We Are Not Outraged
Blame your political opposite, rather than acknowledge that in this country, we have a problem with violence.
(Joe Stack flew a plane into a building with anti-government, anti-corporate, “communist” intentions.)
And it isn’t isolated to people in our nation.
We spread the guns.
(Click here to see a large detailed map of US Military Bases Worldwide)
The media is outraged. The only way to get on a political talk show is to be so angry you’re entertaining. Never forget this, that entertaining news programs are not news programs, they are entertainment. You’ve obviously decided what kind of angry ranting you enjoy these days, Olbermann or O’Reilly. Decide and watch and agree. Or watch the other guy, and drink whiskey, and yell.
We are not outraged, but the media shows nothing but outrage. We mock the National Enquirer while the NY Times publishes rumors of sex scandals and the TV media talks South Carolinian politicians’ affairs.
A terrible thing happened yesterday in Texas, and the more we focus on anti-government terrorists the more power we give them. The majority are sane but worried. We are a nonviolent society, we will never pick up arms against our fellow Americans. There is a crazy, violent minority in this country that likes to rant about the Constitution while trampling on other peoples’ rights. They are neither right nor left. They are amongst all of us. They are not really playing politics, they’re playing “messaging,” which is another way of saying “they’re so deep in Kool-aid they breathe sugar and talk Red 40.” They spout only rhetoric and think only in talking points.
The populist rhetoric from two alternate propagandist views of modern America in his suicide note is proof enough that he has no basis in reality.
Blame is what got us to this point. Pay attention just for today to everyone who is complaining about people unlike them. Worse things have happened.
These people complaining about everything, blaming everyone but themselves, are disgusting. It’s hard, selfless work to be informed enough to stay quiet, and humble, and human. These people are gullible enough to think killing people will make America or the world any better. They must be met with an equal dedication to nonviolence.
All violence, creating a sense of a lack of security, is terrorism. Terrorism exists to distract us from our greatness. If Haiti was God’s will, then fear is the terrorists’. Ignore terrorism. Do not embrace the fear. Do not act from fear.
Shawn Fleek
[...] fly a plane into it. Then again, I can’t afford flying lessons. That “Communist” Joe Stack was awfully “middle class,” for a [...]
Shawn Fleek Requests Your Company « PDX Comedy Blog
02/23/2010 at 2:55 pm
Yeah, we spread guns, but they don’t use them. They fly planes into buildings…you’re really a riot, Shawn. Thanks for the entertainment.
[Editor's Note: David admitted in the last post's comments that he makes enough to be considered the top 20% of income earners. Don't you feel really bad for him? Waaah! The IRS! Waaaaaaaah!]
David
02/23/2010 at 3:29 pm
It’s my half of the political spectrum’s fault, right? It’s the liberals!
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/23/2010 at 3:32 pm
Nope, it’s government’s fault, in general. There’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats right now, or very little.
By the way, being in the top 20% doesn’t get you very much. It’s still under 6 figures. And for the record, I’m not and never have complained about paying taxes. I just stated that I pay MY SHARE, Shawn.
David
02/23/2010 at 4:59 pm
I pay my share, too. It’s called “taxation with representation.” and if you wanna know why government is powerless to stop corporations, look at the number of times the GOP has filibustered since Reagan left office. Wholly owned subsidiaries of “business interests.” They’re obstructionists of progress away from this corporate-dominated state, and you elect them because they pander to you on abortion, and you eat it up like a good little German.
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/23/2010 at 5:02 pm
Oh, you must be freaking Nostradamus. You think you know how I vote now. I vote based on how much potential taxes the incoming regime will require me to pay. That way I have more money in my pocket to give to charities that know how to take care of the needy.
Conservative, yes. Republican, no. Though the tendency to vote R is because they are likely to not tax me as much.
David
02/24/2010 at 10:25 am
Oh, so you’re a single-issue voter? You don’t vote R because their platform says Women have no right to privacy and Gays aren’t people? You know, the platform designed to bait Christians into voting against the economic interest of the majority? Ie: the 80% of people who make less money than you? Oh, I’m so glad you pay a lot in taxes. Here, let me fellate you because you’re so obviously such a wonderful, charitable dude. Thanks so much for everything, mister generous man. YOU WORK FOR A BANK. DOING COMPUTER WORK. There’s nothing noble about you.
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/24/2010 at 1:50 pm
You really consider finances to be a single issue? You’re misstatement of the Republican platform speaks volumes. Why should I care about someone who wants to suck me dry financially, who wants me to give him what I earn so that he can be lazy?
Shawn, you know nothing about me, you’ve taken no time to even try. Which only goes to show what a selfish man you are. Even with the outrageous taxes I pay, I still give a chunk to the deserving poor, as decided by my faith-based charity (of course, that’s why you don’t get any of it.) Of course, if you’re happy with what the government gives you every week, great. If the buracracy didn’t take so much of our tax money, you might get a little more, but that’s the buracracy you love.
David
02/24/2010 at 2:08 pm
I’m not on any kind of welfare, David. I’m saying if you have kids and then die in a car accident, and your kids start getting Navy welfare checks, then I’m gonna be paying for you, and I don’t mind because I’m an ethical person. That’s what Democrats do, is set up a safety net. A secular safety net. I don’t need a religion to tell me to take care of my brother, but in case you’re forgetting the Sermon on the Mount, go read it. Jesus wants you to be generous. You sound really attached to material things, which my Buddha says is to be avoided. I’m not sucking you dry, I’m paying into a fund with a percentage that’s negligible to me, just as your taxes are negligible to you. How much do you make after taxes, David? How much? You apparently have enough free time while you’re at work that you can spread religious vitriol and economics-horseshit on the internet. I run this blog in my time off from a 40 hour a week skilled labor job, and I have you come in here and complain about your tax rate. What an American fucking concern. While people die in Haiti, people like you whine at the barista at Starbucks for not getting the half-caf mocha whip the right temperature. Thanks for the revenue, dude. Again, you’re just soooo generous. Thank you so so much for all that you do you SAINT. You should be DEIFIED and because of your income level and your faith you are clearly INFALLIBLE. Somebody get this guy THE PAPACY.
(also, I don’t love bureaucracy. I just see police protecting streets, kids getting educated and bused around, fires getting put out, and my mail delivered. Not to mention traffic cameras, stop lights, highways, corn subsidies, gas subsidies, public transit, and the armed forces that are currently deployed in more than 100 countries in the name of protecting me. I love all of those things. We can talk about little details but when you complain about how much government costs, keep track of what around you you’re actually complaining about. Reaganomics is horse-shit.)
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/24/2010 at 2:20 pm
Well, you see? You don’t have to fret about me. I won’t get any pension from the military. But the safety nets set up by Democrats stink. Social Security was instituted with the idea that people would never live to take from it. When SS was instituted the average age of death was about 58. Not only that, but I’ve paid 15% of my salary into SS for 30 years, and I don’t see any chance of recouping a dime of it. When I needed the government to help me, after I got out of the military, they denied me, totally. Welfare pays out less than 25 cents on every dollar it takes in. Thanks, I’ll give my money to Catholic Charities, which pays out 97 cents on every dollar it takes in. And no, I’m not as attached as you seem to think. I have a comfortable small home, with enough, but I stopped buying into the spendaholic economy several years ago. I just want what I earn, and the chance to give fairly to those who need it. I give 15% of my income and time to charity right now. So that means I get 65% of what I earn. I’d give more if the government would let me keep more, and more would get into the hands that need it. Does the government think I’m too stupid or greedy to help people? How would they know?
And there you go again, mischaracterizing me. A few weeks ago, I saw the guy cleaning the rest room in the airport, and thanked him for his service. I don’t go into Starbucks, I make my own coffee. My only wish is really to get a high five from my maker in heaven, and I work very hard on humility.
Regarding bureaucracy, why do we need such a transit system that 90% of all the busses and trains are empty? Why do we need traffic control police when there’s stop light cameras? I don’t mind paying taxes, I mind the money I give being wasted. And spending it on healthcare is wasteful. See Canada. Where someone in need of brain surgery waits 5 years for an operating room to open up, and a doctor to be ready. So now you know what I don’t like. Reaganomics was about trimming waste from government. It worked fine. Until the next guy took over. Because he didn’t have enough backbone to keep it in place. Reaganomics worked fine. We went from 25% interest rates on a house to a reasonable 10% or less. Unemployment went from double digits down to 5 or 6. You don’t know a thing about Reaganomics.
David
02/24/2010 at 2:38 pm
If you’d read anything other than this part that offended your morals, I bash Reagan all the time. Carter tried to get us off oil and put solar panels on the roof of the White House. I won’t say any more because this blog is evidence enough of my opinions, just search for “Reagan.” He was the Sarah Palin of his time. A joke, a puppet for special interests. On the topic of healthcare, you just baited your own trap: You want people to stop living so long? But you’re pro-life? Or wait, you just want to be first into the operating room because you have the money to pay for it up front? That sounds like material attachment, like your wealth defines you. Jesus would be ashamed, but then again that’s because he was a socialist. There’s no crisis in social security, it’s still paying out just fine. The idea of the crisis is put out by Objectivists like yourself who speak in lies to make more money.
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/24/2010 at 2:47 pm
Regarding health care, what I’d like to see is that everyone who can’t get or afford health care to get it. It wouldn’t take the trillions they’re talking about. And cut out the pork. I pay a lot for health care, but I don’t want the government telling me what they’re going to “give” me. Take care of those who need it, give basic and catastrophic care. By the way, anyone can walk into any hospital in America and get taken care of, regardless of ability to pay. But someone who earns a living should be able to have a doctor they can afford to take care of them. Just as the fact that I can eat a steak a little more often, if I want, than you can. It goes with the paycheck. But the blanket they’re trying to throw over American healthcare still doesn’t give everyone health care.
By the way, you don’t know Jesus. He never begrudged those who earned to have. He asked them to be generous. Thanks. I am.
Social Security says that people who earn a living can’t be trusted to take care of themselves in their old age. So government does not trust anyone. If they put it away for you, and then give it back when you retire, with interest for the use of the money, it would be real SS. I won’t get a small fraction of what I put into it though. Lucky if it’s 10%. By the time I retire, the retirement age might be 75 or 80.
David
02/24/2010 at 3:11 pm
If you die, your family might end up needing welfare. It’s just a fact. It’s there for everyone, but very few people use it. One half of all US kids will need food stamps at some point before age 18. Sounds like they do some good, eh? And you still have your small comfortable home, so stop complaining. You’re not a starving child, or a legless Haitian.
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/24/2010 at 2:49 pm
When I die, if I die ahead of my wife (kids all out on their own…) she’ll be well taken care of. If she dies, I have my income.
You lie, Shawn, you say “Very few people use it”, and then 1/2 of all US kids will need it. Facts are facts. We spend 3 trillion dollars a year on all forms of welfare. 10% of the population is on welfare/receiving food stamps. And, by the way, about 20% of that $3 trillion goes to pay health care costs for those who can’t afford them…
But the way the government is spending money, I’d be interested to know how you or I are going to pay our share of the nearly $700,000 per family of debt.
David
02/24/2010 at 3:32 pm
That’s $80,000 per person on welfare, by the way. So a family of 4 on welfare gets $320,000. Except that you gotta pay the bureaucracy. See what I mean about waste?
If Catholic Charities had $80,000 per person to give, the person would get all but 2400 of it.
Face it, Shawn, our government is way bloated. And it’s the fault of Repubs, Dems, and Indies.
That was my whole point.
David
02/24/2010 at 4:04 pm
That’s not a terribly high number of people on welfare. If you look at the distribution of income, there are so many really poor people who aren’t on welfare that your argument is moot. There are a lot of poor Americans. You’re just more into your faith than you’re into the country. The Constitution is inconvenient for you, as is all this taxation. You want Catholics to do everything for everyone, not the government. I’m not Catholic, I like Catholics, but you sir sound like you might be a lunatic, not a Catholic. The Catholic Church isn’t also “way bloated”? Look at the VATICAN. LOOK AT IT. They have gold everywhere. It’s a CASINO there’s so much glitz and glam. You have every right to believe in your faith, but it’s not my faith. It’s a proven fact that poor people donate -a higher percentage- of their total income than the rich. When it comes to charity, you send your money to Catholic Charities, I’ll send mine to the Red Cross, and both of us will pay the government to make sure that everyone in the country who is down does not necessarily have to be out. If you don’t like it, keep electing people who claim to be all about family values to dismantle the system the progressives put in place to keep people alive.
Shawn Gray-Fleek
02/24/2010 at 4:49 pm
Thick head, Shawn. I am all for helping people who need the help up. THE GOVERNMENT IS BLOATED AND SPENDS TOO MUCH ON PORK AND OVERHEAD.
And no, the Vatican is not bloated. There’s no overhead. Pope works for free, cardinals all work for free, priests there all work for free. No air conditioned offices. What keeps all the precious donated art and architecture in shape for the world is donations by people like me from all over the world.
And again, I’m not begrudging my part, I’m begrudging THE WASTE. Red Cross is a high-overhead charity like United Way, so whatever you donate, 1/3 of it goes to overhead.
Go ahead, Shawn, keep sleeping. Night!
David
02/24/2010 at 5:02 pm