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my frothy, frothy rage
Oct. 8th, 2009 11:21 amToday, some news in politics:
Texas takes a step forward, whether they like it or not, as a Texas judge finds the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Since the case was to hear whether a gay couple married in another state could legally divorce in Texas, this is a double blow against "traditional family values," because they're both gay and divorcing, which I'm sure puts them one step below Satan.
In Oklahoma, they've decided on a new anti-abortion tactic: people who get abortions will have their private medical data posted online for all the world to see. It's like wearing a scarlet letter or being placed on a sex offender registry. (Do not get me started on sex offender registries.)
A former employee of the Georgia General Assembly was fired when she announced her intention to undergo a sex change operation (from male to female). Now of course it's a court case, and the reason her boss gave for firing her? "It makes me think about things I don't like to think about, particularly at work ... I think it's unsettling to think of someone dressed in women's clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing." Clearly this means that he prefers to think about male sexual organs in suit trousers. Or hot pants. God only knows, and the rest of us don't want to know. I hope Ms. Glenn is awarded a ridiculously large sum of money.
And finally, a short opinion piece from ME. I keep hearing same phrase from Fox News and pundits and whatnot about what "the majority of Americans" want. As far as I can tell, "the majority of Americans" in this case is a secret code for "the majority of white people who share my opinions." Don't worry, though, it isn't an outright lie: they're right about "the majority of Americans" because if you're not white and rich they don't really count you as an American and you should go back to Africa or Armenia or wherever you came from that isn't here (or England). Clearly. Anyway, as far as I can tell, the majority of Americans made Barack Obama the president, and the majority of Americans voted in a Democratic majority and the majority of Americans are for not dying and not going bankrupt.
But that's incidental, really. There are good reasons why we're not supposed to have a "majority rule" system. Say the majority of Americans don't think gay people should be able to get married. (I don't know what the actual numbers are.) Does that mean outlawing gay marriage is okay? How about if the majority of people think that blacks shouldn't be able to marry whites? How about if the majority of people think we should open up internment camps and put all the Muslims in them?
Some days I think when you say "the majority of Americans" that you're talking about a good and hard-working and self-sacrificing people. And some days I think when you say "the majority of Americans" that you're talking about a frightened, reactionary, gullible, selfish and violent nation which knows neither its own history nor its own future, and has no care for either.
I don't known about "the majority of Americans," conservative pundits. And I suspect any statistics which tell me what Americans think without telling me what group of Americans you asked and what questions you put to them. But I like to think that the majority of Americans don't want to see little children die because their parents can't afford to take them to the doctor. I like to think that the majority of Americans would like to live in a world where their twenty or forty or sixty years of toil and struggle and slow accumulation of wealth that affords them a comfortable lifestyle (if indeed the majority of Americans had a comfortable or even middle-class lifestyle, which they don't) couldn't be erased in an instant by billionaire bankers and insurance companies. I like to think that the majority of Americans would like to help each other and that they'd rather not have a system where achievement is measured by proficiency in fucking over your fellow man.
Maybe that's foolish and naive of me. Maybe it makes me a socialist. But at least it doesn't make me an asshole who thinks that "the majority of Americans" believe whatever cable news tells them to believe.
Texas takes a step forward, whether they like it or not, as a Texas judge finds the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Since the case was to hear whether a gay couple married in another state could legally divorce in Texas, this is a double blow against "traditional family values," because they're both gay and divorcing, which I'm sure puts them one step below Satan.
In Oklahoma, they've decided on a new anti-abortion tactic: people who get abortions will have their private medical data posted online for all the world to see. It's like wearing a scarlet letter or being placed on a sex offender registry. (Do not get me started on sex offender registries.)
A former employee of the Georgia General Assembly was fired when she announced her intention to undergo a sex change operation (from male to female). Now of course it's a court case, and the reason her boss gave for firing her? "It makes me think about things I don't like to think about, particularly at work ... I think it's unsettling to think of someone dressed in women's clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing." Clearly this means that he prefers to think about male sexual organs in suit trousers. Or hot pants. God only knows, and the rest of us don't want to know. I hope Ms. Glenn is awarded a ridiculously large sum of money.
And finally, a short opinion piece from ME. I keep hearing same phrase from Fox News and pundits and whatnot about what "the majority of Americans" want. As far as I can tell, "the majority of Americans" in this case is a secret code for "the majority of white people who share my opinions." Don't worry, though, it isn't an outright lie: they're right about "the majority of Americans" because if you're not white and rich they don't really count you as an American and you should go back to Africa or Armenia or wherever you came from that isn't here (or England). Clearly. Anyway, as far as I can tell, the majority of Americans made Barack Obama the president, and the majority of Americans voted in a Democratic majority and the majority of Americans are for not dying and not going bankrupt.
But that's incidental, really. There are good reasons why we're not supposed to have a "majority rule" system. Say the majority of Americans don't think gay people should be able to get married. (I don't know what the actual numbers are.) Does that mean outlawing gay marriage is okay? How about if the majority of people think that blacks shouldn't be able to marry whites? How about if the majority of people think we should open up internment camps and put all the Muslims in them?
Some days I think when you say "the majority of Americans" that you're talking about a good and hard-working and self-sacrificing people. And some days I think when you say "the majority of Americans" that you're talking about a frightened, reactionary, gullible, selfish and violent nation which knows neither its own history nor its own future, and has no care for either.
I don't known about "the majority of Americans," conservative pundits. And I suspect any statistics which tell me what Americans think without telling me what group of Americans you asked and what questions you put to them. But I like to think that the majority of Americans don't want to see little children die because their parents can't afford to take them to the doctor. I like to think that the majority of Americans would like to live in a world where their twenty or forty or sixty years of toil and struggle and slow accumulation of wealth that affords them a comfortable lifestyle (if indeed the majority of Americans had a comfortable or even middle-class lifestyle, which they don't) couldn't be erased in an instant by billionaire bankers and insurance companies. I like to think that the majority of Americans would like to help each other and that they'd rather not have a system where achievement is measured by proficiency in fucking over your fellow man.
Maybe that's foolish and naive of me. Maybe it makes me a socialist. But at least it doesn't make me an asshole who thinks that "the majority of Americans" believe whatever cable news tells them to believe.