Moral indignation, weddings, and skiing...

I really can’t believe the moral indignation and outrage that has been spilling from the White House and the Bush Administration in general over this Newsweek story that ran last week talking about detainees at Guantanamo Bay having their Koran’s desecrated. The White House lays claim to the “fact” that because of the story itself, there were riots around the Muslim world and 15 or 16 people died because of said riots. The White House is outraged over this, and can’t believe how irresponsible Newsweek was in running this story, and that it caused needless deaths around the Muslim world. Hmm… Is this a classic case of the pot talking to the kettle or what? Actually, it’s much worse than that. Look at the innocent Iraqi deaths caused by the US invasion of Iraq over 2 years ago. We don’t know the exact numbers of Iraqis killed, because the US doesn’t keep track of such things (I’m sure out of a fear that it might make us look bad, and it does). Estimates from the International Red Cross put Iraqi civilian dead up over 100,000 people and climbing everyday because of the continuing violence from insurgents and terrorists that have taken up the Jihad in Iraq. Why isn’t the White House and the Bush Administration outraged over this needless loss of life? 16 versus 100,000. I’m not really sure that you can compare the 2 of them. So the Bush Administration is outraged over the loss of 16 lives, but they remain silent on the 100,000+ lives that they are directly responsible for ending? I don’t get it. Oh wait… I remember now. Those 100,000+ lives were taken in the pursuit of freedom and democracy, so that makes it OK I guess. At least according to our pro-life President George W. Bush. In one sense I sort of agree with the White House in the fact that the 15 or 16 people who were killed in rioting was a tragedy, and probably needless, but then again, so is this entire war that they’ve wrapped us up in.

The thing about pro-life people these days, is that their message is not consistent. Let’s take a look at Bush for one. He says he’s pro-life, but doesn’t think twice about invading 2 countries, and killing lots of people in the process. He says he’s pro-life, but I’m pretty sure that he eats meat on a daily basis, him being from “Texas” and all. He says that he’s pro-life, but pro death penalty, and was responsible for executing more people when he was governor of Texas than all other states combined. And there was a story about a woman that was executed, and how he was laughing about it because he denied her clemency on the day of her death. Real peach of a pro-life guy right there. So he’s pro-life, as long as it appeals to his religious right base of conservatives, which translates over to, he’s anti abortion. Sure he’ll sweep the military into countries, kill innocent civilians, put murderers to death, and eat animal products, but as long as he’s anti-abortion, he’s pro-life. What a crock of shit. I don’t have a problem, per se, with the pro-life people. They can believe what they want to believe, and far be it from me to push my beliefs on anyone else, too much, but if you’re going to be pro-life, then do it all. I have a lot more respect for the right wing Christian zealots who come out against all death. Abortion, war, murder, death penalty, animals, and so on, and there are a lot of those people around, but their message is consistent, and across the board. Pro-life for everything. Our President would have you think that he’s pro-life, but he’s pro-life when it appeals to his “base”, and when it suits his political needs, and when it makes him gains on the political front. Essentially, he’s just a mush-mouthed hypocrite in a suit. Right now his overall approval rating is way down, and so is the overall approval rating for the Republican party in general. This is good, because the next election cycle is coming up next year in 2006, and it could be a good chance for Democrats to take back majorities in the Senate and the House. That is, if they don’t blow it again. Which, chances are likely, they will. Maybe they’ll get a new strategist into the fray and come up with something new and different to appeal to their “base” of supporters. I can only hope.

If you have never heard of Michael Savage, consider yourself lucky. But he is a man that has to be heard to be believed. He is further right than Rush Limbaugh, but of the same mold, well, actually, he’s a lot worse. I can’t even explain his fiery rhetoric, it has to be heard to be believed. So look for his show, The Savage Nation, somewhere near you and listen in, and see how much of an idiot this guy is. I listen in every once in awhile, and I don’t know why, because just about everything that falls from his mouth makes me angry at him, and want to jump through the radio and throttle him for being so stupid. One of his main points that he likes to hit on, it seems in every show, is how anti-immigrant he is. Not just illegal immigrants mind you, but ALL immigrants. Which always makes me chuckle when someone who is not of Native American blood decries immigration in the United States. It’s kind of like, “Hey asshole. Were it not for immigration, you wouldn't be here either you friggin’ prick.” He elicits that kind of response to me. I’d drop him an e-mail, but it would go unanswered I’m sure, and I’m also sure that he gets enough “hate mail” without me adding to the pile that he goes through everyday and deletes without looking at it. Here are some links about this whacko:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/03/05/savage/index_np.html
http://mediamatters.org/items/200408050004
http://mediamatters.org/items/200405130004
http://www.savagestupidity.com/
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/index.html

This guy is truly a piece of shit. And I don’t really say that about too many people these days, or at all really. How can someone go from being a hippy love everybody kind of person to this hate monger? I don’t get it. He’s also what I would call a pseudo intellectual, meaning, he has a PhD, but he’s still an idiot.

So going back to fun things for a moment. This Friday night, there is going to be a huge bike race in downtown Raleigh, NC. Well, I hope that it’s huge. It should be because there is a prize list of $10,000 for the criterium, so it should draw some good crowds, and some really good competition I hope. I think it’s going to be fun. Check out the schedule and race information at the following link:

http://www.capcycling.org/habitat/twilightCriterium.html

And then on Saturday morning, myself and the SO are flying out of RDU to head back to Maine, where the SO will no doubt freeze her arse off in Mexico Maine, because the weather, hasn’t been so nice up there lately. Looking at good old weather.com, it appears that the temps yesterday were in the 40’s and low 50’s with lots of rain. It looks spectacular! We’re heading back North for the long weekend to attend the older sister’s wedding to Doug, held at the old stomping grounds of Black Mountain of Maine, or as we used to call it BMOM. The mountain has done some incredible work over the last couple of seasons with chairlifts being installed, and a new lodge being built, it almost looks like a real ski area now, whereas before, it was definitely low key and local, but it was always fun having a ski area more or less in your hometown. Mom could drive us up there, drop off, we could ski for hours on end, and then come home exhausted at the end of the day. I’m pretty sure she enjoyed that part of it, the coming home exhausted and sleepy part of things. Something about the cold winter air and activity, man, it takes it out of you. Skiing was pretty cool, although I’ve pretty much given it up for the most part, living in the South is not conducive to getting a whole lot downhill skiing in. Not a whole lot of snow hanging around, and the ski resorts around here, well, they’re just not what I’m used to. Once again, spoiled with the ski area in the backyard more or less, and really spoiled when I worked at the Sunday River Ski Resort for about 10 years during the winters. That free pass does things to a person for sure. As in, you don’t feel like you should have to pay for skiing anymore, and the conditions should always be as good as they were there. So yeah, now I have a hard time paying to go skiing, which is something I do like once per year at the most, and shelling out that $50+ for one day of making turns in the snow, it’s just not good.

So yeah, the wedding. Kelly is getting hitched, and it should be a good family party I’m sure. There will be a whole bunch of people there that I’ve not seen in quite some time, so it’ll be a family reunion of sorts. Hopefully, there is no drama, but hey, it’s a family function, there will always be drama.