The Watering Hole; Thursday May 23, 2013: “Racism and the American Right”

I happened across a compelling essay by Robert Parry on Consortium News the other day, one which filled several gaps in my admittedly limited understanding of various racist issues, including especially the racist motivation that apparently underlies the Second Amendment. I’ve mentioned the suspicion before, as described by Thom Hartmann, that the amendment was written to satisfy slave owners in Virginia and the South that the new Constitution would not put their “property” in jeopardy, thereby to garner Constitution ratification support. It appears as though Hartmann’s thesis is, indeed, not at all ‘hollow’ as I’m sure the NRA and any number of gun nuts would maintain. As Parry puts it,

Since the Founding, the Right has decried government interference with the “free market” and intrusion upon “traditions,” like slavery and segregation, as “tyranny” or “socialism.”

This argument goes back to 1787 and opposition to the Constitution’s centralizing of government power in the hands of federal authorities. In Virginia, for instance, the Anti-Federalists feared that a strong federal government eventually would outlaw slavery in the Southern states.

Ironically, this argument was raised by two of the most famous voices for “liberty,” Patrick Henry and George Mason. Those two Virginians spearheaded the Anti-Federalist cause at the state’s ratifying convention in June 1788, urging rejection of the Constitution because, they argued, it would lead to slavery’s demise.

The irony of Henry and Mason scaring fellow Virginians about the Constitution’s threat to slavery is that the two men have gone down in popular U.S. history as great espousers of freedom. Before the Revolution, Henry was quoted as declaring, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Mason is hailed as a leading force behind the Bill of Rights. However, their notion of “liberty” and “rights” was always selective. Henry and Mason worried about protecting the “freedom” of plantation owners to possess other human beings as property.

Given the nefarious origin of the Second Amendment, I have to once again ask WHY has it not been REPEALED? What kind of nutcase country are we when guns and bullets are more important than virtually anything else, including life itself? Let me be blunt as I climb into broken record mode and say IT yet one more time:

REPEAL THE DAMNABLE SECOND AMENDMENT!!!

This is Today’s Open Thread Where Anything Goes . . . Hopefully to One Day Soon Include the Second Amendment!

The Watering Hole, Wednesday, May 22, 2013: Did the Government Create the Tornado that Hit Oaklahoma?

Ok, time to put on your tinfoil hats. This author has seen these “chemtrails” – numerous trails flowing from jets cris-crossing the sky or making long arcs. Commercial jets don’t fly in an arc – they take the shortest route to their destination.

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that our government is undertaking to change the weather on a hemispheric basis, what are the consequences? Is the government trying to increase precipitation to alleviate the drought caused by global warming? Are they factoring in the fact that by creating storm systems, or drawing storm systems further south than they would have otherwise traveled, that they are also creating monster tornadoes, storms that are guaranteed to cause billions of dollars in damage & kill unknown and unknowable numbers of citizens? Is this the price we pay to maintain American Agribusiness? Would there be an even greater price if the drought caused by climate change produced massive food shortages & famines?

The Zoo presents this tip of the iceberg. It is up to you, dear readers, to look further, to inquire, to inform yourself and draw your own conclusions. Suffice to say, there is too much at stake here for the mainstream/corporate media to report on this story.

And, no, this is not a satire.

OPEN THREAD

KNOWING IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Watering Hole – Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sequestration only becomes a problem for Congress when it inconveniences them.

This is a last minute attempt to put up an Open Thread.  Speak Up!

Posted by Cats r Flyfishn.  Now, I have to get back to my packing.

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World

The Watering Hole, Monday, May 20th, 2013: Dirty vs Clean

First, I’m dragging you into the down and dirty: a brief glimpse into the dark and incomprehensible sludge that passes for brains in far-right-wingers:
From a commenter on a TP thread about the new Virginia GOP nominee for Lieutenant Governor:

“What I will never understand is that Gays have no idea they are being set up for easy persecution by the Liberals. How hard do you think it is going to be to find Gays now that same sex marriages are taking place? There is a paper trail to follow! When the time comes that Islam takes more and more control of America which unless you are a moron is happening right under your nose, “Gays’ will once again be TARGETED but this time these religious nuts believe God wants them to cut the heads off of Gays…just saying”

“BTW Shari law calls for the execution of Homosexuals on the spot when found out and this administration wont even use the word Radical Islam and is arming them…keep supporting Liberals and bashing Christians fools.. right up to the day when there are no Conservative Christians left to defend the Constitution and Sharia Law comes here and explain it to them its a ” life” as they place you on your knees and cut your head off!”

From a Moneynews (aka Newsmax) article/new conspiracy theory about the IRS (to which I am NOT linking, both on general principle and for your own sakes), a couple of separate commenters:

“…a flat income tax is no more than rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. Under the flaw tax, you still have to surrender your Constitutional rights to pay the tax, you still have to place ALL your property in jeopardy or peril to pay the tax, and you subject yourself to criminal prosecution every time you fill our a return. And under the flat income tax you still have to file returns, which gives this congressionally sanctioned terrorist organization, the irs, its jurisdiction over you, your property and just about everything you do (now with the inclusion of obamacare). What is desperately needed is to sever that jurisdiction between ordinary American citizens, doing nothing more than earning an honest living from their God given talents, and this hedonist organization that has no more regard for your rights and property than a common street thug. To do that, we need replace the marxist income tax with a national sales tax. It is what the Framers intended to finance the government. Read Federalist 21.”

“- Open the White House Doors Now – Our Kids Deserve better! – That’s a travesty in itself….never mind all this other corruptness in charade! Who has gone to jail?”

“If the government doesn’t do something about the IRS, I think it’s time the american people take in in their own hands. Fed up with this communist government and the people who support them.”

“ABOLISH THE IRS AND THE INCOME TAX!
WE DO NOT NEED THE IRS INCOME TAX OR EVEN A FAIR/FLAT TAX!!!!!!!!!!!
WE do NOT need a federal income tax!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and I need to add I FRIGGING HATE THE IRS! IT NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED NOW LONG WITH OVER HALF OF THIS TYRANNICAL FED GOVT!
READ THIS: WE DO NOT NEED THIS MASSIVE DAMN FED GOVT! WE DO NOT NEED THESE A-HOLES MONITORING OUR MOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

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Now, since I forced you to get all dirty, here’s something to clean you off:

This is our Open Thread. Please feel free to comment on any topic that comes to mind.

Ummmm, wut?

Photo by Zooey

I totally had to fake it.  I think people knew, cuz they were staring at me.

Sunday Roast – Eurovision 2013

I watch that every year. The Swiss get regularly booted out before the finals, but every once in a while there is controversy or even something worthwhile listening to. This year the controversy was around Turkey refusing to participate, because one song act had two girls kissing at the end. After all those little islamist willies will crumble and fall off, if they have to watch that. They didn’t miss much, though.

We had the predicted outcome. Europeans liked this song:

Sad really, when we once, in 2007, had liked this:

Ah well.

This is our Open Thread. Please proceed….

Greetings from Waterloo, Iowa!

Photo by Zooey