Gingrich and Huckabee

So I'm pretty content at the moment. I've done nothing but sleep, watch movies and read books for the past five days. Spring break is awesome. But, while flipping through the channels, I caught a lot of fragmented conversations about Newt Gingrich as a 2012 GOP candidate and Mike Huckabee sounding off about Natalie Portman's pregnancy.

edit 3/ 15: According to Rachel Maddow (video at the bottom of the page), Gingrich probably isn't even running, he just wants to make it appear as though he's running to get money.

Gingrich has said he's running for president in 2012. He's is one of those people that believes in a very narrow definition of patriotism, and he throws the word around a lot. The following quote, from http://www.ontheissues.org/newt_gingrich.htm, infuriates me:

Replace multiculturalism with patriotic education. (Dec 2006):

In the classroom, the very concept of America is under assault. The traditional notion of our country as a union of one people, the American people, has been assaulted by multiculturalism, situational ethics, and a values-neutral model in which Western values and American history are ignored or ridiculed. Unless we act to reverse this trend, our next generation will grow up with no understanding of core American values. This will destroy America as we know it, as surely as if a foreign conqueror had overwhelmed us.

It is absolutely necessary to establish a firm foundation of patriotic education upon which further knowledge can be built; otherwise, Americans will lack understanding of American values & how important & great it is to be an American.

It is important to understand what makes America so unique and why generations of diverse people immigrated to this great land for freedom and opportunity. If Americans do not appreciate America, then how can they be ready and willing to defend her?

Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.133-134 Dec 31, 2006

I don't understand why being worldly and learning about many different cultures and beliefs is frowned upon in this country. How can we know ourselves if we don't know anyone else? Why do you think Americans are told to pretend to be Canadians while abroad? Because we don't care to know about the rest of the world, but we expect everyone to look at us and tell us we've done right.

Ugh...

People like Newt throw around this expression of "American values," but I just don't understand what is meant by it. Other than a notion of individualism, I'm really not sure what else could be considered an American value. We profess to be humanitarians, to be morally responsible, the land of plenty, etc. but we are forever doing things to negate these.

Gingrich wants to eliminate the EPA, he's against gay marriage and he's anti-abortion. Oh, and also, Gingrich was the one who helped to impeach Clinton based on his sex scandal, while Gingrich himself was cheating on his wife. Awesome. I totally want this maniac running my country.

Here's one of his more famous speeches:



yuck. I think he has some intelligent moments, but he reeks of that narrow-minded republican conservative dogma.




Now onto Huckabee. He spoke out against Natalie Portman for being pregnant but not married, saying that she's a poor role model for young girls. This same guy praised Bristol Palin while she was pregnant, saying he was happy that her family is supporting her.

Why Portman? I'm not sure but I think that the fact that she campaigned for Obama has something to do with it.

I don't know enough about Portman to say whether she could be a role model for young girls. I just know I loved her in V for Vendetta, The Other Boleyn Girl, Garden State and her SNL video (<- lots of bleeped-out swearing. but it's funny and you should watch it if you haven't). She's a great actress, an activist, and she seems like a pretty cool person. I really liked this video of her from Time:




So why is Huckabee picking on her? He doesn't like that she's supposedly glamorizing single motherhood. Yeah, it's true that most single mothers aren't going to be making millions of dollars like Natalie. Duh. We know this. I think it's ridiculous for Huckabee to pick on Natalie. And it already looks like most of America is on her side.




Also, I'm excited to be leaving for Washington D.C. on Friday for the Feminist Leadership Conference!!


Edit 3/15: lol @ Newt Gingrich even more. Here's the episode of Maddow that I mentioned in the beginning of this post:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

People That Could Benefit From a Little Googleing

I'm an English and Journalism major, so I'm totally familiar with the art form of making it look like you've read something that you didn't. But, at least most of the time, I do some google-ing before I have to pretend to know something. Here are some people in and around politics that could have benefited from doing a little homework:

"...the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States....Men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country."
--Michele Bachmann, during her Tea Party response to Obama's State of the Union Address

Oh yeah, and the moon's made out of cheese and I'm sitting here sharing a milkshake with James Dean. Really, THAT'S how ludicrous that statement is. That's more than just not knowing history, that's totally giving credit where credit is NOT due. Sure, Adams helped to get the conversation started about ending slavery, but of the so-called "founding fathers," many were slave owners, like Thomas Jefferson. The 13th Amendment (outlawing slavery) wasn't ratified until 1865. John Quincy Adams was already dead. Washington, Franklin, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, and the first Adams were already dead. Even with the 13th Amendment, segregation was instated till the middle of the 60s, and we're still fighting civil rights battles today.

During her response, Bachmann also used the phrase "American exceptionalism." This works both ways; both they way your 1st grade teacher used it to describe your work of art, but also meaning that America as somehow an "exception." We've used this belief to do a lot of stupid things, and I was irritated that Bachmann used this in her speech.

"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed."
--President Obama, on a tornado in Kansas

I guess 10,000 died in Obamaland, but, here on Earth, it was 12. I'm all for upping the drama, but not to the effect of killing off 9,988 extra people. All you had to do was take out your Blackberry and Google it. THAT'S IT!


Glenn Beck's Thomas Paine worship...

I'm no expert on Paine. I've only read parts of Age of Reason and Common Sense in a couple classes. But, I'm expert enough to say that Beck is backing the wrong guy and he, quite obviously, has never actually read Paine. Both of these are quotes from Paine's "Age of Reason" .....

• "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church."

• "Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifiying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter."
  

Seeing any problems here? Beck is a Mormon. He said:

''I haven't seen Jesus and what he would do on a talk show on Fox, but I'm going to try.'' —Glenn Beck, FOX News Channel's Glenn Beck show, April 21, 2010

He ALWAYS plays the god card in his political rhetoric. And he's siding with an atheist? In fact, most of the so-called founding fathers were deists, not Christians. So, sorry Beck, it looks like Paine's just not that into you. Calling one of your books, "Common Sense," after Paine's work of the same name is just not cool. You should probably start wearing the costume of someone closer to your particular brand of crazy.... like Sarah Palin. Speaking of Sarah.....

“Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”
--Sarah Palin, about the bad press she was getting in lieu of the tragedy in Arizona

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47477.html#ixzz1Ck3kwkwb

This is the definition of "Blood Libel," from wikipedia:

"Blood libel (also blood accusation^[1][2]) is a false accusation or claim^[3][4][5] that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.^[1][2][6] Historically, these claims—alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration—have been a major theme in European persecution of Jews."

So, basically, Sarah Palin just compared her bad press to the persecution of the Jews. Let that sink in for a minute. Jewish people, your persecution and torture at the hands of many different groups, all throughout history, is being equated with Palin showing up in a few unfavorable articles about her use of gun-related rhetoric. If this doesn't label her as a sociopath, I don't know what does. I don't think I can even say anything else about this without breaking something.


(Edit: I didn't put Christine O'Donnell's denial of the separation of church and state on the list because it's another one of my posts, entirely dedicated to her crazy antics)


This list could be a thousand times longer, and all of these people are repeat offenders. I just picked the ones that made me the most angry. If you can think of anything else that belongs on the list, make your case in the comments section. I just thought of one I didn't put on the list...the Tea Party for not bothering to use Google to find the meaning of another tea-related word.

Thanks for reading!!

Ronald Reagan

So, Reagan's 100th birthday would have been on Sunday the 6th. I don't know who would be more out of touch with the American public, actual Reagan or 100 year old zombie Reagan...though perhaps zombie Reagan would solve my burning question: "Does Sarah Palin actually have a brain, or is she a cyborg controlled by Darth Vader and Glenn Beck ?"



Jelly Belly brain flavored beans...oh man. Gold mine? Methinks so.

(I have a weird fascination with the connection between Reagan and his jelly bean obsession.)

Sorry, I had to have a zombie reference. But, there is a real problem with America's Reagan worship. He could speak. He looked pretty trustworthy. But behind that was a man who really set this country back a few years in his policies and actions. He shouldn't be worshiped and canonized in this country. Why? Read on:

1. He didn't care about the environment. This was the man that said:

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do" (1981)

Um. What?! This probably explains why Reagan decided it would be awesome to give corporations pretty much free reign over national land for drilling, clear cutting and other nonsense. He also appointed James Wall and Anne Gorsuch to head the department of interior. Neither of them knew what they were doing and neither much cared. Reagan also drastically cut back money given to the EPA to deal with environmental disasters and conservation efforts. (I'm in an Environmental Lit class this semester, read Greening of A Nation for a pretty good history of environmentalism in the U.S. It was required reading for my class. )

2. He illegally and secretly sold arms to Iran. Of course, nothing could ever be proven because witnesses were threatened and whatnot, but the other big names thought to be involved have committed suicide. He also did some under-the-table stuff with Iraq and contributed to the rampant militarization of the middle east along with George Bush vol. 1. (http://www.news24.com/World/News/Reagan-set-roots-for-al-Qaeda-20040607
has a good article if you're interested)

3. He was one of the most anti-abortion presidents ever.

"I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born. "
~Ronald Reagan, quoted in New York Times, 22 September 1980 (http://www.quotegarden.com/)

Let's unwrap this. One, he's making that bogus claim that life starts at the moment of conception. Well, with that logic, everything (EVERYTHING) that results in loss of sperm or egg is a child lost. It's preventing the life of a child. Nonsense. Two, thank you captain obvious. The only people that have access to worldly dissent and decision are the living. Take out "abortion" and replace it with "zombie rights legislation" and it's still true. This makes it a stupid thing to say. Three, Reagan is a man. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of men telling me what I, a woman, can do with my body. So STFU.


4. He didn't care about the AIDS epidemic. From Examiner.com:

"Consider that Mayor Dianne Feinstein's AIDS budget for the City of San Francisco was bigger than President Reagan's AIDS budget was for the entire nation..."

He just didn't care. He had complete apathy toward the issue, even when one of his friends, Rock Hudson, had died from the disease.


5. He ended detente with Russia and, instead of using diplomacy, he out-spent the USSR and sent the U.S. into an economic meltdown that lasted till the 90s. Reaganomics didn't work despite what Fox has told you.

6. There's considerable evidence (called October Surprise) that points Reagan to the Iran Hostage Crisis. Iranian students and military people had taken 52 people from the U.S. and held them hostage from November 1971 till January 1981 when Reagan took office. Why'd they let them go right then? A lot of people say Reagan bargained with Iran to hold the hostages until then so Reagan would look like some sort of savior for getting their freedom. True or not, given his track record, it still makes me wonder.

7. He was on another planet for much of his presidency. The man couldn't differentiate movies from real life. He even implemented Star Wars and called Russia the evil empire, which was just totally awesome foreign policy.

8. Here are just a few of Reagan's kernels of wisdom that should make you livid, from here:

"There is absolutely no circumstance whatever under which I would accept that spot. Even if they tied and gagged me, I would find a way to signal by wiggling my ears." --on possibly being offered the vice presidency in 1968

"Facts are stupid things."

"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
Quoted in the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, February 15, 1980 (he was a presidential candidate). (In reality, the average nuclear reactor generates 30 tons of radioactive waste per year.)


"Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal."
quoted in Time, May 17, 1976

"I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at the point of a bayonet, if necessary."
Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1965

MLK would be rolling in his grave. Combating violence with violence? Not cool.



This list could go on, but those were the big things that stuck out to me. Reagan did do a few good things while in office, but based on the way politicians try to align themselves with him, you'd think he was infallible. He wasn't. He made a lot of dumb mistakes and set this country back a substantial amount in the 80's and it would be well-advised for the American public to recognize that he wasn't such a great president.



Want more? Check out http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21krugman.html for a really good article.

p.s. there are a lot of links to Wikipedia, not because Wikipedia is the best and most trusted source ever, but because it does a good job of giving a general overview of the linked events.

Christine O'Donnell's Greatest Hits

Christine O'Donnell: The person that makes even Sarah Palin look like a rocket scientist.

Thankfully she lost the last election but her idiocy will live on in infamy. Here's just some kernels of her awe-inspiring wisdom, and my snarky comments next to bullets:

"It is not enough to be abstinent with other people, you also have to be be abstinent alone. The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery, so you can't masturbate without lust."

The 13 Best Political Parodies Of The 2010 Midterm Elections (VIDEO)

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Keeping Fear Alive: 14 People & Things Doing Their Part (PHOTOS)

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Crazed Violent Stick Figures (PHOTOS)

The 15 Greatest 'South Park' Movie Parodies (VIDEOS)

"We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools. Now we're having weekly shootings. We had the 60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS."

• Hmm, you people are sounding more like Glenn Beck everyday, like his "I'm going to connect french fries with the collapse of the free world" episode. He really said that. Look it up.
  

"You know, these are the kind of cheap, underhanded, un-manly tactics that we've come to expect from Obama's favorite Republican, Mike Castle [..] Mike, this is not a bake-off, get your man-pants on."

• Holy hell Christine, you could make he-man cry.

"God may choose to heal someone from cancer, yet that person still has a great deal of medical bills. The outstanding bills do not determine whether or not the patient has been healed by God."

"America is now a socialist economy. The definition of a socialist economy is when 50% or more your economy is dependent on the federal government."

"You can't masturbate without lust." / "I'm a young woman in my thirties and I remain chaste."

• Oh, so that's why you became a witch.

"American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains."

• They would have made nice pets, but they've all died because upon being introduced to Jersey Shore, their brains instantly deflated like balloons.
  

"You know what, evolution is a myth." / "Why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?"

• You want proof?

The 13 Best Political Parodies Of The 2010 Midterm Elections (VIDEO)

Top 5 Basketball Courts in Doha, Qatar

Keeping Fear Alive: 14 People & Things Doing Their Part (PHOTOS)

Five Terrifying New Horror Movies You Dare Not See

Crazed Violent Stick Figures (PHOTOS)

The 15 Greatest 'South Park' Movie Parodies (VIDEOS)

"During the primary, I heard the audible voice of God. He said, 'Credibility.'"

• Are you sure God didn't say "Sensibility"? Particularly your lack thereof.
  

"Absolutely, but let me qualify that -- I consider myself an authentic feminist. Not as defined by the modern movement. And, let me clarify that a little bit more. I was an English major, so break it down: -ist means one who celebrates. As a feminist, I celebrate my femininity."

After being asked if she considered herself a feminist, O'Donnell from (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/the_top_ten_christine_odonnell_quotes.php)

• So a dentist celebrates dents? And ageists celebrate age? I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Also, from wikipedia "Feminism refers to movements aimed at establishing and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women." I would add equal political, economic and social rights for everyone regardless of gender. It's not just a movement for women.
  

"This is a matter of culpability. What freak dancing is isn't just like the safety of mosh pitting, this is sexually explicit activity for minors. We do limit the expression of minors. There are drinking laws. There are -- you know, you have to be 18 to smoke. You can't go to school in a bikini. On one hand, you have people saying this is squelching their freedom, and then you scratch your head and say look over here, date rape is such an epidemic. There's a connection, and, if people realize that there's a connection, then they'll realize that these limitations and restrictions exist for a very valid reason."

>>The way she talks about AIDS on CSPAN should make you livid. Seriously.

>>Skip ahead to 2:50 to hear her deny the separation of church and state.

1st Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

I can make fun of people like O'Donnell, but most of all it scares me. This country is inches away from being run by people who don't know the first thing about the constitution, the thing that they're supposedly using as a guiding principal. It is an imperfect living document, no doubt, but the separation of church and state is not something to be forgotten by anyone, let alone a person running for elected office.