A Solution

Ah, who am I kidding? I can’t really go too long with out talking to you about something.

So I’ll try to make everyone comfortable, let’s talk about abortion.

(Please try to read all the way through, if I anger anybody primarily, it may be remedied later in the article.)

I may have written about this before but I’ll reiterate, I’m pro-life- in the manner of consistent life: no death penalty, pro-gun control, and pacifism for everybody.

But when it comes to the issue of abortion I find myself on uneasy ground, namely, I don’t have a uterus and by the looks of it- never will. So who am I to judge a situation that I never was in or never will be in? And certainly in the case of rape or incest I don’t believe you should force a woman to bear that child, or if childbirth is even and option due to reasons of health. In either way it’s not an opinion that is easily defended, but let’s try to tackle it- shall we?

Let’s start with when life begins, normally one would say that either life begins at birth or at conception, I believe neither is completely true. If one would say that life begins at birth than one could argue, is the organism any less alive the day before the birth? Except for maybe slight stimulation and preparing of the corneas for their first burn, the organism is no less alive. But socially it is not yet human, we don’t hold funerals for a fetus that is a victim of miscarriage, we put an unborn child on our tax forms and we say things like “I have two children and one on the way.”, instead of saying that we have three children. As if there was some sort of journey that one would have to take in order to be alive.

Now most of you folks that read this would know that I’m biased, very biased. And an astounding liberal, some might say. But in this case I must say that either side will have to go through great social changes to ever be even remotely correct, or even rational. So, I’ll try to break it down.

Pro-Life: Adoption and counseling, the problem is that we’ve put ourselves into a situation where abortion may not be moral, but is necessary. In many situations women just aren’t fit mothers, and the adoption market is horrible. Children are pushed and pulled through foster homes and other housing facility in a society that appears to not care for them, because it believes that they will be unfit, ‘hooligans’, and ‘neredowells ‘. So, I believe that the best thing for someone in the pro-life movement to do, to make abortion less prevalent, is to adopt. If more people adopted rather than just raising your own genetic spawn, then the adoption market would become more open and foster homes would seem more like a terminal to a family rather than just a never ending chain of houses, no homes- houses.


Pro-Choice: Alright, the ball is in your court for now. Even I will call myself pro-choice on the subject of abortion. But I do ask that the Planned Parenthood put more of its attention to counseling, because, let’s face it- no one wants to have an abortion. In no situation is it an easy way out. Which is why I propose that the United States- in an effort to help those who will have a difficult time raising a child, an assistant parenting program, which would provide services to needy parents, somewhere along the lines of Toys for Tots, but will also provide a government run nanny service as well as state daycare and pre-school. This could be a joint effort between the Department of Health and Human Services as well as The Department of Education. I also ask that religious groups do the same to help cater to the needs of those seeking faith-based alternatives. I realize these are already in place but we need more.

Well that’s about as far as I’m going to go in this installment, but check in later for more.

Have a good one.
-Jake

I'm not Dead!

Though I doubt there are too many readers of this blog anymore.

I'm just letting the readers know how I'm doing and that college is going great. I've kind of dropped out of politics for a while, well not really, but I'm trying to tone things down. So political news will come later, but I'm worried about my blood pressure and the VP nomination of Palin just about gave me a coronary.

So, once again, later.

But I would like to know how everyone is doing so please let me know, and in the mean time, have a good one.

How's everybody?

I haven't posted in a while, I know- and I apologize. But folks, you have work with me here. I need feedback people.

So my assignment to you would be to give me a short little synopsis as to your feelings on this election year so far.

Who are you supporting?

May I ask why?

If you don't really care about the election, then why are you on this blog?

All questions that need to be answered.

Also, I need a 700 word essay on why chickens have three toes, instead of four... just kidding. But yeah, that's what I need.

Olbermann tells Clinton how it is.

Great Olbermann video, I love it.

Happy Shot in the Face Day

Today is the the anniversary of Dick Cheney shooting Harry Whittington in the facial region with a 28 gauge shotgun, 30 yards away, while Quail hunting.

And still remaining Vice-President.

So Happy 'Shot in the Face' Day.

Greatest Blog EVAH!

Yes, even better than mine. It is the most valuable information you could ever have EVER- in regards to Mustaches in the 1800s.


Enjoy.

Edwards Dropped out

*Whah!!!*

*Sniffle*

Now my second choice is gone I only have Obama to root for.

I hope he pulls through on this one.

*Sniffle*

Kucinich drops out of the race....

*sniffle*

Well, people, I suppose it was going to happen sometime. The tremendous personality that is Dennis Kucinich has dropped out of the Democratic primary. *cries*

After being black-balled by the Democratic party several times and the media seeming to be more focused on his wife's tongue stud than his policies I guess I really don't blame him.

But it still depresses me...

*sniffle*

Terrorism Has No Religion

This is a site that has been recently developed to counter the stereotype that Islam supports acts of terrorism. But rather that terrorists that preform their acts in the name of Allah disgrace Islam.

Terrorism Has No Religion

Ava's Army

Ava Lowery, the creator of the popular anti-war organization Peace Takes Courage, has created a new site called Ava's Army. This site is directed toward politically active young people, regardless of political leanings, I advise all readers to at least check it out at the link on the side bar or here.

I post under the user name- Spiny Norman

The site goes live on the 11th but feel free to register and start posting.

Now there's a wide stance!

Now… I’ve tried to stay away from this topic but I suppose I would have to come around to it eventually. In the past I’ve kept sex scandals and the right-leaning portion of our populous as separated to criticism as possible, but come on guys! You keep giving me material that I didn’t want to use.

But this latest incident just made it ridiculous. Read it here.

But that was just the beginning…

When further researching this topic I found that there seems to be more of a trend than I thought.

(WARNING: Some of the following is quite graphic, younger readers beware.)

Adelphia Communications Corp.: Donated large sums of money to some of the most conservative members of Congress. They are also the first cable company to offer hard-core adult movies to subscribers. Article here.

Randal David Ankeney, A Republican activist, arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child with force. He faces 6 charges related to getting a 13-year-old girl stoned on pot and then having sex with her. Article here. He was also accused of sexually assaulting another girl. Article here.

Merrill Robert Barter, Republican County Commissioner, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy. Article here.

Robert Bauman, Republican congressman and anti-gay activist, was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar. (Source blocked)

Parker J. Bena, Republican activist and Bush Elector, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography (including children as young as 3 years old) on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000. Article here.

Louis Beres, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon. 3 of his family members accuse him of molesting them when they were pre-teens. In August 06, Beres confessed. Article here.

Howard L. Brooks, Republican legislative aide and advisor to a California assemblyman, was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography. Article here.

Andrew Buhr, Republican politician, former committeeman for Hadley Township Missouri, was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy. Article here.

John Allen Burt, Republican anti-abortion activist, convicted of sexually molesting a 15 year old girl at the home for troubled girls that he ran. Article here.

Keola Childs, Republican County Councilman, pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the first degree for molesting a male child. Article here.

Kevin Coan, Republican St. Louis Election Board official, arrested and charged with trying to buy sex from a 14-year-old girl whom he met on the Internet. Article here.

Richard A. Dasen Sr., Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, convicted of sexual abuse of children, promotion of prostitution and several counts of solicitation, enough to add up to a sentence of 126 years in prison. Investigators estimated that he spent up to $5,000,000 on prostitutes. Article here.

Nicholas Elizondo, Director of the Young Republican Federation molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison. Article here.

Richard A. Delgaudio, Republican fundraiser and Bush pioneer, was found guilty of child porn charges. Article here.

Larry Dale Floyd, Republican Constable in Denton County, Texas Precinct Two. Arrested for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8-year old child and was charged with 7 related offenses. Age 62 at time of arrest. Article here.

Mark Foley, Republican Representative, Florida Sixteenth Congressional District. Resigned after trying to solicit sex from male congressional pages via an instant messenger program. The conversations included his asking a sixteen-year-old "stud" whether his penis was erect and requesting that he take out and measure his penis. The cover-up involved Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner, Ohio Eighth Congressional District and Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Illinois Fourteenth District.

John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal, a prominent anti-abortion columnist and GOP fund raiser. He lost his position after it was revealed that he impregnated the daughter of an old girlfriend and then encouraged her to abort his child. Article here.

Jack W. Gardner, Republican Councilman, had been convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl. when the Republican Party, knowing of these crimes, put him on the ballot. Article here.

Richard Gardner, a Nevada State Representative (R), admitted to molesting his two daughters. Article here.

Philip Giordano, Republican mayor sentenced to 37 years for forcing two 8 and 10 year old girls to perform oral sex on him in his City Hall office. Article here.

Matthew Glavin, president and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, big player in the Clinton Impeachment, and many anti-gay jihads, has been arrested multiple times for public indeceny, one time fondling the crotch of the officer who was arresting him. Article here.

Jon Grunseth, Republican businessman and candidate for Minnesota governor, withdrew his candidacy after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter, and tried to grope one. "I've made some mistakes" he said. Article here

Dr. W. David Hager Bush appointee, member of Focus on the Family's Physician Resource Council, player in movement to ban the morning-after-pill. Had an adulterous affair, before divorcing his wife he sexually abused her, including sodomizing her in her sleep. Article here.

Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, introduced by Bush on the campaign trail, and promoted his policies. Says he supports Bush's values. Two months later, this married father of four turned himself into police, charged with the sexual exploitation of a child. Article here.

Donald Lukens, Republican Congressman, was found guilty of having sex with a minor - a girl he was accused of sleeping with since she was 13. Article here.

Nicholas Morency, Republican anti-abortion activist, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor. Article here.

And that’s all I’m going to write for now, with just the list I found- this isn’t even 2/3 of it. So I’ll get back to you with the rest of it but I don’t want to vomit right now.

Have a pleasant day.

Frontline: Cheney's Law

This is a very interesting Frontline piece about Cheney's efforts and the efforts of the administration to give more power to the Executive branch, to the point where congress has no decisive power in a time of war.

Watch it here.

Pathetic Punditry

Bill O’Reilly

Popular right-wing pundit, Bill O’Reilly, has come under an awful lot of fire recently for comments made about a Harlem restaurant.

Quoted:

“I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship. It was the same, and that's really what this society's all about now here in the USA. There's no difference……

There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer,' " I think you know what that probably means, " 'I want more iced tea.' You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all.”

Now I can understand that the remarks made were not intentionally racist and I’m not calling him such, but frankly the fact that he was surprised that black people weren’t going around yelling “(Place swear-word here), get me more iced tea.” is a little ridiculous.

The remarks should have never been made on the air, that’s a given. But after making such statements he refused to take responsibility and apologize, instead he chose to attack organizations like Media Matter for America saying that they took his statements out of context and that it was a personal attack.

Rush Limbaugh

Unlike the above, this is in no way understandable or excusable.

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

Those who are serving the country but don’t support the war because they’d rather live in peace, are NOT phony soldiers.

Your own record is hardly reputable. You never took a draft physical; instead you informed the military of a physically disqualifying condition, either a football knee injury or a pilonidal cyst (either one, his story keeps changing).

Letter to the World

I live in a country that polices the world while I sit safely inside its borders and do nothing to change it.

So the least I can do is apologize to the people we’ve affected.

I apologize to the Palestinians for my tax dollars that paid for the bullets that ripped through your homes and bodies. I’m sorry for my country’s blocking of over 50 UN peace treaties between yourselves and the Israelis. I’m sorry that I helped to pay for the tanks that roam your streets.

I apologize to the Kurdish people of Iraq, for the chemical weapons and machine gun bullets that were bought with $500,000,000 in subsidies given by my government to Saddam Hussein and used to systematically slaughter your people. I also apologize to you because even after this happened we doubled those subsidies to $1,000,000,000

Yeah, sorry about that.

I apologize to the Japanese people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the use of Nuclear weapons on your population, even when your military was already planning to surrender.

I apologize to the German people of Dresden and other various cities that we’ve fire-bombed that were made up of almost purely civilians.

I apologize to the people of Latin America for the decades of Dictators and Despots put in place by CIA-backed coups. I’m sorry we’ve branded you incapable of Democracy.

My personal apology to the people of Chile, for my government’s assistance of the military junta headed by General Pinochet who tortured and killed thousands of your countrymen.

I apologize to the various peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m sorry that our smart-bombs weren’t smart enough to distinguish between a militia member and a child walking to school. I’m sorry that although we invaded your countries, Americans seem to have no interest in your culture. I’m sorry that we use ammunition containing depleted uranium that irradiates the ground and well-water and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. I’m sorry that we’ve seem to have inherited the European trait of being completely heartless.

I’m sorry that our CIA has made Hussein and bin Laden as powerful as they are.

But, I hope you understand, we had to defeat Communism. Oh yes, and Iran, we had to stick it to Iran. Sorry.

I apologize to the few peoples of the East Indies who, because of our nuclear testing, became sick.

I understand if you don’t forgive us. And I hope you survive us.

I say to the people of the United States in the most gentle, human way. Welcome to the world.
-Arundhati Roy

When I Rule

I am the Dictator,

Your Benevolent Despot.

I’m in your classroom.

I’m in your home.

I love you all

You all love me.

I serve you all,

And you serve me.

A handgun is my tool of education.

A tank leads my parades.

I am the most handsome

I am the best artist

Everyone is happy

My generals know my genius

All Hail the Great Leader!

Fair-weather friends

It’s been an interesting summer, politically speaking. The latest incident involving Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) resigning over an illicit scandal involving him trying to have sexual relations with a male undercover police officer in an airport bathroom. His political party, the Republican Party, is not at issue here. Except the behavior, not of him, but his fellow party members in that as soon as the proverbial feces hit the fan, they immediately alienated him. We saw the same thing happen with the Mark Foley- Dennis Hastert incident. Though what Sen. Craig may have, or may have not done, nor had the intention of doing is beyond what I can judge (He originally pleaded guilty but than said that he didn’t really do anything). The rabbit hole goes much deeper than what we are seeing here, it seems to be that the party is purging itself of all that doesn’t fit its’ moral code. And this could even be parallel to the openly gay Arabic translators who were fired purely because of their sexual orientation, even when Linguists (especially Arabic) are in dire need.

I’m sorry, but when a person wants to serve their country, or has been a public servant for 30 years. You would think that their personal lives or acts (illegal or not) would not be of concern to anybody else.

Reverend of Hate.

So our beloved friend Reverend Jerry Falwell died on Tuesday. He was a role model for conservatives, extreme-Christians, and homophobes everywhere.

Here were some of his more memorable quotes.
“The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.” In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.” In a sermon.

“Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.” On an episode of Crossfire.

“God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.” As quoted in "God Gave US 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says" by John F Harris, in The Washington Post (14 September 2001).

“His message of peace and reconciliation under almost all circumstances is simply incompatible with Christian teachings as I interpret them. This 'turn the other cheek' business is all well and good but it's not what Jesus fought and died for. What we need to do is take the battle to the Muslim heathens and do unto them before they do unto us.”
His opinion on Jimmy Carter.

“You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President — chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” In a CNN debate with Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“The fact that Marc Cherry’s a gay Republican means he should join the Democratic Party.” On Meeting The Press.

Those are just a few. The funny thing is that I don’t have to write anything bad about him, his quotes are self-incriminating.

If you want to read more, here you go.

I Still Have Questions

Marching Christian soldiers
Making war for God
War on God
Brutal Crusade

Crusade…

He is on our side
After all…

Leave me alone. Why must people who call themselves Christian feel like they’re forced to take sides? I’m not a crusader, and I won’t give the church credit for my actions: good or bad.
I find myself struggling to find faith without falling into the blind following that I scorn so often. If violence is wrong than why is this war excusable among the “good Christian folk” in the GOP? Pro-life and Pro-death penalty, contradictory?

I’m lost…

I’m apparently supposed to demean Muslims, Homosexuals, Atheists, Occult, and those who question it. WELL, I QUESTION IT!!! If the path to eternal bliss consists of this, than I don’t want it.

I want nothing from this.

I have to be a good person for Christianity. I’d rather be a good person for myself, and not out of fear of divine retribution.

The Ten Commandments are urged to be posted everywhere, yet these people ignore the Beatitudes; you know:

The meek shall "inherit the earth".
The merciful shall "obtain mercy".
The pure of heart shall "see God".
The peacemakers shall be "the children of God".
Very few “good Christian folk” that I know can claim these titles. Why? Because the message has been lost, and forever shall be.
OK, I’m done.

Please do your best to help me out here.

Bittersweet Equality

“A lot of people on wrecked planet were Communists. They had a theory that what was left of the planet should be shared more or less equally among all the people, who hadn’t asked to come to this wrecked planet in the first place…

Dwayne Hoover’s and Kilgore Trout’s country, where there was still plenty of everything, was opposed to Communism. It didn’t believe that earthlings who had a lot should share it with others unless they really wanted to, most of them didn’t want to.

So they didn’t have to.”

‘Breakfast of Champions’, 1973 By Kurt Vonnegut

Communists don’t like pie.

When I attended the High School I was often hushed by people like my guidance counselor because my views on Communism were ‘unpopular’. I saw the use of this system differently, not pictures of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Josef Stalin, and even Hugo Chavez standing above huge military rallies while preaching a message of “Love the cause, fight for the cause, or else”. No, I saw a solution away from corruption, away from oppression, away from all that I despised about our spoiled-brat lifestyle. A theory where you work for the system to benefit from said system, nothing is given to you. The western perception of this system is flawed and that because now China essentially owns us, we hold a temper to those that have invaded us through an open wallet.

When someone argues that Communism is, in fact, ‘evil’ I don’t mind. Just do so with facts, when someone goes about it without facts then I lose my patience. Our perception of Communism is rarely without genocide.

But one must remember, Hitler was democratically elected. So that system is also not without error.

Something was, and still is, fundamentally wrong with Communism: Greed. Too much power in the hands of too few people and we see the same thing happening in the United States, not with Communism, but with a super-capitalist, corporate imperialist oligarchy. That was a mouthful.

Please share your views on this form of economic bliss.

(P.S. Though this is only a myth, Communists may in-fact like pie, contrary to the previous statement.)

In Regards To...

Good morning everyone, or good afternoon if it just so happens you’re reading this in the afternoon. Well I figure I’d better post about something.

I suppose you may be wondering why I didn’t post on the VT tragedy, one reason: this blog is either about politics or social irreverence, to associate the tragedy with such would be degrading the value of those poor lives lost. This is not a political issue nor should it ever be and I condemn anyone who uses it as such. So any debate about the 2^nd amendment or “zero tolerance policies”, I think should be done without reference to this.

Comments on Universal Satire have been unfortunately scarce, please don’t be hesitant to share your opinion, just be respectful and play nice for Christ’s sake. And if any one has a topic that they would like to discuss, please E-mail me or post it yourself.

If anyone is also offended by “Conservative Jake” or any of my posts, please let me know.

Thank you.