"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
WARNING: This may be too geeky and “inside baseball” about connectivity for some. If so, move along. These are not the ‘droids you are seeking. The geeky voices in my head are just all jabbering too loudly for me to ignore them completely.
Continue reading “ISP Meddlers, Bumblers and Cretins, Oh My!”
Seen on Facebook:
Dear Mr. Grim Reaper, So far this year you have taken away my favorite dancer and entertainer Michael Jackson, favorite actor Patrick Swayze, and favorite actress Farrah Fawcett. Just so you know, my favorite politician is Barack Obama. Thank you.
Hmmm, reminds me of a lil ditty by W.H. Auden:
As poets have mournfully sung,
Death takes the innocent young,
The rolling-in-money,
The screamingly funny
And those who are very well hung.
Well, The 0! is certainly rolling in money, but he’s not all that young anymore, and I don’t have any idea how well hung he is, so everyone: please send him your best jokes. Two out of four ought to do the trick…
The Armed Geek linked to this Whizbang! post, and it’s worth passing along and commenting on, I think:
“There’s a trend emerging in American politics. I don’t think it’s a new one, but it’s growth is disturbing to me. And it’s the amazing hostility to the common people.”
Go read it. Now. I’ll wait for you to come on back. Go.
While a reverence for the “wisdom” of the common man is silly, even more silly–and dangerous–is the self-reverence our political masters engage in and the complete disregard and disdain for the views of those they supposedly represent. It is “They” who are the real problem in these (dys)United States nowadays. And I’ll tell you who they are, plainly.
We all know who the “They” of the Whizbang post THINK they are–those who deem themselves our political masters, our social and intellectual betters. Instead, “They” are themselves the scum of the earth, little minds wearing other peoples’ shopworn and discredited ideas with pseudo-intellectual pride, the self-enstupiated, self-absorbed glitterati whose entire lives are all hat, no cattle; all sizzle, no steak. “They” are the Beltway elites deafened by their own echo chamber, the vacuum-headed Hollyweird script readers and the Mass MEdia Podpeople. “They” all fluff each other in a never-ending circle jerk of self-congratulatory rape of our liberties.1
There is no way to dehumanize this “They” that “They” have not already claimed as their very own by their empty, bobble-headed, vile, venal2 behaviors.
And now that I’ve listed their good qualities…
*heh*
But still, remember this:
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time… the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.”–Thomas Jefferson
Or, in Randall Thompson’s presentation of Jefferson’s thoughts on liberty, from “Testament of Freedom”:
[audio:http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/Media_Files/The-God-Who-Gave-Us-Life.mp3]Or, for those not using Flash,
The bastards may destroy our lives, but apart from taking our lives, “They” cannot take our liberty… without our cooperation.
Don’t let the bastards wear you down.
Lastly, despite the destruction wrought on our society by the appeal to the lowest common denominator (I typoed, “demoninator” there. Freudian slip?) by the “They” seeking (apparently) to enstupiate the common man with toxic cotton candy (the end result of The Revolt of the Masses *sigh*), this:
[audio:http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/Media_Files/fanfare-common-man-excerpt.mp3]And again, for non-Flash users,
Fanfare for the Common Man–excerpt
Despair is a deadly sin. Again: don’t let the bastards wear you down. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” as Dylan Thomas put it.
1BTW, the couple of vulgarities–verging on the obscene–I included in my indictment of “They” are just that: vulgarities. In the past, I’ve had some object to vulgarities such as that as “profanity” or some other subliterate appellation (“cursing”? *feh* Save me from burgeoning enstupiation and subliteracy!). I chose the specific vulgar comment consciously, because the very least, most inoffensive behavior of “They” is so far beyond the most offensive vulgarity I can imagine that it was just about the mildest way I had available to describe “They’s” obscene, evil, “…iniquitous, nefarious, sinful, vicious, wicked… ” etc. nature. Blame them, not me.
2“venal” is used here as shorthand for “mercenary; crooked, cutthroat, dishonest, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous; corrupt, debased, debauched, degenerate, degraded, demoralized, depraved, dissipated, dissolute, perverse, perverted, warped; bad, evil, immoral, iniquitous, nefarious, sinful, vicious, wicked, etc.”