Journal Mekkis's Journal: Superbowl Blues
I have lots of stuff on my mind this Superbowl Sunday. So many things that the lashing and whirling of my mind woke me up out of a deep sleep. Woke me up to discover I was clenching my teeth so hard I had muscle cramps in my jaw. Good thing I got that biteguard from the dentist last year. Otherwise I'd have nothing but gums left. I find all the things on my mind sapping my energy, my motivation, and all the color seems to be draining out of the world. All these are warning signs that I'm getting depressed again. Sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm depressed or simply recognizing the idiocy of my fellow Americans. Why is it so difficult people to just "get along" on this planet? Is it just me thinking that so many Americans are willfully ignorant-- and aggressive about maintaining that willful ignorance?
I have a college education. I work a job in programming. I make $13 per hour. I recognize the fact that I have a lot more than most people in this country. I don't have an extravagant lifestyle, I have no credit cards, nothing outstanding but my student loans and yet somehow I can barely make even the most basic of bills. I don't even have enough money for groceries let alone what it takes to get my 20-year-old car fixed. Then I think about all the people in this country who are far, far worse off. And when I look at the future of this country, this "New American Century" as forged by Bush & Co., I find no hope.
To be frank, I'm downright ashamed to be an American. I find the behavior of the government under this president to be appalling and even worse is the fact that the majority of people refuse to hold it accountable. Alito's nomination makes me want to fucking puke, because it means the fascists have a deathgrip on every branch of government and they'll be damned if they'll let go. Prepare to kiss your civil rights goodbye, everyone. We're going back to the good ol' days of the Robber Barons. Alito, Thomas, Scalia and all the other goose-stepping "judges" Bush has had installed in every court at every level are standing by to wind the clock back 100 years.
First thing to go? Workers' Rights. Never mind the "Roe v. Wade" smokescreen the fascists have been using to whip up support from the Jesus-People, this "new order" is about fucking over the common person and stripping them of any right to demand anything, even the ability to stand up and say "no". Say good-bye to the minimum wage law, OSHA safety regulations, health benefits, pensions, public education. Say hello to unskilled, ignorant masses toiling at sweatshop-style labor in hazardous conditions for wages equivalent to those in the third world. While, of course, the tycoons responsible for this travesty get to rest comfortable in the knowledge that the government they bought will protect them from the unwashed masses. Those same masses they ensured would remain unwashed and ignorant by buying out the free press and cutting funds to public education. Watch these greedy fucks lean back and stick their thumbs into their waistcoats, buttons straining over their prodigious guts. Watch as they chomp their fat black cigars - which despite Freud's protests is most definitely representational of a phallus; that in particular being Satan's and at which these tycoons greedily suck like piglets. Stand by as they pull said member out of their mouths to shove it squarely in the ass of John Q. Public. Feel that? Bush would have you believe that feeling is freedom.
This year's State of the Union Address felt more like a three-ring circus combined with Hitler's speech at the Reichstag. Since when does the Supreme Court show up for the State of the Union Address? Oh, that's right! When the Neocons feel it necessary to flaunt the power they've usurped. It's not enough to emasculate the system, they have to rub our noses in it too. And the American public applauds them as they do! Am I weird for wishing with all my being that the House of Representatives would spontaneously explode from all that raw evil being in one building? Is it unpatriotic of me to demand where in the fuck my rights went? Oh yeah, that's right. Just over a year ago they evaporated irretreivably into the ether thanks to Diebold's rigged voting machines. I find it interesting that the Nevada Gaming Commission stated "...a voter would have a better chance of ensuring their vote is counted fairly on a slot machine than on one of Diebold's electronic voting machines." ...and Nevada still went red in '04. What irony.
Oh wait. Ha HA, I forgot. Hastert says these are just sour grapes! I guess I've just been taken in by a conspiracy theory! That's it, I can relax, right? Never mind that I spent a three-hour seminar at DefCon in the summer of '04 watching a woman with a pHd in computer engineering point out every instance of jiggered source code and then go on to demonstrate exactly how Diebold could use said jiggered code to count the votes any goddamned way they wanted.
Where is she now, you may ask? Prison. She was arrested for "revealing confidential business information". Arrested like Cindy Sheehan, who was frog-marched in handcuffs from the floor of the House of Representatives just before the State of the Union Address. What for? "Unlawful Conduct". For fuck's sake, she was wearing an anti-war tee-shirt! Not vocally protesting, not making a scene! Sheehan was wearing a tee-shirt. If that's not a violation of First Amendment rights, what is? Anyone? Hello? Was anyone watching C-Span?
The media watchdog has been neutered, ladies and gentlemen. None of the outrage made it into the news. The Sheehan story was plastered over with a veneer of calm. I heard no discussion about the violation of her rights in mainstream media. In fact, FOX and the Washington Post were practically cheering the DCPD for arresting Sheehan! What the fuck?! To add insult to injury, the Diebold story goes undiscussed-- and then anyone who challenges the results of the 2004 election or voices suspicion of electronic voting machines is instantly decried as a "radical leftist conspiracy theorist". Makes me want to goddamned VOMIT. And the Hastert has the GALL to accuse the opposition of "sour grapes", of "conspiracy theorism". Let me clue you in, Denny-boy: just because someone connects the dots and forms a THEORY doesn't mean it ain't HAPPENING.
So go back to the glow of your television sets, Working-Class America. Go back to watching steroid addicts beat each other senseless over a pigskin in that sanitized, farcical simulacrum of war we call "Superbowl XL". Watch your million-dollar commercials and chuckle as you stuff fistfuls of Doritos and Budwiser into your collective mouths. Let your T.V. numb you. Don't worry about the aching in your ass, that's just freedom.
I have a college education. I work a job in programming. I make $13 per hour. I recognize the fact that I have a lot more than most people in this country. I don't have an extravagant lifestyle, I have no credit cards, nothing outstanding but my student loans and yet somehow I can barely make even the most basic of bills. I don't even have enough money for groceries let alone what it takes to get my 20-year-old car fixed. Then I think about all the people in this country who are far, far worse off. And when I look at the future of this country, this "New American Century" as forged by Bush & Co., I find no hope.
To be frank, I'm downright ashamed to be an American. I find the behavior of the government under this president to be appalling and even worse is the fact that the majority of people refuse to hold it accountable. Alito's nomination makes me want to fucking puke, because it means the fascists have a deathgrip on every branch of government and they'll be damned if they'll let go. Prepare to kiss your civil rights goodbye, everyone. We're going back to the good ol' days of the Robber Barons. Alito, Thomas, Scalia and all the other goose-stepping "judges" Bush has had installed in every court at every level are standing by to wind the clock back 100 years.
First thing to go? Workers' Rights. Never mind the "Roe v. Wade" smokescreen the fascists have been using to whip up support from the Jesus-People, this "new order" is about fucking over the common person and stripping them of any right to demand anything, even the ability to stand up and say "no". Say good-bye to the minimum wage law, OSHA safety regulations, health benefits, pensions, public education. Say hello to unskilled, ignorant masses toiling at sweatshop-style labor in hazardous conditions for wages equivalent to those in the third world. While, of course, the tycoons responsible for this travesty get to rest comfortable in the knowledge that the government they bought will protect them from the unwashed masses. Those same masses they ensured would remain unwashed and ignorant by buying out the free press and cutting funds to public education. Watch these greedy fucks lean back and stick their thumbs into their waistcoats, buttons straining over their prodigious guts. Watch as they chomp their fat black cigars - which despite Freud's protests is most definitely representational of a phallus; that in particular being Satan's and at which these tycoons greedily suck like piglets. Stand by as they pull said member out of their mouths to shove it squarely in the ass of John Q. Public. Feel that? Bush would have you believe that feeling is freedom.
This year's State of the Union Address felt more like a three-ring circus combined with Hitler's speech at the Reichstag. Since when does the Supreme Court show up for the State of the Union Address? Oh, that's right! When the Neocons feel it necessary to flaunt the power they've usurped. It's not enough to emasculate the system, they have to rub our noses in it too. And the American public applauds them as they do! Am I weird for wishing with all my being that the House of Representatives would spontaneously explode from all that raw evil being in one building? Is it unpatriotic of me to demand where in the fuck my rights went? Oh yeah, that's right. Just over a year ago they evaporated irretreivably into the ether thanks to Diebold's rigged voting machines. I find it interesting that the Nevada Gaming Commission stated "...a voter would have a better chance of ensuring their vote is counted fairly on a slot machine than on one of Diebold's electronic voting machines."
Oh wait. Ha HA, I forgot. Hastert says these are just sour grapes! I guess I've just been taken in by a conspiracy theory! That's it, I can relax, right? Never mind that I spent a three-hour seminar at DefCon in the summer of '04 watching a woman with a pHd in computer engineering point out every instance of jiggered source code and then go on to demonstrate exactly how Diebold could use said jiggered code to count the votes any goddamned way they wanted.
Where is she now, you may ask? Prison. She was arrested for "revealing confidential business information". Arrested like Cindy Sheehan, who was frog-marched in handcuffs from the floor of the House of Representatives just before the State of the Union Address. What for? "Unlawful Conduct". For fuck's sake, she was wearing an anti-war tee-shirt! Not vocally protesting, not making a scene! Sheehan was wearing a tee-shirt. If that's not a violation of First Amendment rights, what is? Anyone? Hello? Was anyone watching C-Span?
The media watchdog has been neutered, ladies and gentlemen. None of the outrage made it into the news. The Sheehan story was plastered over with a veneer of calm. I heard no discussion about the violation of her rights in mainstream media. In fact, FOX and the Washington Post were practically cheering the DCPD for arresting Sheehan! What the fuck?! To add insult to injury, the Diebold story goes undiscussed-- and then anyone who challenges the results of the 2004 election or voices suspicion of electronic voting machines is instantly decried as a "radical leftist conspiracy theorist". Makes me want to goddamned VOMIT. And the Hastert has the GALL to accuse the opposition of "sour grapes", of "conspiracy theorism". Let me clue you in, Denny-boy: just because someone connects the dots and forms a THEORY doesn't mean it ain't HAPPENING.
So go back to the glow of your television sets, Working-Class America. Go back to watching steroid addicts beat each other senseless over a pigskin in that sanitized, farcical simulacrum of war we call "Superbowl XL". Watch your million-dollar commercials and chuckle as you stuff fistfuls of Doritos and Budwiser into your collective mouths. Let your T.V. numb you. Don't worry about the aching in your ass, that's just freedom.
Superbowl Blues More Login
Superbowl Blues
Slashdot Top Deals