Godwin's Law

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Ahh, Rick Santorum, always the voice of reason, when he's not fantasizing about man-on-dog sex, that is:

"What the Democrats are doing is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 saying, 'I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine.' This is no more the rule of the senate than it was the rule of the senate before not to filibuster."

-- Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoted on the Senate floor

So, according to Usenet tradition, the discussion is over, and Rick has automatically lost.

Many people have extended Godwin's law to imply that the invoking of the Nazis as a debating tactic (in any argument not directly related to World War II or the Holocaust) automatically loses the argument, simply because the nature of these events is such that any comparison to any event less serious than genocide, ethnic cleansing or extinction is invalid and in poor taste.

What's even better is that Santorum lambasted former KKK member (that one is for you, Mark), and senior West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd for the same tactic on March 1.

As long as we're tinkering with the Senate rules, howabout we rein in the wackos in both parties? I call for the adoption of Godwin's law in the Senate, and if you don't agree with me, you're obviously a Nazi.

[via Scripting News]

Not One Damn Dime

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For those who don’t know, tomorrow is Not One Damn Dime Day, when even the laziest of us can be political activists by simply not buying anything.  This should be easy for my mom, she practices this about four times a week. smiley

Since our leaders don't have the moral courage to speak out against the war in Iraq, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money, and don't use your credit card. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart, KMart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come home.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.

For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Please share this as an email with as many people as possible, and please express your opinion at www.NotOneDamnDime.com .

This is America?

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Welcome to the new America! State the fact that your mom is gay in Louisiana, and you earn a trip to the principal's office where you have to sign a contract promising not to use the word gay again.

Oh, and if you're a university in Alabama, a law has been proposed that would make it illegal for you to have books in your library with gay protagonists, or to perform plays with gay characters. Oh, and any scientific evidence of a genetic component to homosexuality better not be in your textbooks either.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, the state wants to re-negotiate contracts with its workers to take away same-sex partner benefits in the wake of that anti-gay marriage vote a few weeks ago. Wait a minute, I thought we were all told that was only about protecting marriage, not taking away existing protections.

While the three stories above make me want to throw up, at least the United Church of Christ is standing up for what's right, and making clear that they welcome everyone into their church. It's too bad that NBC and CBS won't run the ad though, because letting minorities or gays into your church is "too controversial".

[via Andrew Sullivan]

Whose party is it?

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I watched this Sunday's Meet The Press, where Rev. Jerry Falwell said the following:

MR. RUSSERT:  On "Desperate Housewives," Newsweek says that the creator of "Desperate Housewives" is a conservative, gay Republican.

REV. SHARPTON:  That's what I was going to say.  Do you find that...

DR. FALWELL:  Well, the fact that he's a gay Republican means he should join the Democratic Party.

So, does this mean that Falwell thinks that Ken Mehlman, newly appointed head of the Republican National Committee, should leave the party as well? He's apparently gay. Or is that okay, because he's willing to hide his sexual orientation while heading a party that denounces his fellow homosexuals? Which is it Jerry?

When Howard Dean talked about wanting to include "guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks" in the Democratic party he took a lot of heat. I don't hear any prominent Republicans denouncing what Falwell just said about homosexual members of his party. The silence is deafening.

Moving on

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God I hate it when I'm right. It did come down to Ohio, we haven't even figured out who won the Hawkeye State yet, but it didn't really matter. I guess I could have voted for Nader after all... What I'm most depressed by is the passage of all 11 of the anti-gay marriage ammendments. The idea that 11 states of the country of my birth would ammend their Constitutions with this type of bigotry in the year 2004 makes me ill. Does anyone really think that 40 or 50 years from now, we won't be looking back on this era with the same type of disgust and incredulity with which we now view Jim Crow laws? The trend of history is pretty clear on these matters, human rights eventually prevail, and those that stood in the way forever have their good names tarnished by the bigotry and hate they spouted in return for some cheap political capital.

That said, if anyone in a nice rational country (where they don't decide the election based on the "word" of an Invisible Man Who Lives In The Sky) needs to hire a techie, I'm all ears.