The Making of Mediocrity

How else are we going to manufacture a generation of mediocre citizens, lazy, ineffective thinkers, obedient worker bees, citizens who opt not to vote than by penalizing teachers who hand out zeroes to students who don't hand in assignments?

Threat To Israel Is Threat To Canada, Defence Minister Peter MacKay Tells Israeli Military Commander

To my Member of Parliament after reading Threat To Israel Is Threat To Canada, Defence Minister Peter MacKay Tells Israeli Military Commander:

So, the transformation of Canada into a Franksteined version of George W. Bush's America continues.

Who are the Conservatives trying to impress with such rhetoric, with Peter MacKay saying "A threat to Israel is a threat to Canada"?

Are you trying to impress the US?  I thought that was covered by the Harper Government handing Canadian sovereignty over to the Yanks piecemeal.

Message to Kerry Cassidy of Project Camelot

At the 12:38 minute mark of this 2009 interview with Dr. Stephen Greer, Kerry Cassidy says that a "secret witness" told her that the world would run out of food in 10 months and that we had 4 years of air left in the world.

Clearly, the first prediction about the food was completely wrong.  It's now 2012 and I've been overeating with abandon right through the deadline Kerry stated.

As for the world running out of air, I'm going to bet that prediction will prove as accurate as the food prediction.

My question is -- why repeat such obviously asinine testimony such as this?  All it does is hurt your credibility, makes you look like wingnuts, and actually sabotages everything else you have to say because the casual, uninformed viewer sits back and thinks, "Well, everything else they're talking about is probably just as loopy as the food and air predictions."

For people who present themselves as "researchers" who are digging for the truth, where's the research?  Actually, where's the educated skepticism?

Art Bell torpedoed himself in much the same way.  He explored many interesting topics on his show, had many interesting guests, but the fact that he believed and gave credence to some of the most laughable and easily disproven theories hurt him -- not the least of which was his ridiculously serious introduction to the "screams from hell" as recorded from a deep hole in Siberia.  Really?  Hell is in the center of the earth?  The Russians dug a 9 km hole and then went and found a microphone with a 9 km cord, lowered it into the center of the earth without it melting, and were able to record these sounds, which everyone instantly deduces are the screams of hell?  Really?  That's school-yard apocryphal-tale-telling, not anything approaching responsible research.

In a time when secret operations need exposure.  In a time when so many conspiracies are active, and are damaging our democracy and our planet.  In a time when we could be using the Internet to disseminate actual true information about these conspiracies, why in the world would you torpedo your interview with Dr. Greer by sharing such an outlandishly foolish prediction as the world running out of food in 10 months and running out of air in 4 years?

Why would you negate everything else you've done with statement such as this?

Before I'm viewed as merely a crank raining on your parade, I wanted to share a quick anecdote about how misinformation sinks the whole ship.

When I was a kid, I was home sick one day in November 1983 and was watching Donahue or one of those talk shows.  They were discussing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  At that time in my life, all I knew was that Lee Harvey Oswald killed him, and that was that.  Obviously, I know better now.

So, with that scant knowledge, I watched a panel of researchers, which I believe included Mark Lane and Robert Groden, both of whose work I have come to respect.

Among the panel was one man who said, "If you watch the Zapruder film closely, you'll see the Secret Service driver of the limousine turn around and fire the fatal shot at JFK."

Even as a child, I thought this was ridiculous and I've always remembered that statement and the effect it had on the studio audience: After that man put forth his ridiculous theory, the rest of the panel was painted with the same brush by the audience.  Everyone on the panel was taken down with the ship, as it were.  Suddenly, everyone's theories seemed silly.  No doubt, the man who put forth the limo-driver-as-assassin idea was a misinformation agent whose job was to do precisely that -- torpedo the entire panel.  Mission accomplished, at least on that day.

And so, I find similarly silly, ridiculous, easily disproven theories have the same effect on conversations.  Pardon the indelicate image, but such theories are like a turd in the swimming pool -- they contaminate everything within their reach.

So, ideas that we're going to run out of food in 10 months and run out of air in 4 years are turds in the swimming pool.

Responsible researchers should eshew such statements and people who put forth such ideas without voluminous evidence.  The emphasis should be on the evidence not the theories.  The Internet is chockful of whacky theories.  I can get my fill on there all day.  I want evidence.

Big week in Canadian law & order

Alberta mom who drowned sons to serve 15 more months.

Eaton Centre suspect under house arrest at time of shooting.

Bus beheader seeks passes from hospital.

I understand the Canadian "justice" system isn't about vengeance and I'm glad for that.  I cannot, however,  abide the attitude in our courts that looks upon a person who has committed murder and looks to see, "How can we get this poor soul back on his/her feet?"

Where is the recognition of injury done to the victim and/or the victims family in Canadian courts?  Isn't that a part of justice?  Not in Canada, of course, but isn't it part of most people's sense of what justice is all about?

I'm all too familiar with the hand-wringing do-gooders of Canada who will lament, for instance, about the Alberta mom/muderer, "Sentencing her to 40 years in jail isn't going to bring back the children she murdered."

No, it won't, but I would posit, a lengthy prison sentence is merited, just the same.  The woman cold-bloodedly murdered two children.  What's worse -- they were her own children.  That's not a mitigating factor, it's an exacerbating factor!

Of all the crime stories I've ever read about -- and I've read thousands -- never have I heard of a family member of a murder victim say, imply, infer or otherwise communicate: "If only the murderer got a life sentence, my loved one would come back."

I've never heard such a thing said because I'm sure it's never been said.  Nobody believes it.  So, the hand-wringing criminal-embracing bleeding hearts ought to stop using that as a point of argument.

For some reason, human life has little meaning or value to Canadian courts.

Murder someone and Canadian courts act like American retailers on double coupon day: "OK, are you a member of CARP?  That will get you a few years off.  Any mental illness?  That'll save you a few years.  Are you of aboriginal ancestry?  There's a few more years shaved off.  How about extenuating circumstances, like, you just didn't mean it?  That'll save you a few years.  How about, you're sorry?  Right -- good -- that'll get you a few more years shaved off . . ."

This bizarre, macabre bargaining goes on until the convicted murderer is sentenced to mere months in prison and then given two-for-one credit for time served.

Why?  Because the only thing that matters in Canadian courts is the accused.  Murder someone in Canada and you become Special Person on the next installment of This Is Your Life.  And then all the guilt-ridden do-gooders who think the world just needs more hugs and sweaters have their chance to perform a personality make-over on murderers, rapists, child molesters, what have you.  Like these wretches are the do-gooders ragamuffin Barbie dolls.

This is no more in evidence than the case of Vincent Li, Canadian's beloved cannibal, for whom so many people are pulling, cheering the coming of his day passes.

I've been told my views are outmoded, unsophisticated and not inline with Canadian justice.  That may be so, but I believe that when the act is heinous enough, the reasons behind the act become irrelevant and the perpetrator of the heinous act must simply be locked up forever.

In these isolated cases -- the mother/murderer, the alleged Eaton Centre shooter, the Canadian cannibal -- yes, when found guilty of such crimes, these people should be locked up until they die.

Canada finally recognizes a long-abused and shunned constituency: its cannibals

For too long, Canada has shunned and overlooked a small and vulnerable segment of society: cannibals.

The Canadian Cannibal Community -- otherwise known as C³ -- has greeted the news of renowned Canadian Cannibal, Vince Li's newly expanded freedom with great excitement.

Making lemons from lemonade

Making lemons from lemonade by whetam on GoAnimate

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Mississippi Conservative Calls For Putting Gay People To Death On Facebook Page

After reading Mississippi Conservative Calls For Putting Gay People To Death On Facebook Page

To Mississippi, GOP state Rep. Andy Gipson at gipson.andy@gmail.com

Dear Mississippi, GOP state Rep. Andy Gipson (dear in the non-gay sense):

Dear Harper Government: What is the mandatory minimum for treason?

Regarding the "robo call" scandal in Canada, I wrote the following to my Member of Parliament:

With regard to the news stories flying about "robo calls" being made during the last federal election -- which fraudulently identified themselves as originating from Elections Canada and steered Canadian voters to wrong locations to vote -- I'm going to reserve my judgment until Elections Canada and the RCMP conclude their investigations.

In the meantime, I would like to register my feeling about the kind of people who would undertake such odious, criminal and undemocratic practices during an election: I think they should be charged with treason and sentenced to long years in prison without benefit of comfort or mercy.

Undercover Boss: The most blatant propaganda on the most beastly propaganda machine in the world

Since the time of John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, corporate executives have been among the most hated people in America.

Not much has changed in more than a century, leading right up to the Great Depression of 2008.

The American cannibal class pushed the envelope too far, though, with its $700+ billion bail out and the foreclosures running rampant across the country like a plague.

The Plebeians can only take so much. If it wasn't for TV, transfats and prescription drugs, there's little question they would be running wild in the streets, burning down the condos and corporate suites of their corporate overlords.

Conservatives to Canadians on e-snooping: "Stand with us or with the child pornographers"

After reading about it in The Globe & Mail 'Stand with us or with the child pornographers', I wrote the following to my MP:

The long-form census was intrusive into the privacy of Canadians, but cyber snooping is A-OK. Justification: "Stand with us or with the child pornographers".

Conservatives are often accused of not being terribly bright, binary thinkers: "take it or leave it" "my way or the highway" "like it or lump it" "Stand with us or with the child pornographers".

"So what, we faked a citizenship ceremony" says the Stephen Harper Government

From The Windsor Star:

OTTAWA — A fake citizenship ceremony broadcast last fall on Sun News was the result of "logistical problems," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday in the House of Commons, amid much laughter.

Under fire during question period after departmental emails detailing the hoax surfaced, Kenney ignored opposition requests to apologize for the ruse, blamed it on public servants in his department and urged Canadians to look past it.

Which necessitated an email to my MP:

I've read about the phony citizenship-reaffirmation ceremony where bureaucrats posed as new immigrants, broadcast by Tory-friendly Sun News, and have to wonder how anyone who's part of the Harper Government can look themselves in the mirror.

Mendacity Unchained!

An audacious master (alleged) criminal seems to have scored a spectacular checkmate against the Canadian Criminal Justice system.

Jamal Hazime, former owner of Big 3 Pre-Owned Auto Sales and 5 Diamond Motors was brought up on multiple fraud charges in October 2011, accused of defrauding customers by sticking them with higher car prices, finance rates and loan terms than agreed to and forging signatures on contracts.

Is Stephen Harper going to sell Jasper National Park?

Internet headline: Take Actions! Jasper is our national park not a theme park!.

Whenever I read balderdash in the news, I know where to go to get the unvarnished truth: my MP, [Mr. All-Canadian Hero for Democracy and Conservatism]:

I'm writing to ask you to please debunk this obviously false rumor circulating that the Harper Government seeks to privatize Canadian national parks.

In particular, please verify for me that Jasper National Park isn't going to be sold to American-owned Brewster Travel Canada.

Canada could pay into IMF Europe fund, Flaherty says

From CBC.ca:

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says Ottawa would be open to paying into a bailout fund for Europe administered by the International Monetary Fund — as long as it was supported by the other G20 countries.

"There's some sense around the world that if at the end of the day we have to provide some help somehow, that we would not turn a blind eye to it because of the world consequences of the collapse of the eurozone," Flaherty said Thursday on CBC-TV's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon.

Conservative Party of Canada has one of many problems -- it hates Canadian sovereignty

To my MP:

From The Star: "OTTAWA—Armed U.S. police officers will for the first time be allowed to operate in Canada along with the RCMP as part of far-reaching changes in Canadian-American border operations to be unveiled next week by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama."

I'll never understand the Conservatives' hatred of Canadian sovereignty. I just don't get it. You fight and claw and lie ("The long form census form invades Canadians' privacy," cry the Conservatives, yet you want to spy on Canadians on the Internet -- hypocrites!) and pander your way into power only to fritter away the legitimacy of the very country you now lead. Even pirates know enough to tend the boats they commandeer.

And please -- please! -- don't give me any of this baloney about "terrorism" because any reasonably informed citizen knows that American foreign policy and all its underhanded, duplicitous and corrupt machinations is responsible for most of the current hatred of the US around the world. When you have unmanned American drones killing droves of innocent citizens and ally soldiers in far flung countries, that tends to sour people. When you have invasions of sovereign nations -- Iraq, for instance -- against the will of the UN, against all evidence that the country is a threat to the US, that hurts American credibility and reveals America's true, imperialist ambitions.

How long before unmanned drones are flying over Canadian soil? Really.

If we want a safer world, we need America to disengage from its wars of imperialism, bring all its troops home and work on its own domestic problems. Jeez, I miss the halcyon days of the basic "ugly American" who was merely rude and arrogant. This new "ugly America" that murders indiscriminately is an unacceptable strategic partner. I know, we're stuck with them as neighbors, and it's best to work with them, but to allow American law enforcement this unacceptable encroachment on Canadian sovereignty is a blasphemy to our country.

If the Conservatives are so damned sincere about their "law and order" stance, why haven't you had Dick Cheney or George W. Bush arrested upon entry to our country? Each them meets the criteria of "war criminal"; each has admitted to war crimes in their respective memoirs. We've departed numerous other war criminals from Canada since the summertime; a move I applaud. No, the Conservatives are all bluster on the "law and order" front, restricting yourselves to hunting down pot smoking slackers. Yeah, that'll keep Canada safe.

The Conservatives are selling out my country, piecemeal. Allowing this encroachment by American law enforcement weakens our sovereignty and insults every Canadian.

The long, dark con

After seeing the above picture posted on Reddit.com, I wrote to the good people at http://www.answersingenesis.org who erected the billboard:

It's a historical fact that more people have been murdered in the name of Christianity than any other religion in the history of mankind.

If a person needs the fear of hell to keep them from murdering, stealing or otherwise breaking the law, then that person is deficient and flawed on a most fundamental level. The rest of rational society doesn't commit murder or thievery, or other crimes, because we simply know that it's wrong to do so.

The Christian bible is filled with genocide, rape, murder, adultery, bestiality, insanity and megalomania. It's the last text I would use to guide my life.

Even Christians, today, can't manage it, what with their seamless hatred of the poor, their "holier than thou" attitude toward pornography, hatred of gays, minorities, and their ubiquitous prejudice against anyone who is not of their denomination. That, I think, is the crowning turd of Christianity -- the unending infighting among its various sects. All proclaim to love Jesus Christ and serve God, and yet resent, hate and cluck their tongues at anyone who is not of their particular sliver of faith. How Catholics glower at Protestants, and how each Protestant cult sneers at the other. All the while, carrying out heinous acts in the name of Jesus -- whether it's killing abortion doctors, picketing soldiers' funerals, or sending the country's troops into foreign countries on "crusades" in the name of oil.

Or, better yet, those execrable televangelists: a shower of pimps, making money off the crucifixion of Jesus Christ like a Times Square hustler and his hookers.

And now Christians are placing billboards around the country attacking atheists who don't believe in fictional, invisible deities who speak to people in self-contradicting books.

Atheists are to be feared?

Tell that the people of Afghanistan. Tell that to the 1.4 million-plus people dead in Iraq. Tell that to the peasants of Honduras, who've been murdered in droves by monsters schooled by the good Christians at the School for the Americas.

I'll tell you, people don't call Christianity "the long, dark con" for nothing. To paraphrase the late comedian, George Carlin: Christians believe in an invisible man in the sky who sees and hears everything, but gives no indication of his presence, who watches and judges us, and if we displease him, he'll damn us to hell to suffer for eternity . . . but he loves us.

What utter, unmitigated, unadulterated bullshit.

Harper Government to spend $60 billion on new fighter jets for Canada

To a Member of Parliament who tends to respond to all communiques with a combination of Hallmark Cards and the Ministry of Truth:

Quick word game. Which word doesn't belong in the list:

Canada
Responsibility
Sound Research
Jet Fighters

I know you squiggled your mouse arrow over "Responsibility", but the correct answer is "Jet Fighters."

I understand the Harper Government Brain Trust seeks to spend $60 billion on jet fighters for Canada, while cutting $200 million from funding for research and monitoring of the environment. I'll bet those Tar Sands people sure find those environmental studies tiresome, and I'll bet those Tar Sands people are very generous contributors to anyone who can make tiresome obstacles in their path to the bank go away.

Now, I understand that the current fleet of Canadian fighter jets have seen a lot of action over the decades, what with the attempted Libyan invasion of 1972, the Lichenstein air power grab of 1974 over Labrador, Russia's famous and brazen sneak attack of 1977. And who could forget Cuba's numerous attempts to attack Canada by air: in 1981, '83, '87, '92, '93, '94, '97 and '99. Of course, this is not to forget the 1967 attempt by Greenland to overtake Canada with its fleet of walrus skin zeppelins, thinking we'd be too busy making merry over our Centennial to notice. Oh, but we noticed. And handed their Greenlandic asses to them -- via our superiority in the air, of course.

All these acts of aggression are ingrained in the Canadian psyche. Aside from worrying just how badly the Maple Leafs will do in a given year, Canadians are obsessed and terrified to think from where the next act of air aggression will come.

Thank goodness we've got the Harper Government -- always thinking, always working the angles -- to rescue Canadians from their anxiety, having the heart and fortitude to spend $60 billion of our tax dollars on a gleaming new fleet of fighter jets. Not even President-elect Michelle Bachmann would dream of attacking Canada knowing those lethal gems sit at the ready on our soil.

Thing is, I may have my history a little wrong. I might have remembered one or two too many attempted invasions from the past. I did forget to mention the FLA Crisis of 1970 and vital role Canadian fighter jets played in suppression that attempted coup d'etat.

I might have my history a little wrong, but I've got my present sufficiently sorted out to know that the Harper Government is subverting nearly every Canadian virtue in its relentless campaign to make Canada "America North." Whether it's bringing a Prison Industrial Complex to Canada and forcing these ridiculous, proven-to-be-ineffective mandatory minimums to courtrooms around the country, to handing over border security to the Americans (US Attorney General Eric Holder was recently lavish in his thanks for that), to the splintering and hobbling StatsCan and now defunding our research and monitoring of the environment.

(Right -- you insult and slap-down StatsCan saying its long form census questionnaire invades Canadians' privacy, and yet in your Bill C51, you want to monitor Canadians' every move on the Internet. Conservatives thy name is Hypocrite!)

What I don't understand is if Conservatives hate Canada so much, why in the world do you remain. There are tons of little breakaway republics around the world; little theocracies still living in the 12th century, where I thnk you'd be very happy.

The only consolation to the abomination of your governing is that you're quickly reminding Canadians why voting Conservative is just not an option; why your flavor of conservatism should go the way of Brian Mulroney's PC party.

Harsh words in court have legal experts pondering how accused survived

Canadian legal experts and court-watchers are in a state of shock and nauseated disbelief after a Windsor judge unleashed a seismic tongue-lashing on Ahmed Ahmed -- not to be confused with the other Ahmed Ahmed -- an offender who'd been caught by police with 3.9 grams of crack inside anus.

First, Judge Rawlins sentenced Ahmed to a staggering 30 days house arrest.

Next, Judge Rawlins compounded that devastating sentence with two years (24 months!) probation.

If this judicial one-two punch didn't already have Ahmed reeling, surely Judge Rawlins' coup de grace all but psychologically destroyed him:

The judge decreed that Ahmed is banned from entering Essex county for the duration of his probation.

Women fainted. Infants had to be rushed from the courtroom. Crown and defense attorneys brought their hands to their mouths as though ready to be sick. The bailiff -- suddenly pale and unsteady on his feet -- had to be escorted from the courtroom by his understudy.

This statement had other members of the court gallery reflexively reaching for the portable defibrillation device mounted on the wall. Others instinctively broke the glass on the wall mounts housing a fire hose and emergency axe. Anything to defend the defendant from this verbal onslaught, such a tide of venomous rhetoric that it was!

But Judge Rawlins was not finished with the spiritually diminished, quivering shell of a drug mule. She tersely added:

"What I want you to do is keep your drugs in Toronto. . . Detroit makes Toronto look like Toronto the Good . . . We don’t need to import people from other jurisdictions to bring drugs to Windsor. We have plenty coming across the border. Drugs, guns, we have it up to here."

"It was . . . too much," said Samuel Grimfall, a court blogger and advocate for criminals' rights. "Who could endure such a verbal assault? I believe Mr. Ahmed has a very clear-cut case for the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. I'll testify as his first witness."

"I think Judge Rawlins should be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity," said a visibly shaken Sheila Goodnightbridge, former Liberal MP candidate. "She should be hauled off to the Hague and given a tongue-lashing of her own! See how she likes it!"

Still other court-watchers wondered how Ahmed physically endured such a verbal barrage.

Canadian judges, known far and wide for holding the very fabric of civilization together with their supple, pink hands -- so great is their power -- have a reputation for verbal ruthlessness when it comes to reprimanding drug dealers, rapists, murders and child abusers. Words like "disappointed" "riff raff" and "unconscionable" are used with startling frequency.

The question is: how does a mere mortal -- a human being not averse to tucking 3.9 grams of crack cocaine up his second major orifice -- survive a verbal vivisection from one of Canada's judicial titans?

That question will be debated for decades to come.

The only consolation in this monstrous display of power came from Ahmed's defense attorney, Neil Rooke, who said of his client's acceptance of this stiff sentence: "He was content with that. [The ban from Essex County for 24 months] was not an issue for him."

Well, thank Gawd for that! The drug mule arrested with 3.9 grams of crack cocaine in his anus was content with the conditions of his sentence.

Could you imagine if a convicted drug offender wasn't content with the conditions of his sentence?

Could you imagine what message that would send to the criminal community?

Southwestern Ontario might earn a bad reputation among the province's underworld.

But crisis was averted -- Ahmed was content. That's all that matters.

Unfortunately, Judge Rawlins remains on the bench, ready to perform another verbal courtroom autopsy on another unsuspecting suspect.

Technology helps broadcaster "take it to the next level"

If you've ever listened to National Public Radio's show All Things Considered, you've heard the flutey, glassine voice of presenter, Michele Norris.

And if you've heard the voice of presenter, Michele Norris, you know that nobody loves the voice of Michele Norris more than Michele Norris.

She speaks like she's playing an oboe in her larynx; an oboe made of flesh; an oboe that would make you want to turn away if you ever saw such a one.

Well, Michele Norris announced yesterday that she's "taking a break" from All Things Considered.

She cited her husband taking a high-powered job with the White House as the reason, but Inside the Hotdog Factory has the inside scoop:

Technology has now made it possible for Michele Norris to actually make love to her voice, so she's going on hiatus to do just that.

First, she plans a whirlwind shopping trip to New York with her voice. Then she'll be off on a romantic getaway to the Caribbean with her voice, where she will woo it by candlelight and wow it by daylight upon the beach. Then Norris plans an extended tour of Europe and then India with her voice, no doubt indulging in some Old World VVO (voice-to-vagina orgies) along the way.

It has not been revealed just what physical form Norris' voice has taken at the behest of this new technology, beyond what we can guess: a crude, phallus-like object.

Michele Norris has refused numerous requests to speak on the matter, leaving us to ponder what romantic flights and flourishes she and her voice will engage in now that she's leaving All Things Considered.

You will know them by the bankers they defend

The American plutocracy/oligarchy has no shortage of brave defenders. Not the least of which is Marybeth Hicks who gives a conservative-eye view on the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The team at Inside the Hotdog Factory felt a response was in order:

Dear Marybeth:

It takes such moral courage to defend the bullies, oligarchs and the Wall Street bosses who tanked our economy and walked away with multi-million dollar bonuses so they didn't experience any interruption in their lifestyles.

Good for you! And glad you're so well up to the job!

I guess such myopia explains why you go after only the easiest, most glaring targets of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

For the purposes of this note, I'll give you all the piercings, tattoos and dreadlocks. Have it your way -- they're not American citizens because of how they dress and wear their hair.

Now, about the rest of the protesters.

They are protesting a system that is skewed, rigged and corrupt, which rewards greed over hard work, which pampers and caters to only the wealthy at the very tangible expense of the vast majority of the population.

I know, I know, it's what Ronald Reagan wanted for America, but it's an embarrassing, unjust, unworkable system.

There are millions of people who have jobs, pay their bills and hold to your high standards of hygiene and personal appearance, who have lost their retirement funds, have lost their homes to illegal "robo signing" of big banks, whose wages have stagnated, for whose children that enviable college education has become more and more out of reach (what with heroes like Eric Cantor quashing Pell grants and schools' tuition rising like the country's blood pressure).

There are millions of people, as well, who hold to your high standards of hygiene and personal appearance who have lost their jobs. You see, when you have an economy that's based on consumption and then systematically send once decent-paying jobs overseas, it's creates a problem.

I know, I know, that's the conservative way! Have an economy based upon consumer spending and then send the jobs to Korea and China and India. Pray your way through it! I get it.

One problem: that doesn't work.

You write that "Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work." Right. They're working at the Gap, McDonald's, driving taxis, pouring coffee at Dunkin Donuts, working part-time.

I know, I know! That's what conservatives want for America -- a society where few (if any) jobs meet the educational level of workers. America's made its stance on education and the importance of education in American life abundantly clear. It shows in the test scores. It shows in America's ranking in the world on educational indices.

The Dick Cheneys of the world love this economy. Where else would you have PhDs waiting tables? Where else would you have people offering to work for free? Conservatives love that idea! Rush Limbaugh will be glad to tell you how wonderful slavery was for the United States. And it's not dead. In Indiana, for instance, there are waitresses who work for free, subsisting only on the tips they receive. Now that's a conservative economic model for the country!

With no Russia to compete with, showing off that America has the better standard of living, conservatives are happy to let the standard of living slide right off the table.

Because, you're right, America is just a Club Med for the wealthy and everyone else can just dry up and stop complaining.

Bravo Marybeth! You're among notable company: among those who defend the rich against the poor; defend the powerful against the powerless; who defends the haves against the troublesome have-nots.

Hopefully there's a PNAC lapel pin on the way to you in the mail for you efforts.

One last thing: I hope you're not a Christian. You'd be horrified to see who Christians worship -- a long-haired, sandal-wearing socialist who heals people at no charge, who gives away food, someone who forgives sins (!!!), someone who doesn't judge. He's a guy who once said about paying taxes: "Give unto Caesar what is due Caesar." (Rick Perry should challenge this douche to a duel!) And Jesus once told a business man "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (I can just see the heroes of Wall Street rolling up their sleeves and lining up to give this Communist the ass-kicking he deserves!)

Is that Jesus Christ creep trouble, or is he trouble?

And Jesus' hygiene? Other than his baptism, I don't think it mentions any other time in the New Testament that he bathed. Clearly someone who belonged in jail... Oh wait, he was arrested. Ah, and thumbing ahead to the end of the story, good news! He was executed! Conservatives rejoice! Jesus Christ was executed. Another messy, troublesome hippie put down.