Whatever Happened to Civility?

Bite more, bark less, I always say.

If you’re like me, you’re probably at your wits’ end with the “civility” crowd. You know who they are, the people with stickers on the cars reading “choose civility” and “wag more, bark less”.

Do these people honestly believe that our reaction to the injustices, indignities and brutalities of the past decade should be in the manner of a UN bureaucrat drafting a resolution?

Are the corporations and the State being “civil” when they arrange for huge bailouts for themselves while the rest of us are scrambling for work or being thrown out of our homes? Is the State being “civil” when it seeks to cut back on Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 70 — essentially, working us to death? Is the State being “civil” when it strips away our Constitutional protection and basic dignity for the sake of cheap security theater at the airport? Is BP being “civil” by destroying ecosystems and livelihoods on the Gulf Coast and continuing to evade prosecution? Is the Democratic Party being “civil” when it panders to “progressive” constituencies in order to secure their votes, then spends the next two years publicly abusing and mocking them?

If you ask me, we need less “civility” and more people willing to organize and act on their own behalf instead of whining about how Liberal politicians are doing such a bad job of fighting their struggles for them, and how there’s so little “civility” these days. Take a tip from the British and the French. They’ve shut whole cities and countries down, with strikes and “incivility”. They’ve made their countries nearly ungovernable over issues — like corporatized healthcare and retirement “takebacks” — that make your average American shrug for a moment and go back to watching Top Chef. This is what needs to be happening here, instead of a bunch of Liberals bitching about “civility”.

Something else, too, that I found extra double-yum ironic about the Liberal “civility” crowd. If you — like me in ‘96, ‘00 and ‘04 — were or are a supporter of Ralph Nader and/or the Green Party, try this simple test on your average “civil” Liberal: bring up how hard the Democrats worked to prevent voters from having any real choice, and how the Democrats really lost the ‘00 election — and see how “civil” their reactions are.

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Alternate Wikileaks Links Available!

Thorn In Imperialism's Side Not Deterred By Cowardly Hosts, DNS Providers

It’s often been said, ever since the days of Usenet and Tiananmen Square, that the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. As it was in those bygone days, so it is today, as the US State pressures Wikileaks’ “cloud” provider and DNS service to take steps in an attempt to silence dissent.

The problem is — at least, if you’re the US State, it’s a problem — Wikileaks can still be reached on the Web via any number of alternate links, such as through its numeric “dotted quad” IP addresses here and here. It can also be reached through its alternate domains in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

I’d like to encourage everyone reading this to follow that grand old Web censorship-defeating tradition of “mirroring” and passing alternate links around, and post these links to your blog or Web site:

http://213.251.145.96/
http://46.59.1.2/
http://wikileaks.ch/
http://www.wikileaks.nl/

Wikileaks is also mirrored at over 200 sites worldwide.

Tough luck, Barack. Better luck next time, Hillary.

It Gets Better

Among my wife’s and my best friends are a gay couple who live near us in our neighborhood. One of the guys was a colleague of my wife’s for several years; before moving here, he was the first openly gay mayor of a town in Iowa. He also recently served as one of the ANC (Advisory Neighborhood Commission) representatives for our ward, and currently holds a management job for the city government. He and his partner have been in a serious, loving, committed relationship as far back as I can remember. They’ve bought a house and renovated it together and have been active contributors to the community. Every year they celebrate the anniversary of the US Constitution by having a really awesome party. Basically, we’re talking about a couple of really cool, hard-working, stand-up guys.

It always bothered me, though, that whenever I’ve been at their annual Constitution Day party for the past few years, their basement has been decorated with some Obama ‘08 lawn signs and other campaign schwag — and I could never figure out why, given that Obama pretty much came right out during the ‘08 campaign and stated his intention to do absolutely nothing to make our friends’ lives any less of a pain in the ass than they already are (and, in fact, he’s been working to make it even more of a pain in the ass). I’ve always been tempted to ask them why they supported Obama given his opposition to same-sex marriage, but as these guys have been good friends of my wife and I for many years, I’ve decided not to cause a big stink, and let it slide. Still, it really burned my toast to think that Barack Obama allowed himself to be portrayed as some big-time progressive, but didn’t want these guys to enjoy the same rights as my wife and I.

So, you can imagine just how steamed I got when I saw Obama contributing a video to the “It Gets Better” series. Hearing him delivering empty platitudes on tolerance and bullying really made me gag as I thought of his opposition to gay marriage — he supports the lame half-measure of “civil unions” — as well as his inviting Rick Warren, the infamous gay-bashing megachurch preacher, to speak at his Inauguration, and his Administration’s lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court in favor of retaining the insulting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays in the military. Mind you, I think the real problem is dead soldiers, not gay soldiers, but, still, the policy sucks on general principle. In the meantime, President Precious is giving us lame lip service on the bullying of gay, lesbian, bi and transgendered people, while he and his regime engage in bullying of a kind even worse than the physical kind — bullying by the State, in the form of repressive and discriminatory official policies.

Just when you think Obama’s smarmy, empty sentiments can’t be any more infuriating — it gets worse.

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