Taking a Break

I'll be taking a break for a week. My brother-in-law (i.e., the famous IBIL) is in town and will want for a lot of attention and hand holding. I'll still post the ones that are in the system, so to speak, i.e., have been written and set to post a future time, but won't have time for any new ones until sometime early next week.

When I get out of jail following just a touch of assault and battery and attack with a moderately-deadly weapon...

No, I am sure that the best possible behavior will be exhibited on all sides, and we'll come through the week with nothing worse than just a few skinned knuckles.

See you all next week and thanks for reading.

--"The F Man"

Quoting Winston Churchill on Muslims

My IBIL* is at it again. He forwarded me an email, 8 Pictures to Make You Think, from his Rethug buddy containing a bunch of "before" and "after" pictures, allegedly of "free" Iran before the 1979 revolution showing "happy" Iranian youth in "western clothes" in 1970 compared with the burkha-ridden frothy-mouthed murder-eyed radicals post-Ayatollah.

And the email quoted Winston Churchill in a speech from 1899, in which he supposedly "nailed it":

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

So here is my response:

Fuck this. The problem is not Islam. The problem is Fundamentalism. It's the same with Christians (I can point to chapter and verse in the Holy Bible where "our" god is as big a dick as Allah -- in point of fact, for that matter, "our" god IS Allah) but, like the fish is the last one to understand the principles of water, most people in this country can't see that. Especially the Christian Fundos, who all think that they are "normal" representatives of God on Earth.
It's easy to pick and choose "representative" photographs, but these are not representative at all.
Here's just one picture to "make you think".
What do you make of this?

In case you don't know, that's Detroit's own Rima Fakih, Muslim, Miss Michigan, and winner of the Miss USA pageant in 2010. Yeah, she's probably a Terrorist as well, but I don't know where she's hiding that suicide bomb...
As far as the Burkah and Hijab -- sure, we think of them as weird, but are they really any weirder than men wearing dresses (Catholic bishops, etc.) or the magic underwear of the Mormons? We accept that (well, the Catholic thing, anyway) because it is part of our culture.
And I wouldn't be quoting Winston Churchill if I were you. He was a dipshit racist and an anti-Semitic imperialist dick who believed that "the Aryan stock is bound to triumph". You could look that up.
So feel free to send this back to that Rethug Faux-News-Watchin' anti-Semitic (Arabs are a Semitic people) friend of yours and tell him to blow it out his ass...

Like I say, like She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed says, I really shouldn't respond to this shit. But I just can't help myself. Besides, it gives me some surefire fodder for this blog -- almost as good as my wackjob cousin. A blog which BTW he never reads, so he won't know I refer to him as my "IBIL"...

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*IBIL = Idiot Brother-In-Law

Babbly Nothin-Yoohoo and my IBIL

My IBIL (aka Idiot-Brother-In-Law) is an expert at yanking my chain -- he ought to be, since he's been at it for 35 years now. Yesterday he forwarded a pro-Netanyahu email from his Rethug friends that went on and on and on about what a "hero" Babbly is, called 5 Badass Things You Should Know About Bibi Netanyahu: 1. He's a war hero. 2. He has taken bullets for his country. 3. His family has paid the highest price for Israeli freedom. 4. He's damn smart. 5. He is one of the most successful politicians in Israeli history. Complete with a photograph for each one of the points, and a side-note under the "damn smart" section that he is friends with Mitt Romney. And that is supposed to show he's "smart"?.

And also complete with side-by-side photos of Babbly on one side and a two-shot of Obama and Biden on the other. They are labeled "Nut and Yahoo". (Okay, I'll admit that is kind of funny... Surprising, since I didn't think Rethugs even had a sense of humor.)

So here's my response:

So what? He's still a dick and an Israeli terrorist. He's been Chicken-Littling for over 20 years that Iran will have The Bomb "in two years". They are at least 19 years behind schedule. Where is it? And so what if they do? Pakistan has The Bomb and they are way more scary than Iran. Don't fall for it. If he ever starts saying "we'll be greeted as liberators" when we invade Iran...well, you know how well that worked out in Iraq. Iran is actually our potentially-best ally in the fight against ISIS.
Fuck your kneejerk Republican friends. It's time they stopped kissing Israel's ass and woke up to reality in the Middle East. Has Israel every sent troops to any shenanigans we've been involved in? Have they ever even committed any money towards shoring up "American Values" in any farflung backwater where we try to impose them at the barrel of a gun? It seems to me to be a pretty one-sided alliance. We give them guns and planes and shit, and all we get back is a handful of "gimme" and a mouthful of "much-obliged".
All they can do is say to the US about Iran, like Wimpy in the Popeye cartoons, "Let's you and him fight."
And Babbly Nothin-Yoohoo is BFFs with Mitt Romney? That in itself is enough for me.
(An aside to whatever dickwad at the NSA is reading this: Fuck you, too)

Didn't take long to get a response from him:

Cute recap of basics. Reckon we all need to carry around air sick bags at times like this. Well, all times with so much self interest. How can our congress sit back and let him talk to the hand, clap and not say anything about what you just said. Are they all ignorant or just in for the ride and what they can get out of it...........Seems our government it the scary one.

Well, that was kind of disappointing. I was hoping to get at least a little flame war out of this...

My reply:

Hmmm, was that a little too strong?
Don't forget that 50 Democrats boycotted the speech, but their side doesn't get told in the "news" -- only that they are Jew-hating communists. The whole thing was set up by John Boner as a slap in the face of Obama. Boner knew he was doing an end run on the diplomatic end of things, and trying to shore up Babbly's support at home where he faces reelection with only 39% of his voters supporting him.

And now that I have pretty much sealed my fate with that snarky sidebar to the NSA, I'll see all of you in the concentration "re-education" camp.

You are going there just for reading this...

Ever Wonder if You're a Fascist?

No, probably not, since my literally dozens of readers are all smart people who are the correct side of history.

That IBIL* of yours, though? The one that's coming over to wreck your Thanksgiving Day dinner yet again for the tenth year in a row? Ever wonder about him being a fascist? Come on, you know you have.

Well, thanks to the always valuable Addicting Info, here's a checklist to see if someone's a fascist.

1. You are obsessed with national power and pride and believe your country doesn’t have to follow the rules and shouldn’t ever apologize for doing things that are wrong. You think your nation can do whatever it wants.
2. You believe in the rule of the few, election rigging, political decisions being made by a select group of officials behind closed doors, embrace the informal and unregulated exercise of political power, arbitrary deprivation of civil liberties, and little tolerance for meaningful opposition.
3. You believe in survival of the fittest, an every man for himself mentality that causes you to believe that poor people and sick people are weak and must be punished. You think rich people are strong because they are wealthy and that they should rule us. You also your race in superior to all others.
4. You use the media as a political propaganda machine to target a specific audience and to push your agenda on others. You make sure the media demonizes your opponents and takes your side on nearly every issue. You use your propaganda machine to play on the fears of others.
5. You are obsessed with security, and war. You feed this obsession by spending trillions of dollars building up a large military force and are willing to sacrifice domestic programs your people count on to keep your military huge. You start unnecessary and costly wars and you are paranoid of other nations.

And that's just the first five! Go read the entire list of 18 items, and when that dude asks you to pass the potatoes, you can scream, "YOU INVADED POLAND YOU NAZI PIG!!!"

No, wait. That's likely not such a good idea in the long run... Better to just mash the entire bowl of mashed potatoes into his face.

No, wait. That's probably not good either. Maybe you should just pass the fucking potatoes and at your first opportunity escape into the next room and the television set that will undoubtedly have a football game on to calm you down...

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[*IBIL -- Idiot Brother-In-Law]