Decent Conservatism?

I was perusing a thread on Huffington Post regarding a truly horrific story as follows.:

Democratic Operative's Cat Slaughtered, 'Liberal' Painted On Corpse 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/democratic-operative-cat-liberal-slaughtered-pet_n_1224095.html

 The majority of posters deplored the action, suspecting a right-wing extremist to be responsible.

One poster protested:

"It has nothing to do with decent, reasonable­, everyday conservati­ves. Everything can be taken to an extreme. Left, right, in-between­, it can always go too far. Stalin proved that. So did Hitler, bin Laden, and just about every historical enemy of America. To say that their actions represent the views of anyone connected to them is pure fallacy."

While this poster makes a good point, I had some thoughts:

The problem as I see it from above the 49th parallel is that the decent, reasonable, everyday conservatives is that they are either cowed or don't care that their party appears to be hijacked by the extremists.

The GOP is no longer the party that pressured Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Declaration.  In fact, I would suggest that if the people who are in the ascendancy right now were there in Lincoln's time, slavery would still exist.

Look at the headlines:  


Santorum re rape; not even in the case of rape.

Gingrich explains that Blacks and Latinos don't understand  wealth the way Asians do.

The tea party wants to rewrite history in order to make slavery "nicer".

And  that's just off the top of my head.


Is there a single candidate who is even close to moderate?  No.  They are all kowtowing to the tea party, whose positions are extreme, to put it mildly.

I haven't heard a single active Republican call these people out.  I haven't heard a single Republican suggest that maybe, just maybe they should put their petty politics aside and try working with their president. 

I haven't heard a single reasonable conservative suggest that possibly it might be reasonable that increasing spending while reducing taxes is not going to solve your economic problems.  No one likes to pay taxes, but how do you pay for things you need, like cops and firefighters otherwise?

I have yet to hear an everyday conservative suggest that maybe the rich should pay their fair share.  They used to; they used to be taught, before the "I'm all right Jack" attitude became prevalent, that they owed something to the society that allowed them to be rich in the first place.  

I've yet to hear decent conservatives suggest that the hate speak of Fox News, talk radio, the Hannitys and Coulters and the rest of that crowd might be toned down, free speech notwithstanding.  j

And if these good conservatives are speaking up, they're not speaking loud enough.  They need to start yelling.

They also need to take their party back before it's too late.

Profiling the Pro Lifers

From Huffington Post:

"Drawing a stark contrast between himself and the Republican presidential candidates on the issue of women's reproductive rights, President Barack Obama released a statement on Sunday, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, reaffirming his commitment to protect a woman's right to choose."

On the other hand:

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the winner of Saturday's South Carolina presidential primary, last week reaffirmed his support for a fetal "personhood" amendment, which would criminalize abortion even in cases of rape and could ban some forms of contraception, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research. He has also pledged to strip government funds from Planned Parenthood, which provides basic health care and affordable contraception to millions of low-income and uninsured women across the country each year."

Once again conservatives are raising the abortion issue, both in the United States and here in Canada.  Prime Minister Harper has stated that he will not reopen the issue; probably because he knows that he and his party would take a drubbing, not because he truly supports a woman's right to choose.

In case it's not obvious by now, I am pro-choice.  Which does not mean I'm pro-abortion.  I agree with a sermon I once heard:  abortion is always an evil, but sometimes, it's the lesser of two evils.  

Nor do I believe that life begins at conception.  Or that sex is simply for procreation.  (I think I must do a separate blog entry on this).  

I also think that people who are already here are more important than a cluster of six or eight cells.  That is not a baby.  It is a blastocyst.  

Why do I bring this up?  

Because my mother has Parkinson's, one of the filthiest diseases on this planet.  

Stopping stem cell research, which would help my mother and countless others, because of such "babies" is an outrage and insult. It says that this clump of cells, no bigger than the point of a pencil, is more important than the suffering of those already here. 

I do believe that women are human beings and as such, are worthy of respect.  That would seem self-evident, but the actions of the extreme right-wing show that there are those that do not agree with my point of view.

I really have come to the conclusion that these people really don't care about women.  They weep crocodile tears for an clump of cells but actual people -- not so much.

I have a theory about this. 

It's easy to idolise the unborn.  They're not here yet.  They don't annoy you by taking up space, making noise when you have a headache, or creating nasty smells.  

You don't have to give up your hard-earned money in taxes in order to pay for their schooling or housing or medical care.  They don't hang around street corners and give you Looks when you walk by.  They don't demand outrageous things like decent jobs and livable homes. 

You can visualise them as sweet, adorable little babies who coo and suck their thumbs, not the wailing red-faced annoyances who are clogging up the emergency rooms and school system and taking attention away from your little upper class GOP and/or Tory angel.

They're the perfect fantasy child.  Unfortunately, this is not a fantasy world.

The World is Flat After All

It's late night (even with daylight savings time) and I'm up. I can't sleep because of a headache (again) so I'm sitting here, surfing the net and watching the idiot box.  

Even with cable, there's not a lot to choose from this time of night, but I've lucked out.  Galaxy Quest is on.  In a time where most comedies seem to depend on unlikeable immature characters doing stupid things that stretch credulity, I find this movie to be funny and ultimately good-natured at its core.  And this comes from a long time Star Trek fan.

My first foray into SF was when I picked up Robert A. Heinlein's The Rolling Stones, thinking it was about the band.  Although I eventually parted company philosophically with RAH, I still remember the mind widening experience that reading his juvenile fiction provided.  I went on to the "masters" - Clarke, Asimov, and so forth.  I don't read a lot of current SF anymore.

It's not because it's poorly written.  But it's not well written, either.  It's bland, mediocre.  And it seems to me that plots that are sufficient for one book are stretched out to three -- or ten.


I have not read any graphic novels, so I can't comment on their quality or lack thereof.

The one exception to the above is Terry Pratchett.  His books are not considered SF; they are  filed under fantasy.


Mr. Pratchett is, in my opinion (and that of a lot of reviewers),  this era's Jonathan Swift.  His satire is based on razor-sharp observations of the facts and foibles of our own society; he simply (I should say, he makes it look simple) stretches these to the absurd.   

My favourite sub-set of the Discworld series are the Watch novels, followed closely by the 2 Moist von Lipwig novels.   


Unfortunately, Mr. Pratchett has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.  So it is not clear if we will see any  more of his novels forthcoming, after the latest, Snuff.

If you haven't read this wonderful series, do yourself a favour.  Spend some time with the inhabitants of Discworld, as it rides through space, supported by 4 giant elephants who in turn stand on the back of a massive turtle.  

It turns out that in some parts of the universe, the world is flat after all.

First TIme

Well, here I am, sitting on my couch, TV blaring in the background, cats prowling and complaining, and deciding to add my voice to the blog-sphere.  Why?  Why not?

I've been trying to get into the habit of writing.  My noggin is filled to bursting with ideas for short stories and other ideas, all begging to be set free.   So I figure, writing is writing is writing, right?  Right?  Or am I just fooling myself/


Sigh.


I know, I know.  


Destination Truth is on right now.  I have to admit, that and Ghost Hunters are silly pleasures of mine.  As far as Destination Truth goes, I know that if they ever found anything of interest or discovered the Yeti for sure, it would be all over the mainstream news before showing up on a cable TV show.  

As far as Ghost Hunters goes, well, I'm not a fervent believer, but I don't exactly disbelieve, either.  To quote Old Bill, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio".  (And it was spooks the speaker was speaking of thusly.)


But at least the folks on these shows behave with a certain amount of decorum and dignity.  (Sometimes not possible when dangling from a rope into the crater of a volcano, but that's okay; we'll overlook those lapses.)  But what to make of shows like Repo and Monsters-in-Law or, God help us, the Kardashians?  

I watched about 10 minutes of Jersey Shore once, and had to take a long, long shower to scrub the shame off.   I don't know which was worse -- watching these horrible, horrible people, or the fact that these horrible, horrible people didn't realize how utterly dreadful they were and therefore allowed cameras to follow them around and record their dreadful antics.


I'm not even going to talk about The Hills.


Enough for one post.  I will try to post again tomorrow, but no promises.  (I'm sure the world is teetering on the edge, just waiting ...)