I’m trying to figure out when, before the holocaust, the first Jews who escaped said “Oh, crap. We’d better get out of here.” At what point did they realize that staying and trying to combat the political situation wasn’t going to work, and that they’d better get out if they wanted to keep their lives? Were they insightful or just cowards? Were the people who stayed brave fighters, or were they mindless sheep who did nothing and hoped for the best?
A few weeks ago, the news story broke that Armstrong Williams, a conservative African-American print, radio and television pundit, was paid $240,000 to help promote Bush’s No Child Left Behind program to minority audiences, but was instructed to do so without disclosing he had been paid to by the government. So he appeared on numerous programs to promote the initiative, leaving people with the impression that he was expressing an impartial, objective viewpoint about it. That is, of course, a crime, not to mention a major violation of journalism ethics.
Yeah, you read that right. According to an AP Story, Fox TV blurred out a cartoon character’s butt on a RERUN of a family guy episode, even though the un-blurred posterior appeared on TV without complaint a few years ago. They made the decision to do so voluntarily, to avoid any problems with the FCC.
Coming soon to a store near you: skirts to cover up those shockingly bare piano and table legs.
Meanwhile, the number of characters shot, stabbed, strangled, decapitated, dumped in wood chippers, cut up with chain saws and otherwise killed and mutilated on our favorite television programs continues without any complaint whatsoever. Mull that one over.
2022-03-15 Update:
The original link to this story is long gone, but there are a shocking number of different versions of Bart’s Butt on the internet, so obviously their concerns were totally justified.
Bart’s Butt 2: Electric Bugaloo
Brethren Agree to Revive ‘Alternative Service’ Draft Programs — Leaders of the Church of the Brethren say they will follow through on a request from the Selective Service to have “alternative service” programs in place for conscientious objectors if a draft is reinstated. As one of the historic “peace churches” that shun military service, Brethren officials were “cautious” after an unannounced visit by a draft official to a church center in Maryland last October. In follow-up meetings, draft officials urged the church to dust off long-standing “alternative service” programs that allow conscientious objectors to serve in two-year domestic service projects in lieu of military service.”
Couldn’t be funnier if I made it up myself. Yesterday while addressing a gathering of members of Congress, President Bush told them that entering the political arena is “the ultimate sacrifice.” No word on what the families of the 1,500 soldiers who have died in Iraq think about that statement.
I had never heard this song before… amazing that it was published in 1972 in response to the Vietnam war, and yet every lyric applies today. I recently downloaded it from iTunes…
According to FindLaw’s US Supreme Court Awareness Survey, two thirds of Americans cannot name any of the Supreme Court Justices. And I was surprised that 51% of Americans were moronic enough to vote for Bush. How did this country get so stupid? And since when is ignorance an American value?
Even if Americans can’t name a Supreme Court Justice, Bush will be doing so this year. For more about his two current favorite nominees, a list of things that Bush doesn’t want you to know about Scalia and Thomas, from the center for American Progress.
