Here's one interesting reason to vote Senator McCain president:



Hat tip: Chakra Hammer @ Hot Air.

Also instructive is the video being discussed there. An Obama supporter's starting to have "buyer's remorse".

Me: I'll consider the Democratic Party when they start fielding serious candidates. Right now, they're just not serious regarding my home--this country, the US. I want my country's leaders to protect and advance our interests.

In the long-term, we should find ways to show them what we did--how we did it.

That's why Senator Obama's slogan--in addition to being lifted wholesale from Bob the Builder--
is pointless: of COURSE we can--we already did, and can do it again and again. "Can-do" attitude defines Americans.

We don't need Senator Obama to do anything more than what he's already been hired to do--act in the best interests of the people of Illinois. He's not qualified for this promotion.

McCain wants the job...so that he can continue serving American citizens. He sees it as a continuation of his entire adult life. Served in the military. Served in Congress for most of MY entire life. He was in the House of Representatives when I was munching Trix during the Reagan administration. He is no saint, but neither was Winston Churchill--or Ronald Reagan, for that matter. I won't harp on former President Clinton's blatant infidelity for the same reason.

Men are just that: men. Flawed, fallible and at times, corrupt. Women, being "of man", are also flawed, fallible and at times, corrupt.

Using the God-given gifts of reason and free will, most of us strive to rise against these vices of ours.

The real danger with Obama is that he wants the job...so that he can serve as a god. No thanks. Most of the country has a god. Christians have God. Jews have G-d(the Name), who Christians believe to be their god. Hindus have a pantheon. Buddhists have no god, per se, but the philosophy of Buddha. Animists(including practicioners) believe that EVERYTHING IS GOD [/oversimplification]. The ones left who have no god are atheists ("god does not exist") or agnostics ("we can't know for sure"). Oh, and Muslims have Allah. I must not forget Allah. I hate his guts, but if a certain minority of his practitioners would at least quit killing other people for any real or perceived offense to him/Mohammed(who's just a murderous, child-molesting troll), I could tolerate him.

The reason I hate Allah is the same reason I can't elect Obama. It's not Islam that I hate, per se.

It's Tyranny. No man should rule over another. Even parents can't be brutal or negligent dictators over their children--that's why DSS actually exists.

I don't fear that Obama will become a dictator (although considering his political leanings, it is possible). I do assert that he presents himself as weak and accomodating.

He's like an older version of my brother....

No. My brother is more qualified to be President. He's a strict Jacksonian. ("We have problems here at home!") Liberal domestic policy aside, my brother at least has a plan on how to help Americans lost through the cracks to become self-sufficient. That's his goal. The rest of the world can go hang. Obama, despite being a "community organizer", doesn't have that much. (Yet my brother wants Obama in the White House.)

My problem with Jacksonian policy is that: "It has been my experience that human problems... become gargoyle problems." From Gargoyles. When Goliath said that, he was talking to a small group of English gargoyles during WW2. One of the gargoyles, Griff, wanted to help the British fight the Nazis; the other two, Leo and Una, wanted to stay out of it--it had nothing to do with the three of them. (episode: M. I. A.)

The reason I quote this cartoon (aside from being an animation fan: you were warned in the masthead) is because we have this same issue as Americans. Jacksonian policy--from President Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson--is "countries are neighbors". What others do in their home is no concern of ours.

The flaw in that is when the 'neighbor's' such an abusive jerk that most of the neighbor's family risks death to break into our home. Or when another neighbor wants to take over the neighborhood. Or when a family of cultist thugs wants to destroy other neighbors' homes, steal their stuff, forcibly wed their daughters, and force the entire neighborhood to become part of their cult.

Good fences make good neighbors, but fences aren't always enough.

My policy is the Roosevelt-Gadsden policy. Speak softly, but rattle and carry a MOAB. Those things are heavy; can we lift it?

Yes. We. Can.

[/it is a good slogan.]

A double post with the Lead Communicator.

CRAYONS, and shades of gray.

The complex stems from the simple. It did not simply come about.

Reason demands it.

Take, say, this drawing:

The above is the end result of a series of circles and lines drawn on an ADESSO tablet in a free raster graphics editor.

Now, let's apply this bit of reasoning to clitorectomies.

There is good. There is evil. There is black. There is white. These are the axioms, the slabs of bedrock on which the ephmeral "shades of grey" can stand.

Before an artist can use shades of grey, he has to know his black value and his white value. Otherwise, shading is inconsistent and spotty.

If it's this way with something simple like pencil drawing, then it's the same way with decisions as to which is black versus which is white. In order to have subtle gradations, we first need absolutes.

Otherwise, we're wasting our time. With Transformers, and civilization, and everything that makes human life worthwhile.

For more info, check out LGF on the sidebar.

SSA Reform: What to do....

Mostly a ramble, although I will link to some opinions.

Were it up to Star Parker, SSA retirement & disability would be done away with!

[Just betwixt ye & me, that ain’t happening.... Let’s concentrate on what’s possible in Washington, DC. No hyper-libertarian wet dreams, please.]

The idea [I have been notified by one of my coworkers that Dubyatron has no actual “plan”; he’s just “pushing” the personal accounts] is basically: Everyone in the country gets something akin to current federal government employees’ Thrift Savings Plan, which is...

...a 401(k)/IRA savings account that you cannot touch until you retire or die. [I have something similar with my state retirement account.] The only real difference between this and what we have now is that with the PRIVATIZATION PLAN, my near & dears will get whatever monies I plugged into the 401(k); whereas now, the family will get $255 if I die before the target retirement age.

[This happens to enough “Afrimericans” that it should be a real concern, considering any minimum-wage employee can generate $255 of SSA taxes(FICA) in 4-6 pay periods--a max of three months.]

Speaking of which...have you ever asked yourself when you first joined the workforce...

...what the FLUG is FICA!?

I did, when I started working at fourteen. I understood Federal Tax, State Tax, Medicare: the first is Uncle Sam’s cut, the second is the Palmetto State’s cut, and the third is for health care. [KiM: I was, again, fourteen; hence the oversimplification.]

But FICA, apparently, is some obscure code acronym for Social Security. The idea being that I put in my two bits now, and I get it back later when I’m old.

Except...it doesn’t really work that way. Oh, no. What actually happens is I put in my two bits to pay for my grandmother’s retirement bennies. IOW, a tidy little sum per paycheck is gone, gone forever.

Now, now, you say; Uncle Sam will pay your money back when you retire.

Sure--if I’m 40 & over. If not...I lose about 27 cents per dollar. Joy! And if I die before target age, I get $255. Yippers.

[I’m actually rather miffed with this matter.]

But in order to understand where I’m coming from, and why I’m supporting President Bush on this matter, I could point you to people who are much smarter and more versed in economics than me.

[--for example: Here's a reproduced clipping, a letter in my local paper, that articulates my opinion better than I do.--]

[I won’t, however, recommend Paul Krugman. With all due respect to one who teaches economics @ Princeton, I think I can handle basic arithmetic for myself.]

However, all I really need...is my paystub! Behold:

[above: my paystub, doctored for my protection. highlighted is my FICA amount per pay period, and my YTD FICA as of 11/16/04.]

The YTD FICA is what I’ll use for my calculations. That would be $1373.45 as of November 16, 2004. [that, BTW, represents 22 pay periods in 11 months.]

Okay:

I’m going to compare SSA’s 1% return to the “in excess of 3%” return the evil PRIVATIZATION could provide. [Let’s say...3.2%.]

1% of $1373.45 = 13.7345 ~ $13.74

3.2% of $1373.45 = 43.9504 ~ $43.95

Now, I’ll find out how much compound interest will accrue between my two principal amounts [FICA & PRVT] over a period of 20 years:

FICA

13.74 x 20(1.01)

13.74 x 20.20 = 277.548 ~ $277.55

PRVT

43.95 x 20(1.032)

43.95 x 20.64 = 907.128 ~ $907.13

If my arithmetic serves me right, $277.55 is less than $907.13; or another way, $907.13 is greater than $277.55.

I’m going to calculate the difference betwixt the two:

$907.13 - $277.55 = $629.58

***

a basic accounting shortcut:

If you want to find out what an amount will be after you add/subtract in the percentage[KiM: percentage = decimals], you do the following(sales tax & % discounts are two main uses):

adding 6% sales tax: x 1.06 - the “1” automatically adds in the principal when you multiply, saving you the step of finding out the percentage’s decimal and adding it to the principal to get your full total.

subtracting 15% off: x .85 - all percentages add to 100%, or 1.00. in this case, you subtract the percent of 100 that you’re trying to take off [here, 100-15] and you get the difference. you multiply the difference to your principal to find your discount price.

***

[please let me know if my setup here is wrong....]

= = = | = = =

$629.58....

That’s a computer. That’s my rent and groceries. That’s a tidy DVD collection. Or two to three car payments.

Now, it’s not much, but it’s mine....

I worked for that $1373.45, about 6% of my pay as of 11/16/04. [My employer pays about another 6% on top of that, to an approximate total of 12% SS tax.]

As it stands now, this amount goes to my grandmother to pay her benefits. The idea being kicked around Congress is that I can invest some of this in a 401(k) at a good interest rate.

PRIVATIZATION won’t make the SSA system solvent by itself; no, the traditional bennies I’d normally receive around target age would probably be reduced by the amount I chose to plug into my personal account[again, akin to a 401(k)].

But it’s a start, at least from where I see it. Where Mr. Krugman lost me is when he mentioned “borrowing” and playing the “risky stock market”. For one, it’s nigh impossible to borrow my OWN money. Those figures you saw above are based on my pay stub. And two: I appreciate Mr. Krugman’s feelings. He, like my coworker [who handed me two of his NYT columns], is worried that I’ll blow my “safe” retirement funds on Wall Street.

Except I already have a 401(k) and a 457 [which has accrued over $1000 since I last looked at it]; plus my retirement 401(a). I know how those work. In all three, I allocate a certain percentage to different types of investments. [stocks, bonds, etc.]

[* and that’s just a state government package. there are probably better ones out there with the private sector. -think Wal*Mart-*] I also have a traditional IRA outside my job. I am not alone, either.

Thus, I’ve concluded based on what I know, what I’ve heard of the issue, and on the math; that Mr. Krugman is too worried about what I choose to do with my money. Basically: he did his best to “warn” me, and I’ve chosen not to listen to him. If Mr. Krugman’s right, and I blow my retirement; I blow it. Hopefully, I can accept being wrong--because I could be wrong--with the grace and dignity I’m trying to display now.

Because there’s also other math involved. According to every official estimate, the trust fund pot becomes exhausted(and I lose 27 cents per dollar) in 2042. The year 2018 marks the beginning of the end.

This year(2005), I’ll be 29. In 2018, I’ll be 42; 24 years later(2042), I’m 66. Presuming that I can still withdraw my bennies at 65(and actually, it’s 67 now; I know), I actually lose money, not even getting what I put in back. Not...fun.

Hence my push now to save for my retirement.

= = = | = = =

In both cases, I’m dealing with money I may never see. I could lose this cash. With “risky” Wall Street[the 401(k)], I know it’s a risk; I chose this risk. With “guaranteed” SSA, I was told that I’d get my money back; yet it looks like I’m not going to get it.

For The Powers That Be: leave it up to me. I’ll take my chances with Wall Street.

It’s my money.

:: afterthought ::

Isn’t it curious? Anti-republicans/conservatives/etc. think that being right is of greatest importance, more important than a person’s choice to risk being wrong.

Atheist(sorry, deiphobe--real atheists don’t scream like this): THERE IS NO GOD!

me: Various theist[THERE IS A/ARE GOD/GODS!] doctrines could win more people over(ex. Christianity) if they’d acknowledge that their knowledge of God is based primarily on faith; the empirical data is inconclusive. IOW, the empirical--material--evidence of God’s existence/nature/etc. is non-falsifiable by scientific means. [we couldn’t reproduce the conditions for the universe’s existence if we tried.] Having said that, I do think atheists are being a bit close-minded about the matter. Our material, factual knowledge of the universe is quite limited. If there isn’t a deity, no one will know because said deity never existed. We all just die. If there is a deity, and he/she’s as righteous as the holy writs say, they’ll judge us. [and I’m certain Allah is something...but not any sort of god. his chosen prophet is simply too wicked.]

Pro-Choice: A woman has the right to control her body.

me: Fair enough. The baby[HUMAN fetus/embryo/protoplasm/ball of cells] also has a right to...be born. It’s too bad people can’t discuss this without screaming. [If only it didn’t involve cute, cuddly babies....] The real issue is that teenage girls are cavorting/forced to cavort with middle-aged men; and who gets left with an “unplanned pregnancy”? The teenage girls and their parent(s). I have witnessed teen pregnancy in my sister. It’s fun to have a nephew. It’s not fun to have him cry at 3am. when you’re not quite 10. These teens are still kids; and they want to do fun things; not care for an adorable but needy youngster. These girls don’t want to work at McDonald’s and deal with school and care for the baby. And not all of them chose to have sex at their age. If they go to Planned Parenthood, they push abortion as the best answer ever. [Adoption? What’s that?] Abortion is freedom.... And being self-absorbed kids, they probably don’t even “agonize” over the decision at the time. It’s only when the teen sees an actual baby(as she matures) and she thinks about it that the guilt may sink in. While a woman has the right to her body, the other body inside her womb is its own person. What do we do here? There’s no simple answer. [and yes, I’m well aware that Pro-Life is one-note as well. at least they mention all the options when crying that the teen should have the baby.]

Diversity: We are a multicultural salad, and we have to appreciate our differences.

me: I’ve seen salads. I don’t like cauliflower, radishes, and definitely not hard-boiled eggs in my salad. And I’d spend too much time picking out the parts of the salad I don’t like; or I’d try to order the salad ingredients I do enjoy. If you give me no choice but to have the yucky ingredients in my salad, I simply won’t order the salad. [That, in a nutshell, is gentrification/white flight.] But we’re not a melting pot, either. That implies that we’re all the proper, listed ingredients for cheese fondue. What we Americans are: we’re a tasty smoked sausage. While we know about its pork & beef content; the more we learn of how it was made, the less we like it. But this is presuming you want to spend time and energy learning about sausage manufacture. Apart, sausage ingredients can be bland, yummy, or nasty; together, sausage is tasty. Let’s just eat and enjoy. :D On that note, while there are many differences, let’s also look at what we have in common. What do we share as Americans? As human beings? How do our differences work together? True diversity is e pluribus unum, how disparate parts of other cultures become one tasty, meaty sausage.

Environmentalist: We must end global warming, recycle, and quit depending on fossil fuels; else 500 years from now, we’ll suffer a nuclear winter. And we must save the rainforest and endangered species.

me: I don’t want to. You can’t make me. 500 years from now, I’ll be long dead, and my descendants will live on a moon orbiting a terraformed planet in Alpha Centauri. You can’t force me to buy a fuel-efficient car, simply because I may not want one. No matter what governments and “evil” corporations do or do not do, the cost/benefit analysis of solar, wind, and biodiesel will remain the same for the next century. The best thing to do in the meantime is to liberate the ME so that the Oil Reserves(t m) aren’t under the control of cruel dictators that murder their own people....

**

The naked ape(Homo sapiens sapiens), a highly intelligent creature whose existence has fostered the preservation of many exotic flora & fauna, is the only endangered species that has apparently escaped your notice. Its only natural threat...is man.
**

The general tenor is: think as I do, live as I do, eat as I do, breathe as I do; for I am right and you are wrong. Be right. Be me.

my counter: Leave me alone, and let me be wrong. You be you, and I’ll be me. Okay? :)

First, a prelude to conflict.

Lo and behold, the credibility battle between Bill Gates and Dan Rather began early Thursday morn. And woe unto old Daniel: with the redoubtable efforts of Charles the foo-ball, the Powerline, and the Free Republic; it was shown that a thirty-two year old typewritten document could perfectly mimic MS Word’s Times New Roman.

Now: either Lt. Cmdr. Killian, part of the Texas ANG that Dubyatron was in a year before my older brother was born (let alone me!), painstakingly typed a short memo to self using a top-of-the-line typewriter...

...or we activate our [nigel mode] Kids Next Door Common Sense Array [normal] and conclude that the documents were whipped up on Bill Gates’ ubiquitous creation.

Make the CALL.

Listen. I watch cartoons. Suspension of disbelief is paramount to viewing these shows. But even fiction has to have a standard of believability. While it is strange indeed to see Powerline, Charles, Donald Sensing, and that poster on Free Republic point out glaring inconsistencies in thirty-plus old documents that match MS Word 200x--that a recognized news organization, with the most well-known anchorman since Cronkite, couldn’t spot; odder still is the idea that a National Guard base in TX would have the best typing equipment in the States, that Killian was (he died in 1984)/had a master typist, and all the time in the world to switch out fonts on a souped-up Selectric to type a memo.

The latter is not only odd, it’s flat-out impossible. You see; I work for the government. (I actually have my state and Dubyatron (via SSA) as my boss. And I learned through my two years there so far that my state at least pitches out a supplies contract; which goes to the lowest bidder. (my state is cheap. one time, they had see-the-document-through-the-paper envelopes whose windows tore like...a sheet of paper! Thankfully, it was the state’s stationary, not SSA’s. (They have the nice envelopes.)

I tell this “lowest bidder” tale to say this: I’m pretty certain that when it comes to office supplies, the military/National Guard auctions for low-bids. No National Guard would have gotten an IBM Composer. They would have been lucky to get a monospace Selectric.

The fourth wall has been broken down. The deus ex machina exposed.

William H. Gates III is probably smiling as broadly as that fictional French thief, Arsene Lupin III. He is quite pleased.

= = = = = = = = =

But enough Baghdad Bob comedy, Mr. Rather. How can Mr. al-Sahaf ever get work now?

Besides, we have real issues to contend with, like the Beslan horror. Muslims are making it very hard for us in the West to separate the man, woman, and child from...

...the Maw of Unicron.

So, how do we fight a planet-eater? Before, I know, Islam was Cobra-la; now I drag Transformers: the Movie into this, knowing that if Raksha ever bothered to read this blog, she’d spit at my opinions.

Still, hear White Lion’s song. It throbs throughout these last three years as a neverending refrain, waiting for some noble leader to crack open the Matrix/inspire robots to defy Unicron.

For Islam is the Devourer. What civilization in the past has survived its reign over its people, barring medieval levels of violence?

Everything it touches, dies. Every heart that follows the Quran to the letter succumbs to darkness faster than the four Warlords yielded to Talpa. (Masho to Arago, for subbie purists) There is no joy, no hope, no peace, and no teddy bears where Islam reigns supreme.

And most of the ME Muslims live in abject poverty. I sigh over being broke, and unable to buy that YYH Dark Tourney boxset; but I feel both sorry and disgusted with a number of Muslim societies.

Sorry because my seven bucks is probably more money than a woman in Saudi Arabia would ever see in her lifetime. Disgusted because the only thing that holds Muslims back from their chance at life, liberty, and happiness pursuit is...Islam.

Hear me. I don’t want all the Muslims to die in nuclear fire, their cities reduced to molten glass. I want Islam to die.

There are countless philosophies out there better than Islam. Even the belief that a TANG officer typed a memo that matches MS Word’s Times New Roman is better than Islam. (It is Dan Rather’s solemn belief, and allows you joy and humor.)

Iran: You have Zoroastrianism. Egypt: Your ancient culture inspired a very popular Japanese cartoon/card game/comic book franchise. Just quit the ritual human sacrifices, don’t enslave anyone, and don’t bury the kittens with your dead pharaoh. -- also, no Tombkeepers! -- Syria...what shall I do with thee....

= = = = = = = = =

So many glorious civilizations, crushed by Allah and Mohammed. Will the West be next? Will we lose America, Japan, China, Israel, the UK, Russia, Italy, and (yes) France?

Will we lose glorious Athens and noble Rome? Will we lose the Vatican?

Will we lose Ronald McDonald, Bugs Bunny, Cookie Monster? Will we lose Batman and ET?

Will we lose the Super Bowl?

Will we lose Microsoft, Linux, and the whole of the blogosphere...

...to a borderless ethnos of coward malcontents that reverence an evil god and his reprehensible prophet of doom?

If only we were dealing with Mumm-ra and Skeletor, this sort of foolishness wouldn’t happen.

= = = = = = = = =

The Diabolically Infamous, Notorious Mean One: KAARU RO-BU*!

* karl rove

Oh, the genius of his plan is apparent. I call it the Big #5 Plan: Do nothing to help the cause, and get paid for it.

[I tell you, “Lecter” did zippo for Kaiba Corp.]

While Big #5 did this purposely for his own selfish gain; Karl apparently stumbled onto this after crafting his own perfect plan to take out the DNC opponent.

Except it turns out that the opponent is destroying himself, leaving Karl like the recently-departed Glorft Warmaster Gorath watching Megas beat itself up: utterly befuddled. After getting his bearings, Karl tells Dubyatron just to do his job, continue being a decent human being, and tell the truth.

Yep, that’s his evil master plan to defeat John Kerry. 1980s Skeletor could have thought of that. Even Trap Jaw and Beast Man could have come up with that plan.

= = = = = = = = =

September 11th is nigh. Three years to...

(I typed this whole piece in MS Word 2000, then copy-pasted it onto my blog. I disabled my ordinal superscripts. :D )

...the day when two planes hijacked by brain-dead Saudi terrorists turned the World Trade Center into craters, forcing innocent office employees to choose between seppuku and being cooked alive or crushed by brick, concrete, and glass.

The day the earth stood still as NYC residents wandered through the streets in an unnatural fog of dust and debris.

The day when the Pentagon lost one of its sides...along with many lives.

The day the Pali...whatevers decided to celebrate [because in their eyes, we were the Romefeller Foundation and little Quatre just punched out Treize Khusrenada] by passing out candy.

The day Dick Gephardt was quite angry, and Dan Rather in open grief.

The day when White Lion’s song first started to play.

Now tell me, is now the time to switch leaders? While we’re in an existential war for the very soul of mankind? Perhaps.

George W. Bush radiates hope and tranquility, as well as pure human being. If John F. Kerry wants to win the presidency--which he doesn’t deserve, IMO--he’ll have to do more than tell us that he has a plan. He has to tell us voters what that plan is.

[and no: sending the human version of the ever-beleaguered Soundwave to point out the glaringly obvious to a club of entrenched, Undemocratic Nitwit obfuscators is not a plan.]

Bush’s plan, like most ideas, is far from perfect--or even ideal. But it is a working plan. Let’s put on the smiles of the Toonami Faithful and pardon his dust.

= = = = = = = = =

Show some rage, show some pride;

[Orianna Fallaci...the Italian Genkai]

We must keep hope alive;

[Jesse Jackson, being used for the first good cause in a long time...]

Now is the time!

[to the tune of the first Shin Getta Robo theme...please highlight the other brackets.]

...the battle’s over,
but the war has just begun;
and this way we(it)will remain
till the day when all are...

...what?

Can we answer that, People of the West?

As Botan[YYH] would say (in the dub, anyhoo)...
 
BINGO! This "afrimerican" and several others have been trying to say the same thing! Including Bill Cosby.
 
I hate racism. America's been trying to rid itself of it for several decades.
 
My advice to the NAACP: Go to Japan and teach them the right way to draw "black folks." IOW, follow the Sunrise model. Because when the "black" Green Lantern, whose VA also voices a Japanese samurai, is one of the main hoggers of JL airtime, we're near the point of "We Have Overcome...Don't Screw It Up!"
 
Furthermore, to those that sniff their noses at pop culture references, "baldilocks" is pop-cult FREE!
 
The creator of The X Bridge[CNX: Toonami Revolution and other names...]...is black.
 
I...am black.
 
I can't speak for Nemalki(Nelson Mandela, Malcolm Little(X), and the Good Doctor(please scroll down); but I speak for me: I don't hate Dubyatron. [president George W. Bush] In fact, I think he did the best job he could do.
 
But if you want real racism, LIVE in Japan. I guarantee that there will be no National Association for the Advancement of ANYTHING, because the Japanese would be laughing at you. Trust me, they're still bitter about WW2, and people in Asia Proper can hold grudges for centuries. [it's the ancestor thing.]
 
[which, incidentally, is my guess as to why China isn't doing much about North Korea, and South Korea is too busy trying to use its Care Bear Stare on Kim Jong Il. Rape of Nanking, assorted atrocities are all too fresh, and who knows what other regional conflicts were there since before the birth of Christ!?
 
Having said that about Japan, I'd rather deal with the current Asian democracy who is also trying to shake off the xenophobe syndrome than the Asian country who just realized that their population is top-heavy with males.
 
(Heck, I'm an anime fan and I know this. People decry Disney for being racist. I still like Disney cartoons, especially the TV classics from 1987-1996. [keep in mind that I'm not yet twenty-eight.])
 
= = =
 
Back on the Gay Circuit.
 
As a Christian: Our "Junior Woodchuck's Guidebook" says it's wrong.
 
As a person: I DON'T CARE whether you are gay/lesbian. I read yaoi without judgment unless the writing is just plain BAD. In fact, I employ "don't ask" of the "DA/DT" policy as a matter of tact; it's something that most peeps would call the "common sense: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS" policy.
 
Because if I assume a man is gay--and I'm wrong--that man will most likely be offended and wonder what's wrong with me. [don't tell me that I may have contradicted myself with my biases; I know this. They're my biases, and I believe in this matter that I have a right to hold them; I won't reject them automatically simply because they might offend someone.]
 
I didn't need to know that Brent Spiner was gay. What does it have to do with his job as an actor!? Zilch. Likewise with Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell, or Harvey Fierstein.
 
The only reason I know these people are gay/lesbian is because...they tell people. And that's fine. But the fact is, they and other homosexuals will receive backlash from people too stupid to leave them be.
 
I don't go telling people "I'm straight." In fact, most people don't discuss their sexual lives in public discourse at all! Only amongst friends and family. Heck, what little sexual activity I ever experienced I simply don't discuss with anyone...it's not their business to know my private affairs.
 
[this is the reason I'm annoyed with censorship of sexual relationships in anime. twofold: it only makes the situation worse(mickey and haruka are cousin-lesbians...wonderful! zoey had a sex change to please North American audiences, yet he/she forgot to have the breasts drawn in...joy!), their sexual orientation is immaterial to the plot of the anime. discussions from dub-flamers on this issue irritate me needlessly, especially when I note in my mind that the Japanese are actually even more reticent about homosexuality--certain anime notwithsthanding.]
 
At any rate, you shouldn't need God to do your basic thinking for you. [if we did, Steven den Beste would be a loon.] God won't tell you what to do. You have the free will to do as you please. You aren't pre-programmed as far as major thought processes. God will not control your mind!
 
Likewise, God cannot make you "gay". I don't need the Bible to tell me this; biology did a good job already. Consider the basic concept of biogenesis[life from life, kind from kind], combined with the two methods of reproduction: sexual and asexual.
 
[of course, I will be blasted for this honest opinion. all I can say: if you "feel gay", and you must act on these feelings, do so. I don't think you'll be happy, but my thoughts can only have the weight in your mind that you allow it. please afford me the same courtesy.]
 
Sexual: Goku(boy) meets Chichi(girl); they mate and have two sons named Gohan and Goten.
 
Asexual: Piccolo Daimaoh Sr. spits eggs, producing various children: Drum, Cymbal, Tambourine, and Piccolo D. Junior.
 
IRL:
 
(sexual)
Xx + Xy = xx or xy
Meiosis, where specialized cells halve their chromosomes before joining into one cell with complete chromosomes; the fused cell then begins mitosis.
 
Usual for humans, tigers, dogs, chickens, dinosaurs....
 
(asexual)
 
Mitosis, doubling chromosomes, then splitting into billions of cells, bypassing meiosis.
 
Normal for sponges, bacteria, and most microscopic life.
 
Onto the marriage part. Man + Woman has been the marital definition. If you, as a gay/lesbian person[or to be precise, a man or woman attracted to members of the same sex/gender] want it expanded in the US Constitution to include your monogamous partnerships, you have to use your congressional rep to convince our legislature that it's in American society's best interest to do so.
 
=  =  =
 
Feelings....
 
Sounds like Words and Numbers are at war again. Sooner or later, I'll have to write my Phantom Tollbooth piece.
 
Reason and Emotion are supposed to work together. Emotion keeps your brain from shutting down in an effort to process pure rationale; Reason keeps me from being offended by every insult and annoyance that exists in the world.
 
Humans are grossly, fatally flawed; we're neither good nor evil. We're fallible, and prone to error. In order to benefit ourselves, most of us try to do good, and that is how civilization still exists. (and also why capitalism works.)
 
You can't legislate or enforce good deeds; it has to be something you want to do from your heart; and something you decide in your mind is in your best interest. And while I could quote from Joshua 24:15 to some choice bits from the NT-KJV, I'll stick with the paraphrase below.
 
=  =  =
 
To end this, Kung Fu-tse says that you should do right not because God or anyone else says so, but because it's...right.
 
However stupid Asian culture is regarding women or other races, it somehow gave birth to a truly wise man.
 
The Christian in me says: My God-senses are tingling! :D Mr. den Beste and Mr. Tatara(who is white, not Japanese) would disagree with each other, let alone me. But we can agree to disagree.
 
[besides, we all like anime! and the DBZ is most nifty. anyone making Cell jokes about my effort at explaining biology[which will probably get blasted by the materialist engineer if he even bothers to read this blog] will be gently pinched.]

America the Beautiful, America the Religion.

It has to be a belief. That’s why America is resilient despite its myriad factions.

We have a unique, even holy way, of handling our rulers: we ARE the rulers. The citizens just hire people from among themselves to handle our affairs.

Our belief allows each person to think and question, and to worship whom she/he will.

Consent and trust of the governed, the rule of law, individual rights: words to some. Reality in America.

America was a European idea. It was a strange utopia, with native peoples who were near-naked and sometimes liked human sacrifice. It was a great landmass named after an Italian explorer who wasn’t Columbus.

But when people refer to America today[usually with contempt, sad to say], it’s just that small swath of land between Canada and Mexico, along with those islands in the Pacific and Alaska.

We call it the United States of America.

Think about the name. It’s practical. Americans are practical. The US was initially a conglomerate of nation-states, like the EU.(only with a much more adaptable--and shorter--Constitution. Why is theirs hundreds of pages long...?) And that’s what the Founders[founding fathers, for none were women--Betsy Ross didn’t sign the DoI] called it.

And yet...our country is philosophical, legal, economic and political technology. [using the classical definition of technology: applied, practical science] The United States of America is the end result of centuries of Western European knowledge--in action.

Also, ours is a country that survives catastrophe. Francis Scott Key had no idea what he was writing.... America is that one DBZ character in a fight who will survive multiple ki blasts and emerge from the smoke and debris without a scratch. [no wonder people resent us--we’re Son Goku! Everybody wants a piece of Goku....]

Our critics say that we should look to other, older countries--for their ancient wisdom.

The thing about Americans: we’re infused with true Christian humility. Our style of governance lets us be our own worst critics. Greek dictums like “Know thyself” are tacit bylaws. In other words: we already do.

But let me list the surviving ancient nations, those lands that have seen many European nations born.

1. China: Tianamen(sp) Square country? Human rights violating country? The one that wants to destroy Tibet and invade Taiwan?

Afraid so. China has been through incredible changes. But China brought us Confucius, spaghetti, ketchup. China makes cheap shoes, and thus is the only post-Soviet country to survive communism, eschewing most of it.

2. Japan: That’s just because I like their cartoons? The cartoons are just an indicator of the country’s health.

By buying that Yu Yu DVD, I participate in international trade with a centuries-old culture, rich in simple folklore and understated pageantry. Nintendo, Toshiba, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, RCA...the Japanese proper have incredible common sense and cunning. Hardly the best place to live--there is much I’d change. But someday, they’ll quit resenting the fact that they lost WW2 and rebuild their military. I just hope the rest of Asia lets them. [I don’t blame China and South Korea for being leery....] Japan was a tough enemy: the Vegeta to our Goku, the Kaiba to our Yugi. The Japanese resent us for being better than them, even while wanting our trappings. [actually, it’s probably a bit more complicated. no letters, please.]

3. Israel: But...it was born in 1948...!

No. Its physical boundaries were redrawn then. Its people have outlasted two thousand years of unrelenting persecution. [we ex-slaves of the Diaspora have endured one-fifth that, and we won’t let the European end consumers of the Arab Muslim slave trade hear the end of it. The Japanese immigrants to America dealt with a few scant decades of it for their overseas cousins’ crimes, and they demanded restitution.] Burned alive, spat on, and every crime in between.

It is Israel who has the portable, go every-and-anywhere God. [Psalms 139, plus the ark of God, the tabernacle....] It is Israel whose very history is forever enshrined in the hearts of men. It is Israel whose culture and beliefs are emulated in the United States.

= = =

Israel, Japan, and China: these peoples all understood the concept of ethnos. [Gk., nation] But Israel held itself together even without a physical country. That’s just flat-out impressive. And it outlasted the Roman Empire, the Inquisition, and the Third Reich. It outlasts all of Islam.

Likewise, we of the United States of America are an ethnos, but a very young one--one who was without anything but respect for all the elder nations. Seeing them hate us continually is saddening and sickening at the same time.

America has to be successful. We took all of Europe’s ideas, added in the Bible, wrote in a clause that would respect other beliefs, and didn’t spend our days hating the people of Israel that moved here. [as a government. individuals may vary, but SC has a centuries-old synagogue; FWIW.] We consolidated synaptic eons of human thought and made it work in a scant two hundred years.

As a result, entire nations--ethnos and kingdoms(landmasses)--know our name, for good or ill.

= = =

America is indeed a shining city, a wonder to behold. Hence, I believe it to be holy. Enough that atheists would defend it. [although they’d do so on practical grounds, i.e. “it’s my home....”]

My country is a land of light, a beacon in the darkness of time. We show potential and opportunity, as Israel shows the reward of righteousness and diligence.

And I say America is a religion not out of blasphemy, but from the simple fact that when humans colonize the moon, Venus, and Mars--the humans will be Americans.

= = =

America is spiritual light. Islam is spiritual darkness. The two never get along.

Islam without Mohammed, sharia, the hijab, jihad and mindless hatred of “the infidel” would just be a benign NoI, easily subsumed back into the AME Christianity it came from. [now with Arabs!]

America has laughter, joy, hope, love, peace, honor, truth, and humility. Our heroes, real and fictional, reflect that. Islam has none of these things, and has only a sad, misogynistic coward as its hero.

In the marketplace of ideas, as better and smarter people than me have blogged, Islam is mincemeat. Islam is mincemeat compared to France--let alone to China, the UK, and Israel.

Heck, I could start an underground cult of Amazons in the Muslim world that centers on women. Islam would die like the loathsome tapeworm it is in mere moments.

America could unleash Super Saiya-jin 3 and destroy Islam with one nuclear thought. Unlike the two-bomb bluff on Japan(we only had two, and Hirohito had to be the tiebreaker in order to save Japan), we have many nuclear weapons. The only reason our warriors and civilians are dying in the ME is because we don’t--as a nation--want to destroy Islam that way.

That’s why I want Dubyatron to win in November. That’s why I hope we’ll succeed in Iraq. I want true freedom to take root and grow in the ME, like a dandelion that will choke out the foul, blood-scented garden of Islam. I want the desert of Islam replaced by the sweet lands of liberty; oases like Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

If America fails at this, and Islam attacks, over a billion people--adherents to Mohammed’s teaching--will die, suffer, and be reviled even more than the Japanese were.

And unfortunately, the surviving Muslims can blame no one but themselves.

I say this because America is holy, and its people are culled from the earth. Islam has Mecca and Medina. We have our fifty states, from sea to shining sea. Our shining city won’t die. We won’t let it die. So Mecca and Medina will die.

We aren’t easily pushed. But keep pushing Americans, and you awaken the sleeping Gundam within. Tread on a rattlesnake, and you will be bitten.

I’d rather we come as the dandelion than as the rattlesnake.

Amen.

Heaven help me. It’s been a long time since I blogged.

Again: Islam is EVIL. EVIL. Togashi-villain VILE. Emperor Palpitine would contribute his forces to defeat this ideology of cowardice and cruelty.

[sarcasm mode] But it seems that Dubyatron and Ariel are the great existential threat to the Earth. [end sarcasm]

All this needs is Peter Cullen to explain the situation with a Joe Boyd Vigil hook as BGM.

Better yet, just have Pete recite the opening chatter for Voltron: DOTU with a few minor edits.

Behold:

PC: From days of long ago, from untold reaches across history, comes a legend: The United States of America. A mighty nation, loved by good--feared by evil.

[et cetera....]

So the title of this piece is: The 1980s Strike Back, or Voltron is Needed Once More.

The world of animation seems so simple. See scumbags doing scumbaggy things, call scummies out, defeat them at every turn. Ah, but the cartoons have writers.

It’s hard not to look at animation and see solutions to problems in RL. The Animaniacs (well, the Warner Brothers and their sister Dot) had Saddam’s number years ago. [possibly their “Special Friend.” The Army peeps who dragged him out of his hole probably were thinking “faboo....”]

Perhaps it’s this Eighties Kid thinking again. See evil, stomp evil. Islam is BLACK GHOST. [a tacky Cyborg 009 reference.]

You see, I was a kid when Reagan was president of the US, nearing adolescence when Bush I was the president, and a teenager proper when Bill Clinton “played the sax”, bankrolled the Road Rovers (wait--that WAS a cartoon :D), and shut down the Charleston Naval Base, effectively killing most of North Charleston’s productivity in an effort to gut the military we thought we’d never need again. Because (minus the escalating terror attacks that were blips in my mind) “peace settled across the planet.”

But now, a new evil threatens, and VOLTRON is needed once more. Galaxy Alliance or just GOLION on its own--the Five Lions are needed.

= = =

When I say Islam is EVIL, I don’t mean Muslims are evil. Muslims are human, like myself. We are flawed.

There are several interconnecting ways I perceive this.

1. The Ultimate YuGiOh duel between Good and Evil. Yugi, Jouno, and Kaiba against the Big Five hijacking the Pope’s body (instead of Honda’s).

Well, something along those lines. I’m not even sure Yugi and the crew are ready to duel; because of Vietnam.

Hear me now, and see Soundwave next Tuesday: I’m too YOUNG to remember Vietnam. I don’t CARE about Vietnam. I was born in 1976, 200 years after the DoI was framed. [and when that was framed, the Founding Fathers didn’t include Secretary Condi, Secretary Colin, “Reverend” Jesse, or Administrative Specialist II me. but I’ll touch on that point later.]

2. The Marketplace of Ideas. ISLAM is a lousy incoming Monopoly that must be stopped. It robs the human mind of kindness, humor, and common sense.

Think about it. The Jews revere Isaac, which means laughter. The Muslims venerate Ishmael, which means the son of affliction. I like laughter. ISLAM does not laugh, and frowns upon smiling. Even Sesshoumaru smiles.

As the economic disciples of Adam Smith, we have to either open the market to other products or destroy the foul product.

Let’s consider ISLAM.

Good points:

1. Prayer five times a day.
2. No foot binding.

Lousy points:

1. The founder is a misogynistic pedophile.
2. Domestic converts are usually culled from prison.
3. GIRLS have their genitalia mutilated.
4. Contrary to the Ramadan episode of the Proud Family (which relates to the blaxploit point I will make later), hijab and other female obscurants are not worn “by choice” outside the US. [I do note that Penny “chose” to eschew the hijab. good girl.]
5. The whole operation is shrouded in secrecy.
6. Unhealthy obsession with death, reminiscent of the Japanese in WW2.
7. All of this “spirituality” masks an afterlife that satiates temporal need.
8. The combination of 6 and 7 means that Yokel Abu can kill Haim Saban in cold blood by detonating himself at the latter’s (young relative’s) bar/bat mitzvah, guaranteeing Abu a place in seventh heaven--a place of raisins/virgins.
9. Related to #4 - the robes Muslim women MUST wear make them look like the Imperial Spies of Coruscant. [hence the reason why the Emperor(SW), Lord Sidious, would want Islam destroyed: copyright infringement laws are nasty on Sith.]
10. Allah seems to be Mohammed’s sock puppet.
11. No matter what Christopher Walken portrayed on TV, Gabriel would never relay messages to people like #1. Did Amnon receive visions from the LORD? Why would the M-HoH change his mind?
12. #1 obviously cribbed from Judaism and Christianity and corrupted the teachings of both.
12+1. This “faith” was the work of one of the PPG’s Big Three Villains, who doesn’t deserve to be named.

Two good versus thirteen lousy. I’m supposed to convert from Christianity to this?

= = =

VOTE DUBYATRON, 2004. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

I do not want to vote for John Kerry. He cannot be president of the local Eltingville Club, let alone my country.

After President Clinton, I mused in 2000, we needed someone normal. Either Dubyatron or Gore would do, I thought. But God had “other” ideas, as he apparently saw 9/11 coming down the pipe. (Because several US administrations didn’t.) Yep. It’s obvious that he rigged the election. After all: his son...is a JEW! [ersatz ominous music] And we all know that the Jewish people secretly rule the world.... [end crappy sarcasm]

Bush (Dubyatron) is human, a fine example of the species. He gets crapped on about as much as Kuwabara does by fangirls....

Speaking of Kuwa, I can imagine my beloved media questioning his actions during the “Rescue Yukina” arc:

“Why did you invade Tarukane’s mansion? What did it have to do with you and your sister? Were you planning to ‘live happily ever after’ with Yukina?”

Kuwabara would probably scream at them to quit asking stupid questions (or punch their lights out), so I have to field these:

1. “Taru-chan” was holding Yukina hostage, forcing her to cry to produce hiruiseki. He had to be stopped, or else Hiei would have killed him anyway.

2. Kazuma has no problem being impulsively heroic, and a REFRESHINGLY healthy affection for pretty females, yaoi fanfic notwithstanding.

3. Considering he was fourteen at the time, if by that you mean “convince her to take him on as a boyfriend”, perhaps. But that was a moot point, as Yukina headed home shortly after the end of the arc. No time for romance.

I know; my country and all of its trappings are evil, not the Forces of Cobra-LA breathing denunciations of death to civilization beneath the aegis of religion.

But let’s consider this. Two hundred fifty years ago, people rode on horses, wrote letters on parchment, lit their way with candles, and allowed small groups of people to dictate the tempo of world affairs.

Suddenly, one of those cabals decided that oligarchy sucked, and took steps to change all that in the New World. The result: everything from bifocal eyeglasses to the blogosphere.

Another angle. Is Toonami a Failed Experiment?

Toonami is Cartoon Network’s most interesting product. Not only for the shows, which were the main attraction, but for the way the block’s producers hyped the shows--and the block itself.

Now, let’s change things a bit.

America is civilization’s most intriguing experiment. Not for being a democracy and a republic, as Greece and Rome had those honors, but for defending all human freedom--at home and abroad.

Before Toonami, cartoons weren’t treated with honor. Anime was aired at lousy time slots. And why? Because Trix was “for kids”.

Likewise, before America, power was centralized to the elite few, making life lousy for all--especially the Jews. With little variation, people lived with candlelight and letters. And why? Because the Enlightenment was pixie dust to all but the elite.

But Toonami and America made the impossible [and the Impossibles] possible.

In less than 250 years, we have neared the age of the Jetsons. All because of America.

Now, if we were to simply leave the planet, we’d have to take much of our developments with us. Would the world really be a better place without America?

Or, is America “a failed experiment”?

= = =

The Souls of Black Folk.

What is wrong with said souls? Why is it hard to judge by the content of someone’s character, but easy to attribute all good to people of the same color?

Isn’t that what we fought, bled, and died for?

Truthfully, we’re just letting it slip away. I, as a “black person”--or better yet, as Ward Connelly calls himself, an AMERICAN[by this I mean a citizen proper of the United States]--want the good doctor’s memory preserved in a real way.

The only way we can do that, though, is to...quit hating white people for being white and successful. As a Christian, that’s not allowed. [Christians aren’t supposed to “player-hate”. We should be HAPPY for successful people.]

A rational reason: More than likely, the person worked hard to succeed in his/her field. Don’t hate; congratulate.

A holistic reason: Lowers stress. Stress kills. Death from stress via bitterness and jealousy is just plain stupid.

Our “leaders” are failing us in important issues, so they prefer to either foment hate over minor things like what anal-retentive, racist thing was said by an old white guy fifty years ago; or what offends “us” as a race. Or the eternally-execrable Rebel Flag issue in SC.

I’m a member of this “race”. I want to tell you what offends me.

Why aren’t we doing for the Sudanese Christians what we did for the South Africans?

(or what we tried to do, if you believe Kim du Toit. He may very well be right about Africa the continent, but the “wussification” of Western men based on a Cheerios commercial? If that pisses him off, this trend he refers to may be permanent. yet what do I know--I’m just a black woman, for lack of a non-invasive descriptor that doesn’t lump me in with a racial clique.)

Why are we hating Dubyatron again? Why are we even depending on our government to “support us” in the first place?

Why do we complain about white Americans having better education and prestige in the world while begging them for scraps. Wait, scratch that--demanding scraps.

Why do we curse out prominent blacks who point this out--sometimes simply by doing their jobs. [colin, condi....]

I think JC Watts comes off as a fool. But Senator Charlie IS a “fish-eyed fool”, as LaWanda Page would have said on Sanford & Son. As is another idiot representing NYC, who said something about America not being “his country”.

To the second nut, Danny Glover[since you learned how to read, why didn’t you expand your library!?], Harry Belafonte, and the ENTIRE Nation of Islam: please LEAVE. No one’s stopping you, no one will miss you. Go to Cuba. Live with Fidel a few decades, and you can send letters to Ebony about your time there.

Or perhaps the Sudan. If you live long enough, you can send us photos of your battered, emaciated body taken by Lerone Bennett to Jet.

A note to Kareem, legendary Laker: “Abdul” is a stupid name change. It does mean black in Arabic, but “abd” and its alt modes are synonyms for slave. If I were a recent convert to African-American Apostate Civil Rights Islam, I would never reject “Janell Lanissa Clark” [the purported “slave name”] for a REAL slave name. I would have stuck with Hakim(a character you played in a Bruce Lee film)--were I a guy.

A woman would have to be crazy or abused to join Islam in any form. But I didn’t need 9/11 to tell me this--Sharazad Ali’s idiotic book revealed that years ago.[my aunt, for some odd reason, had the “Blackman’s Guide to the Blackwoman”. The book did have an honest tag line(read it before she does)...and In Living Color had the best punchline--literally!

Activating the GAYDAR.

On homosexual marriage: AGAIN!? Let this tired, inconsequential issue die! Brent Spiner and George Takei will marry outside of Massachusetts when the Bible can be pried out of Billy Graham’s cold, dead fingers. And the fingers of every three-bit televangelist in the US. And the local preachers throughout.

Hetero Christians have compassion, tolerance, and patience. Patience--a great virtue, BTW--is however, limited. And the homos--Christian and secular--are wearing the patience thin.

Let me tell you a secret. God will not smite you with lightning. God will probably not smite you at all. You are smiting yourselves with these selfish efforts to hijack our faith and force it to accept acts our holy writ Does Not Accept.

Bemoaning the ACLU....

Most of the secularists in that organization aren’t against religion at all. They just hate the Protestants, evangelicals, Western Roman and Greek Orthodox Catholics, and other assorted Christians. Oh, and the Jews.

To them, the Holy Bible is the source of all EVIL. But they’re wrong. The Holy Bible is holy indeed--because it tells the truth.

I know the Book of Books is true because of John the Baptist. And many other rightly respected biblical heroes. Because the obligation of carrying out a holy duty should make honest men humble. John the Baptist--Jesus’ cousin--didn’t even take credit for being the Messiah, which would have given John great power and prestige. Rather, he basically said: “I’m not the One--I’m just telling you to prepare for him.”

It’d be the equivalent of a local stand-up comic, after delivering a great routine, telling the audience that he was just the opening act for Jim Carrey.

It’s sad that the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union doesn’t seem to note how much people admire the noble men and women in the Holy Bible. Most of the Deists who founded this country respected Christianity for what it was: a check and balance amid many checks and balances. Americans value hard work and honesty.

[not all of the people in said holy writ were noble--in fact, most weren’t noble at all. and even the noble ones succumbed to wickedness. that is simply the dilemma of being human. most of us strive to do good, but our own selfish desires get in the way. everything, including selfishness, has its purpose in life. but you can’t put self-gratification as the center of your universe, or you won’t be truly happy.]

But that leads to my next topic.

After a long hiatus, the Control Room is back. Serious update later.

Meanwhile, note LGF and the USS Clueless to your right. Biased but honest news. :)

The Good Doctor.

The late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [not to be confused with Garlic or Piccolo Daimaoh :D] has left us a legacy of tolerance and brotherhood. I would also like to think he instilled in us a sense of justice as well. Regrettably, I know better.

Somehow, his message of equality for all under the American banner got garbled into "reparations" and "diversity". Despite the fact that his message was a simple as the YYH Rescue Yukina story arc.

All the good doctor wanted was respect between Americans. As a Christian, I doubt he really cared what color you were back then--he just wanted to heal the breach caused by slavery and segregation.

As an American, the good doctor spoke to his brothers and sisters, fellow orphans and throwaways brought into the arms of lady Liberty, and humbly demanded that he be acknowleged as one of them, rather than an outsider.

Yet now we, who have replayed the importance of his legacy only a million times every February, and one day on every January; we have distorted his message to mean that we need buses.

[rant to the unordained reverend: with all due respect for your past work with the good doctor, the CARTA nonsense was not a racial issue, but a "Charleston is CHEAP as HFIL" issue. furthermore, most people--black, white, or others--drive cars. I was really touched that you actually came on the bus, albeit with outdated bus jokes. despite the fact that it was a obvious publicity stunt for RainbowPUSH, btw. it made me kinda late for work also, which should concern someone protecting "equal opportunities, equal jobs".... /rant mode off]

We would rather let Mugabe and Gaddafi roam free to torment innocent people than admit a...white Southern guy...was right. If Senator Rangel was any indicator, black men are being sent to die.

Now, the Senator, and even the militant idiot after him that said America wasn't his country(good on you. now please leave.), had every right to talk out of their anal cavities. That's what makes this country great.

The good doctor protested Vietnam. And he showed more class and dignity than many who protested. Because the good doctor loved America.

I love America. I consider myself blessed to be an Afrimerican. It's the greatest joy in the world to wake up every morning knowing that I can wear what I want, I can think as I choose, and that Cartoon Network has Toonami. :) It's wonderful to know that I live in the only country with a ritualistic war game[in which the Carolina Panthers are virgins to the Super Bowl!!!! Even if they lose, watch those tourism dollars roll in!] that even German war generals were leery of.

[consider that the Eagles best quarterback "played ball" with a broken rib, and last year with a broken leg. consider the fact that the only country with a meaner sport is the UK, and we haven't been in a serious war against them since 1812.]

I like Japan, and I want to do business with Japan as well as visit Japan. I wish Japan well on its journey toward sovereign national righteousness. But I will not lose sleep if I don't live there--because I was born in the greatest country on the planet, the United States of America.

The good doctor fought[nonviolently] and spoke on behalf of my mother(then a child). He spoke to the souls of his fellow citizens, to end their willful blindness to the hatred being focused on him and on my mother. He spoke to the American folk soul[that Jacksonian nature that bands us all together during such horrors as WW2, despite all internal conflicts] and said "Hey! I'm one of you! We are Americans. Some of us went to Liberia, saw that it sucked eggs, and came back here to be Americans. We aren't leaving any time soon, and it's far too late to send us back to cultures that are alien to us now. Did your fathers fight in the Civil War for nothing? I think not. So accept us as equals, and let us live together as brothers and sisters."

That's all he wanted. That was his dream. And the United States of America--however flawed it is--is the only country where his vision can come to pass.

The US was built, not on ancient bloodlines of nobility, but on line upon line, precept upon precept. America is an idea, a vision, a dream, a promise, a hope.

Consider Islam. It's an idea. The sick musings of a misogynist with various deities and primitive rituals mixed in for flavor. Entire civilizations and peoples have been consumed by it and its followers for 1400 years. Any idea that opposes it must die.

I'm an American. If America dies, I die. If America dies, all "black" Americans die--along with the "whites", "reds", and "yellows", as well as the "browns". If America dies, the good doctor's dream will die--the simple dream that the Tarukanes of the world will be punished, and the Yukinas of the world protected.

In America, if some idiot commits an honor killing, said idiot will be lucky if he or she spends life in prison. And I like it that way. I like the fact that all philosophies are respected. That puts them all in the marketplace of ideas, and allows Joshua 24:15 to have real meaning.

Why would G-d(aka the name that cannot be spoken, the tetragrammaton, and various other epithets) give humans free will? [anyone bringing up Abraham, Isaac, and the sacrifical slab will get such a PINCH.] Perhaps he wants us to make up our minds about him. Each of us has to decide who we may serve, and here in America, that decision was explicitly outlined as a Right that each human has. It's a choice.

Would I like to see people with universal health coverage? But what if we don't need it? How much does it cost?

What about $7/hour as minimum wage? Would you like not being able to get a job at Mickey Ds until you're thirty?

For me, I like working. Not so much the tasks, as the simple fact that what I do translates into a paycheck. And if I were a teenager again, I'd think that keeping the MW as is ensures that while the paycheck from Mickey Ds will be small compared to a real job, less of that tiny check will be eaten by Uncle Sam and FICA than if I got the bigger one that Wes Clark cannot politically deliver. [no way on earth. I can see the CEOs of every retail and fast food company in this country forming a massive lobbyist bloc to stop him.]

It's the choices you make that determine your path in life, and that's why the good doctor loved America. And I love America, too.

I couldn't imagine living in a country that acknowledges that you are a free individual, then saying "this isn't my country." If America is wrong, say so. If you think America is wrong, who's stopping you from speaking your piece? Did our government hunt down the nitwit that wished a million Mogadishus on the fellow citizens risking their lives so that said idiot could wish them a million Mogadishus? No.

I can see why people hate Dubyatron. He's that character that masters pointing out the obvious. Example: all the losers in London are protesting the Iraq situation. His only comment: "Freedom is wonderful." Subtext: "Now the Iraqis get their first taste of what we have gorged on for decades."

Consider an analogy. [a bit of a fan fiction what if.]

A young Yukina has befriended a dog demon named Sesshoumaru, whom she had nursed back to health. The pair meet a pegasus, a descendant of the Pegasus that Belle...whatever--the name of him's on the tip of my tongue--rode. B., after surviving many trials, wanted to be acknowledged as a child of the gods. [in this case, the Greek asylum of Olympus.] So B. urged Pegasus toward Olympus. Except that Peggus bucked B. off, and made B. a cripple for the rest of his life.

In any case, the descendant of this Pegasus meets with young Yukina and her buddy Fluffy, the Lord of the Western Lands on the Island of Ice Maidens. The animal neighs to the girl about his quest to fulfill his ancestor's dream--to stand atop Mount Olympus. The young ice maiden and the inuyasha mount the pegasus, and they fly to MO...

...which may as well be Mount Everest or Mount Fatoum[Samurai Jack reference] for all its difficulty. During this great climb, the pegasus dies. Undaunted, Yukina resolves to lug the winged horse carcass to Olympus; since this is impossible for her, Fluffy carries the dead beast on his back, wondering why she wants to do this. Close to the top, both of them are near exhaustion. Despite this, Yukina won't give up; Sesshoumaru suggests that they eat the pegasus in order to survive the final part of the climb. They do this, and reach Olympus, to the shock of the Greek gods.[think that Fluffy and Yukina are, to them, mere mortals.] And now they, for the first time, can taste the ambrosia and nectar that these gods eat daily. Now the spirit of that dead pegasus can rest, knowing that through him, his fellow pegasii and B. can know that mortals stood on the Mount.

This is the triumph that awaits the Iraqis. This is the hope that resides in the hearts of men. This is freedom. This is victory. The ambrosia and nectar of peace and prosperity.

It's preached a million times a week in "black" churches across America. The good doctor preached and died for equality.

People, if some criminal idiot can inspire us to riot and protest "no justice, no peace", then why not the law-abiding, who want nothing more than to enjoy the rights in their country that we take for granted in ours?

Think of Langston Hughes. He said to hold fast to dreams. Think of Maya Angelou. We are the hope and the dream of the slave. America is the dream, one as old as Nimrod and as young as my baby nephew.

The good doctor had a dream. A dream that we'd all be able to live as brothers and sisters, as a real family. In his time, we were broken; his hope was that we become whole. The good doctor died, and he knew he was going to die; yet he said that we as a people will get to that promised land of milk and honey, ambrosia and nectar, peace, prosperity, and love for all mankind.

The Unspeakable One didn't disrupt the Tower because he hated our ambition. If that were the case, he could have smited them. Scratch that. He said he couldn't stop them, and my guess is that he wanted that ambition directed elsewhere. Consider that any effort to bring earth to heaven is doomed, yet bringing heaven to earth is encouraged. Hmm...perhaps the MHoH wants to come to us....

Yes, it is impossible to bring heaven to earth. Let's do it anyway.

We always say, "Remember the Dream", when thinking of the good doctor. I say, "Quit killing the Dream. Quit hating the Dream. Quit damning the Dream." Again, the good doctor is dead, but the dream is still there. We ALL must hang together, hold fast to the dream, and carry those bones to the Mount, or assuredly, we'll all hang separately.

Don't tread on my dream.

I tried to post some thoughts a few weeks back, actually...however, due to a flub-up on my part, they never reached the Net. Blast.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of CA. The movie comes out on DVD in two years, tops.

All jokes aside, congrats on getting someone other than a career political hack in government. Now, to get Vanna White as mayor of Charleston....

= =

And now, the main event.

The GIJoe Conundrum.

[cue GIJoe TV series theme]

GIJoe: The code name for America's daring, highly-trained special mission force.

Its mission: To defend human freedom against...

COBRA: A ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

[end theme]

This is what the viewers have been told by the announcer for as long as the series aired, through seasonal changes and even Sergeant Slaughter.

[now, cue GIJoe Movie theme]

But...! After the best animated montage to ever grace a movie based on a SatAM cartoon, a new enemy surfaces.

The enemy that was behind COBRA all along...the enemy that gave Dr. Mindbender the idea of Serpentor...the enemy that sent Cobra Commander to take over the world.

The name of this enemy? Cobra-la, a race of ancient snake people. And their objective was not to rule the world at all, but to cast it back into the smoldering heat of the Mesozoic era, that they alone may thrive.

= =

You ask--and you're within your rights to do so--you ask what does this have to do with the Real World(outside MTV).

I'm pointing out a curious correlation between our Reagan-era cartoon and the absurd situation of this age. The simple fact is: I'm an innocent bystander in the middle of a variant of GIJoe the Movie.

That, in essence, is the GIJoe Conundrum.

What we've (we as in "the West")been told about terrorism: It's [insert crappy ME terror org here], a ruthless terrorist organization determined to purge the world of their perceived infidels.

But...! That ain't the half of it. It's not Al-Qaida, Hamas, Hesbollah, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, the Wahhabis, or any of these other arms of "COBRA". Because we all know Cobie keeps getting away to fight another day. [or in the case of Ya'suh Arabfat, clinging to life in the faint hope of frustrating angry Israelis who tire of seeing him live.]

The enemy is Islam, and Allah is the enemy.

Now, now: don't give me that lecturing stare. I, too, thought that Islam was one of those religions manipulated by the wicked for their selfish ends.

Not so. Buddhism, Shinto, Hindu, Judaism, and Christianity(saving the best for first and last :D) are all faiths that have been mangled by the uncircumcised in heart to do evil. As have the myriad forms of secularism: Marxism, Communism, Humanism, Socialism. Wicked people, absent a change of heart and mind, will remain thus.

However, these beliefs' core doctrines will contradict the actual goings-on of the clergy. The most notable example of this, combined with the latest communications technology at the time; ignited the Protestant Reformation, ended the Inquisition, caused the Catholic Counterreformation, and created the Jesuits. All of this, because of one questioning cleric and the printing press.

Oh, the religious authorities tried to suppress his ideas, but they were the ones contradicting the holy writ of the doctrine they were supposed to teach.

Contradiction. To err, after all, is human. Humans tend to sin, hence the need for God. [again, I speak as a Western Protestant/Western Roman Catholic monotheist.] Atheists--the real ones, not those self-absorbed whiners who think God has to answer their questions to their liking--most likely say to themselves: "To err is human. Deal."

The Western world makes their decisions and deals with the consequences. We take a look in the mirror and try to be better than we are each and every day. Some rely on logic, others on God, yet more on the gods, and some in the "West" on a little assist from their ancestors. [because to our enemy, even young Ashitaka Satoshi is infidel trash. heck, the secular wignut raised in this atmosphere thought Tom and Jerry cartoons were too violent--after ordering the deaths of millions....] Because we fall short of the glory of God, every day.

Faith is in human nature. We're indoctrinated from cradle to grave to believe many different things. The Easter Bunny. Santa. The Tooth Fairy. The Boogieman. Transformers. The Mario Brothers. The Thundercats.

The above are quite false, except Santa. (he EXISTED.) But we suspend our disbelief at the very least in order to indulge in fantasies.

Writers like Bob Kane and Bill Finger weaved a tale long ago about a man who lost his parents to violent crime when he was a child; a man who swore to dedicating his life to fighting crime, that what happened to him never happened to anyone else. A mortal, with all the attendant weaknesses of human nature, nevertheless drew on the strengths of human nature and overcame darkness daily.

Unbelievable? Of course! But after nearly seventy years, we still suck it up. This same mortal man fights alongside several aliens, an Amazon, a man entrusted with godlike powers, and a mortal Mercury--as their equal.

Want another example of disbelief suspension? A man named Stan writes a story about a young nerd bitten by a radioactive spider...who is then imbued with the powers and nature of that spider. At first, the youth uses his newfound gifts for fame and fortune; but one fatal day, said youth learns a lesson: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Daily we in the West suspend disbelief to read a comic, to watch TV; even to sometimes read the New York Times. :b

So it doesn't surprise me at all that ME Muslims have strong beliefs. They cling to Islam, because it's all they have.

Do you think for a second that if a Saudi eight-year old had cartoons and Barbies with pink Volkswagens to busy herself with that she would entertain fantasies of a righteous afterlife with Allah?

If a Yemeni teen were exposed to the marketplace of ideas, and compared Islam to other faiths, wouldn't a question begin to form in his head?

Here's my question: where's the contradiction?

Mohammed was a louse. A grade-A louse. Married a six-year old, and consummated the union when the girl was nine. The whole philosophy, as I stated earlier, centers on lust fulfillment. Virgins or raisins--either one satiates a carnal need.

Lies, bloodshed. (frustration mounts....)

And how do women fare?

Don't let Sha-whatever Ali and her badly-formatted self-help Guides to Blackmen and Blackwomen fool you.

Let me try another tack: Japanese men tend to regard their women as puppies(which must irritate the women to no end). Muslim men treat their women as mongrels to be abused, enslaved, and euthanized at the males' pleasure.

= =

If Malcolm X himself were to return to life, and witness what his chosen religion of peace had been doing for a good thirty years; I'm not sure of what he'd do. But since he was an American, I can hope that he'd at least look in the mirror.

Islam has no hope of a Martin Luther. If one could be found, the religion has no time to hear his questions(if they didn't squelch questions).

Because the GIJoe Conundrum hasn't fully realized itself in our minds. We in the West are still operating under TV series logic, thinking we have to beat back COBRA. Like Lieutenant Falcon in the Movie, we're going to fool around until Serpentor kills Duke.

Only unlike the Movie--which was altered because of Optimus Prime--we won't have someone telling us that "Duke" is in a coma. Like the Towers, our Duke will be gone forever.

Pray for our president, the president of the United States. Pray that he doesn't end up like Lincoln or Kennedy for being on the right end of history, but that he serves his term and dies at home.

I say this not only because I don't want Dubyatron dying like Duke, but because I don't want the ME other than Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel to become a pool of nuclear glass. If Islam's practitioners kill our president, they're dead meat. The Sage Page will breath out fiery reminders of Hiroshima and Nagasaki--and he hates Dubyatron. I can only imagine what condemnations will come from bloggers like Whittle and Den Beste; or the furor from Little Green Footballs.

No one would want to stand in our way at that point. NO ONE.

= = =

As we read between the lines...

GIJoe: The code name for America's daring, highly-trained special mission force.

** also known as the US Armed Forces **

Its mission: To defend human freedom against...

** or: to protect our homes and secure human freedom from... **

COBRA: A ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

** ISLAM: see COBRA. Or rather, Cobra-la. **

...we find life mimicking art.

A scary thought, finding that COBRA-LA is unleashed on the earth; like the Pastmaster(I know; another cartoon), eager to send us back to the Dark Ages.

But now we know. And knowing is half the battle. But before we chant "GIJoe", we have to ask ourselves: "What do we do about the other half?"

-- yo joe.