) than an anti-anti-gay-rights commercial.

The first portion of the report make the two victims out as sympathetic victims of their parents' excesses. From being beaten by mother's boyfriends to...well...everything, the attackers were not masters of their destinies. And, by the time they murdered Matthew Shepard, one was a parent, and both had severe meth addictions. But, its OK because they had a rough life, right?

Well, meth isn't nearly as good as it should be because the awesomely gay Matthew Shepard used the evil meth. Very evilly, he used the evil meth. It was bad in this case because he had so much going for him, never mind the minor mention of his getting raped. How dare he be depressed that he was raped on a field trip and got AIDS as a result. He should have been damned chipper, if you ask Elizabeth Vargas. Certainly not a drug user.

The second half of the report drives home the idea that this was not a hate crime. McKinney's wife lied in 1998 when she said it was because Shepard made a pass at McKinney (or so she had said he told her). And, in fact, neither of the attackers were homophobic in any ways. On top of this, several people had seen Shepard and McKinney together prior to the event. And, McKinney and friend was just coming down off a three-day meth binge with little to no sleep when they beat and murdered Shepard. And tied him to the fence. But, it was the meth's fault. You can't really blame the attackers though. They're paying their time. Its all good. Never mind that it was only after Shepard touched McKinney's leg that McKinney hit him for the first time.

I have such mixed reactions to this piece of newsmagazine reporting.

1) I agree truth is important. If it was not a hate crime, then whatever. They still did a vicious murder that was probably more brutal than a great deal of cinema. They deserve no time off for drug use.

2) The truth was reported in such a way that I almost felt that becoming a meth addict should allow me to kill anybody and get away with it, so long as it wasn't a hate crime. Except, I'm bi, and that makes meth use bad.

3) The truth has changed from the inception. Though, even The Laramie Project hints at the non-hate crime motivations, and that was a few years before this piece of fluff. The problem lies in a 17 second clip (17:23-17:40 in my clip, 16:59-17:16 raw):

Elizabeth: You had told police that at some point, Matthew had reached over and grabbed your leg.
Aaron: Yeah
Elizabeth: And what did you do when he grabbed your leg?
Aaron: I hit him with a pistol.

Yup. No gay panic there.

4) The facts around this single hate crime should in no way shape or form invalidate the gay rights movement. For every falsely reported gay hate crime, there are dozens of real ones. Even though this writer does not feel that hate crimes make things worse, it is a way of labeling a group of victims and a source of problems which needs to be solved. And, the gay rights movement, largely fueled by the Matthew Shepard case, is in no way wrong.

Anyways, that's the story. Those are my problems with it.

Strangely Political

Listening to AM 1400 is a funny funny thing. Sometimes its informative too. Here's some things I learned on that station:

1) Christians want to convert everybody to save them from the firey pits of HELL, even fellow conservatives. Somebody told Dennis Prager that he was going to Hell for not embracing Jesus...after telling him that she (the caller) agreed with everything he said.

2) People get sidetracked easily. Several times on the station (especially on religious nut Kevin Fobbs' show), people prattle on about topics hit on the day before, or even the week before.

3) Conservatives believe illegal aliens should be tagged. Some even belief that legal aliens should be tagged. By tagged, we mean implanting a chip inside the person's skin. Of course, this would mean we would have had to tag current cabinet head of Economics, but that's besides the point.

4) Christians are starting to perform Bar Mitzvahs. Oy Vey. This reminds me of the Jews For Jesus counter-trend.

5) People inevitably sound like the things they criticize. On Kevin Fobbs' show, he was criticizing Hollywood's anti-religious humor, and displayed SNL's skit of Leviticus. He ended up sounding like Leviticus.

6) Religious people want tolerance for their religion, but hate anybody who is atheist, agnostic, or UnGodly. They want to say prayers in schools and at work, but hate anybody who thinks that there is no God.

7) Inauguration day is all about healing. (see below)

8) Gays really are second class citizens.

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On that note, I should bring up the Supreme Court's latest ruling. For those of you too busy to follow, the Supreme Court recently upheld a 1977 Florida law which prevents homosexual couples from adopting children.

The facts:
In 1977, Florida banned homosexuals from adopting children. You had to be straight in order to adopt children, and generally married. In 2003, they passe a law allowing single people to adopt children. However, Florida allows homosexuals to be foster parents, which means they can raise the kids, they just can't legally adopt them. Several foster parents, and other needy homosexual couples looking for rugrats to fill their sad lonely little lives, have sued to have the law taken off the books, so they can adopt their children. Today, January 11, 2005, the federal supreme court ruled that the best family is the classic nuclear relation of a mother and a father.

The positives:
On the one hand, this has become a cementing factor in the federal vs. state line. Federal law has generally left family issues such as marriage, adoption, and so on to the states. When gay marriage, and the amendment to the federal constitution to ban it, were in the spotlight, one of the hot issues was that it changed the weight from the state to the federal. Since there is speculation on this being a hot button issue in congress soon, the upholding of state law may be a key argument against the need for a national ban.

The negatives:
Well, gay rights have lost again. But, this is in both the state and federal arena. And, it isn't for the children since one of the couples suing was named Foster Parents of the year for taking in several children infected with HIV. This isn't for the family values, since single people can adopt as well. This is all about Florida coming down on gay people, and another dignity taken away. While I congratulate the federal supreme court in their decision, I condemn the Florida supreme court (through whom the case had to have gone) for not cancelling the law.

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In other news, People are protesting George Bush's inauguration on Thursday, January 20, 2005. How? By not buying anything for 24 hours. The protect is called Not One Damn Dime, and they hope people will not buy anything for 24 hours in protest to the war in Iraq, and the re-election of George Bush. Go Blue!