Tea Parties, Town Halls, and Turkeys
Aug 9, 2009 Politicians / Politics
What is with the disruption (sometimes violent) of the health care congressional town halls? What’s with all of the yelling and screaming by people who think they have a right to shout down anybody who disagrees with them? I could have sworn the First Amendment (free speech ring a bell anyone?) was to protect the right of people to present and discuss (like reasonable human beings) issues and concerns common to our citizens.
Anyone ever been to a farm where they raise turkeys? (yes, I mean the kind you eat on Thanksgiving)
When something, a noise, flash of lightning, etc., disturbs a billion turkeys crammed together in metal sheds, the noise can be terrifying. Imagine Giants Stadium with everyone on PCP.
This is how people have been shouting down the speakers at these town hall meetings.
WTF? Did someone pass a law that it’s OK to act like a complete ass to make sure someone who’s point of view is different from yours doesn’t get heard? Oh yeah, I forgot. A LOT of things have changed regarding the Constitution in the past eight years.
So the newest revision of the First Amendment must be Freedom of Speech for the Red(necks), White(skinned), and Blue(blooded).
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On a side note, some jerk is trying to have some kind of twisted celebration of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki anniversaries. He’s touting some kind of advertising consultancy guaranteed to “Drop an Atom Bomb” on your competition. (Hmmmm… interesting that the name of his company contains the word ‘patriot.’
Tags: a-bomb, first amendment, health care, patriot, tea party, turkey
Hard Drinkers, Have We Got a Town for You!
Mar 15, 2007 Politicians / Politics
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, over 100 people showed up for a City Council Meeting in Lilburn GA to talk about a new ordinance that would ban karaoke, trivia games, card playing and dancing. Wow!
Whut do ya do?
Hell, Jimmy Rex, bars are for drinkin’ you know that! Ever time somebody starts singin’ that karaoke stuff people stop drinkin’ to sing along. I got cases and cases in the back room that’ll never git drunk that way.
Trivia? Hell no. Nobody in Lilburn can drink and think at the same time… can’t have that. Nope, no card playin’ either. Card players quit drinkin’ when their goldurn vision starts ta get blurry.
I’m not even gonna talk about dancin’. Hell people start rubbin’ tagether and next thing ya know they’re headin’ for the motel, steada stayin’ here drinkin’
Wow!
I’m ready to move to Lilburn. How about you?
Rock on…
Four Letter Word
Feb 16, 2007 Suppression of People
Somehow this one sort of goes along with the Tim Hardaway thing (see item below)… from Kiss the Breath of Sunset…
Look around in your twisted mind,
Look in that empty brain
Do you feel the urge to hate someone,
Enough that it makes you insane
What is it about them that makes you cringe?
What sets your blood aflame?
Are you a little inadequate inside yourself
And you’re looking for someone to blame?
HATE… is a four letter word for ignorance,
HATE… is another word for fear
HATE… is a tool of those who would be in power,
HATE… is a word used to smear
Did you ever learn about decency
Or respect for your fellow man?
Is it easier to scapegoat someone else
When you’re not doing all that you can?
Is it because they have something you don’t
Or is it due to a fear in your heart
Do you think that hating someone
Will somehow make you smart?
Run for your life from your phobias
Hide your head in the sand
‘Cos you gotta know that hating
Won’t make you a better man
HATE… is a four letter word for ignorance,
HATE… is synonym for fear
HATE… is a generational inheritance,
HATE… is an insult to values held dear
Have you ever heard of diversity
People with different thoughts than your own
Hate’s nothing but a perversity
And yours just won’t leave you alone
Are you afraid to give up your hatred
Afraid that you might have to think
Take a good look at your fears, man
You know what? Your attitude stinks.
Ok, Tim, your opinion matters because?…
Feb 16, 2007 Suppression of People
Good-on-yas to NBA Commissioner Stern for throwing Tim Hardaway’s butt out of Las Vegas. OK, admittedly the concept of somebody being a role model because they can stuff a ball in a hole has always perplexed me. But what the hell, it happens. The downside is a bunch of kids looking up to somebody who hate-rants on the radio, or any public forum. Yeah, Tim, you’ve got your opinions, and you’re entitled to them. Just like everybody. But you also can’t blame the league when they choose to back away from somebody spouting hate.
Then again, you could always refuse to take the percentage of your salary that comes from gay people who pay to watch you stuff the ball in a hole.
Quack!
A Couple Bottles Short of a Six-Pack
Nov 27, 2006 Politicians / Politics, Suppression of Ideas
Don’t ya just love readin’ the news… saw an interesting article today and this piece was the result. Don’t have the music yet… but it’ll come.
I was in Pagosa Springs just the other day
Saw a man on a soapbox, stopped to hear what he’d say
He screamed take that peace sign off your abode
It’s the sign of the Devil, it belongs in your commode.
Take it down, we won’t ask twice
It ain’t no sin to kill a Commie for Christ
He said:
Freedom is for me,
Freedom’s not for you
You ask me how I know it’s true
‘Coz my neck is red
My skin is white
And my blood is blue
He stood on his toes to emphasize his point
While in the air behind me I thought I smelled a joint
He ranted and screamed that what he spoke was true
This passion for peace was the devil’s due
The value of our homes is gonna drop, you see
If our neighbors start to think their speech is free
He said:
Freedom is for me,
Freedom’s not for you
You ask me how I know it’s true
‘Coz my neck is red
My skin is white
And my truck is blue
He shouted let’s fine ‘em twenty-five a day
Show ‘em free speech has a price to pay
We mean business, this is not any bluff
Our property values are serious stuff
Remember, we got cov-e-nants
To stop people sayin’ whatever they want
He said:
Freedom is for me,
Freedom’s not for you
You ask me how I know it’s true
‘Coz my neck is red
My skin is white
And my dog’s named Blue
Total – Chicago 1968
Nov 7, 2006 Politicians / Politics, Rock and Roll
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back from Chicago
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back in a shroud
Revelation in your mind
Degradation you can find
in your mind
CHORUS:
Police and politics
Hassles arise
Police and politics
and people die
The Gestapo has risen again
the SS troops and Mayor Daly’s friends
beat my friends
CHORUS
INTERLUDE
Policeman’s club
is covered with blood
the cameraman falls
but his picture is taken
Revelation in your mind
Degradation you can find
in your mind
CHORUS
My friend died today
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back from Chicago
What’ll you tell the people, Andrea
When you come back in a shroud
Copyright Ron Lynch Chalice 1968, 1986, 2004 All Rights Reserved.
Time to say goodbye to the GOP
Oct 25, 2006 Politicians / Politics
OK, I’ll admit that my youth was a long time ago. The term SDS ring a bell with anyone? I came from a time of radical change in our world, radical change in our country. But I also came from a time, and a generation, of the catch phrase “Everybody is a liberal, until they get their first decent paycheck and see how much comes out for taxes.”
Like many from my generation, I migrated toward the Republican party as my job became a career, and I had a family to worry about. The ideas of working hard and living comfortably in return didn’t seem so bad, so far off the mark. Capital was good, capital encouraged growth, encouraged ideas.
Over the past few years, something has fallen apart. The values of integrity, individual accomplishment, freedom and independence have gone through a morphing process. Integrity has disintegrated, replaced by the collapse of ethics. Individual accomplishment has been viciously distorted in to the concept of winning at any cost. Freedom and independence are waning, replaced by paranoia, collusion, and the dismal shadow of Orwellian control.
As the mid-term elections approach, there is reason for paranoia. Not fear of what’s happening in the outside world, but fear of what’s happening within. Not only in Colorado, but throughout the country, the people who used to believe in individual liberties are hawking amendments, initiatives, and candidates that strip at the very core of those individual liberties.
- Candidate after candidate talks of the illegal immigrant problem, while financing their campaigns with the money of the parasites who bleed immigrant labor, the parasites who seek workers throughout the third world that they can pay for pennies a day. The loudest mouths yapping about immigrant health and education benefits belong to those who profit from the pittance paid to the immigrant housekeepers, farm workers, textile workers, and others they bring into this country.
- Candidate after candidate campaigning on so-called morality platforms, that ignore the First Amendment protections regarding freedom of religion and freedom of speech. When it comes to church leaders trying to enforce legislation that restricts human rights, do the words Taliban, Inquisition, or Final Solution come to mind?
- Before you start on lifestyles legislation, look in your own deep dark closets. Think about real morality. How many jobs do you have to cut for a $1,000 bonus. What about the little white lies to your stockholders and the SEC? The hookers you find in every convention hotel in the United States? Don’t forget the congressional page or two….
Seeya, GOP… you don’t get my vote this year.
Quack
JOHANNESBURG BLUES – From the 1980s
Oct 21, 2006 Racism, Suppression of Ideas, Suppression of People
CHORUS:
You can tie my hands, you can shackle my feet
But you never can kill the beat
Of Freedom
You can jail my brothers and my sisters too
But you never can jail the truth
Of Freedom
So few of you have all the power
you seem so afraid of darkness
But you have to know it’s the eleventh hour
and recognize the real darkness
is in your hearts,
and in your minds,
and in your souls
CHORUS
The truth is something you fear most
you use your guns and jails to keep it quiet
You shoot the children, then you boast
that you have quelled a riot
It’s in your hearts,
and in your minds,
and in your souls
CHORUS
The day’s coming soon when you’ll have to run
and leave South Africa to its owners
You secret police will throw down their guns
and escape to different shores
you have no hearts,
you have no minds,
you have no souls
you have no hearts,
you have no minds,
you have no souls
repeat til fade
Cry Freedom – 1987
Oct 21, 2006 Racism, Suppression of Ideas, Suppression of People, Uncategorized
Just watched this film last night. I saw it when it first came out as an experience with the Denver International Film festival, had forgotten what an incredibly moving experience this film was. Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington were both brilliant. The story of the courage of Steve Biko and Donald Wood’s against the rages of an oppressive regime is incredible. Anyway, I moved on the inspiration and did some more research… here are a couple of the more interesting links I found.
Freedom Blues: S.African Jazz Under Apartheid
for more interesting stuff, Google music apartheid
Over the next couple of days I’ll dig into my archives and post a couple of pieces from the past.
Quack
What a Magic Word, this Freedom
Sep 4, 2006 Music Styles, Politicians / Politics, Racism, Suppression of Ideas, Suppression of People
The freedom to believe… or not to believe
The freedom to speak… or to remain silent
The freedom to vote… or to abstain
Freedom (Paul McCartney – New York City 2001)
Freedom (Richie Havens – Woodstock 1969)
Chimes of Freedom (Bob Dylan 1964)
Songs of Freedom (Bob Marley 1992)
Songs of Freedom (Santana)
We Shall Overcome (Guy Carawan, Candy Carawan from a piece by Charles Tindley)
Blowin’ in the Wind (Bob Dylan)
Your turn…..
