Responding to Botched Terrorism: I Can Shake My Fist Louder Than You Can

With the world reeling from President Obama’s surprise announcement of Supreme Court Justice–his old friend from Harvard and the U of Chicago Law School, Elena Kagan–you know, the one who’s never sat on the bench? I mean seriously, who announces something like this on Sunday night–you’re supposed to do it at 4:00 Friday afternoon!

I still have to weigh in on the idiotic and unconstitutional Arizona law requiring cops to get ID from anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant without racial profiling–HEY, all you guys in front of the Home Depot, get out your birth certificates! Vere are your papers! Ach, so, Mr. McCain-o, you were born in Panama, eh, John? or should I call you Juan!

Now, let’s turn to the response to the botched bomb in Times Square. I know, I know, so last week! The would be terroist, Faisal Shahzad–such a loser, not only did he botch the bomb, but he botched the bomb after botching the run-through and then he botched his getaway!–is actually an American citizen. Well, again the Constitution has become a worthless piece of paper–except for the Second Amendment, we can’t have a no-gun-buying list because that would infringe upon the rights of REAL Americans (according to Lindsey Graham). There has been so much fist-shaking (or as one commentator mentioned, “length” comparing) about ignoring Miranda rights for terrorists, stripping them of their citizenship, throwing them against a wall and shooting them, you’d think we were in some bizarro US. Or a 1984 world where Big Brother is some mythical real American, played by Bruce Willis or Kiefer Sutherland! Imagine, Glenn Beck being the voice of reason! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Let’s zip up our flies, gentlemen. the US court system can handle these kind of things without any help from the paranoid fist-shakers. If it can’t convict terrorists caught practically red-handed and we have to throw away our freedoms, heaven help us, the grand experiment turned out to be a failure.

Or maybe it’s just the hot air cloud over Rush’s studio…

Well, our natural world seems to be having its fun with us as a huge ash cloud erupts from Mount Eyjafjallajokull (Eye-ya-falafel-cul?) and cuts off Europe from air travel for several days. This is not the first time such a huge cloud has occurred: there was the famous Mt. St. Helens eruption back in 1980. The centuries have been dotted with darknesses “enveloping the whole of Europe” as the description of one 5th century eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that, curiously enough, signaled the start of the Dark Ages (although the Dark Ages could have been presaged by an eruption of Mount Etna in 417, on whose dating, I, in an earlier incarnation as an historian, wrote a paper on in 1990 (Olympiodorus’ Eruption of Mount Etna: a possible dating of 417. EOS: Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 71:329-334)). Rush Limbaugh has been having fun with it, calling attention to Obama’s statement on the passing of the health care bill that the world hasn’t ended yet. I certainly hope the Almighty has better aim than to punish Europe for OUR supposed transgression, so I shall assume that Rush-boy is being ironic, should he be capable of such complexity of thought.

But with such a global disaster, it might be better to look for a more global transgression, and I think we have our candidate at Goldman Sachs. Their financial manipulations–along with other august companies–managed to pull off a global economic disaster, yet their CEO Lloyd Blankfein had the effrontery to make a positively BLASPHEMOUS statement that he was “doing God’s work” while bankrupting the entire world. Now if I know one thing about Our Lord God Jehovah, you can kill millions of people and He won’t bat an eyelash, but say one thing wrong about Him and all Armageddon is gonna bust loose. On top of all, Goldman Sachs has the sheer CHUTZPAH to announce 5 billion dollars in bonuses to be paid to its executives–you know, the ones who bet short on the world disaster they themselves engineered–and you say, enough is enough.

The teabaggers have it all wrong–the cause of our ills is not the government–tho it’s not helping by spending 20 times the amount that could eliminate world hunger on a military that has gotten itself bogged down in the middle of a desert for 8 years. It’s these bankers who think God’s work consists of lining their pockets with our money. They’re no better than the guy who is going to the track and convinces you to bet on a certain longshot that he says he has a tip that it can’t loose. Then, when he goes to the track, bets all YOUR money on the favorite and after the race, picks up one of the losing tickets off the floor to give you with the lame explanation that he’s never gonna listen to THAT TIPSTER again. It’s beyond time that they should be sued for fraud. It’s about time that they should be INDICTED for it!

In the meantime, Europe is enjoying a slower pace and beautiful sunsets. Maybe Mt. St. Palin in Alaska will explode in a few years and we’ll be the lucky ones

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I went to a small con this weekend in Alexandria called T-MODE and had a great time. The advantage of a small con is its size–you can meet everyone and do everything. Naturally, you have a bigger selection of activities at a big con, but you always wind up missing some things you would have enjoyed. The organizers of T-MODE called it “fun-sized” and that it was. I got to hear a lovely singer Emi Meyer (also on MySpace–beautiful woman, beautiful voice, beautiful music) and hip hop artist Shing02 and DJ Icewater. I had a TAIKO DRUM LESSON from Doug Manring (Power Kix Drum Team and Real School of Rock) as well as meeting the new voice of Haruhi Suzumiya and a great singer herself Cristina Vee. Also there were our friends from the webcomic Geeks Next Door, who gave sessions ON webcomics, and Interrobang Studios, whose artist Sarah Martinez, gave a great session on surviving Artist’s Alley. I didn’t get to meet the vocal artist Mega Ran (aka Random) or voice actor Todd Haberkorn, or Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has invaded the US–I did have to run home and feed the kitten occasionally LOL. Oh and I nearly forgot, I got interviewed for Vidgle and I hope to have up a link next week to my podcast with them Congratulations to the organizers–I had a great time. My personal photos will be up on my Flicker account later this week.

Netanyahu Does The Ass Dance, OR: Shin Chan In Tel Aviv

Well, let’s see. No sooner than the curtain came down on Act I of Health Care Reform, but it was rung up again for Act II. Republicans bent on obstruction and repeal, tea partiers bent on…well, tea partiers just BENT. Not sure I want to keep watching, second acts always end BADLY. In other news, Il Papa just got directly tied to one of the abusing priest coverups. That wasn’t long in coming. We’ll have to see how this one plays as well. No, I think I’m going to address something else that I’ve been meaning to before it’s crowded off the news by other catastrophes.

You gotta hand it to Netanyahu–he has the chutzpah of the guy who murders his parents and then asks for mercy from the court on the grounds that he’s an orphan.

Joe Biden, our beloved BFDer, goes over to Israel for talks. He has this lovely grip-and-grin moment with Netanyahu in which they theoretically reach some understanding on the Israeli-Palestinian problem, then no sooner than Biden turns around, Netanyahu announces 1600 additional illegal settlements on land that is supposed to be Palestinian. Oy, what a hullabaloo. Netanyahu apologizes. Not for the settlements. No, the “timing” of the announcement was bad. Ben, Ben, Ben. The announcement that you’re going to do something illegal is ALWAYS gonna be $%^&*( bad. It’s just worse when you push it into our Vice President’s face.

So we step up the process and Obama gives him a talking to. Things look like they’ll settle down. Oh, by the way, we’re building 20 new apartments where that old hotel used to be–in the Palestinian half of Jerusalem. ZING! Bad timing again, Benjamin?

Now Obama’s really pissed–amazing how much stronger he’s been acting since he lost the supermajority in the Senate. He and Netanyahu have a meeting. Closed Doors. No one says what the meeting is about, but poor Bennie returns home, kicking cans down the street on the way and mumbling, “It’s not fair.” The members of the hardline government line up behind him and say, “There, there, Bennie, those Americans were being mean.”

Now, I know there are those out there that think, like the conservative Israelis, that Jerusalem, (pun alert) an island of treasure to the Abrahamic religions, should be completely in Israel’s hands (/pun alert), David’s city and all, but the fact is that MODERN Israel signed an agreement dividing the city in half. Likewise, the territory that once upon a time was Biblical Israel is now divided between the Palestinians and Israelis. Sovereign nations honor agreements. Oppressive goon squad regimes don’t and we all know how THAT turns out. Granted, there has been great provocation, but you don’t put out fires with gasoline.

And Bennie, the US is NOT your best friend. It’s your ONLY friend. Don’t rub your ass in our faces and expect us to kiss it. Remember, you’re in the same position as our teabaggers. The Palestinians are out-reproducing you. Just as white people here will soon no longer be a majority, Palestinians will outnumber Israelis and what are you going to do then? What happens then will be decided by what is done now. Be a mensch.

(Today’s cartoon in memory of the late Yoshito Usui, creator of Shin Chan, who died last September in an accident and whose last cartoons were published this month’s Weekly Manga Action. And condolences to the family, friends and fans of Robert Culp, who died earlier this week).

CLOSED FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESS MARCH 29- APRIL 11 WE SHALL RETURN, MONDAY APRIL 12

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The National Health Care Soap Opera Hits a Curtain–Intermission or Climax?

Teabagging's true colors--and I don't mean red, white and blue

After a year of deals, compromises, debates, broken promises, lies, protests, counterprotests, Health Care Reform(?) is passed. With all the incredible rancor and venom, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have to be congratulated for actually getting SOMETHING done. There are about 32 million people who will have them to thank for actually having some kind of health care, and countless others who will not be denied coverage for “pre-existing conditions” or other BS. Is it a perfect bill? Hell, it may not even be all that GOOD a bill. It strengthens the stranglehold of the health insurance industry–that mandate for all citizens to buy health insurance can be seen as nothing less than a bribe to get the parasites to give up denial of coverage and if anyone thinks that the insurers are going to keep rates down and risk lowering executive salaries and bonuses, I’ve still got that bridge in Brooklyn I’m offering on eBay.

But let us be generous and think of it as a first step in what is likely to be an arduous journey. Real Reform for the rest of us lies further ahead. Let us be thankful for the people who won’t be forced to die for lack of medical care.

You would think the votes wouldn’t be so close. But all you have to do is look at the demonstrations over the weekend to see the bitterness that poisoned the hope of better legislation. Teabaggers running through the House offices, banging on doors and shouting. Hurling racial and other insults at Representatives as they prepared to vote. Spitting on them. One person in a wheelchair was mocked and told his “free ride” was over.

It wasn’t because of the sweeping nature of the plan. It kept to guidelines established by Republicans decades ago. This bitterness arose because some people in the US could not abide the thought of a black President and wanted to do anything in their power to destroy his tenure in office. They were whipped into a fury by Fox News and demagogues like Rush Limbaugh. Responsible Republican leadership has been out to lunch. They excuse this behavior instead of telling the teabaggers to stop acting like children. And they did this because the teabaggers were pulling the stunts they themselves knew they couldn’t get away with. Finally, after the vote, Boehner told everyone to start acting like adults.

But the genie’s out of the bottle. This is not the end of the teabaggers, I betcha. I hate to see what will happen next.

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