Saturday, August 26, 2006
Hitler vs. Coulter
Exercise: None....the weather was total shit today.
The similarities are striking:
1. Both Hitler and Coulter follow similar themes in their writings; a mistrust of the 'liberal' press, fierce nationalism, accusations of treason placed on those in disagreement, describing third world citizens as savages, and condemnation of pacifists, liberals, elitists, and democratic politicians. Both of them use extremely nasty tones and show a complete unwillingness to look at both sides. Furthermore, if you look at the historical facts it's easy to see how unbalanced these two are but their talent of propagandizing is obvious.
2. Coulter refers to liberals much the same way Hitler referred to Jews. She believes them to be a scheming group who conspires against the nation and its national values.
3. Hitler believed in paying attention to only those historical facts and events that fit into his own world view and throwing out the rest as though it never happened rather than having an open mind; letting history shape your vision of the world. This is a good detector of an extremist and let me just say Ann Coulter follows it to a tee.
4. Both Coulter and Hitler have predefined enemies. Hitler portrayed Jews as being anti-German with complete control of the press whose anti-German view points were slowly corrupting the unaware intellectuals. Coulter likes to pin similar accusations on liberals. She believe liberals have degraded morals in our nation's culture, conspired with US enemies, and that they ally with Communists to overthrow the current free economic system in America. Now THAT's paranoia for you.
Pretty much the only reason she can get away with her bullshit is because unlike Hitler, she doesn't directly attack any one ethnic group but instead a political party that has long been known to hold interests for many minority ethnic groups. She's also been known to avoid directly criticizing Muslims but will label anyone who defends them as a traitor. Obviously she thinks she's got a clever cover up for her bigotry but anyone with half a brain can see right through her.
5. Hitler & Coulter tend to bask in the failures of the power of the spoken word when it comes to promoting the opposing viewpoints. Hitler described it by saying that intellectuals lacked the power to get the point across through talk so they focused on writing and by doing so it lost them the psychological instinct for mass effect and influence. Coulter focuses on the lack of success of some of the talk radio liberals and draws the conclusion that liberals are out of touch with the common man so their views are wrong. To her, intellectualism is naive and useless.
It amazes me the way some people eat her drivel up (not that it should really given what Hitler was able to do) but to each is own.
In other political news.....
Wow! That Katherine Harris woman is really finding herself in a predicament. Sounds to me like she's been sniffing the old "Dubya Glue". According to her, separating religion and politics is "wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers." Yah, just like God chose Dubya to be our president. Hmmm and here I thought it was a process of election by the people of the country. Of course in Dubya's case, it was more like an "appointment". Oh and it gets better...She thinks that electing non-Christians is a legislative sin. She said, "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin." LMFAO If that isn't a hypocrite in action, I don't know what is seeing as I have yet to come across a "sinless" politician. Oddly enough, it seems the "harder" they push God, the more corrupt they are - go figure. *RE* Good God where in the hell do they find these people?! YIKES!
Next up we have Dubya's lovely little press conference a week ago where he said, "Now look, part of the reason we went into Iraq was - the main reason we went into Iraq, at the time, was we thought he [Saddam] had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn't, but he had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction." Excuse me - what was that? Did Dubya himself finally admit there weren't any weapons there? Yes, yes, I do believe he did. *RE* I got a kick out of the way he started that statement with "part of the reason" then quickly changed it to "the main reason". Gee Georgey trying to cover something else up that we already know? LOL I admit, I'm a cynic but I have to say that I have yet to be wrong about someone who I've had an odd feeling about as I do him.
Last on the politics docket, I wanted to make mention of the Harkin steak fry taking place in my hometown next month. I will be attending with my parents and sister and again this year. I really enjoyed the one I went to last year and I'm looking forward to the one this year. Barack Obama is supposed to be there. I've heard some really great things about him so I can't wait to hear him speak.
And now for something completely different....
Yesterday was my eldest nephew's 22 birthday. I can't believe he's that old. I should be the one turning 22, not him! LOL The little twurp really made out too. Money is what he wanted and money is what he got to the tune of $165.
I know there is something else I wanted to write about here but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was. Since it's getting late, I'll just leave it here. Oh yah...if there are any grammatical/spelling mistakes in this post, bite me and deal - I'm too tired to check. :P
Til next time...
Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
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Monday, August 14, 2006
Who are you?
Exercise: 30 push ups, 50 leg lifts, 120 crunches. Better than nothing but not that fantastic. I just didn't have time. Seem to be pinched for that more and more these days.
Well I am officially the owner of two tickets to The Who. My dear mommy is going with me and buying the tickets as a birthday present for me. Yah I know, I have a cool mom who likes to rock once in awhile. LOL Over the years she has gone with me to Huey Lewis & The News, Bon Jovi, Genesis, Paul McCartney, and now The Who. Actually, back in the early 90s, she drove my friend and I to Cedar Rapids to see Def Leppard. She opted to go to the parents' room instead of attending the concert with us. When it was over, she told me and my friend that the place where she stayed was a total bore and after peaking in during the last few minutes of the show, she wished she had come with us. LOL She may be 70 years old but she's still game for a good rock concert.
This past Saturday morning was spent at the State Fair. I can't say that I saw anything that was overly "wowing" but it was a good time. I did happen to see a DJ that I used to talk to all the time about 15 years ago and pretty much lost touch with 10 years ago. I didn't get to talk to him and wish I would have because I think it would have been funnier than hell to see his reaction when I told him who I was. I did, however, manage to get my traditional salt water taffy (ooh how I love that stuff) and my dad and I got our lotto tickets. This year we decided to trade since we typically only seem to pick winning tickets when we give them to each other. No such luck this year. All of them were losers except one and the prize on it was only $1. I told my dad it was because we bought them too early (9am right when the Varied Industries building opened) and had we waited, we could have let the other "cattle wandering the barn" buy up the crap tickets before we came in and snagged up the winners. Ah well, it was all in good fun and it's not like we play because we actually think we are going to win big.
And now for something completely different.....
I see once again Dubya has gotten a chance to play with his little Homeland Security Advisory blocks. I gotta admit that I find it odd how it seems like the farther Bush slips in the ratings and the more people who become disgusted with the current administration, the bigger the foiled terrorist plots become. Chi said the other day that he has to wonder if these latest scares are something which were never intended to actually be carried out but instead devised to keep our intelligence occupied so that something even more massive could be planned and executed. He does have a point. Of course I think the longer we stay where we aren't wanted, the more likely future terrorist attacks will be due to making even more enemies than we had to begin with. Violence breeds violence and we've managed to step in deep.
Saturday evening I stayed up late to watch a Q&A with Ann Coulter and The Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute. Now I knew this woman was off to begin based on things I had read about her but after listening to her speak all I can say is OMG! Never in my life have I sat and listened to someone and felt like I wanted to be physically ill. I was aware of the horrible kinds of things she has said but holy shit what an ignorant, bigoted, insecure woman (this being obvious by the way she laughs are her own jokes which aren't funny in the least). What was even more scary was that the young women who were sitting there listening to her actually agreed. I'm sorry but it's people like her who breed nothing but hatred by treating and talking about those who don't have the same view point as though they have a communicable disease. YIKES!
Otay, that's it for me today. Time to get to bed so I can be up no later than 5 and work my day away. UGH! I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. YAY!
Til next time...
Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
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Monday, August 07, 2006
No witty title today
Exercise: 2 mile run, 100 push ups, 100 leg lifts, 400 crunches.
This past week was the National Balloon Classic in my hometown. The best part about it is that my parents live just across the highway from the balloon field so it's easy to watch without having to fight the crowds. The downside is that the weather wasn't very cooperative this time around. Saturday I got up really early to get there by 7:15 in order to watch the flight and have breakfast with my parents, oldest nephew, and the people my mom used to nanny for (she retired this past May). Unfortunately, the balloons didn't take flight because it rained buckets (I heard on the news later in the day that there was an inch worth of water dumped on the town). I waited around until the evening in hopes I might be able to see them fly then but again things didn't pan out due to weather. My nephew who was on a crew again this year went over to the field just before 5:30. He was back by 10 past 6 and said the pilots were on a weather hold and wouldn't be starting their meeting until 6:30. He went back over to the field and came back just after 7 saying the wind was too strong but the night glow and fireworks may still be on. He then left to go back over there again to give the pilot he crewed for (same guy as last year) a couple of pictures he took. By about 8 or so he had returned and said the night glow wasn't going to happen either but the fireworks were still on schedule. I was a bit bummed because I was hoping to get some pictures but I had at least been able to see one flight the weekend before when I had gone visiting.
My parents had invited both my sister and I over to dinner on the day I did get to see the balloons fly. As usual, my sister was late so she had missed most of the balloons, however, she did get there in time to see some of the "specialty" balloons (meaning the ones in unusual shapes). She came in and was talking about the Jesus balloon. My mom said, "What???". My sister explained that there was a balloon that was like a bust of Jesus sitting on a cloud and that it had just launched from the field. My mom was looking out all of the windows and couldn't see it so she thought maybe my sister was pulling her leg. I told my mom, "You can see it, you just gotta BELIEVE." total tongue in cheek of course. As it turns out, the reason none of us in the house could see it at first was because it was hidden by the trees. Later on when it got farther up in the air and over a little farther to the East, we could see it. With everything that has been going on in the world lately, all of us thought that it was just kind of creepy.
And now for something completely different....
Over the past couple of weeks I got to see a couple of pretty good films. The first one was Super Size Me. Now I always knew that McDonalds is some of the most lethal crap someone could put in their body but I didn't realize just how much damage it could do in thirty days time if you were to eat it everyday. The guy who did the experiment was healthy as a horse when he started out. By the end, he was headed down a road to a very sick place. He ended up putting on something like 20 - 25lbs, his cholesterol skyrocketed, he felt ill and exhausted all the time, he experienced depression except for when he was actually eating the food, he found himself having cravings for the stuff when he wasn't eating it, and a lot of his other tests had been thrown all out of wack. It seemed that even the doctors he had been working with were surprised at the results. The amount of fat and sugar he consumed was absolutely horrendous! I don't eat at these places very often (maybe once a year which is about all a nutritionist would suggest) just because I don't like the food that much but this is just another good reason to stay away from them.
The second film I got to see is The Devil Wears Prada. I really liked this one and Adrian Grenier is just sooo cute. It's not exactly what I thought it might be but it was really good. I now know one of the reasons I chose to steer clear of the fashion industry. Not that I think everyone in that line of work behaves like the characters in the movie, but I wouldn't doubt that at least some do just based on experiences I have had.
In addition to these films, I watched the Suze Orman show the other night. Even though she can be a little obnoxious, I gotta say I really like her and think she gives some of the better financial advice going. What's funny is just about everything she says is what I have been doing since day one even though I hadn't actually listened to her. Based on the financial state Chi and I are in, what she says works. I admit though I find it disturbing just how many people out there are making the kind of money mistakes they are and finding themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. I mean I knew the average credit card debt per household was something like $8000 but the stories of some of the people calling into this show make that amount of debt look like a walk in the park. I'm just thankful Chi and I haven't gone down that road. We don't charge more to our credit cards than we can pay every month and the only real debt we have is our two cars and house. Of course when it comes right down to it, the house is an asset so that debt doesn't really count and unless something horrible comes up, the debt on our cars should be gone within the next couple of years before the loans actually come to term. YAY!
I heard today that The Who will be playing Wells Fargo on the 26th of September. I think I may just have to go to that one. Can't say I will be forking over the $178+ for the best seats but I'm willing to part with $48+ to at least get to see them. It should be a nice 1 week belated birthday for me. :)
Otay - think that about does it for me for now.
Til next time.....
Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
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