U.K. Elections

Be sure to watch the video clip in the post below this one - it's great...

For a slightly more serious comparison, we have the elections in England. Eric Alterman points to this Times article.

"The social issues that have proved crucial to Mr. Bush's success in the United States have little resonance in this country. Unlike Mr. Bush, Mr. Howard has not been able to use abortion and gay marriage to transcend economic matters in appealing to voters, and he voted in Parliament in support of the war in Iraq, the issue on which Labor officials judge Mr. Blair most vulnerable.

As a result, Mr. Howard has been as apt in recent days to talk about increasing spending - at a World Poverty event on Sunday, he called for a £700 million ($1.3 billion) increase in British foreign aid - as he has been to cut government spending and taxes…. And when Mr. Howard appeared in the pulpit at the Tabernacle Christian Center on the outskirts of London on Sunday, he did not mention God or religion once in the course of a 20-minute speech, an omission that would have been unthinkable for Mr. Bush or John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential candidate….”

Socially speaking, England is heading in the opposite direction of the United States. The "liberal" party is in power, and it's the conservative Tory party this is struggling. The English conservatives are behaving much the same way as American liberals - which is to say that they are becoming more like their opposition. The Tories are bending to the social will of the English people, who are becoming more enlightened, and less "middle ages".

I really want to know what is going on in America right now. What caused this mass hysteria, and religious fundamentalism? How is it possible that American's are not rioting in the streets, demanding answers from our leaders? How is it that American's are okay with the constant hiding of information, lying, unjustified war, a President who will not be open, and the constant attacks on our secular society by religious freaks?

We need to do more. We need more demonstrations. We need more marches. We need to evangelize the evils of organized religion. We need to be the dominating voices in the discussion.

But alas - the religious right is working harder than we are to dumb down our children. They are working as hard as possible to destroy education, and discourage higher education.

And if you think about it, the fundamentalist Christians have taken over, and we're at war with Muslims. We live in a veritable theocracy now, becoming more theocratic every day. So, on the Muslim side, you have the Iranians, the Syrians, the Saudi Arabian's, etc. On the Christian side, you have the Americans. The insanity is the same for both sides.

Then you have countries like Canada and England - where people are not insane. No bat-shit, fucking crazy, assholes there. Most European countries are very liberal and very sane. Just look at Spain.

I don't want to give up on America. I still believe in the core principals of the United States.

The US is secular
The US treats ALL people the same
The US governs by the CONSENT of the governed

As it is now, the social climate of the United States sucks ass. It totally caters to stupid people. We see it constantly. Look at the media. Look at the news papers. Look at the values..

America is now about average - under achieving - religious freaks. It's about hatred and fear and paranoia. It's about the ugliness of mankind. It's about war and death. It's about cowardice (OXEN). It's about lying, and lying and lying. It's about corporate greed. It's about CEO's making millions and millions. It's about corporate accounting scandals. It's about attacking judges. It's about freaking out over 1 brain dead woman.

It is about the all mighty dollar.

Because that's what business is all about... and we all know that money is made by appealing to the broadest possible base, and right now in America - we value professional wrestling and NASCAR. The average and below average drags the rest of the country down as the broad corporate base appeals to them.

And I don't know how the trend can be reversed. I really don't. I mean, the English have certain pressures pushing intellect down. They have tabloids there and so on - but that has not become their value system. It has for America.

I would rather live in Toronto, or London. Unfortunately, I have to make money also. I keep hoping that America will come around, but I live in the center of craziness now. I live in the sea of hypocrisy. I live in the center of greed, and lies, and "do anything to get elected". And - I post on this blog when those hypocritical fuckers get caught - as they all surely will at some point.

I live across the street from blonde Susie Homemaker. She drives a Lexus SUV. Her husband makes 90K a year. She goes to church every Sunday with her family. She has sex once a month, and she never has an orgasm. She has 3 kids – she’s on Lithium and she's suicidal. She drinks a quart of Vodka a day. She thinks she’s fat, so she starves herself. She demands fake breasts and plastic surgery, but ends up looking like a botoxed rodeo clown.

It is American Beauty 200 feet across the street from me – and I see the kids peddling their bikes around the suburb and I wonder what hatred their over worked and stressed out dad piles on them every night at dinner.

The neighborhood is not the one that I grew up in. It’s not the one where every house is open, and people just walk in and out at all hours of the day. It’s not the one where home-cooked food is served every day, and you never know how many people will suddenly show up. It’s not the one where silly childhood games are played all over the neighborhood. There are no tree houses. There are no little league games at the park across the street. There is no real community. There are only people who look at each other and pretend, or maybe have Joe over for a beer to watch the game on Sunday.

Bob wonders would it would be like to screw Susie Homemaker, and Joe wonders would it would be like to screw Bob. But – they all pretend to be good Christians, because in this neighborhood, what counts is the way things look. It’s about what car you have parked in the garage, and how big Susie’s tits are.

Meanwhile, in Littleton Colorado, two boys go on a shooting rampage in their high school and people wonder why.

What they are selling is a complete lie of suburbia. Nobody has the perfect wife, or perfect husband, or perfect kids. Nobody is monogamous - and if you think so, you're kidding yourself. Nobody actually believes all that bullshit about "protecting kids". Nobody seriously believes that cheerleaders are causing kids to become sluts and get AIDS, but by God that will help me get elected again.

They sell all of that shit, and the media keeps pushing it... and there's just enough stupid people in America who buy it... and because of political correctness, we're not allowed to say they are stupid. Except I can, and I will. I will tell you that you’re completely retarded, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. You can learn to reason truth on your own instead of being told what to believe.

I really don’t know the people in my neighborhood. I never met Susie Homemaker. I don’t want to meet her. I can smell her desperation all the way across the street, and I don’t want to be part of that madness.

I hear it gets really cold in Toronto. I don’t like the cold…