Truth by its very nature is controversial. And that’s probably because truth has always been subject to individual interpretation. Despite varying perceptions from individual to individual, one can always arrive at the objective truth through common-sense, logic, science, investigation, analysis, reason, technology, and a few other valid and time-tested means. So you see; the truth cannot be hidden all the time: that’s very difficult to accomplish.

Nowadays in the USA, it appears that the search for objective truths isn’t a pursuit of the most fanatical members of the present apology for a Republican political party. It’s ostensibly worse yet, if you are a card-carrying-member of the intellectually-challenged appendage of that entity: the Tea Party. That’s when insincerity, dishonesty, mendacity and the like, become the primary tactics for justifying attempts at political chicanery. That’s when common sense, humanity, moderation and reason flee to brutish beasts.  read more »

Yesterday's election in NYC was won on the one hand by right wing extremist teabaggers, and on the other hand by corrupt Party Boss Vito Lopez.

Moderate, competent Democrat David Weprin was trounced by radical right wing extremist Turner for Anthony Weiner's Congressional seat. The media wants to spin this as a referendum on Obama and Israel. It wasn't. This is just another right wing myth used for spin purposes. The election came down to one thing primarily, I believe. Marriage Equality. David Weprin, himself a very pro-Israel, mainstream Orthodox Jew had the integrity to recognize that his personal religious views on gay marriage should not trump Constitutional rights in this secular society, so he voted for marriage equality and openly supported it. To me this shows integrity and intelligence because he, unlike so many right wing religious extremists like Rick "Christian Taliban" Perry, recognizes that his personal religious beliefs cannot by law, nor should not be forced upon society at large. They remain, for him personal.  read more »

I begin to suspect this campaign is all an elaborate hoax.

Republican candidate for governor Carl P. Paladino told a gathering in Williamsburg Sunday that children should not be “brainwashed” into thinking that homosexuality is acceptable, and criticized his opponent, Democrat Andrew M. Cuomo, for marching in a gay pride parade earlier this year. [..]

And then, to applause from the group at Congregation Shaarei Chaim, he said: “I didn’t march in the gay parade this year — the gay pride parade this year. My opponent did and that’s not the example we should be showing our children.”

Newsday.com reported that Mr. Paladino's prepared text also included a sentence saying: "There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.'' But Mr. Paladino omitted that statement when he gave the speech.

Listen, idiot, this is how it works: you wake up one morning on the cusp of puberty and realize you've just had a wet dream about a boy, and you're a boy. Ooops.

And then you spend the next few years desperately trying to fit in, to out-boy all the other boys, until you finally have enough. If you're lucky, there's someone there who cares.

And then you spend the rest of your life trying to convince idiots, like you, Carl, that it's really not all about the clothes and the cosmopolitans and the dance music and the chic apartment and the menu French and the gym membership and so on and so forth.

Now here's the fun part. You're running for governor. Ask your fellow neanderthal, Harold Ford, how running against the gays worked out for him.

Bye now.

So I was walking home from the train today. A rather disheveled looking person, who I immediately and rather unfairly (I thought) pegged as borderline crazy person was coming up the stairs. He was either talking into an earphone/mouthpiece phone which I couldn't see or talking rather coherently to himself. At first it seemed to be about an altercation that he characterized as "not clearly being any one person's fault." I walked on.

Somehow our paths were overlapping. I kept crossing paths with him and overhearing part of is rambling conversation with someone or with himself.

"All they want is the fall of Western Civilization. If it falls, that's okay with them. If not, well that's okay with them too."

Who is he talking about, I wonder. Teabaggers? Republicans? Those cross my mind given recent events both during the Bush administration and now. I'd think al-Qaeda except the last part of "if not..." doesn't seem to fit.

"All they want is to make as much money as they can."  read more »

On Tax Day I went down to the Teabagger protest in Manhattan. Here are my observations from that encounter.

First off, as thousands of people walked by, 99% of them didn't care at all about what was going on. Most New Yorkers don't care about either the Teabaggers or the progressive counter protesters who were there.

I have several observations from my experience with the Tea Party folks. First, the VAST majority of teabaggers I met were mouth breathing fools who didn't even realize that they were contradicting themselves with each statement they make. Most of them seemed to want to cut government and cut taxes as far as they could, but still wanted all entitlements they are used to. And saw no contradiction in that. It seemed they were lobbying for a Somali style government, but wanted Sweden level of services. This is impossible. Some advocated the abolition of public education. Others denigrated taxation in general. Most made claims that Obama raised taxes (even though the reality is that thanks partly to Obama, taxes are lower right now than they have been for 60 years).  read more »