Coming This Fall: Red Alert! June 25, 2008
Posted by glabwrites in 9/11, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Big Mike, Charlie Black, Fox News, George W. Bush, John McCain, Michael G. Glab, Osama bin Laden, Terror Alerts, War Fever.3 comments
I haven’t thought about our country’s system of terrorism alerts in years.
See The Pretty Colors
Of course, I’m not the only one who has ignored the Bush administration’s attempt to keep us aware of all the madmen out there who want to destroy our good way of life and make it impossible for honest, hard-working oil speculators to ply their trade. But there’s little hard data indicating how high or low public awareness is of the color code system. I only know that Fox News, which at first gleefully displayed the current color level in it’s bottom-of-the-screen crawls 24 hours a day, no longer does so. If Fox isn’t publicizing a Bush initiative, it ain’t happening.
The system suddenly came back to mind today when I read Charlie Black’s recent comments about a possible terrorist attack in the US. Black, who’s a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain, told reporters that such an attack would help the Republican candidate in the presidential race, you see, because scared voters in such circumstances would prefer the rough and tough McCain to that marshmallow, Barack Obama.
How do we know Obama is soft? Karl Rove says so. Bushie boy’s former political strategist and saboteur had this to say about the Democratic presidential candidate: “Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.” Sheesh! You want a guy like this protecting us against jihadists?
Even though McCain swore up and down that what Black said is a pack of lies, he has to know that his adviser was speaking the truth. If he weren’t why would Rove and other Republicans be spending so much time painting Obama as Neville Chamberlain, Vidkun Quisling, and Benedict Arnold all rolled into one?
Bush Loves His Country With All His Abdomen
The good citizens of the United States are a pack of scared rabbits despite the fact that this country is the sole remaining superpower on Earth. The rest of the world sees us as a strutting bully. No other nation can send its armed forces halfway around the planet to overthrow another nation’s government simply because, um, because, well, we did it – that’s the point I’m trying to make. On the other hand, we see ourselves as beset on all sides by swarthy lunatics and conniving foreigners. The radical Muslims, the hordes of undocumented Mexicans, the wiley Chinese, and even the Mobbed-up Russians are all poised to pounce on us. Regardless of our might, Americans insist on cowering under the covers because of the bogeymen under the bed.
Scaredy-cats are always on the lookout for a protector, a big daddy-o who’ll keep the night safe. Bush and the boys know this all too well – and so must McCain. Bush’s popularity zoomed after the 9/11 attacks. He spoke tough and rattled his saber, immediately issuing marching orders which included the map of Afghanistan. He did what any other American leader would have done under the circumstances yet too many people became slavish in their gratitude that Bush was president in those dark days rather than Al Gore. Ooh, they moaned, wringing their hands, what would Gore have done? Duh! He would have curled up in a ball and commenced weeping uncontrollably. Once he finally stopped sobbing, he’d have sent Osama bin Laden the keys to the White House via overnight courier.
For some reason, Republicans are viewed as decisive he-men while the Dems are clowns and pushovers. Then again, the Democrats did once nominate Michael Dukakis as their presidential candidate.
We turn to the trusty GOP when we’re most frightened of the brown- and yellow-skinned billions hidden out in the woods. During the election season of 2004, when Bush faced a reasonably stiff challenge from John Kerry, his gang raised the terror alert to orange on September 10th, the perfect time to scare the poo out of the electorate. Bush’s popularity rose accordingly. Just in case you were wondering, that’s the only time the threat level has been raised since the system was instituted. The fact that it occurred during election season is mere coincidence. Oh, and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
How are we to react if the threat level is raised once again between now and November? I don’t know about you, but I won’t be surprised.
You Know The Drill By Now June 18, 2008
Posted by glabwrites in Al Gore, Big Mike, George W. Bush, Iraq, John McCain, Michael G. Glab, War Fever.1 comment so far
So now Bushie Boy and his new clone, John McCain, are renewing calls for oil drilling along our nation’s outer continental shelf. The Lamest Duck in recent memory long ago urged that oil companies be allowed to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, which for the moment at least, is banned by Congress.
Oiled Up And Ready To Go!
It’s a cinch the President couldn’t wait for Americans to get panicky over the price of a gallon of gas so he could re-foist these proposals on us.
How bizarre is it that the Reagan-Bush reich and its cheerleaders, the gang that sprouted boners over war in Iraq and became the dashboard Jesuses of the Hummer set, found it so easy to portray harmless Al Gore as a madman for, among other things, his environmental concerns?
Our obsession with gargantuan phallic vehicles has pretty much throat-slashed the domestic auto industry and turned shady, tyrannical oil sheiks into billionaires. The refusal of Republican lawmakers (and not a few Democrats) to prioritize and adequately fund research into hybrid engines and other alternative fuel concepts has helped keep the petroleum needle in our arms. But, y’know, Al Gore is nuts.
Chimps, Whales, Bush, & An Old Goat March 31, 2008
Posted by glabwrites in Adobe, Al Gore, Altruism, Big Mike, Chrysler, Crop Circles, Extraterrestrial Life, Ford, Fox News, General Motors, George W. Bush, Global Warming, Green Cars, Human Genome Project, JAMA, John Bradshaw, Lancelot Link, Max Planck Institute, Mercury Seven, Michael G. Glab, NASA, OPEC, Robert Bly, Self-Help, Weather Channel, Zero-Emission Cars.add a comment
Let’s start the week off with a little digest of recent news in science.
~ Researchers have discovered that human infants and chimpanzees have the instinct to help another in need. It’s proof that altruism is innate within both us and our nearest relatives (no, not my brother Joey; although I have a hard time distinguishing him from a simian.)
A study released by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany asserts that toddlers and as well the species that gave us Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, reflexively reach out to help a human in need.
In these days when our economy is going all to hell and wars are raging here, there, and seemingly everywhere, many people are falling into a rather discouraged mindset. Human beings are worse than beasts, some say. We’re gonna wipe ourselves out, others moan. Maybe. But it’s more likely we won’t because the urge to help others, that sense of altruism, is an inescapable part of our genetic makeup.
You ever hear someone complain about the big city and to illustrate the point, he or she tells an anecdote about how an old lady fell down on the sidewalk on Wabash Avenue and people just stepped right over her? A million times? Well, I’ve spent about a million days on Wabash Avenue and I’ve seen old ladies, middle-aged men, and children kiss the concrete. Never have I seen people step right over these unfortunate souls. In fact, people usually elbow each other out of the way to get to them.
That doesn’t sound like a society that’s going to wipe itself out any time soon.
~ Remember those glorious days back in the 1980s and 90s, when, thanks to popular self-help gurus like Robert Bly and John Bradshaw, we could blame our parents for every shred of guilt, shame, and selfish asshole-iness we detected within ourselves? Thank Zeus those days are over.
But our parents aren’t quite off the hook. Since the Human Genome Project published its complete genetic map in 2003, medical researchers have established that at least 40 diseases have been traced to genetic dispositions, according to a study in this month’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
So don’t let out a sigh of relief just yet, Ma and Dad. You’ve still got a lot to answer for.
~ Yet another huge chunk of the ice shelf in Antartica has fallen into the sea. The collapse of a 160-square-mile piece of the Wilkins Ice Shelf this month and last will adversely affect the population of krill in that area.
Krill are tiny crustaceans that larger sea species like whales feed on. If krill become scarce, more enormous creatures will be, you’ll pardon the pun, in hot water.
Scientists blame the Wilkins and other ice shelf collapses on Global Warming. You know, that thing President George W. Bush and his pals spent years denying. Lots of people still subscribe to the Global Warming-is-a-lie line that even the Bush Administration now has abandoned.
A friend of mine swears her father refuses to watch The Weather Channel because it’s too “liberal.” Why? Says Daddyo: TWC’s meteorologists take this Global Warming nonsense seriously.
Fair enough, Pops. Stick with Fox News.
Anyway, Bush’s ludicrous head-in-the-sand stance on Global Warming probably did more for the environmental movement than a hundred Al Gore movies would have. The Commander-in-Chief’s intransigence on the effect humans have on the air, the water, and the rest, galvanized environmentalists and even lit a match under minivan moms and high school principals.
So, thanks, George. Knucklehead.
~ Just don’t start giving Bushie Boy any awards. His anti-environment policies still hold sway. The Prez could have used his influence to convince American automakers to develop greener cars.
It was as likely he would have attempted to sway Ford, GM, and Chrysler to start making cars that don’t depend on the whims of oil sheiks as it would have been for him to issue an executive order exempting me from income taxes. I’d like him to do both things. He ain’t gonna do either.
So, in keeping with the tone set by our Peerless Leader, California has drastically reduced the number of zero-emission cars that must be sold in that state by 2014.
Automakers are jumping for joy. Environmentalists are not.
George W. Bush, by the way, is still a knucklehead.
~ Two more quickies. I just downloaded Adobe’s new free Photoshop Express. May as well take advantage of it so I can start submitting crop circle pix to the proper authorities. Also, 2008 is NASA’s 50th anniversary. Imagine that! Of those impossibly young and daring pilots who comprised the Mercury Seven, the original astronaut crew, five are gone. The remaining two, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, are now old men. What does that make me?
Next time,
Big Mike
