Month: February 2004

Would Castro just die already?

by

My first, very partisan response to seeing this: Bush Tightens Rules on Travel to Cuba was “He’s such a whore!” What other voter block is he going to throw a meaningless bone to? Then, I stopped and thought, well, what if he’s right. What if “Fidel Castro government [really] has taken steps to destabilize relations … Read more

An unexpected death – and expected reaction.

by

While I agree with John Cole that this article draws an incorrect conclusion from a tragic event – it’s about that poor woman who died of a heart attack while watching Gibson’s new film – I’m actually surprised that John might have expected anything like a different spin on events. I’d normally be unpacking a … Read more

Something for everybody…

by

Tbogg and Wonkette are, between the two of them*, collecting campaign slogans: tbogg’s covering the mean-to-Bush ones and Wonkette’s got the mean-to-Kerrys. Here’s your chance to realize your dreams… …well, maybe not, but some of the ones so far are funny. Moe *Yet independently.

I am Spartacus.

by

A note to Kalle Lasn, editor of Adbusters Magazine.

I noted with some interest your recent editorial discussing American / Israeli relations and the reasons for same. I was remarkably impressed by how easily you were able to shrug off both Bush’s call for a Palestinian state and recent criticisms of Israel in your drive to indicate that the neocon movement was both running the the WoT and dominated by Jews, especially your dedication in determining and indicating those Jewish members of the ’50 most influential neocons in the US” (whether they would identify themselves as neocons or not). How – lucky – for you that half of them turned out to be Jewish! Why, it couldn’t have come out better if you had assembled the list deliberately!

Now, I am not myself a neoconservative, although I agree with a fair number of their policy positions. As for Judiasm… well, to echo Professor Tolkien when he was faced with a not completely dissimilar situation, “…I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.” Nevertheless, please note this symbol (regrettably made nortorious by certain other individuals dedicated to searching out hidden Jewish influence and power) –

Jude.jpg

– anyway. I find the thought of confusing people like you about just who is and who isn’t Jewish around here to be a strangely compelling one. Not to mention probably a mitzvah.

Moe

PS: Shorter Moe Lane: Kalle Lasn, Geh kak afen yam.

Read more

Liberty, Sanctity, or Equality

by

There’s no way around it. The FMA is either 1. anti-Liberty 2. anti-Sanctity or 3. anti-Equality To defend the FMA, you must own up to one of these stances. 1. Anti-Liberty In this context, anti-Liberty means anti-gay. One must believe that sexual orientation does not fall under the umbrella of the “liberty” we believe is … Read more

Meanwhile, back at the primaries…

by

…Kerry won Idaho and Utah; Hawaii’s… shoot, are the polls still open for those guys? Could be. Anyway, no surprises and no insights, except that Kerry’s current glidepath doesn’t seem to have wobbled any. One week to go before the fireworks… And now, to sleep. It’s been a day.

Just to establish.

by

1). I do not support a constitutional amendment defining marriage. 2). I do support the right of two consenting adults to enter into what arrangements suit them, explicitly including the ones traditionally associated with marriage (including the name). 3). I do not believe that everyone who disagrees with my stance on #2 is either a … Read more

Fools. And knaves.

by

Well, Bush did it:

“Today,” Bush said, “I call for the Congress to promptly pass and send to the states for ratification an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and woman, as husband and wife.”

Bush could have endorsed an Amendment that merely held that a gay marriage in one state need not be recognized as a marriage in another — an Amendment that lets the states decide. It would’ve had broad support.* (Indeed, even Rep. Barney Frank, the openly gay Massachusetts Congressman, has endorsed this approach.) Instead, Bush has endorsed an Amendment designed to prohibit the states from conducting their own affairs. Bush — the freely-spending champion of “limited” government — has decided that the federal government should now reach into the bedrooms, town halls, and churches of communities around the nation.

And so Bush feeds a narrow constituency, at the expense of the whole.

von

Read more