I’ve turned the corner on Hate Crimes. It’s one thing to attack someone, neutralize him or her simply to get something from them. When you savagely beat someone for pleasure because you hate who they are, that is another. You don’t care how much money is in their wallet. You have no desire to take anything from them. You simply just want to make them hurt. I think that *IS* a special type of crime. I think it is pathetic that it took an event affecting someone I knew to realize this. I am ashamed. Soldiers die in the name of freedom to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
homophobia
Either Jan Brewer is a Political Genius or the Public and the Media are just Fools
Fool me once, shame on you . . . fool me twice . . . well . . . I knew this was coming. So the same strategy that Arizona Governor Brewer employed during the last mid-year cycle is holding up just as well the second time around. It’s an ingenious strategy when you think about it at first. Then when you realize the public has such a short memory and the media is completely driven by actions in the now, nobody does their research. Even if we are talking about events in the last few years.
Rewind to 2011: Remember when the obsession with Obama’s birth certificate was reaching high visibility? How do you propel yourself to the top of the daily news cycle over and over again? Have your far-right cronies play the bad cop so you can come in at the last minute and play good cop – or rather – the voice of reason. You can be the epitome of the “cooler heads will prevail” mentality.
Back then, the very social conservatives in the Arizona state legislature – fueled by the upcoming presidential election and the obsession with Obama (also helped by long term Arizona character Joe Arpaio) passed legislation that would have required presidential candidates to provide documentation showing that they were born in the United States in order to be allowed on the state’s presidential ballot. The process was dragged out in the legislature and the duration between passage and her final action was also dragged out for dramatic effect. When she finally made the decision, she came across as the moderate rational hero. The good cop. The voice of reason. The bill, she said in a letter about her veto, was a “distraction” and “a bridge too far” that would have created “significant new problems while failing to do anything constructive for Arizona.”
Fast forward to 2014. Here we go again. The Obama obsession has been played out. What’s another socially conservative firestorm that can energize the base yet allow her to look like a moderate leader? Let’s capitalize on the hatred of homosexuals. She was smart enough to have her staff be sure to purge all references to this from her Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Brewer) since she knew this would be the extent of any historical research on her (especially since going deep into a search engine required too much diligence. But a simple query of the phrases “Jan Brewer” and “bridge too far” would have brought it all back.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53710.html
For the past two weeks, Jan Brewer has been in the news. I have no doubt this was orchestrated where the idea was created with the end in mind. Beautiful politics exploiting both sides of the political spectrum. Another reason why I don’t participate in the game. Some say Jan Brewer is old and winding down. I think she is looking for higher office. The question is, how long will she continue to reuse this strategy?
On Ender’s Game – the Movie vs. Politics.
I thought this was a great movie. I have not read the books but I can tell that the adaptation summed up much of the exposition well. The story is set over 100 years into the future and I can understand why the author waited so many years for a film adaptation. He wanted to wait until technology was believable. Let me say this, forget the XboxOne and PS4 – I want to play THOSE games using THOSE Game controls! The movie did not do as well as it should because there was too much controversy attached to the religious views and politics of the author. Since I don’t research the personal politics of every person involved with everything I see, view, or hear (I have a life) I did not fall prey to the desired boycott. For those who may not know, there are no religious or anti-gay messages in this movie. Unlike CS Lewis and the Narnia series – none of the author’s religious influences were played out in the story. I find the notion of giving this movie a review or boycotting it (in some cases – trying to squash the making of it) simply because you don’t like the religion of the book’s author terribly disturbing and un-American. I say this as an Atheist who completely disagrees with Card’s personal viewpoints. Regardless of his viewpoints, it is a great story. Just like Wagner wrote great music and Mel Gibson made good movies – are we supposed to pretend these great works of art do not exist? That is akin to the Taliban blowing up the stone Buddha’s simply because it is different from their religion.
Many of my friend’s are in moral quandaries over this. Some only find it objectionable because he’s vocal and they’re probably blissfully ignorant of other opinions that I disagree with from other folks that I still patronize…. but many of them are holding firm for years on Chick-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, and Wal-Mart.
How far do we take this? Do we no longer support all of the actors and workers who participated in this movie? Do we boycott Harrison Ford and the new Star Wars films because he took a paycheck and appeared in the film. What if we found out the voting record of every person who wrote and directed movies. We would only see movies made by people who politically agreed with us?
Nerdodamus 