White Queen Takes Black Knight

This is Clyde's latest essay:



Please note:

I am not Clyde Lewis. This essay is posted here with his permission for wider availability. If you post a comment here, he will not receive it. Comments can be sent to him at clyde@groundzeromedia.org.

School days, school days...

Yes, the nation's children are returning to school, and with school comes....gun panic!

Student suspended for sketching gun

He drew a picture of a gun on an assignment before he turned it in. Verdict: "implied threat".

Usually these stories proliferate after a school shooting; the last crop was after Virginia Tech a few months ago. This is a bit off-season, isn't it?

I drew guns. And I'm a girl.

Visit this FARK thread to find out just how many bloodthirsty children there were, and are, in our schools. Most of us don't have Seung-Hui Cho's initiative mental illness, and penalizing everyone for drawings will not screen out the Klebolds. They'll just get more circumspect.

For some thought, we'll revisit "School House Sing-a-long".

Ground Zero articles of interest:

Hey, fringe -- lay off the panic button

This article has spread across the fringe-o-sphere like the "brushfire" of its metaphoric headline:

Stock Market Brushfire; Will there be a run on the banks?

NO, dammit. Not right now. It's too early.

Not unless you keep cranking that siren. Are you TRYING to cause a run on the banks, with your panic scenarios?

Yes. You are.

You'd love it if the stock market crashed and all your dire predictions came true. You and your guns and your gold could crouch in the tall grass around your fortified homes and shiver with grim satisfaction.

But that's just me, I guess.

Look, sometimes I dwell in that world, too. Anyone who reads this blog -- all two of you -- know that. Some of the philosophy makes a lot of sense. Your scenario is one of the ones that may come true. But the world may go in a different direction than the one you predict. Have you taken steps to adapt to more than one? Or does it just have to be yours?

Do you want it so bad you've got to make it true? Is "I told you so" that important? You people try so hard to make Ed and Elaine Brown, two incredibly insignificant people on whom, till now, I've been striving not to waste words, into a libertarian cause celebre, and your new Waco keeps NOT HAPPENING, doesn't it? I'm expecting one of you to start plinking at the police cars after a while just to relieve your tension by starting the festivities.

Yeah, I know, the mainstream media participated in the panic campaign too. Seems to me that's the exact reason why you SHOULDN'T have.

I'm tired of hearing about how Ron Paul is the only one who can save America. He can't save America because he is NOT going to be president. You are wasting your time and money. Whether he should be president, or would make a good president, is beside the point. It's not going to happen. Yeah, yeah, people like me are part of the problem, aren't we? Naysayers. All my fault. Mm-hmm.

I used to be impressed by Ron Paul. That ended the day he announced his candidacy for president. Anyone who craves that job is not someone who should have that job.

Presidents, up till the current one, didn't have as much power as people thought. Now Bush has changed that with his abuse of executive privilege and his anointing of himself as dictator in the event of a national emergency. And that's the position the next president will inherit. Are they going to reverse these decisions, take power away from themselves? Hell, no. People who crave power are incapable of giving it up once they have it.

In 2008, I am voting for None Of The Above.

Last Monday at Ground Zero Lounge (see video below), someone demanded of Clyde Lewis that he declare his support for a candidate. He wouldn't accept hearing what Clyde wanted in a candidate; he wanted a NAME. And when he didn't get it, he accused Clyde of evading the question. How can you answer a question that has no answer, except with a lie?

I don't know about Clyde, but no one is making me vote for someone on the list just because the list is there. I don't want to hear any more crap about how everyone who voted for Nader or for anyone else but Gore or Kerry, actually voted for Bush. It's people like that who perpetuate the two-party system. The system that even Ron Paul is now feeding into. Perhaps -- in an alternate but similar universe in which I still supported presidential candidates -- I might have supported Ron Paul as an independent. But when he declared a Republican candidacy, he killed any faith I might have had in him.

Write someone in, you say. You have to vote for SOMEONE. No, I don't have to vote for anyone. I don't have to vote at all. Clyde and his friend on the video can say cute-ass things like "I'm writing in Satan", but I don't play that game. I don't have to buy into the farce that voting has become. I vote on issues. I vote on representatives, even though I no longer believe they represent me. In fact, I'm thinking of forgoing voting for any PERSON at all, for any office.

Yeah, I'm part of the problem, right? No, I'm part of YOUR problem. I'm someone who thinks for myself, instead of throwing in with a bunch of people who claim to think for themselves and then vote for a man who has sold out like the rest of them, and gloat about it among their clique. Wasn't that what Libertarians were supposed to be against?

This started out being about the stock market, didn't it? How I do digress.

Ground Zero articles of interest:



If this video doesn't work for you, try this link, or go to video.google.com and search 8-13-07 clyde lewis.

More on (spelt "moron") regulating talk radio

Jimmy: Hey, Hil and Barb said they wanted oversight for talk radio! I'm telling!

Hil and Barb: Did not!

Jimmy: Did too!

Sean: Teacher! Hil and Barb told Jimmy they were gonna beat me up!

Al: Teacher, they're ALL lying!

Jimmy: I am NOT! Waaaahhh!

Diversity, my ass

REPORT: The Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It

whiiiinnne......

Two common myths are frequently offered to explain the imbalance of talk radio: 1) the 1987 repeal of the Fairness Doctrine (which required broadcasters to devote airtime to contrasting views), and 2) simple consumer demand. Each of these fails to adequately explain the root cause of the problem.

Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system, particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimination of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules including the requirement of local participation in management. […]

Ultimately, these results suggest that increasing ownership diversity, both in terms of the race/ethnicity and gender of owners, as well as the number of independent local owners, will lead to more diverse programming, more choices for listeners, and more owners who are responsive to their local communities and serve the public interest.

Full report from Center for American Progress

Basically, what the report proposes is that the government enforce "diversity", as though they didn't interfere enough in radio broadcasting. When will some of these people figure out (never) that you can't legislate away your problems?

You know how to get more liberals/progressives/whatever on the radio?

Find people with TALENT.

Air America's lineup consists of talk hosts who drone about the injustices of the Republican government and how everything would work out if more people would just vote Democrat. And that is all. That's all they talk about. They all sound like each other. They all have the same guests. And a lot of them weren't in radio at all until Air America was formed, and they aren't very good at it.

I enjoy listening to conservative talk radio far more than I do its liberal counterpart. These hosts express views I disagree with by presenting a wide variety of subjects, taking calls with opposing views in addition to concurring ones, and exposing their own idiocy in ways that are vastly amusing.

What's the fun in listening to someone who agrees with you all the time?

Not that conservative listeners don't behave the same way, of course. The Portland, Oregon-based Lars Larson show features a local windbag who expounds upon the reprehensible actions of the city and state governments as well as national issues. It's so funny to hear people call up and say "Right on, Lars!" They sound similar to Rush Limbaugh's "dittoheads". I know a guy who loves that show. I asked him why, and he said, "Because it keeps me up on what the government is doing to me." All I have to say is, if you need constant updates about how you're being screwed, whatever they're doing to you isn't affecting your life enough for you to notice it yourself, so why make yourself upset?

Because you like listening to people who agree with you all the time.

Michael Savage, on the other hand, hates Bush and liberals, and he's completely batshit. He sings songs. He stops and tells you what he made for dinner. Then he talks about people he saw the other day who "looked like illegal immigrants", exposing his racism and ignorance. Finally, he delivers an intelligent rant, and then spoils it all by saying something completely stupid at the end. THe content is constantly changing.

He's FUN.

Diversity.

Know your enemy! Spy on the opposing camp! Open your mind, for gods' sake! Be stimulated! Get off your goddamned cell phone, on which you're talking to people who also agree with you, and listen to both liberals and conservatives. Sample the zeitgeist of the whole country. Become truly informed.


And let me digress upon the term "progressive". Liberals are now "progressives", suggesting, I suppose, that conservatives are "regressive" or "static" or something.

When someone says they're a "progressive", it puts me in mind of a story that writer Neil Gaiman tells:

And he said, "What do you do?" I said, "I write comics." See, it was just like I’d said, "Oh, I am a part-time murderer" or some profession you don’t want to get involved with. [...] "What kind of comics do you write then?" "Well I write Sandman. I just did something called Signal to Noise…" "Hang on, hang on. Are you Neil Gaiman?" And I said yes. He said, "My dear fellow, you don’t write comics. You write graphic novels!" And I felt like a hooker who’s just been told she was the lady of the evening.

In other words: you're not fooling anyone, you know.

Gun control taken to its logical and just conclusion

Have to give the kid props for making the best of it.

Tiny
plastic army men attempt to shoot up school, are apprehended and disarmed

On Thursday, before the ceremony, one boy was told he couldn't participate unless he agreed to clip off the tips of the plastic guns carried by the minuscule GIs on his cap. Ten others complied with the order before the event.

I trust I don't have to tell you how ridiculous this is. Besides, as one person on FARK pointed out, sawed-off shotguns work just fine.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

How about mauve?

Both parties plan green conventions

The interest in greening political conventions, from buying confetti made from recycled paper to purchasing carbon offsets to reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, shows the increasing relevance to both parties of appealing to voters mindful of global warming.

Oh, give me a BREAK. If you want to reduce hot air emissions, cancel the goddamned conventions altogether.

(Yes, I know, that joke is trite. C'est la mort.)

Stick with the red, white and blue, guys.

Purchase carbon offsets? Bwahahaha! The emissions are happening NOW. Offsets take years to have any impact.

The point here, always assuming global warming is indeed what is happening, is:

IT'S TOO LATE!

It's too late to stop global warming!

The effects of pollution have escalated past the point of no return. The polar caps are breaking up, people! It's over! What is this we've-got-five-years crap? Five years is NOTHING in the context of the life of the earth. The earth takes millions of years just to reach over and scratch its ass. It's about to. And the dead skin that flakes off will be YOU.

I suppose we might be able to maintain a holding pattern, if everyone cooperates really hard for the rest of eternity, which everyone won't.

Any of you who let this pathetic pandering to the politically correct affect your choice of candidates deserve exactly what you get.

Ground Zero articles of interest:

Way to non-sequitur

Senate Leaders Agree to Revive Immigration Bill

(Note: Anyone who doesn't feel like registering at NY Times Online to view this link can go to bugmenot.com and get a login and password. Tell your friends about this fine service to humanity.)

Comments by Republican senators on Thursday suggested that they were feeling the heat from conservative critics of the bill, who object to provisions offering legal status. The Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who supports the bill, said: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.”

No, Senator, you have to deal with that problem. For the most part, your colleagues get on just fine with the yap gang.

Just sayin'.