ADRIAN! - "In this corner...Rockin' Rick 'Rocky' Santorum"

I don’t know if Rick Santorum is a racist. I know he says many stupid things, so he might be an idiot, or maybe a racist idiot. It is hard to tell when a person has a brain the size of an empty, withered walnut.

But, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume he’s an earnest man without a trace of racism and that he really believes, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn their money and provide for themselves and their families. The best way to do that is to get the manufacturing sector of the economy rolling.”

Minorities are as Rare as Untipped Iowan Cows
Let’s forget that most welfare payments go to white people and let’s forget that 91% of Iowans are white. Minorities in Iowa are as rare as untipped cows.

Getting manufacturing going is important. If it was working everyone in the economy would be better off, even the rich. However, many American manufacturers are so far gone they can’t come back. Plus, there are fewer people who can afford products, regardless of where they’re made. The golden goose has been fed rat poison by over-consumption and under-manufacturing.

Santorum rightly makes the point that while minorities aren’t the bulk of the welfare population, they are disproportionately represented. You know, sort of like the 1 Percenters. So, programs to help them get out and, “give them the opportunity to go out and earn their money and provide for themselves and their families,” is a tough, withered walnut shell to crack.

Santorum and others of his ilk want to put the poor back to work without funding schools, job training, medical care, affordable housing, or anything else that jacks up Bill Gates’ tax rate. In fact, some Republicans want the poor to pay more in taxes. What sort of math allows you to raise the poor’s taxes by 50% without understanding that 50% of nothing is, urm, NOTHING?!!

Welfare programs are hugely expensive, though not as expensive as other expenditures being stalked by ravenous budget-wolves. But assuming welfare will magically go away if we simply stop paying is wishful thinking – like absorbing millions of illegal aliens and then assuming they’ll disappear if we throw up some chain link halfway between Arizona and New Mexico.

Yes Rick, there is a problem. But no, busying yourself with the sex lives of other people doesn’t solve it. And further, this isn’t a new problem. It is the result of kicking a very large can down a very long road.

Many welfare programs were born of LBJ’s Great Society. The Great Society was an admirable effort to lift poor sharecroppers above poverty by trying to balance the economic and racial inequities of American society. In the end, all it did was move people to housing projects were there is no sharing or crops and minorities are contained so they wouldn’t be so noticeable.

The great failing was assuming you could start by giving kids something to eat, a place to live, and a school to go to while ignoring the generations of people who were already past the point of lifting up.

Mommy the Crackhead and Daddy the Pimp
You can teach a kid how to read and count, but Mommy being a crackhead and Daddy being a drug-dealing pimp isn’t exactly world-class role modeling. Too many people are simply warehoused in crumbling housing, ducking gang raids, and learning that dealing drugs makes way more money than flipping burgers. All the while listening to nitwits preach that fixing the problem is as simple as stopping payments for the crumbling housing and decrpit schools.

Santorum probably thinks that being poor trumps being a minority. He may not want black folk in his neighborhood, but that wouldn’t be as bad as a white family of project transfers moving in next door. He just doesn’t like one, the other actually drives down his property values.

Being poor or a minority is a problem in this country. Sometimes they’re inextricably linked, other times you can tease economics from bigotry. But either way simply stopping funds and pretending that all the downtrodden need is some paternal advice to get a job won’t make it go away. No matter how hard he might try, Rick can’t make these people and their problems invisible. He can’t pretend their problems aren’t the nation’s problem.

In the end Rick’s solution is no solution at all, it’s merely another kick of the can. If we want to lessen the need for welfare, we’ll need to reform what we spend on, not how much we spend. Throwing cash at ill-advised, half-assed, ineffective programs is just as bad as doing nothing.

And nothing is exactly the change Rick’s plan will make.

Related articles

• The Omnipotent Poobah speaks about civil rights, economics, and politics (omnipotentpoobah.com)
• Santorum: I Don’t Want to Make Black Lives Better (theroot.com)
• Santorum tells Iowans: ‘I don’t want to make black people’s lives better’ | The Raw Story (therealwithdarylanddevon.wordpress.com)
• Why Rick Santorum’s Entirely Predictable Brief Success in Iowa Still Means He’ll be Back to Wingnut Welfare Soon (alternet.org)
• Santorum’s Racist Welfare Rant: ‘I Don’t Want To Make Black People’s Lives Better’ With Taxpayer Money (thinkprogress.org)
• SE Cupp and Matt Lewis Defend Racist Remarks From Gingrich and Santorum (crooksandliars.com)
• Some of Rick Santorum’s Best Friends Are Black (slog.thestranger.com)
• Did Rick Santorum Make a Racist Remark About Black People and ‘Entitlements?’ (inquisitr.com)
• Did Rick Santorum Really Talk About Making ‘Black People’s Lives Better’ With ‘Somebody Else’s Money?’ (mediaite.com)
• Watch: Rick Santorum’s Wife Breaks Down in Iowa (abcnews.go.com)
• Because Rick Santorum Said So (bilerico.com)
• Family drama: Rick Santorum’s own nephew won’t vote for him. (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
• Rick Santorum’s Sweaters Are Now A Thing, Because Reporters In Iowa Are Bored (huffingtonpost.com)
• Santorum Gives Non-Denial Denial On Alleged ‘Black People’ Comment: ‘I Condemn All Racism’ (mediaite.com)

As America rearms for the annual War on Christmas™, a new study from the University of British Columbia provides some fresh ammunition to fuel the Yule Logs of War™. The study of 350 American adults and 420 Canadian university students shows that many theists believe atheists are about as trustworthy as rapists and would outright discriminate against them in several ways. However, atheists don’t seem to harbor a corresponding distrust of theists.

The extent to which you believe the study likely hinges on the larger battle at the center of the schism – God or science.

Can't we all just get along?

I suspect a rather large group holding  Santoran or Bachmannite (BTW, note the change on Michele’s mug change when she hears the question on the video) views of gay rights or sex might not cotton to the study’s less-than-charitable view or them.

On the other hand, atheists will likely trumpet the scientific view of this and other studies – probably doomed to failure when dealing with people who believe the Earth is 4,000 years old. Let’s face it, there are zealots on both sides of the argument and other than the certitude of each camp’s beliefs that’s unlikely to change.

Come on, it’s Christmas or the holidays, Kwanzaa or Eid al-Adha, Chanukkah or any one of dozens of secular and non-secular holidays. How about we all just leave the choice of what we want to call it and whether others invoke God often enough? Let’s call a Christmas truce and stop saying “they” are evil.

With all the other ills we face, we could really use some peace on Earth for a change.

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• Christmas Eve: Dec. 24 (lifeinliturgy.wordpress.com)
• Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa (greateratlantametrohomebuyersrealtor.wordpress.com)
• There is a god, and His name is Allah: My personal gift to Atheists & Anti-Theists: (garethbryant.wordpress.com)
• Why Catholics Should Not Participate in Kwanzaa: The Daniel Standard (k2globalcommunicationsllc.wordpress.com)
• KWANZAA: Legitimate Religious Holiday or Political Marxist Agenda? (clove0771.wordpress.com)
• Happy Holidays! (kaleidoscopeseasons.com)
• New holiday stamps for Christmas, Eid, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Kwanzaa Principles (mademan.com)
• Nina In New York: On ‘The Holidays’ (newyork.cbslocal.com)
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The Tea Party loves liberty and freedom and well they should. No one likes to be mashed under the jackboot, drink tea under totalitarianism, or otherwise be ruthlessly held under duress by a tyrant. After all, that’s what the Constitution is all about. Sic semper tyrannis and all that.

But, tea totalitarianists have a curious sense of how to prioritize the liberties they’ll save. In May, Rand Paul (R-Kentucklhead Corners) took on the tough battle to protect the liberties of those squashed under the jackboot of light bulb efficiency rules and low-flow toilet regulations. He spoke passionately of how his low-flow toilet robbed him of his God-given right to crap in a bowl of his own choice and required him to sometimes flush twice, thrice, or quadrice. What a horrible injustice!

Ritch Workman Ain’t No Braveheart
The latest quest for freedom comes by way of FL Rep. Ritch Workman (R-Anita Bryant County). His excellency is worried about unemployment so is calling for the repeal of a 1989 statute outlawing the traditional values sport of dwarf-tossing. Rep. Workman sees the repeal of the safety regulation as a way of solving Florida’s unemployment problems by harnessing the free-market to put the state’s millions of Little People back to work at their chosen profession.

“To me it’s an archaic kind of Big Brother law that says, ‘We don’t like that activity,’ ” Workman said. “Well, there is nothing immoral or illegal about that activity. All we really did by passing that law was take away some employment from some little people.”

Now that’s true enough I suppose. Little People should be allowed to eschew demeaning carnival jobs in favor of opening for far more dignified Wet T-shirt contests. After all, they can’t all work on reality TV shows like a gaggle of excessively large repo men.

I’ll agree the law infringes the liberties of Little People. However, I can think of many things that abridge freedoms and liberties worse than bad plumbing and flinging Little People. Yet, the Tea Party either ignores those liberties or supports them without seeing it irony.

All Hail the No Dwarf Left Behind Bill
For example, why are so many Tea Partiers intent on passing a Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that crushes the freedom of gays to marry whom they like? Aren’t no-warrant phone tapping and the ability to board a jet without a cavity search liberties to be enjoyed by all – even Little People? Stacked against a recalcitrant toilet, someone listening to my phone calls seems a larger infringement on my freedom.

About the only bipartisan thing in America today is a fear of government. That’s a healthy thing. It is what keeps a democracy a democracy. Hand too much power to the government, corporations, or any other large institution insinuated into American life and you have a prescription for unrest and rebellion.

So, let’s extinguish the light bulb of freedom and the flush heard round the world and get to work on issues that actually mean something.

A little less tea drinking and a little more action please.

Related articles

• More from the Poobah on civil rights and politics (omnipotentpoobah.com)
• Fla. lawmaker files bill to repeal ban on ‘dwarf tossing’ (content.usatoday.com)
• Freedom Lost (zionistoutrage.com)
• Criminal or Biblical? Living with your boo thang without a ring! (urbgasm.com)
• Cohabitation Is Illegal In Florida, And Conservatives Want To Keep It That Way [Living In Sin] (jezebel.com)

HARSHING OUR MELLOW - For the creepily bigoted, it's important to keep the nonsense alive. For these kids and their parents, it's out of the mouths of parents and into the mouths of children.

I had planned a parody post today. The basic idea was simple: Fundamentalist crackpot, Pat Robertson, would announce that yesterday’s east coast earthquake and coming hurricane were caused because of “teh gays”. However, a real pronouncement ruined the whole thing, except that instead of a brain-addled Christian bringing the “funny”, a Rabbi harshed everyone’s mellow.

“DAMN YOU RABBI YEHUDA LEVIN!”

In our fast-moving world, events overtake blog topics all the time. It happens to me and may have happened to you. What makes this near-miss a bit unique is Levin’s uncanny similarity to what I would’ve made up. He’s made me look like some sort of omnipotent Nostradumbass.

Making Parody True

It’s distressing when you can’t write a parody without some lunkhead making the parody true.  Many “leaders” of the ignorati – political, spiritual, and economic – do it all the time. As they strengthen their grip, it’s getting easier to take “reality” and make it more real so it can be classified as parody. Will the Daily Show and Onion become straight news outlets?

Don’t answer that, it’s too scary to ponder.

America’s history is rife with all sorts of goofy, hostility swings. The Chinese used to be slant-eyed devils rather that the people who literally built the trans-continental railroad on their backs. We hated blacks, even though we brought them here and beat them into submission just for the hell of it. We cheated and killed off the Indians because they were in the way of Robber Barons hot on the trail of  “investment opportunities”.

And homosexuals?

GOD HATES SHRIMP - This makes as much sense as claiming "God hates fags".

Until recently we didn’t hate them so much as ignore their existence. The armed forces, Boy Scouts, and just about every other American institution were full of them, but we held tight to the illusion that they were unreal so they didn’t exist – as long as we didn’t ask and they didn’t tell.

Talk about your embarrassingly comedic parodies!

Proof That Showers Create Homosexuals

These days the hate is ramping up. It’s based on the faulty logic that soldiers admitting homosexual behavior instantly start lusting after their buddies because they’re suddenly sharing a shower they’ve been sharing since their enlistments. So far as I know, there’s no scientific evidence that showering causes homosexuality, though perhaps that explains politicians being straight while unknowingly hiring rent boys to carry their luggage.

As I read this post it dawns on me that the rabbi, Pat, and others of their ilk are simply ahead of the game. Perhaps it’s me who is out of synch while they’ve just gone farther in merging goofiness and reality into a parody of a parody of themselves.

However, I’m undaunted in my efforts to outpace their parody:

Headline: “Speaker Blames East Coast Earthquake on Gays…”

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• Michael Buble Embraces “Russian Unicorn” Parody (fresh1027.radio.com)
• Right-Wing Rabbi Blames Earthquake On Gays (alan.com)
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LONG MAY SHE WAVE - Waving the flag is exactly what the freedom to not wave it is all about.

In a bit of a twist, a Christian school has banned the National Anthem. “As a result of a thoughtful, thorough, prayerful period of listening, learning and discerning,” the Goshen College Board of Directors said, “it is the board’s judgment that continuing to play the national anthem compromises our ability to advance the vision (of Goshen College) together.”

What? None of the usual insistence that not wearing a flag pin makes you a traitor and not placing your hand over your heart is tantamount of crapping on Old Glory? Nope, because Goshen is a Mennonite college, a religion that is vehemently pacifistic and probably more devout than your run of the mill spaghetti dinner fund-raising crowd.

Many Americans conflate flag waving and God-fearing so I suspect many of them will look at Goshen’s decision as “politically correct” or an attempt to inflame the delicate sensibilities of the “true Christian” majority of conservative Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, et al.

(In fairness, that hasn’t happened on a wide scale yet even though one Catholic athelete seems a put off by it as are several of Goshen’s city council members. However, I suspect the story will gain traction soon.)

This is as a legitimate decision based on strong Mennonite religious beliefs, applied to their religion’s school, and in line with the belief that not singing about rockets glaring and flags still being there is a choice. In this case, a choice that doesn’t impinge on anyone else, secular or non-secular. The school even supports the ball player’s right to speak his mind.

It’s also in line with another important American value: Freedom. Being forced to sing the national ditty doesn’t perfectly symbolize respect for the country, nor does it diss the sacrifices of others. It exercises the free speech to say no and celebrates that freedom.

I’m an atheist and a veteran who does sing the anthem and put my hand over my heart, but I’m with these Christians on this one.

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• College bans national anthem at sporting events (hotair.com)
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• No More National Anthem at Pacifist Indiana College (davidscommonplacebook.wordpress.com)
• Mennonite College Bans National Anthem Because of War References (answersforthefaith.com)
• You Have to Respect a School that Has Principles, And Stands by Them (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
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