Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Lately I've heard a number of people (friends, acquaintances and strangers) toss out the line " an armed society is a polite society. " I wonder how many of them are aware this is a quote from the Robert Heinlein novel, Beyond This Horizon , first published as a two-part serial in 1942, and in novel form in 1948. Some context: in the novel, openly carrying weapons and dueling are the social norm; one can wear special clothing to opt out of this practice but to do so is to be relegated to second class status (you chickenshit bastard). Some other things in the novel my gun-toting friends may not be aware of: in it the world has become such an economic utopia that working has become optional, and projects with no possibility of any economic return are favored above all else.  So, in other words: a fantasy. The reality of the situation is that carrying a weapon doesn't make you more polite, it only serves to make other people more polite to you . That's not bei...

Would-be Texas Governor Debra Medina continues to trot out her Tea Party infused alternate universe. The latest glimpse of her [ cynicism/ignorance/crazy ] came when she finally commented on last week's airplane attack on an Austin IRS office. The Dallas Morning News quotes her as saying the decision of a man fighting the IRS to crash his airplane into a building in Austin reflects "the hopelessness many in our society feel." Perhaps remembering the uproar that resulted from her fuzzy answer about the 9/11 bombers, she gave a half-assed assurance that she was not actually sympathizing, adding weakly, "I grieve for him. I'm very sympathetic for his family, for the families of those innocent victims in that building." I call bullshit. Coming from an avowed Tea Party candidate this strikes me as more than a little pandering to your base : anti-government soreheads and miscellaneous sociopaths . Joe Stack, the pilot, had a history of anti-tax zealotry ...

A short history lesson, courtesy of Wikipedia. The Freikorps were nationalistic organizations primarily composed of disaffected, disenchanted and angry German combat veterans who believed that their government had betrayed Germany and sold them out... The Freikorps were in opposition to the new Weimar Republic. The SA [Stormtroopers/Brownshirts] evolved out of the remnants of the Freikorps movement. During the 1920s and 1930s, the SA functioned as a private militia that Hitler used to intimidate rivals and disrupt the meetings of competing political parties. Sound familiar?

Much has been made in wingnut circles about the supposed "beating" of Kenneth Gladney at a St. Louis town hall meeting. Mobs of union thugs beat him! He was hospitalized! Yeah, right. MediaMatters has a clip of the incident as well as a pretty damning analysis which puts the lie to the hordes of rightwing media and blogosphere all foaming at the mouth. To quote from MediaMatters : Go watch the YouTube video. (Or, the "shocking video," as Power Line hypes it.) The first thing you notice when the camera starts rolling is a union member already sprawled out on the ground with somebody standing over him. No explanation of how he got there (pushed, shoved, punched?) and Ham couldn't care less. Then yes, Gladney is pulled to the ground by somebody wearing a union shirt. (At the :06 mark.) But instead of Gladney being beaten and punched, as his attorney describes, and instead of union "thugs" standing over him and threatening him, Gladney bounce...

In the wake of the assassination of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, Fox News mouthpiece Bill O'Reilly demonstrates he is utterly without shame. There must surely be no evil so great as the commoditization of hate for profit. Time magazine has an article about extremism and the anti-abortion movement.

This just in... Blackwater , America's favorite secretive private "security" (read: paramilitary) corporation has decided to change its name. Henceforth the company name is " Xe ." Officials helpfully point out this is pronounced "zee." Which is interesting since Erik Prince's little business venture already developed quite a name for itself as the Bush administration's mercenary army in Iraq. Not a particularly good name -- they've been accused of atrocities, killing innocent civilians , weapons smuggling, intimidation of US politicians , all on our nickel, and that's just for starters. The Iraq government no longer allows them in the country. Like other creatures that live on death and decay, Blackwater doesn't especially like the harsh light of publicity. So what do they do to restore their good name? They change their name. The cynic in me says this practically unpronounceable name is designed to keep the average person from t...