Yeah, the Komen-Planned Parenthood thing is getting some MAJOR backlash. As in, every single woman I know has basically said, "Fuck that pink shit."
Of course, the very people who were pressuring them will now decry the "pro-abortionist Gestapo extortion campaign forcing the Susan G. Komen foundation to support the murder of the pre-born" or some shit. Meh, fuck 'em.
The Santorum bit doesn't surprise me, nor is it purely a conservative thing. Rachael Maddow and Keith Olbermann basically supercharged their careers by doing nothing more than delivering bits of news and commentary designed to fuel impotent liberal rage during the Bush years. When you feel like nothing you do is going to STOP THE MADNESS, you like it when people tell you that you're right to be scared, right to be angry, and give you even more reasons to be scared and angry. It's a bipartisan cycle.
Totally agreed on the Breast Cancer thing.
So forgetting the, if it's actually true, like "Bush tortures people," etc, argument....
All of this is only able to exist is a climate of extreme ignorance. People think "government" is the problem, when in fact they are the government. If people are the government and government is the problem, then people are the problem.They don't know the first thing about how the government works, but they think they do.
1.) All these government agencies make regulations and we have no say!
Wrong. Congress vests agencies with rule making powers through administrative law. If people actually cared to look it up, then they could submit input and proposals to the rule making bodies of these boards. The hearings are and must be public and they have to acknowledge and record comments, concerns and suggestions. The only people who know about this are well funded special interest groups. People don't wanna learn the system themselves and refuse to pay someone else to do it for them, thus they don't know....
You, yes you, could actually have an immense impact on the EPA or Department of Education via submission of opinions, questions and concerns on proposed policies and approval of applications for programs. Again, the problem is, no one will look up how to do this and no one will pay anyone to do it for them. Completely, willfully in the dark about how the system works, people slowly find out that ignorance is not bliss....
2.) The Constitution says, "...."
Most people don't really get how the constitution works, at all, even and especially if they think they do. There's a reason it's a full year course for law students and even then, that doesn't cover it really. The 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments have been vilified as "protecting criminals," along with the 8th amendment which has been largely rendered out of play recently given the whole torture thing.... We come up with "new" ways to deal with "new" problems, that aren't really new. We've faced enemies before and though the methods change the threats are still the same essentially. The "enhanced interrogation" doesn't work, as you'll say anything under that pressure.
That doesn't even count the over two centuries of case law the supreme court has interpreted the constitution through, which is even the watered down civics class definition of what the Judiciary branch should do: Interpret the Law.
People are totally dumbfounded that they DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE in the constitution. Look at the text, it isn't there, anywhere. Even the amendments about voting only say you can't DENY someone a vote based upon certain things, but nowhere does it say "The people shall have the right to vote," or anything really. Nothing confers a positive right to vote in the text itself. Now, its a very good argument to say this is implied and assumed (because how else do you have an election?), but just don't say the phrase "implied right" to strict textualist who only wants to see "what's in the constitution." By that logic, nobody can vote....
I could go on but really why?
In summation, the word that's killing us is "should." Example, "Well, it 'should' be this way." Well, it isn't. Nobody asks why it isn't or what would theoretically make and keep things they way they "should" be. No one asks if those mechanisms are broken or suggests specific fixes. My ideas of hiring a shitload of accountants to track stuff falls on deaf ears or is rebuffed as "too expensive" and "besides, they're supposed to be honest anyhow...." And, what keeps them that way? Yes, this will cost money and not paying for it will cost you far more....
Expectations and duties about "shoulds" are just imposed but ... what does that mean. You don't expect a building's integrity to last without a system of supports and extensive planning. Why would anyone expect a country's integrity to?
TL;DR Let's point fingers at each other and fight over who to blame instead of how to fix it. Let's complain about government not working instead of figuring out how it works. Yaaaay... O wait a second.... I sense a problem.
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Topic: Chill and Relaxed Progressive Irritation and Annoyance Thread (Read 878777 times)