My observation that the US is a normal sane country harbouring a crazy one inside it (that for all my admiration for him, Abraham really should have let the South slough themselves off into oblivion without polluting the Great Republic) has served inadvertently as linkbait and our visits have shot up about eightfold.
Anyway, even without the frisson from that adventure, I would have posted this new benchmark in craziness. It’s very upsetting, but we now have ” open-carry rallies”. Heaven help us from escalating craziness. And yes, folks, this kind of thing doesn’t get traction in Australia or any other developed country I can think of, except the benighted US. From today’s Melbourne Age.
DANIEL Almond, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, prepared to ”muster outside DC” overnight with several dozen other self-proclaimed patriots, all armed.
The were planning to make history as the first people to take their guns to a demonstration in an American national park. The Virginia rally is deliberately being held in sight of the Capitol, just a few kilometres from the White House.
Mr Almond (below) planned to carry his loaded pistol, his rifle unloaded and slung to the rear, a bandoleer of magazines containing ammunition draped over his polo-shirted shoulder.
The real-estate agent organised the rally because he is upset about healthcare, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws and what he sees as President Barack Obama’s insistence on and the Democratic Congress’s capitulation to a ”totalitarian socialism” that tramples individual rights.
So-called open-carry rallies have been taking place all across the country. Hundreds gathered in New Mexico, Ohio and Michigan last week, and rallies were taking place in Arizona. . . .
The brandishing of weapons is ”not just an impotent symbol” but ”a reminder of who we are”, Mr Almond said. ”The founders knew that it is the tendency of government to expand itself and embrace its own power, and they knew the citizenry had to be reminded of that.”
“The brandishing of weapons is ”not just an impotent symbol” but ”a reminder of who we are”, Mr Almond said.”
Did Mr Almond really mean to say that carrying weapons is basically an impotent symbol?
Which it is anyway as Obama’s made no move to emasculate white men by controlling their access to weapons.
In this case strutting around in public with guns is basically voguing – which as you may recall was developed by gay men on dance floors imitating and paying homage to their favourite entertainers.
Personally I like guns and I like shooting ’em but I had several tenets drummed into me when I first handled them. Like guns are not toys…or props.
Did you see the Daily Show’s recent piece about this movement? It was pretty funny.
I can 100% agree with that. The South never really stopped fighting the civil war — it just took them a long time to secretly invent an armament so devastating that it could bring the whole nation sobbing to its knees (in a mere 8 years). Karma is ruthlessly fair.
Inadvertently? And then the wet T-shirt comes out. Hmmmm.
Fact check. Nobody who fought in the civil war is alive. Nobody who owned slaves is still alive. Nobody who advocated slavery or fought for slavery is still alive. That “crazy South” (about as crazy as every other slave owning society I guess) is gone. It exists only in history books. Like ancient Rome.
And the fact that you went to the South a long time ago and met some batty old woman who didn’t like killing animals really doesn’t count as an insightful metaphor of anything.
You are speaking of matters of which you are ignorant (I use the word in a neutral, descriptive way, to mean “knowing very little”, not as an insult). That includes in particular the contemporary South; and American conservative politics. But I’m sure you’ll get cheers, since most of your readers probably have little sympathy for either and will enjoy reading someone put the boot in, no matter how uninformed that boot is.
Tel,
Linkbait? Inadvertent? Moi?
Well I was talking about the previous post. This one, well I thought the wet T-shirt might help things along. This is the new ratings driven, wet-T-shirt Troppo.
Munroe,
We’re all ignorant. As far as the South is concerned, you’re right, I’m giving the impressions I have. We don’t have open-carry rallies in Australia, or anywhere else – except the United States. They’re crazy – seriously. As for sympathy, well the people in the South are people, human beings like us all. Most of them are sane, just as most Southerners were sane during the Civil War. Most of them are nice normal people. But there are some disturbances there aren’t there. And you don’t need many crazies to make a place crazy.
“That “crazy South” (about as crazy as every other slave owning society I guess) is gone”
Yee-hah!
Obama’s handing over billions of taxpayer dollars to big business, ramping up the US military presence in foreign lands, cutting taxes, laying out plans to reduce the budget deficit to zero within a decade, opening up swathes of national land to oil drilling, introducing a tepid healthcare tax makeover based on Republican plans and is now following exactly in Reagan’s footsteps when it comes to nuclear disarmament.
So what the fuck then do the tea-baggers want now? A less dusky POTUS?
“We’re all ignorant.”
I don’t think I am. I’ve been visiting the US for over two decades now. A fantastic and beautiful place full of great, smart, funny and very hospitable people.
I also retain my access all lobbyist areas pass for the US Congress. Very nice building but they are seriously running out of statue room in the foyer.
But now in the US, the public dialogue is being increasingly poisoned by Fox, Clear Cast and what remains of the once great Republican Party.
Lincoln, TDR and Ike would be utterly disgusted by how their legacies are now being butchered by the Party of No.
The Democrats as usual also remain a pompous and corrupt gang – just more wimpy with it. Until Obama came along. The most effective and ruthless Democratic boss since Clinton. And most of the US seemed to make out well pretty under Bill’s aegis.
Personally I think the most desirable political future of the US lies in a joint Ron Paul/Dennis Kucinich ticket. But that’s never gonna happen now…is it?
As far as the South is concerned, you’re right, I’m giving the impressions I have.
I wasn’t expecting that:
A humble admission that I might have a point.
That was a pleasant surprise, but I Think you’ve just violated the Law Of The Internet.
We all have a point around here munroe. Troppo is a magical place where people don’t overdo their certainty that they’re right. There’s enlightenment to be had even from Republicans.
;)