All Posts Tagged With: "what is Hypocrisy"
OILY HYPOCRITES HYPOCRISY
“HOT GASOLINE” COSTS MOTORISTS $2.3 BILLION MORE THIS YEAR - THIS WILL FRY YOUR TOOKUS.
“Hot gas” of gasoline heated by higher summer temperatures will cost American motorist an extra $2,300,000,000 (billion) more at the gasoline pumps this year. Gasoline is sold at 231 cubic inches to the gallon at a relatively low 60 degrees so when the temperature rises above that it expands. If its temperature goes up to 15 degrees the gasoline expands 1% by volume. So, at $5 a gallon that’s like throwing away a nickel. The only State that takes higher temperatures into account is Hawaii where a gallon is measured and sold at 234 cubic inches compensating for its usual 80 degree temperature.
No other State adjusts gasoline sales for temperature although fairness is weights and measures are universally a state-by-state issue. Look at a gasoline pump the there is a little sticker on each pump that says some bureaucrat has tested and certifies that it dispenses 231 cubic inches per gallon. There is no federal law about this issue.
Hypocritically The American Petroleum Institute, according to a 2006 article in the Kansas City Star, says “consumers don’t want to be bothered by pumps that adjust the size of a gallon to make sure they get the same amount of energy no matter what the temperature” and anyway it would cost too much money to install gasoline pumps that do it.
A further hypocrisy is API’s flip-flop in Canada where almost all gasoline and diesel fuel is sold on a temperature adjusted basis, and then fact oil companies sell fuel to wholesalers on a temperature adjusted basis.
Anyway API says it would cost too much to install such pumps about $16 billion.
API’s views are generally echoed by the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, which represents independent gas station operators. Its president has said, “You put significant cost on the industry for virtually no gain.”
In 2007 American oil companies made about $2,000,000,000,000 (trillion) including the extra $2,300,000,000 from selling “hot gas” and posted profits of $160,000,000,000 (billion) both total income and profits are up substantially in 2008, So what’s a paltry TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AMONG FRIENDS?
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Hey, hey, it’s Independence Day and I just happen to be feeling a bit of that independence since this is actually the second regular work day that I have off from work. This is abnormal as I work weekends. I am at a loss for what to do with myself, so I decided to blog. It’s not fireworks, but it will have to do, folks!
Without further ado, here is today’s Ten Post Round-Up !
1. The Carpetbagger Report: Bush vows more troops for Afghanistan, but Mullen doesn’t have them
For the second consecutive month, more U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Nearly seven years after the war in Afghanistan began, June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops, and our force levels in the country are now at their highest since the war began. All of this, tragically, comes a few years after the president assured Americans that the Taliban “no longer is in existence.”
**No end in sight in Iraq, more troops desperately needed in Afghanistan, and the administration eye-ballin’ Iran. Somebody get my jacket, it’s feeling a might drafty in here…
2. Electronic Frontier Foundation: Court Ruling Will Expose Viewing Habits of YouTube Users
The court’s order grants Viacom’s request and erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users. The VPPA passed after a newspaper disclosed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental records. As Congress recognized, your selection of videos to watch is deeply personal and deserves the strongest protection.
**Hey, the government’s been invading your privacy since 9/11/2001, what’s one more?
3. Friendly Atheist: I Used to be Christian Before I Kissed a Girl
Here’s the fun twist: Katy Perry used to be Katy Hudson — a Christian singer and daughter of two preachers.
And Christians aren’t too pleased with her recent transition:
**(evil grin) Now I like the song even more now…Sassy!
4. Joanne Jacobs: Rich and rejected in Manhattan
Not a single student at Dalton, an elite Manhattan private school, was accepted at Harvard this year. For $31,200 in tuition a year, parents are peeved, reports the New York Post. Marymount, a private girls school also struck out on Harvard admissions.
**What’s that sound? Oh, excuse me. It’s me playing cry me a &%$@ river on the world’s smallest violin…
5. Just a Girl in short shorts talking about whatever: Shame of the Shrinking Dollar
I don’t mean to be professorial, but for those who do not know how this works, I will give a real oversimplified explanation. When you go to a bank to buy a house, they do not actually have that $200,000 in their vault. By regulation they have to have a small percentage of it, but not the whole thing. So when they cut the borrower a check, they have effectively created or printed money. And that is the way that most money is “printed.”
**It’s about to get ugly up in here…
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Cheeseburgers, tomatoes, and porn! What more could you want to read about in today’s Ten Post Round-Up?
1. Al Dente: Almost (In)Edible Photo: Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburgers
From flickr, via…THE DEVIL. Either that, or it’s from a Google cafeteria in New York. Apparently they serve Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburgers, a.k.a Luther Burgers.
Since something or everything is going to kill you eventually, you may as well go out with a smile on your face…
2. Crooks and Liars: Feds Use “Terrorist Liaison Officers” in Colorado
Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for “suspicious activity” - and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.
Home, sweet, home…
3. duckplops - Nation Buys Porn With Bush “Stimulus” Money
“An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country.
Proof that those checks are stimulating something…
4. Firedoglake:Turning Obama Into A Punchline: How Democrats Can Lose
Once upon a time there was a candidate who was 17 points ahead of his foe. The election, it seemed, was his.
His name was Dukakis, and he lost that election to George Bush, Sr.
Or, more accurately, he lost it to Lee Atwater, Rove’s mentor. By the time Atwater got through with him, Dukakis wasn’t even a respected politician anymore, he was a punchline.
Yes, this race is Obama’s to lose (that Republican mud has a tendency to be very sticky…)
5. InformationWeek: AOL Increasing Dial-Up Fees
Subscribers who are willing to give up phone support can keep the lower rate, but they must notify the company to opt out of a $2 monthly increase.
Ummm…there are still people using dial-up?!?!
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, so long as you got your sunblock, along comes bad news about sunscreen. On the upside, apparently, one of summer’s favorite, fruity, treats; the watermelon, turns out it’s got some very positive qualities most people never think about. Oh, yeah…there’s some other stuff in today’s Ten Post Round-Up , but it’s not nearly as interesting…
1. Clusterf**k Nation: Not Your Grandma’s Depression
The banks have been doing their death dance for an entire year now, pretending that their problems are those of mere “liquidity” (i.e. cash-on-hand) rather than insolvency (no cash either on hand or in the vault and nothing else to sell to raise cash except worthless “creative” securities that nobody would ever buy). But the destruction of money (resulting from loans not paid back) is now so intense that the game of pretend has reached its terminal point. The question for the moment is exactly who and what will be crushed as these institutions roll over and die.
In other words, it’s just about coming on time for the rest of us to bend over and kiss our…umm…assets, good-bye.
2. Free Market News Network: Iran War Resolution May Be Passed
Introduced less than a month ago, Resolution 362, also known as the Iran War Resolution, could be passed by the House as early as next week.
Umm…haven’t we seen this movie already?
3. Friendly Atheist: Barack Obama on Faith Based Initiatives
There are stories making the rounds about how Barack Obama is set to expand George W. Bush’s faith-based programs — and allow groups to hire/fire based on religion:
Personally, I think the program needs to go the way of the dinosaur…
4. The Huffington Post: Is Your Sunscreen Really Working?
ABC News is reporting a new study suggesting that many sunscreens are not actually doing that much screening of the sun.
Sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise…
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Some days you gotta laugh and I’m sure that by the end of today’s Ten Post Round-Up, you might find a thing or two to snicker about.
1. Acerbic Politics: Cash Buy’s Friends
On top of the illegal spying, the bill also allows US Telephone companies immunity from prosecution for their part in the illegal spying, should a court case ever be brought up. And now we find out WHY the Democrats are caving in favor of the bill…
Nobody really watching what goes on in Washington is really surprised to hear that Democrats benefited ($$$) from supporting FISA.
2. The Carpetbagger: Report–Note to the religious right: auto-replace is not your friend
Auto-correct can be a very helpful feature of any word-processing program. But when conservatives use it, they run the risk of embarrassing themselves.
Ah, Fundies! They can be an endless source of amusement when they are not out there trying to take away the rights of women, gays or other minorities.
3. Common Dreams: Bottled Water Industry Faces Growing Opposition
Across the country, opposition to bottled water is building, amid growing concerns about the industry’s environmental impact and rising fears about private control of public water supplies.
Of course, it doesn’t help the everybody realizes that “bottled” water is much cheaper if you DIY and, not to mention, probably not much better/worse than the expensive pre-packaged stuff.
4. Counterpunch: Sex Workers is Different from Sex Slavery
The true needs of sex workers are subverted by asinine “studies” full of social scientist babble said Willow, citing a recent, highly publicized report which “didn’t even interview sex workers, just occasional johns called ‘hobbyists.’ Hello?”
Especially ridiculous said Willow is a $1000 “john school” where arrested clients of sex workers are remanded in California to “learn how to not buy sex.”
“I’ll teach them that for $250.”
Despite the dangers, inherent in the illegality, for some people prostitution is a choice and not a matter of force.
5. duckplops: International Monetary Fund To Audit Federal Reserve
No Fed chief in US history has been forced to submit to the kind of humiliation that Ben Bernanke is facing.
How far the mighty US of A, has fallen (as if the war in Iraq was not enough to tarnish our image).
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
1. AMERICAblog: OPEC President–Oil at $150-$170 in near term
The good news is that he doesn’t think $200 oil is coming soon. The cheap dollar position by Bush is coming home to roost.
Well, that’s a relief!
2. BlackListed News: As Bill Evolves, Mortgage Debt Is Snowballing
When Congress started fashioning a sweeping rescue package for struggling homeowners earlier this year, 2.6 million loans were in trouble. But the problem has grown considerably in just six months and is continuing to worsen.
If only they had been on the ball before loan “sharks” had taken advantage of potential homebuyers, in the first place.
3. The Democratic Daily: Increased Covert Regime Change OP’s Approved In Iran
While none of us know the details, there has been a significant approval of funding for increased covert ops in Iran, according to Seymour Hersh in a story published online last Sundy at the The New Yorker Magazine. The news of the article was reported by MSNBC , outlines Hersh’s article and gets reactions from insiders.
The more things change…
4. The Huffington Post: Bush the Pot calls Mugabe the Kettle, “Undemocratic”
As a former advisor to Morgan Tsvangirai, I am compelled to offer the following observations on the recent attempt by President George W. Bush to appear less despotic than the reviled president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.
Hypocrisy, thy initials are GWB…
5. Hypocrisy: California Split on Homosexual Marriage
San Francisco’s gay pride paraders celebrated their newfound freedom to marry as the city’s 38th annual march got under way with a matrimonial touch.
Not everyone believes that homosexuals should have equal rights.
Here is the ultimate in hypocrisy!
You want some hypocrisy? I think these two guys should be the next Horses Ass recipients. I’ve just noticed as I dig around the web that bigotry and oppression are back big time. We’re trying again to defend heterosexual marriage by passing a bill to prevent gay people from getting married. It’s called S J Res.43. BUT THAT’S NOT EVEN THE BEST PART, FOLKS. The bill has two unbelievably hypocritical co-sponsors. One is Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and the other Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana). That’s rich. One of these clowns was trolling around in a men’s toilet looking for an extramarital homosexual encounter. But, hell, it’s okay. He’s not gay! He made a mistake! The other idiot was long-term customer of a prostitution ring! Let me get this right: We’re the perverts? I know, by now these two slugs have found our Lord, Jesus Christ, and have seen the error of their ways. I love these holier-than-thou conservatives. Yeah, let’s protect heterosexual marriage by oppressing gay people. You don’t need our help messing it up. With this kind of extracurricular activity, it’s no wonder the divorce rate is hovering around the 50% mark. You’re doing just fine on your own.
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
You might want to make sure you have the aloe gel handy because in today’s Ten Post Round-Up there is far too much of the stupid (and you know what they say about the stupid? It burns!)…
1: Jus’ sayin’: If Israel is so anxious to go to war with Iran, they should go for it and leave the US out of it…
2: Unfriggin’ believable: Keeping the grocery tab secret until you get to the check-out line?…
Consumer groups worry that item pricing could go away at supermarkets–The Enterprise
3: GWB actually “winning” at game of Limbo…
4: Hey, I’m all for grounding Congress, with no lobbyists’ goodies, and no trips out of town until they clean up the mess they helped make of this country…
Why Congress Treats The Constitution Like A Toy–The Huffington Post
5: Well, when people say that the GWB is full of ^%$#, it wouldn’t be any further from the truth than it is right now…
A Sewage Treatment Plant Possibly to be Named After Dubya: The Ultimate Redundancy?–Pam’s House Blend
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
I believe today’s Ten Post Round-Up will give you a severe case of Shaken Blogger Syndrome (as in, you will shake your head so much from reading some of today’s posts that you may actually turn into a bobble-head doll–without the snazzy grass skirt)…
1: Government putting kids in danger to make a point?…
Children Paying a Heavy Price for ICE’s Showy Immigration Raids–AlterNet
2: If you can’t find me on the internets, it’s because I’m hanging out here…
3: Everyone but the US willing to cut Cuba a break…
4: Sometimes, the cure for what ails ya is a little something some like to call “Ganja”…
What Your Government Knows About Cannabis And Cancer — And Isn’t Telling You–The Huffington Post
5: Is it jus’ me or does it feel like conservatives seem determined to get Obama elected?…
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
I realize that this may come as a surprise, but today’s Ten Post Round-Up has very few of them…
1: Frozen dinners gone wild?…
2: Most Americans are religious. They just don’t think their religion is the only way to God…
3: It’s all the rage this summer: Flip-flops!…
Master List of McCain Flip-Flop and Gaffes–Mugsy’s Rap Sheet
4: That’s like working at McDonald’s and refusing to wear your tricked out name-tag!…
5: And, then some people wonder why other people aren’t so keen on helping their cause…
‘Lost’ Amazon tribe a hoax to raise awareness on logging–PerthNow
Energy Hypocrisy of NIMBY
NIMBY means never having oil spilled on your shores, rather having it spill on the shores of other countries.
John McCain had previously lined up with the Not In My Back Yard energy users so common in these United States. What a hypocrite. Pure and unmitigated. And selfish.
As oil ladened tankers travel thousands and thousands of miles on oceans, near remote islands and wildlife as well as population centers that have no say in the matter of their being exposed to Valdez type spills when all goes wrong, as it does and as it will.
Recently, as The Republican Presumptive, in light of $4 plus gasoline which is transferring massive amounts of wealth from users to producers, enriching oil producing sovereign countries who own and control most of that oil, John McCain did what?
He Changed His Mind - Hypocrite. After taking one position, he now has a different position on offshore drilling and is reportedly considering changing his stance on ANWAR. Is there only hypocrisy in change or can there be virtue in change? $4 and rising is different than $2 and below according to my checkbook.
When will we recognize, to a person in this country, that we are long overdue for a dose of self responsibility in several areas including this one. Even if it means we expose our previous hypocrisy as we transition to less selfish actions. Even if it means further showcasing hypocrisy inherent in changing ones mind. Even if it means waking up or learning new information or accepting old information. This is not new stuff. But a new view is overdue.
Hypocrisy is not always such a bad thing and McCain’s most recent demonstration of hypocrisy is may be virtuous and if not, it is in our and the worlds best interest. Yes, folks, we must also improve other known sources of energy so that our price sensitive consumers and businesses will transition to them.
We all want bargains and oil remains a bargain. Believe it. I wish we would run out of it tomorrow, but unfortuantely we won’t and many foreign countries enjoy low extraction costs and could lower the price of oil if necessary. Bit player Exxon cannot, but OPEC et al, can. Did you notice that China is moving prices in the direction of market prices? They recognize the need to reduce their subsidies while the naive in the US clamor for subsidy.
Every one who uses oil & gas based energy and WHO HAS A CHOICE (and you probably do) to do something different and myopically focuses on complaining about US based oil companies which are collectively minority players, all the while giving sovereign monopolists a complete pass, are unmitigated partisan politicos playing catch 22 with immunity out in the open. Let’s call out everyone on this destructive behavior. Ride a bike, put on a sweater, Jimmy Carter did and it worked, right?
Using oil is destructive to the environment you might say. So stop using it. And support the New Manhattan Project even though Max Shultz of The Manhattan Institute wrongly asserts it is a waste of time.
BUT, in the meantime, DO NOT continue to commit SOAP, our current Suicidal Oil Avoidance Policy, brought to you by rich people. Confront this national security issue on all fronts.
And guess what, even after you do, and no matter what you do, oil yet to be discovered will still get used. Whether we use it or not.
We have no control over that and continuing to arrogate as if we did, is ignorance approaching stupidity. Actually, it is more like stupidity arrived.
I pray for more hypocrisy and soon.
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
According to today’s Ten Post Round-Up, some of you may be expecting an extra special email. You know who you are.
1: Help Wanted: Mr. Nine-Eleven is looking for a little extra pocket change…
2: Mis-Conception: Despite access to birth control, there still seems to be an awful lot of unwanted pregnancies…
3: WWJD: A chain of birth control denying drugstores coming to your town…
Someone ask John McCain what he thinks of this–Brilliant at Breakfast
4: Reality Check: Today’s fathers really do know best…
5: Support the Troops: Feed them lies…
John McCain Supported, In His Own Words, A Program That Could Be Considered The “Brainwashing” Of Our Military Personnel–Cliff Schecter
Senator Kent Conrad and His History of Hypocrisy
The only Senator to hold two Senate seats at the same time, has avoided serious scrutiny of his hypocritical actions because he is popular. I personally have always liked him and his no nonsense charts. But I never saw several hypocrisies on his charts.
So how did Conrad make this unique and devious silent history? After being elected to the Senate in 1986 on a promise not fulfilled, a reduction in the federal budget, he “honorably” agreed to honor his pledge not to stand for re-election.
But when the other seat became vacant due to the death of the incumbent, Conrad ran for and won that seat in a special election, not a re-election, resigning his original seat the day he was sworn in to the new seat. He did not run for re-election to one seat, but ran for election to the same kind of seat, one of only two in all states, because he promised he would not. Confused?
Perhaps Senate seats are not fungible. Who would have thought.
What other honorable things has he done?
Well, more recently he allowed Countrywide Financial Corp to give him two favors you and I would not have gotten. He was referred as a FOA, Friend of Angelo, Founder and Chairman of the company who popularized the “Fast and Easy” money mortgage which fueled the current crisis caused by giving fog a mirror loans to anybody, which drive up prices beyond sustainable levels which are now in the process of normalizing and a process so fundamental to our economic security, one can argue easily that it has harmed our national security.
First he allowed them to treat him to a reduction in fees equal to one percentage point on his 1.2 million dollar loan a VACATION HOME in Bethany Beach, Delaware. How can a lifetime politician afford that kind of vacation home, maybe even not his only one? (Does anyone know?)
He must have married into money. But then why did he need or how did he come to deserve that $12,000 break?
Second, why did he get any kind of loan on his eight (8) unit apartment building in Bismark, N.D.? Countrywide only make loans on one to four family units. But then, he thinks he paid over market for that loan, so he must have done nothing wrong. But if they do not make those kinds of loans, how doe he know what the “market” is and why did he pay so much? Just a garden variety catch 22.
Should popularity make anyone immune from scrutiny, whether it be Senator Conrad or Tim Russert or John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan or George Bush for a short while after 9/11?
Truth is, those who are popular get away with more than those who are not. That flows from public and voter hypocrisy and creates great risks to all of us as a result.
Part TWO - Intro To Advanced Hypocrisy
In our last class, we talked about the mild hypocrisies, the polite evasions of Level One hypocrisy and the well-meaning lies of Level Two. Both levels share the same motivation—the desire to protect others.
They share something else, too. Us. We all do them all the time. They are the “everyday hypocrisies,” the art of fudging the truth as a social lubricant. Like all lies, they can be dangerous. Level One and Two hypocrisies can have unintended consequences, like having to eat your mother-in-law’s meatloaf every Christmas because you told her you loved it back before you married her daughter and she believed you and now you have to slip it to the dog under the table. But that’s OK, you fake it to make her happy.
There is nothing altruistic about Level Three hypocrisy. Level Three hypocrisy is pure selfishness; it tries to deflect criticism and censure of one’s behavior by smearing others. When a Level Three hypocrite sees the s**t about to hit the fan, he turns the fan around so someone else’s face gets dirty. When he uses hypocrisy to protect himself at someone else’s expense, there is nothing “unintended” about the consequences.
If you are the first guy to call an effeminate man “homo,” while you frequent every glory hole in town, you are committing a Level Three hypocrisy. When you curse a wino in the street on the way to the pharmacy to pick up your happy pills, that’s a Level Three hypocrisy. When you preach fidelity and abstinence from the pulpit while you’re snaking that cute intern, that’s Level Three hypocrisy.
Level Three hypocrisy is an equal opportunity sin. Conservatives have theirs (see above) and liberals have theirs as well. Demanding school busing for diversity, then moving to a gated community in the ‘burbs so your kids don’t have to hang out with the refugees is a garden-variety, Level Three, liberal hypocrisy. Blaming high prices on Big Oil or Big Pharma or Big Agro because your energy, health care and food policies screwed up the economy is a strictly non-partisan Level Three hypocrisy.
A Level Three hypocrite is looking out for number one, and only number one. He doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process.
But a Level Four hypocrite does care. The goal of a Level Four hypocrisy is precisely to hurt people, deliberately, with malice aforethought. Level Four is the murder of hypocrisies.
Level One is saying one thing and meaning another. Level Two is saying one thing and doing another. Level Three is doing one thing and blaming another. Level Four is doing one thing and punishing another for doing the exact same thing.
It is a surprisingly small step between Levels Three and Four, but the difference is life and death. When abortion was illegal, and lawmakers would send their daughters down to Puerto Rico when they “got in trouble,” thousands of their constituents died in back alleys. When today’s legislator was yesterday’s Quaalude-taking, bong-sucking frat boy, you get a war on drugs that claims more victims than drugs themselves. The war on drugs is one massive, mandatory-sentence, cartel-empowering, nation-destroying Level Four hypocrisy from start to finish. Only there is no finish.
Level Three and Four hypocrisies are Frankensteins. They live forever, like the Cuban embargo, hypocritically justified first as a war on communism, then when communism died as a war on Castro, now with Castro on his deathbed as a war on dictatorship (as if Saudi Arabia were Switzerland.) The reasons shift constantly because they aren’t reasons. They are excuses. The real reason the Cuban embargo never stops restricting Americans and hurting Cubans is votes in Florida. It’s pure hypocrisy and everybody knows it, yet it never dies.
Hypocrisy is a slippery slope that gets steeper from Level One to Level Four. Once an hypocrisy gets going it’s hard to stop. That is why we here at Hypocrisy.com have our eyes wide open, looking right, left and straight ahead. And so should you.
We should also look in the mirror, while we’re at it. Because hypocrisy can start anywhere, and it kills souls, too.
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
My apologies that today’s Ten Post Round-Up is not as hot as the weather, these days. But, I can almost guarantee that some of today’s links will burn you up!
1: Government working to make things easier on itself…
Cashless Society: Social Security debit cards debut–BlackListedNews.com
2: Wouldn’t impeachment hearings be a great dessert to go with a generous serving of Scotty McC?…
3: To protect speech or protect children…
Right To Free Speech Does Not Make The Speech Right.–Hypocrisy
4: Proving that you can’t win ‘em all…
Taser International loses first liability lawsuit–Pam’s House Blend
5: Apparently, McCain sucks at being clever…
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Until they invent a robot that can read you the news as you wake up to your morning alarm, you will have to settle for this Ten Post Round-Up. Batteries not included.
1: Before there was Cindy, there was Carol…
2: Do you feel old, yet? (Check out the NKOTB banner ad, as well!)…
Report: New AC/DC Album To Be Wal-Mart Exclusive–Billboard.com
3: Glad I didn’t run out and get the original iPhone. Here’s one I can actually afford!…
4: I can tell you some stories about the kinds of things soldiers do to get out of deployments (far less painful)…
Newsweek: Soldiers Turning To Self-Harm To Avoid Going Back To Iraq–Crooks and Liars
5: Preschool may sound like a good idea in the short term, but there are limited long-term educational benefits…
Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
It’s back to business in the Dizzy household. There’s no better way to start a Monday than the usual Ten Post Round-Up.
1: And you thought you had some bad days at work!…
2: Talk about your slippery slopes!…
Anti-gay ballot initiative in California could ban all marriages, straight ones included–AMERICAblog
3: Ned Flanders would think this was just “Oakily-Doakily”!…
4: If it’s a general election year, you know either equal marriage rights are in the Right’s cross-hairs or that women’s reproductive rights are under the gun…
5: American Puppets gone wild!…
Part ONE - Intro To Advanced Hypocrisy
The end of the primary season provides us hypocrisy scholars with an opportunity to step back and study the Big Picture. We have been witness to breathtaking feats of hypocrisy on all sides of the political spectrum.
We have seen the candidates’ paid spokespersons spin dizzying rings around the truth to equally phony anchors on TV non-news shows that are sponsored by companies that pay huge dollars to other companies to make lying commercials about hair-goo and sexless
sedans. We shall soon see more.
But none of that bothers us much, because it’s mild and harmless hypocrisy, for the most part. When Hillary makes her concession speech Saturday and spends the
next few months playing kissyface with Barack like they never said a bad word or had a bad thought about each other we shan’t be surprised. It’s hypocritical, but it’s the way of the world.
More specifically, it’s the way of the warrior. The closest analogy in “real life” is boxing. Two men who have spent twelve weeks verbally shredding and twelve rounds physically pounding each other into raw, bloody hulks, invariably end the contest with a nice, sweet hug.
Do they mean it? I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. But I wouldn’t have it any other way, whether it’s belts or hats in the ring. Making nice might be phony, even hypocritical, but it’s nice.
That is lesson one in today’s lecture in Advanced Hypocrisy. All hypocrisy is not equal. There are degrees of hypocrisy, from the mild and benign to the vicious and malignant. Some hypocrisy is merely politeness, or method of conflict resolution that allows the winner to feel good and the loser to save face. This is gentle, Level One, hypocrisy. Saying something you don’t quite mean to make someone else feel better may be a hypocritical lie, but it is not evil.
Then there is the case of the bald-faced lie told with the best of intentions. A coke dealer tells his fourteen-year-old daughter that he never, ever smoked dope, and neither should she. This is Level Two hypocrisy. It is well-meaning, but dangerous, because when the truth comes out, as it invariably will, it can do damage. If you lied about the weed maybe you’re lying about the smack, she’ll think.
What these two, mild levels of hypocrisy have in common is that they’re committed to help others, to protect them from the embarrassment of your true thoughts or the danger of your true deeds. They are basically selfless acts—any bad effects they may have are unintentional. But there are darker, more sinister levels of hypocrisy. If Level One is a victimless crime, and Level Two a misdemeanor, the next two levels are manslaughter and murder. Levels Three and Four will be the subject of our next lecture. Bring your sharpest pencils and be ready to take notes.
Things are about to get serious.
America is moving perilously close to fascism, part 2
Part 2
In the first part of this article (posted May 26), the first four characteristics of fascist regimes were covered. By way of review, the basis for this article comes from Laurence Britt. His article, “Fascism Anyone?” details the 14 common characteristics of some of the world’s most potent fascist regimes, including Hitler (Germany); Mussolini (Italy); Franco (Spain); Suharto (Indonesia); Salazar (Portugal); Papadopoulos (Greece) and Pinochet (Indonesia). They are:
- Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
- Disdain for the importance of human rights
- Identification of enemies and/or scapegoats as a unifying cause
- Military supremacy of paramount importance
- Rampant sexism
- Controlled mass media
- Obsession with national security
- Government and religion are intertwined
- Power of the corporations is protected
- Labor’s power is suppressed
- Disdain for and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
- Preoccupation with crime and punishment
- Rampant cronyism and corruption
- Fraudulent elections
Although George W. Bush is not the sole architect of our descent into fascism, the above 14 points are running rampant throughout his administration. If you do not recognize them, then you are either not paying attention or you prefer not to be confronted with reality.
Rampant sexism
In fascist states, the political elite was male-dominated and women were viewed as second-class citizens. They were anti-abortion and homophobic as well.
While there are a few women in notable positions (Nancy Pelosi, Condoleeza Rice), the American male can rest easy. The patriarchy is still very much alive here. Since 9-11, there has also been a feminist backlash of sorts. This singular event has once again relegated women to the position of ‘domestic divas’ needing to be protected by their manly men.
The government weaved an incredible story about Private Jessica Lynch’s capture in Iraq. According to the government, she had been shot and stabbed and even sexually violated by her captors. It was, of course, a complete lie concocted by the U.S. government to help gain support for the war, but what could be a more galvanizing event for the American public than the story of a helpless little girl being rescued by brave men who risked their lives to save hers.
The candidacy of Hillary Clinton should by now have dispelled the myth that America is ready for a woman president. It’s one thing to attack her positions and policies, but what the press and the pundits have attacked her on often has nothing to do with policy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out. Just do what I did and spend a few hours searching through the printed and electronic media coverage of her campaign. Sorry, folks, but Obama and McCain have committed some pretty big verbal gaffes and they are simply allowed to slide, particularly McCain’s (but that’s because he’s a white male).
This particular administration’s war on women is no better symbolized than by George W. Bush’s appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food & Drug Administration. A self-proclaimed leading conservative Christian voice on women’s health and sexuality, Hager is pro-life, anti-abortion and opposes contraception. In his book, As Jesus Cared for Women, Hager offers this observation, “Even though I was trained as a medical specialist, it wasn’t until I began to see how Jesus treated women that I understood how I, as a doctor, should treat women.” In another book, Hager suggests that women suffering from pre-menstrual syndrome should seek help through prayer and by reading the scriptures. In Hager’s world, women are subordinate to men; here to serve their needs, whatever they may be. In Hager’s mind, men know what type of health care is best for women. Whether or not Hager served out his term is not the issue. The fact that Hager could have ever been appointed to such a critical position by a sitting president is alarming, but he was and he served through 2005.
Expect the war on women to continue of John McCain is elected. He intends to make conservative Supreme Court appointees to tip the scales on Roe v. Wade. Reversing an earlier position, McCain now says that Roe v. Wade was a flawed decision and should be overturned.
Controlled mass media
In some fascist regimes, the mass media were simply ordered to cooperate and tow the party line. Others regimes were more subtle in their approach to keep the media in line, like control of licensing, access to resources and appeals to patriotism.
Since 9-11 the Bush administration has used the patriotism angle to neutralize the mainstream media, one of the most formidable of the checks and balances on his administration. The days of investigative journalism in America’s mainstream media are long over. The approach to the Bush regime is “big picture” coverage, which means that the administration can pretty much do as it pleases because nobody is paying attention to the details. The Bush administration controlled the media coverage of its two ill-advised wars by utilizing what is called embedded journalists.
Back in 1983, the experts were alarmed that there were only fifty corporations controlling the media in America. Today, they’d be positively apoplectic as just six major corporations control nearly all the media in the United States. They are Time-Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, Bertelsmann AG (Germany), and Viacom (formerly CBS) and General Electric (NBC). The consolidation of the media actually began during the Reagan regime, but has really picked up steam over the past ten year