Politics: 30 October 2010

The Rally to Restore Sanity

I watched the whole fucking thing. I’m sorry about that. Anyway: Jon Stewart, as usual, said something that really pissed me off. He was talking about hyperbolic language—I’m all for that. But then he said something about just because someone is more liberal than you doesn’t mean that he is a Marxist who wants to subvert the Constitution. My problem is the “Marxist who wants to subvert the Constitution” part, because I don’t think he meant this as two different things like, “Dog with blue fur.” I think he meant it as one thing like, “Humans with central nervous systems.” I am against Marxist who want to subvert the Constitution. I’m against anyone who wants to subvert the Constitution. (This includes a lot of Americans—especially those who claim to believe in it most.) But it is certainly not the truth that Marxists want to subvert the Constitution by definition. In fact, I think Republicans are far more keen on subverting the Constitution than are Marxists.

As usual, in his desperate attempt to seem reasonable, Jon Stewart ends up not being reasonable. He is so out of touch with any political thought that isn’t on cable TV that he doesn’t think such political thought actually exists, or that if it does exists is a caricature that rolls off his tongue as easily as it does the tongues of Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. They all need to spend a little time reading some real books (The Shock Doctrine and C Street might be a good start) and occasionally watch Democracy Now!

We Are So Fucking Pathetic

I just watched the start of game 3 of the World Series and just as the singing of the National Anthem was ending, four military planes flew over the stadium. When I was a kid, one thing that really made me hate the USSR was their constant demonstrations of military power. At least they had a major enemy! (And no, Islamic extremists are not a major enemy; they have simply been presented that way for political reasons; I recommend watching The Power of Nightmares.) We don’t, and yet we are so insecure as a nation that we have to constantly flaunt our military power. How pathetic!

And this was the second time today I had to hear the fucking National Anthem! I’m a reasonably proud American (more proud of our ideals than our practice these days, you know), but there is nothing patriotic about loving that horrible song. The lyrics suck. The music sucks. And worst of all: it is exactly the kind of song that the American Idol kind of singer just loves to wail away on. The song just sucks! I think our National Anthem should be Burn On:

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About Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is a freelance writer and editor online and in print. He is educated as a scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric Physics. He has worked in climate science, remote sensing, throughout the computer industry, and as a college physics instructor. Find out more at About Frank Moraes.

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