If you don’t like the weather, leave.

You know, literally every time I go to www.feministing.com I can find something that apalls me enough to write a rant here.  If there ever was a muse, this was it.  Even Tim Weaver’s perverted notion of civics pales in comparison to the nonsense these girls post on their little website.

Fat ugly Miriam put up a guest post by some Venezeulan who immigrated to this country.  Here are some choice quotes:

For most young people who want to go to college but have neither legal permanent residency nor the money to cover tuition, help is out of reach – an injustice that young immigrant activists have been working to end for years by demanding the passage of the DREAM Act.

Nothing is more unjust than a nation of taxpayers who refuse to send citizens of other countries to their universities on their dime.

When I started looking into it, the price of applying for citizenship had just gone up, to nearly $700. Though I was about to graduate with a Master’s degree and had a well-paying job lined up, that is no small chunk of cash.

Actually, unless you’re still living in the early 1990′s, $700 is a small chunk of change for the college-educated, unless you majored in something stupid and spend all your time working for $20,000 at non-profits in the middle of nowhere.

Many of the questions I was required to answer were absurd and offensive: Had I ever been a drug addict? A sex worker? A habitual drunkard? A communist?

What kind of person gets offended by mere questions?  Let me remind you, Ms. Venezeula, that prostitution and drug posession are both illegal in the United States.  Alcoholism is a public safety concern since everybody drives here, and now post-3/21 it will also cost us money as the hordes of drunk homeless bums chew through federal health money on their cirhossis.  And, lest you forget, we did spend nearly half of the last century living under the constant threat of nuclear annhiliation by communists, and the United States is not a communist nation.

Right after the communist question, they have the audacity to ask if I have ever persecuted anyone because of their political opinion.

The truthful answer to this question has already been given by your self-proclaimed indignation that you’d be asked if you’re a druggie, a commie, or a whore.  Yes, you are persecuting everyone who doesn’t sing along to your version of coom-bay-yah every time you open your mouth.

It ends by requiring a signature under a statement in which I am to promise that, if legally required to do so, I would serve the U.S. military “without mental reserve, so help me God.” These questions were deeply disturbing, and it was very clear which answers would lead to citizenship and which could lead to something far less palatable.

Virtually every time I hear a liberal speak like this I start to channel Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men during his monologue in which he scolds Tom Cruise’s character about rising and sleeping under the very freedom which he provides and then questioning the manner in which he provides it.

Why do you even bother worrying about the military?  You have a vagina.  You don’t need to register for the draft.  You’ll get to stay at home and write poetry while the men take care of the business of keeping your happy little bubble safe from other big scary men with guns.  Then, when we finish protecting you, you can assert that we committed war crimes and killed foregin women and children in the process of protecting you and court marshall us, or at the very least fritter away your time holding up signs that say things like “war is muder” and “no blood for [my] oil”.

Seriously, woman, fuck you.  Go back to Venezeula.  If you’re so disturbed by what it means to be a mainstream American citizen then don’t become an American citizen.

Oh, that’s right.  You want to bask in all the riches our culture has provided while simultaneously bitching about our culture at every opportunity.  The minute you join our society you’ll seek to change it from within, despite the fact that whatever bizarre place you came from which instilled your clearly anti-American beliefs into you is, as you put it, “far less palatable” because it’s a lawless poverty stricken filthy jungle.

I have the right to be a habitually drunk communist,” I thought, “and fuck the military!” I put the forms away and ignored them for over a year. That I am not habitually drunk nor identify as a communist were irrelevant – I could not make peace with this document’s version of morality, one that criminalizes addiction, stigmatizes sex work, and continues the legacy of red-baiting in this country.

No.  You don’t have any rights.  At least, not the rights that you imagine for yourself because even though you live here, you are not a U.S. citizen, and our innovative concept of inalienable human rights does not apply beyond our borders, at least as far as we’re concerned.  Even were you a U.S. citizen, you still don’t have the right to be a habitually drunk communist because you’d be nothing but a burden on our society.  I can’t believe you’d sit here with a straight face and feel such entitlement to expect that we should welcome you into our paradise even while you’re telling us to fuck right off and spitting in the face of our “version of morality.”

I have news for you, hermanita.  There’s no such thing as a “version” of morality.  If you believe that, go somewhere else.

Speaking of somewhere else, if you’re such a commnunist, why wouldn’t you want to go live under Hugo Chavez?  He’s as close to communism as you’re going to get in the western hemisphere and you’re already a natural citizen of Venezuela.  It sounds like a match made in heav… it sounds like a perfect match!

Oh wait, let me guess. Hugo Chavez’s socialistic shit hole isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, is it.  Could that be why your father fled the country, like so many other Venezuelans?

You stupid bitch.  How can you be so stupid?  You know communism is shit because your own country is becoming a place to escape, not a place to go home to – your very family is living proof!  The fact that you’re even writing this from the United States proves that point in spades.  And yet you still believe in communism?

Maybe I’m too hard on you.  Maybe you’re just pulling that tired crap about how you’re not a communist but you defend to the death my right to be.  Boring.

It was at the relentless nudging of my father, who believes I am a way more important activist than I probably am (thanks, dad) that I finally filled out and turned in the forms, along with a check to the Department of Homeland Security.

Your father busted ass to bring you here and despite the fact that he probably thinks you’re batshit insane and is embarassed by your activism, he still loves you and wants you to get the citizenship anyway because he knows your useless resistance to American “morality” is only getting in the way of the most valuable commodity on the planet earth – a legal U.S. social security number.

Though at times the idea of being detained and deported for my politics seems totally far-fetched, at other times it feels ominously close to my reality.

Even though you apparently hate this country, you’re lucky I’m not in charge because I would round people like you and ship you to Liberia.  If you don’t like it here, leave.

Even with this tremendous amount of privilege, however, what has compelled me to become a U.S. citizen more than anything else is fear: fear of fully expressing my politics publicly, fear that the government has the legal authority to decide that a queer, anti-capitalist rabble-rouser is inconvenient to have around. It is enough fear that I signed my name to a document with which I vehemently disagree with the promise that the fear will come to an end; enough that I abided as Department of Homeland Security officials took my fingerprints; and enough that I asked for my name not to be attached to this piece.

A queer, anti-capitalist, rabble-rouser is inconvenient to have around.  What don’t you understand?  If your goal in becoming a U.S. citizen is to do nothing more than whine about the U.S., then why the fuck did you become one in the first place?

The reason you don’t want your name to be attached to this piece is because you’re admitting to perjury and as such you could, and should, have your citizenship revoked.  Fat ugly Miriam, by withholding the author’s identity if she knows it, is now an accessory to perjury.  If you want to have a little fun, refer this piece to the INS.

My life is here now – my work, my passions, my best friends, my amazing girlfriend. I will never be fully from here, and yet when I visit back home I’m always a little gringa. For immigrants, this is a constant struggle – especially for those of us who moved when we were young, we are from everywhere and nowhere: a byproduct of global injustices that make some countries rich while others remain poor, displacing entire communities of people across the world.

Global injustice?  Who are you trying to kid?  There is no reason why an incredible nation couldn’t spring up anywhere on the planet at any time except for one prevailing truth that only age and experience elucidates: some groups of people simply do not have what it takes to get something done.  Nation building is one of the greatest achievements any group of people can accomplish and it’s therefore not surprising that it doesn’t happen very often.  Even getting 10 or 25 people to coordinate even simple tasks for 10 minutes is hard.  Try a few million over a couple of generations.  If the fire isn’t coming from within, it doesn’t happen.

The only remote truth to the concept of some form of global injustice as responsible for stalling the development of countries like Venezuela is the fact that because there are superior alternatives for the smart and motivated, families like hers find it more convenient to emigrate to Shangrila rather than work to fix their own nations.  The bright, talented people bear all the responsibility of directing the fate of a nation.  If they choose to divert their energy to improving their nation, they often succeed.  If they instead decide to jump ship, the result is continued poverty.  The only people to blame for Venezuela’s lack of progress are all of the capable Venezuealans who fled their country to come here, such as, for example, the original poster’s family.

Now, it is difficult for me to imagine my life anywhere else, and as have taken ownership over my new home in the best way I know how: working in struggle and solidarity with fellow activists to make it better.

Better, huh.  Better according to who?  You?  You and your “version of morality” as you put it?

Do us all a favor and go home.  Venezuela needs you more than we do.  In fact, not only do we not need you, we don’t want you here.  Go home.

Flawed Principles are Better Than No Principles

In the wake of this nonsense regarding the lesbian prom, I can’t help but really despise the ACLU.

I think most coastal Americans probably read this story and yawn.  Old news.

But what I see here is a disturbing trend in this country to replace some standard with no standards.  We’re systematically inhibiting ourselves from defining our own culture by the use of our own courts.  Essentially, the ACLU’s purpose is to strike down any decision made by anyone that attempts to conform human behavior into a mold that the collective group, the “society”, has agreed upon.  If even a single person disagrees with any cultural decision that we the people make, the ACLU soars in on a white horse to sue us and force us to conform to the desires of that single person.

This small town in Missouri doesn’t want to promote lesbianism at a high school prom.  One single lesbian wants to go to the prom.  Rather than exclude her – which in my opinion is a perfectly legitimate course of action – they exclude everyone by canceling it.  Now the ACLU is going to sue to force the school to host a prom just so this single lesbian can make a statement about gay rights and dance in a tux?

Really?

Even the most ardent of gay rights supporters should understand the problem with this.  Whether or not you disagree with Missouri’s close-minded attitude toward homosexuals, you at least have to respect the fact that forcing the majority to succumb to the will of not only the minority but of the singular has serious implications for democracy.

The idea that society would ever reach unanimity on anything is absurd.  There will always be people who don’t like something about the segment of society in which they live.

Often times, diversity is stated as one of America’s strengths.  But here’s the catch.  Whether you like it or not, diversity has to include segments of people who are different than you.  If you’re pro-gay everything, you have to acknowledge the legitimacy of anti-gay groups.  In this particular case the homophobia stems from the religious culture of the town.  Are they wrong just because they disagree with you?  Or are you wrong because you disagree with them?  Or is there no such thing as right or wrong, just different?

The nice part about having such a big, diverse country with a lot of different cultural attitudes, coupled with the essentially unlimited mobility of the 21st century, is that if you don’t like the place or the people you live with because your worldview is vastly different than theirs, you can go find a group where you belong.

Would it really be such a tragedy for a single person to miss an experience like the prom because of her beliefs, particularly when it appears clear that those beliefs put her at odds with her community?  Would it really be such a big deal for her to see this as an indictment on the town that won’t accept her and as a cue for her to start looking at more amiable places to live, for example, San Francisco?

I don’t feel much symapthy for small-town homosexuals from red states because our country and our culture offers a way out.

America is strong because we have both towns like this one in Missouri and cities like San Francisco.  We offer something for virtually everyone.

But if the ACLU has its way, we won’t be allowed to have any real diversity.  Instead, we’ll have a hegemony of exactly one “culture”, that in which essentially anything goes and vague concepts like “personal expression” trump all culutral values.  When no cultural value is allowed to be enforced, you end up with no cultural values, and no cultural identity.  It’s very hard to get excited about your culture when you don’t really have one.

Human beings need rules.  We need cultural norms.  If we aren’t allowed to establish them because the ACLU sues us every time we try, even on minute, local levels like a small midwestern town, we’ll be left with a void that needs to be filled.  That’s the formula for a Hitler-esque character to come along and offer what our country lacks, probably at the expense of our freedoms.  In case you hadn’t forgotten, one of Hitler’s chief strategies to gain support was to position himself as a cultural champion.  He extolled the virtues of the German people, reinvigorated the German identity (the “Arian” identity), and promised to reforge his broken nation in the image of a cultural ideal.

If we’re not careful we can end up primed for the same scenario here and now.  Probably with less genocide, but possibly with no less governmental facism.  Don’t believe it could happen?  Go listen to or read what Germans had to say in the 1930′s.

You Heard it Here First

If the Obama administration (and I use that term loosely) succeeds in this catastrophic “cap and trade” nonsense and decides to tax Americans on carbon emissions via their electricity bills, be prepared to get used to the sound of noisy gasoline generators because I for one would rather generate all of my own electricity using generators an fossil fuels than pay one penny to a power company’s carbon tax.  And I won’t be the only one.

One of my coworkers started using his Prius as an ultra-efficient elecriticy generator which has saved him over $300 – roughly half – on his elecrticity bills this winter for only $30 in gasoline.

Our electricity bills are already oppressive.  Add a 20% carbon tax and it suddenly becomes more cost effective just to generate our own electricity.

Are Obama’s “climate czar” and his goons – let’s call them the secret police – going to come door to door and confiscate your gasoline generator to force you to pay for a service you don’t want, or are they just going to force us to abandon a utility as basic as wired electricity service by compelling us to pay an outrageous tax aimed to solve a problem that doesn’t exist?

Cut the Post Office Entirely

Do we really still need paper mail delivered to us in the 21st century?

How about instead of a daily postal service the government just provides free broadband to everybody and $100 web pc.

Do we really need to be physically shipping paper from place to place in trucks to transmit information?

Please.

We Can’t Wish Away Al Gore

It would be an enormous relief if the recent egg all over the faces of these self-proclaimed climatologists out of Britain who are smart enough to predict the future but not smart enough to secure their damning internal e-mails actually convinced eco-zealots everywhere that this so-called calamity requiring large-scale preventative measures (not to mention billions of your dollars) to protect human civilization as we know it – rather than any other kind such as the human civilization of tomorrow – is not in fact indicated by all the phony science in the world but is, in fact, imaginary.

Of course, we would still need to deal with the national sanity risks of our growing dependence on a substitute religion for the one we’ve abandoned which necessitate that we follow rank-and-file the priests of the new age who spout whatever fraud supports their claims.  We need to watch like a hawk the hundreds of billions of dollars that fly out of our pockets each year to solve a problem that does not exist instead of to buy fuel which solves a problem that exists right now, today.  I speak, of course, of the problem of the fuel tank in your Honda running dry and you losing your freedom of mobility.  And no matter how much money we spend on wind power, we will still trail China in the race to burn as many fossil fuels as quickly and as cheaply as possible, rendering any effort we make to reduce emissions seem as insignificant and moot as the entire movement itself.

What a burden would be lifted!  We would no longer have to listen to assholes preach to us about carbon credits as he privately jets from one liberal campus to another.  We would no longer have to worry about our grandchildren both laughing at our stupidity the way we laugh today about the global cooling alarmists of the 1970′s but also crying as they pay enormous tax after enormous tax for interest on debt money their grandparents borrowed from China to spend on “green” energy solutions which never held a candle to good old-fashioned petroleum.  We could instead celebrate the return of intellectual freedom and common sense, where a scientist can reasonably dispute the unproven theory of global warming and still receive funding and tenure.  We could point to e-mails from the scientists quoted by eco-zealots as proof of science in which the scientists themselves admit to forging the numbers to support the foregone conclusion stapled to their grant checks.

I, for one, genuinely wish that the climate crisis would drop from our radar as a pointless diversion of self-made activists who don’t have any real problems left to solve now that the cold war is over and the United States military fueled by oil they’ve chosen to hate has created a world so relatively peaceful that the idea that any real major threat to our happy little Western bubble of civilization is too remote for even the crazies to wish into reality.  But, unfortunately, the danger we aren’t courting has not gone away despite the discovery that its entire foundation has been uncovered as a guilt and money driven sham.  In fact, the imaginary criss is still growing because more and more assholes who believe it is their life calling to somehow save the world from anything keep getting involved, even when you illustrate in living color that 90 million tons of the gas that feeds the rainforests that we produce each day accounts for a staggering 0.0000018% of the total weight of Earth’s atmosphere and accounts for less than 5% of the total “pollution” which enters the atmosphere from such nefarious rapscallions as all living animals, decaying plant matter, and those pesky oceans.

It is true that the climate panel has been forging data for grant money since day one and attempting to hide that fact from the public.

But the scientific enterprise of climate change will still not be discounted even in the bold face of widespread professional misconduct.  It isn’t the actual science that is important.  What it is important is that if we all agree that global warming is a problem – in other words, if we all decide to come to consensus – then the science, provided by the scientists in the league of the consensus – can say whatever the consensus wants it to say to help us sleep better at night with our decision to invent a way to waste research grant money and save the world from a fake problem that we imagined.  It is also worth noting that these same dufuses who we are now trusting us to predict our climate future were only 30 short years ago predicting that by today we’d be in a global ice age.

Because the climate is possibly the most complex scientific system known to man, it is difficult to know anything about it let alone honestly think that we could do anything other than experiment with our atmosphere.  For example, despite our sabre rattling about global warming for the last decade, this January in the United States – the only place any of us really actually give a shit about since that’s where we actually live – was the coldest January on record.  Alarmists use the fact that from a global perspective, it was the second-hottest January (not the hottest, of course) since temperatures were first measured as a crutch to prop up their lie.  The punchline, of course, is that we’ve been recording these temperatures for a whopping 130 years, such a minute sum in the course of the earth’s climate that it’s like predicting a football game based on the first 15 milliseconds of play.  But seriously guys, the threat is real.

The heavy snowfalls this month have been used as proof positive that Al Gore and his ilk are full of shit because they said 10 years ago that in 2010 we’d be cooking, not seeing the largest snowfall in the history of Washington DC.  The changeists immediately retaliated with a sleight of hand in which they blame evaporation.  See!  It’s warm, so the oceans evaporate, and then it snows!  Of course, when asked why we got snow instead of rain, the alarmists could only dodge the question with the fact that it’s winter, a fact controlled by the sun.  Could it be that the gigantic seasonal temperature swings based on nothing more than how much direct sunlight any given spot on the earth receives might clue us in that the impact of any terrestial event is minute in comparison to the impact of our friendly stellar neighbor?  Never mind that.  Take a rest.  Look over there.  Relax, guy.

Here’s what the scientists have lied about for grant money: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures.  These pollutants – especially CO2 for which man’s contribution is so laughably small that it’s amazing that any thinking person could think that pissing in the ocean will turn it yellow - have been increasing rapidly with the burning of stuff and that the temperature increase over the last 100 years is caused by, not merely correlated to, these activities.  Truth be damned, we have a world to save.

Though there have been impressive wastes by many business leaders, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, our civilization is still no closer to solving our imaginary problem than we were 30 years ago when our problem was global cooling or 20 years ago when our problem was acid rain or 10 years ago until present when our problem is global warming.  We still must continue to listen to greedy fucks like Al Gore yammer on at us.  We must endure his tired mantra every time his speaking fees need to be justified in the face of even more evidence that his entire movement and everything he says stinks of bullshit.

In spite of President Obama’s weak-kneed line towing at a patsy European conference which wastes multinational tax dollars, global leaders thankfully did nothing but drink expensive wine, stay at expensive hotels, and pat each other on the backs for scamming their constitutents out of yet another holiday abroad.  They’ve learned that merely “taking note” of an “intention to act” is enough to get and stay elected in the modern morass of intellectual vacuums which enable Al Gore to stay relevant even while peddling abject nonsense.

I couldn’t get through more than the first page.  Read if you dare.