Ramblings on politics, film, music, literature, current events, pop culture, lists, dirty words, trapezoids, birds, cartoons and any other damned thing that strikes my synapses. A 39ish-year-old freelance journalist and writer living with his wife and baby daughter in the hardscrabble environs of Oklahoma, Chase McInerney now spends much of his time frozen in stark, cold sweat-inducing, gut-percolating fear. For it will be soon .
.. yes, very, very soon.
This Just In! That If-the-Glove-Doesn't-Fit-You-Must-Acquit Guy Is Dead!
He was 67.
As you know, Cochran's greatest professional acclaim came when he won an acquittal for wife killer O.J.
Simpson -- er, I guess that should be ex-wife killer -- but would you really want this headline to be your earthly legacy?: " .' "
As far as calling cards for the Pearly Gates go, it might leave a lot to be desired.
Even so, Cochran will still have less to answer for than, say, all those bastards who actually answer their cell phones with a normal tone of voice in movie theaters ...
Stop the Presses! This Washington Post's March 24 headline for a story profiling Jeff Weise, the teen who went on a murderous rampage in Red Lake, Minn., really gets to the heart of the tragedy: " ."
Hmm. Deeply disturbed?
You don't say.
Does the phrase "No shit, " come to mind?
.
A questions how many Americans truly want the increase of choices that would arise from the Bush Administration's personal accounts for Social Security:"Other analysts point to new research that shows too much choice can result in paralysis, bad choices or what psychologist Barry Schwartz calls 'vague angst.'
" 'It's never occurred to anyone that choice could be a bad thing,' says Schwartz, a professor at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and author of the 2004 book The Paradox of Choice.
"He cites a 2003 Vanguard study that found a negative correlation between participation in 401(k) retirement savings accounts and the number of investment options available. For every 10 funds added, participation dropped 1.5% to 2%.
"
Well, if this Schwartz character is sooo smart, how did he not know that more choices can be a bad thing? Obviously, the guy never really listened carefully to those flowerpot-wearing prophets of the Eighties ..
.
.
As the Bush White House might do well to remember the words of Devo:
Freedom of choice is what you got.
Freedom from choice is what you want.
Oh, yes, grasshopper ..
. we can learn much from gleaning the truth-telling of the fill-ins of the checkered Vans and skinny-tie generation.
When a problem comes along, you must whip it.
Before the cream sits out too long, you must whip it.
(Foretold the invasion of Iraq)
Look at you with your mouth watering.
Look at your with your mind spinning.
(Foretold the White House internship program during the Clinton Administration)
Monkey men all in business suit,
Teachers and critics all dance the poot.
(Foretold the theory of "intelligent design")
..)
Regardless of how you feel about the Terri Schiavo saga, there are some folks you just don't need in your corner. And it's more than a bit disturbing to see that Terry Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have enlisted the help of two luminaries of the American lunatic fringe: Operation Rescue co-founder and militia crazy
On Saturday, March 19, the first day that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed (the U.S. Senate has since hammered out a compromise to make a federal court the final authority on the case), police busted Gritz and several other protesters for trying to symbolically smuggle bread and water into the hospice of the brain-damaged woman.
A former Special Forces commando, Gritz has been at the forefront of the protests calling for Terri Schiavo to remain on a feeding tube. It is only the latest chapter in Gritz's decidedly unconventional career. In 1992, he briefly ran for vice president on the racist and anti-Semitic Populist Party ticket, playing second fiddle to the top of that ticket, former KKK leader David Duke.
Yes, Bo knows wacko. He has been active in the anti-government militia movement, and proved central in turning the 1992 federal seige on Randy Weaver (in Ruby Ridge, Idaho) into a major rallying cry for militia groups. At the time, Gritz called for the arrests of everyone involved, from then-FBI chief William Sessions to Idaho governor Cecil Andrus.
Since that time, Gritz has dedicated himself to hawking survivalist training, warning fellow conspiracy mongers about a Zionist plot for worldwide domination and championing the extreme fringe group called Christian Identity, which views the world through the prism of racism and anti-Semitism.
"Do you see the sign, scent, stain and mark of the beast on America today?" Gritz asked back in the early 1990s.
"The enemy you face today is a satanic overthrow where he would change the United States of America, a nation under God, into USA, Incorporated, with King George [the first President Bush] as chairman of the board, and a Zionist group that would rule over us as long as Satan might be upon this earth. That is your enemy."
But Bo Gritz isn't even the most high-profile of the Schindlers' defenders.
The couple's spokesman is none other than Randall Terry, who helped establish Operation Rescue (until mounting debts just got to be too much of a headache), where he advanced the anti-abortion fight by conducting commando-style raids on women's medical centers around the country.
This is a guy you want articulating your cause? Randall Terry who has unabashedly vowed to help transform the U.
S. into a Christian theocracy? Randall Terry who is on the record supporting the death penalty for homosexuals (despite of, or perhaps because, his own son is gay)?
Randall Terry who was jailed for trying to present a fetus to President Clinton?
Yep, the same Randall Terry who once warned doctors who perform abortions, "When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you and we will execute you. I mean every word of it.
I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed. If we're going to have true reformation in America, it is because men once again, if I may use a worn out expression, have righteous testoserone flowing through their veins."
We are wary of how Terri Schiavo's parents are really helped by a man who noted during a speech in 1993, "Let a wave of intolerance wash over you.
I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good."
If you are judged by the company you keep, the side battling for Terri Schiavo's feeding tube are not doing themselves any favors.
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