SF is Right Wing?

I have never been a huge science fiction fan. I know that sounds weird coming from a guy who grew up reading tons of science fiction anthologies and magazines and novels. But it never made up a large percentage of what I consumed. Perhaps five percent of the fiction I was reading for most of my life has been sf.

In the past decade or so I began to read more of it. Again, it still was not making up a majority of what I was reading, but I had been picking up science fiction novels and anthologies more than in my youth.

And I was struck by something:

A lot of the science fiction I was reading, (and a lot of the science fiction fans I was meeting), are politically right wing. I'm not talking just a tad to the right. I mean full-on Libertarian Fascism. With the exception of Richard K. Morgan, most of the speculative fiction I was discovering is, it seems, being written by people with right wing extremist motives and sympathies.

Has this always been the case?

Yes, I know that shit-hole Robert Heinlein has always been a darling of sf fandom. And I used to encounter right wing creeps on most of the sf-oriented chatrooms back in the early days of the Internet.  For instance, when I tried to interact with Bradbury fans to get information I needed for a project I discovered that they were almost all politically to the right and eager to bombard the Internet with their poisonous dogma. (This should not have surprised me terribly because I already knew that Bradbury had obviously gone from a politically progressive young man to a right wing shithead by his later years.)

But is the majority of the modern science fiction literary scene infected with right wing mania?

I do know that I have quickly grown sick of trying to read these Libertarian/religious/Objectivist/Fascist screeds in the form of science fiction novels and stories. I've reached a point where I'm prepared to swear it all off and go back to reading non-fiction to get away from the endless drone of science-fiction's neo-Fascist themes.

Alas!

Is all modern SF nothing but Fascistic shite?

Wherever you go...

The Outer Banks are, of course, part of the South. So it's to be expected, I suppose, that you would run into right wing assholes. We stayed most of the time on the southern portion of the Outer Banks. That section is far less developed than the northern half. This is mainly because Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island have a huge percentage of National Park-protected acreage. Thus, there's no opportunity to overbuild and create a morass of buildings, shopping centers, and parking lots.

In addition, this has made some people unable to (in their eyes) profit from exploiting the land. They feel that their own position would be greatly improved if they could level the forests and carve down the dunes and put gas stations and condo units and retail shops in their places. I kept seeing signs excoriating the National Park Service and the Audobon Society for having the temerity to preserve the best about the Outer Banks.

Asshole right wing dinks. They're everywhere. Fortunately, they don't always win the debate.

Trail. Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.

Freshwater marsh, Bodie Island Preserve.

Large snapping turtle. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Buxton Woods. The right wing dinks seem to especially hate this spot, because its protection kept many buildings from being built atop the forests and dunes and marshes.

Trail in Buxton Woods.

Dune field, Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Why Liberals Piss Me Off

One of my more popular blog posts was “Why I Hate Libertarians”. That one pretty much stands as solidly today in my way of thinking as when I wrote it. It really struck a nerve, and brought out the right wing maggots to squirm in the sun where we can all watch them wriggle.

Another group that sickens me to no end are the liberals. Phil Ochs had them pegged when he wrote the song, “Love Me, I’m a Liberal”.

Phil Ochs. Not a liberal.

It’s not that liberals are never helpful in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes, they are. In that respect, they’re nothing like Libertarians who are always on the wrong side of the political equation. That said, liberals are almost always as harmful as the right wing scum they often claim to oppose.

My main problem with the liberals is that they are an indispensable tool of the right. The corporate/racist/religious filth who rule us all have the liberals to thank--in large part--for the position of ultimate power they now hold in their greedy fists. For it is the liberal who will forever proclaim that “we all need to get along” and that I “should take the right’s position” under consideration.

Fuck that.

Liberals are the never-ending enablers of the right. The only true way to struggle (and win) against the corporate right is to not give in and to not cooperate in any way whatsoever with the needs and whims of the plutocracy. And this is where the liberals count so heavily for the rich who never give an inch and always take a mile. Thanks to the liberals, the wealthy continue to remain wealthy (and in power) at the expense of everyone else.

When the liberals could actually make a difference, they can always be counted upon to cut and run; to compromise with the financial monsters and the ecological rapists and the ideologically Fascist who control the seats of power. “Take their positions under consideration,” the liberals will always argue when push comes to shove. Because liberals are, at base, notorious cowards. They do not want to see their blood spilled, at all; and they don’t even want to be inconvenienced for a split second.

So, they never fail to fall back before the onslaught of the corporate elite so that we can all live together under the right's elitist thumb.

Enough of that.

As the old saying goes: either lead, follow, or get out of the way. But the liberals always take a fourth way out.

They lie down, belly-up, and keep their cowardly mouths shut.

(Yeah, I'm Sorry about the ad.)

"In every political community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects. Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. Here, then, is a lesson in safe logic."--Phil Ochs.

Break This! (Second in a series.)

Years ago, discussing the slimiest sort of people that I have ever collectively encountered--Libertarians--one of my online pals took issue. He told me that he admired many Libertarians and that he was "proud to have broke bread (sic) with them".

I absolutely hate that kind of use of a term. Ignoring the fact that it came from an idiot and that he was quite happy associating with neo-Fascists, it's just an annoying bit of poorly understood language.

What the fuck did he mean?

I reckon what he meant was that he had either been invited to dine with some right wing assholes and had accepted the invitation, or that he had invited some right wing assholes to dine at his home and that they had accepted his invitation. Or, perhaps, they had met at a mutually agreeable neutral location where assholea go to eat a meal together.

So much for "broke bread".

It's one of the single most annoying uses of a commonly repeated saying that I regularly encounter. The dickwad using it generally thinks that it imparts some kind of intellectual weight to his comments. In fact, though, it alerts me to the fact that I'm listening to the yodeling of an idiot. If what he meant to say is that he had lots of friends who are right wing assholes, then why didn't he just say so? Admission that he was proud of the fact that he mingled freely with neo-Fascists and racists and pro-corporate stooges. That's a lot better than saying that he was "proud to have broke (sic) bread" with such human stench.

So shove your "broke bread" up your conservative asshole and try to speak like a normal human being.

Thanks for your attention to this issue.

(Moron on a Segway)
and second in a continuing series of instructional posts.

Endangered

Corporations hate the Endangered Species Act. They hate it because when an endangered species lives in an area that they want to exploit (environmentally rape), they are stymied by the law from pursuing the route of likely wealth. This they hate and this they do not tolerate.

Something I noticed early on in my awakening as an environmentalist was the hatred that hunters and off-road vehicle users have for endangered predators. They uniformly loathe all of the top predators in North America. Grizzly bears, Timber wolves, Mountain lions, Canadian lynx, Wolverines, and such are at the top of their hate lists. This is because such "sportsmen" are key tools in the corporate bag of dirty tricks that they can disgorge from time to time in their fight against wilderness bills and endangered species acts. For to preserve a top predator is to preserved the wilderness aspect of the land. And in preserving wilderness, the corporate hogs cannot feed at the trough they would like to make of our wild and rural lands.

A big bull bison I encountered in 2010 in Yellowstone National Park.

Take this case:

Wood Bison to Return to Alaska.


"Canadian officials have rebuilt their wild wood bison population to about 9,000, half of which are free from bovine diseases, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

But reintroduction in Alaska has stalled over complaints that the animals' Endangered Species Act protections would limit oil and gas drilling, mining and other development, Vincent-Lang said. The new agreement addresses those concerns, he said."

The interests of the billionaires is in conflict here with the preservation of the land and of the species which depend upon that land. They don't care about restoring the Woods bison to part of its former range. They don't give a damn about the Woods bison, except as it relates to their inability to rape the land by drilling and mining and timbering it to death.

Enough of this shit. Corporate interests need to be tamed and brought to heel. The needs of us all outweigh the greed of the few who profit the most from the exploitation of our wilderness. We need fresh air and clean water and pure soil. Although you may not see the profit in it, we need our endangered companions who share this planet. We truly do live in a web of life, and as each strand is plucked out, the whole is made weaker. I cannot make it any plainer than that, and I cannot think of any more applicable way to explain it.

All of us need a world in which the range of the Woods bison is restored. We do not need a healthy energy corporation.

Schmuck Love

I enjoy reading the work of Chester Brown. I was shocked to learn that he's a Libertarian, which disappointed me and placed him fairly low on the intellectual totem. I wish I'd never discovered that about him, but he's so deeply involved in that unfortunate neo-fascist scene that he actually runs for office on the Libertarian ticket in his native Canada.

Since I do have a lot of his work, I was amused at the pathetic quality of this pair of illustrations when placed in conjunction with one another.

The first one he did to illustrate his deep love for his woman, someone named Sook Yin. It was the closing panel of a saccharine bit of drippy love stuff to show how much she meant to him.

This last one is the first page of his graphic novel, PAYING FOR IT, describing his descent into the world of prostitution as a paying john. In this initial page, the love of his life tells him that she wants to fuck someone else.

I wouldn't have laughed, save for the fact that he's a Libertarian. In that case, I could not stop myself from laughing. That said, the book is quite good. The best of the comic artists who work in the realm of autobiography are either very honest (guys like Joe Matt), or open the door enough into their psyche that you can infer enough about them to achieve the same effect as bald-faced honesty. I'd put Chester Brown in that second category. The fact that I was able to place these two illustrations together shows the power of his work. That I recalled that initial image at all says a lot about his skill, and that I think enough of his sequential art to have it in my bookcase after so many years.

Musings on History

I read widely. I'm not an educated man and I'm not particularly intelligent, but I do read. It has always been a sore point for me that my reading has rarely approached anything like a discipline. I will read whatever I fancy whenever I chance upon something that seems relatively entertaining. I've rarely pushed myself, intellectually, so there's obviously a weakness there. But at least I'm not (wholly) ignorant.

Among the many things that I read is history. I read the history of Mankind that's written in books, and I read of the history of Mother Earth written in the fossil record, and I read the history of the Universe written in the stars wheeling all around us in the (almost) void. No matter how small and silly the history, or how vast and far-flung, I get a kick out of what has been and the musings of where it may go.

The only histories we can comment on definitively are the ones already written.

Every once in a while I'll read some bit by a popular writer who will claim--after a fashion--that he predicted or somehow foresaw recent developments in the history of human civilization. I always read these claims with interest, and then pour upon them all of the disgust and contempt that is mine to bestow. The arrogance and self-delusion at work in this kind of claim must come easy for some people. But even so, it astounds me. I think that it comes from a feeling or hope that individual humans have any influence at all upon what will be.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The reason for these own musing of mine are a recent article (widely published) that a certain man (widely respected by many--but not by me) who claims that he saw the so-called "Arab Spring" coming and--like some kind of Messiah--had been proclaiming its coming for years. The social elite does produce some disgusting individuals with overblown opinions of themselves. Such claims are always so much hot air. No man can predict, but there are many who can record. And, sadly, a few who make insane claims.

Among my favorite writers are men who retreated from thinking that anything one could say or do could influence the world at large. George Carlin comes to mind when I read things like that recent article. Kurt Vonnegut occurs to me when I see exclamation of coming utopia. These are men who knew that there was no pie-in-the-sky. Foremost among the writers I admire, I think of Charles Bukowski at times like this.

The Great Bukowski.

Bukowski had started his adult life as a Nazi sympathizer but quickly mellowed into a kind of amused apathy toward his species, and retreated to the wine bottle and a life of inspired musing that resulted in volumes of brilliant poetry and prose. What the heck? When it comes to human beings, there really is no reason to be optimistic, and certainly no basis for claiming prescience.

For there is one thing about Homo sapiens that I--and anyone else--can say. It does have a future, and that future is extinction.

A reminder of the final history that awaits us all.

Politics and Creative Folk

Sometimes I make a point of trying to avoid the political, religious, and philosophical beliefs of some of my favorite writers and artists. Often I find that creators whose work I had long admired are--politically and philosophically speaking--assholes.

Thus it is with one of my favorite comic book artists Chester Brown. For many years I have admired his work as an independent writer/artist. I supported his comic YUMMY FUR during the months when the book was being attacked and boycotted by an overbearing comic book distributor who is now (happily for me) bankrupt.

Sample art from what is my favorite Chester Brown comic series, Louis Riel, a biography of the Metis revolutionary Louis Riel. (A man who has far more in common with Che Guevara than with any Libertarian scum.)

His work is not only impossible to categorize, but it is almost impossible to describe. It's part fantasy, part autobiography, part biography. It is always thought-provoking and overwhelmingly unique and interesting.

Regular readers of my blog know that I absolutely hate Libertarians. I've never met one that I like and I find their political goals to be completely harmful to society and to almost every individual. I have absolutely no respect on either an intellectual basis or a moral basis for anyone who proclaims to be a Libertarian. (I must make it clear that "Libertarian" does not mean the ACLU which, as a civil liberties proponent protects us all from the shite who compose the various Libertarian parties working to destroy society for corporate power.)

And so it was with shock and disgust that I read that not only is Chester Brown a Libertarian, but that he stands in as a candidate for elective office as a member of the Libertarian Party of Canada. Fortunately he has never finished higher than next-to-last place in any race, and I hope this track record continues.


Will this knowledge that he's part of a wholly evil and destructive political party influence my appreciation of his work? I hope not, but there will always be the subconscious knowledge that he holds as dear thoughts and ideas that I find to be completely and utterly noxious. However, I think that I can still seek out and enjoy his books. As with his like-minded fellow travelers of the extreme right--folk such as Peter Bagge and Steve Ditko--I'll still read and view and enjoy his creations, despite the fact that I find his views to be execrate.



On becoming a whore-hopper.

His latest autobiographic work on deciding to frequent prostitutes.

The Idiots Never Get It

I've covered Phil Ochs here before. One of the men of our short-lived flirtation with revolution whom I sincerely admire. Yeah, I know he snapped and his life ended on a truly long and disturbing downhill slide, but for a while he was brilliant and courageous and worth hearing.

One of the songs that he wrote was "Love Me, I'm a Liberal". It sums up what he thought of the American liberal. And when I heard it all of my own thoughts and feelings toward liberals were given voice: they're a bunch of limp cowards who accomplish nothing save preserving the status quo at the expense of standing up and actually creating a just world.

A few months ago I stumbled upon a video of Mojo Nixon singing Mr. Ochs' tune for all the wrong reasons. Mojo Nixon is a right wing rat-shit who thought his cover of the old tune was quite clever. In fact, it was wrong on every level I could possibly imagine. The fact that this cover was disseminated proves that there are no ghosts, else Phil Ochs would have returned from the dead and ripped Mojo Nixon's guts out in front of the cameras recording this travesty. In an ideal Phil Ochs kind of world, Nixon and his neo-Fascist cohorts would be in reeducation camps or hanging from a gallows. It's too bad this could not come to pass.

Here are the lyrics of Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" without the smarmy disgusting presence of right wing shithead Mojo Nixon:

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal


And here is a song tribute to Phil Ochs by, ironically, a liberal. But at least the song is heartfelt and not spat out by a greedy, hateful, ignorant Libertarian shithead like Mojo Nixon:

Gale Norton was Scum

The main difference between Democrats and Republicans is that genuine environmental protections and anti-pollution environmental regulations are actually promoted and pushed when Democrats are in charge. When Republicans control the government, the thing you can count on is environmental rape and allowing corporations to do as they please.

I was very pleased to read this today.

Not only was new wilderness discouraged during the illegitimate Bush administration, the horrid skank in charge of the Interior and our parks, forests, and wild lands was actually a Libertarian sack of shit who thought of Nature as just something to exploit. Well, now that illegitimate so-called "President" is gone and his pet monster in the Interior is also history. May they both rot.

A monster as ugly on the outside as it is on the inside.

I always thought Gale Norton looked like a Ferengi, who were designed by the Trek folk to be the ultimate capitalist/Libertarian scum. It was fitting that Gale Norton resemble these filthy intergalactic worms.

Gale Norton was scum.

The Bush Depression

It's weird to walk around and see brand new unsold houses just sitting and deteriorating. No one can buy them. I wanted to take a closer look at a small subdivision near where we currently live. It was to have been an upscale development with about a dozen home sites. All of the houses were slated to be well over 4,000 square feet with relatively large lots. The city of Mint Hill put in underground power and installed sewer and water. Three houses were completed, two as models, and a fourth was under construction when the W. Moron Bush Depression hit full steam in 2008.

One of the houses was sold at bargain-basement price so it's off the market legitimately. One now has a new church building built right behind it (I'm talking within feet), so I doubt anyone would want it now. The uncompleted house is just sitting there getting overgrown with weeds and filling slowly up with leaves and wind-blown trash. The other completed house is at the far end of the street on a cul-de-sac and is still technically for sale, although at an asking price of $571,000 it appears to be someone's idea of a bad broker's joke.

I just felt like taking a closer look at the stillborn neighborhood to remind myself once again why I don't want to reinstall the greedy, monstrous idiots who already wrecked this nation. What's left for them to steal? I'm sure they'll find what remains and pry it out of our grasp.

The house abandoned about 70% complete. No one's touched it since late 2008.

Carole and I inspect the upstairs (third floor). It would have been one Hell of a nice place. Classic McMansion design but a cut or two above that in quality. It had what appeared to be four bedrooms on the third floor.

Inside the three-car garage. They never got around to installing the garage doors so the place is filling up with leaves and dirt.

This is the completed house at the end of the street that technically is still up for sale. Listed at almost $600K, no one is going to pay anywhere close to that. The weeds are overtaking it and mud is building up at this low end of the avenue.

Standing in front of that last house and looking back up the street where there were to have been many more luxury homes. And the scum who caused all of this claim this nation still needs the same policies that put us in this state in the first place.

Ojectivists are Assholes

This here ugly stack of feces is Penn Jillette.

I hate this asshole.

I'd seen him pop up from time to time in my life, so I vaguely knew who he was. He has a gimmicky magic act that he does with some clown who won't ever talk (or make any noise at all): goes by the name of Teller. Cute act, I reckon, since he made a living at it. The guy is huge and vaguely deformed looking to me. There's always been something freaky about his physical appearance that bothers me. And that horrid voice...give me a break!

Already you can tell that I was never a fan. Shticks can only go so far, in my opinion. His outlived its polish about a week after he came up with it. Later I heard him do a bit on NPR about not believing in any god. Okay. Cool. He gave a rather simplistic talk about the subject, but I could dig it.

Then I found out he had a series on Showtime called BULLSHIT. I watched it, just to see what it was about. There was that hideous voice of his that I'd have to sit and hear, but I was curious. After a few minutes of that crap it hit me:

The turd-lapper is an Objectivist! A Libertarian! A follower of that fascist whore, Ayn Rand! He didn't have to say that specifically, but I could read through the pro-corporate crap, the thinly-veiled racism, the praise of complete and utter selfishness. This shit-smear is a deluxe kisser of plutocratic ass-crack! Nobody kisses rich ass like a man willing to be paid big bucks to do so, and Penn Jillette stands almost front and center to get his deformed lips around some billionaire anus. BULLSHIT, indeed.

I've never quite understood the appeal of these Objectivist/Libertarian spokesmen. They pretty much come right out and tell their audience that they're a bunch of losers and leeches, drains on society who exist merely to prop up the lives of the rich and powerful. How could that possibly appeal to the folk I see following these monsters?

I suppose what it boils down to is that these idiot followers don't realize that they're so monumentally stupid. They think they're smart! They actually believe they're the Ayn Rand super-capitalists who are going to get rich while the moronic underclass live to be their customers. It was when I realized this fact that I knew this was why people would pay money to let someone rape them.

Now if I could only find a photo of Jillette doing Teller up the ass I could make this blog complete today.




Nazi Rat Bastard Antics!

RepubliKKKans are Nazi racist shithead bastards.

Whiny Assholes

I'd been holding this essay in reserve. I knew that it would only be a short matter of time before one of the newly armed hikers in our National Parks started killing our top predators. My only regret about this story is that the "hiker" who fired the shots will not himself be shot down like the rabid dog he is. (And I'm sick of mentioning the 30K+ people shot to death every year in the USA.)

If you don't want to deal with the realities of hiking in grizzly bear country, then don't go! If you feel the need to carry a weapon because bears frighten you, then point the barrel of your loaded gun to your skull and pull the trigger. But don't hike in our wilderness areas, you gun-humping morons.

You Spoiled Rotten Asswipes

Great Jove, now I have to worry about guns in our National Parks. Shit! How long before gun-mad shitheads shoot the first bear, wolf, or bison (or hiker) in our parks?

The group I fondly refer to as the Nazi Rat Assholes have always been, to me, the perfect example of the spoiled rotten brat. They have their stinking guns and if one even mentions the regulation of these insane weapons of mass destruction, they go into a full-on wacko temper tantrum. Like a goddamned whiny asshole. It's kind of like having hundreds of thousands of little Kim Jong-ils around. Only they don't have nyewkyewler weapons. Not yet, at least.

Typical gun owner reaction to sane gun control.

The USA is a madhouse of a nation packed with firearms which produce tens of thousands of murders and unintentional gun-related deaths each and every year. The latest figures that I could confirm from the CDC were for 2006 (a Bush-the-unelected year) and they indicate just shy of 31,000 deaths due to firearms within the USA. I couldn't locate any reliable numbers for gun-related injuries, but these must be many times greater than the numbers of killed.

If any nation on Earth has proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the average citizen should not be allowed anywhere fucking near a gun, much less private ownership of them, it is the USA. Who tends to have and hoard and use these guns? Criminals and racist groups. Do guns protect anyone? No, they do not. The very presence of a firearm in one's house is an invitation for tragedy. The gun-owner is far more likely to see his gun used against a family member than to have that gun "protect" him or his property. And Jove help him if the local criminal element learns that he has guns in his house--for his house will soon be burglarized and the guns stolen. Keep in mind that every illegal gun starts out as a "legal" gun.

The nature of my job puts me outside among the public every day for several hours per day. I've been caught in crossfire on three different occasions. On one of those occasions I came within a few inches of being shot. The bullet whizzed past my thigh and entered the ground just in front of me. Since the shot was fired from behind me, I never even saw that the person with the weapon had a gun in hand until she fired (out of anger) at a woman standing in front of me. One time I came upon the scene of a drive-by to discover that a ten-year-old boy had been shot accidentally when he got in the way of the intended target. He didn't live.

One of my co-workers was at a local gym with his son. An outside altercation moved into the gym when one of the folk arguing began running for his life and ducked into the gym--my co-worker, playing basketball with his son, was in the way and was gunned down. He survived, but only after a lengthy period during which he had to recover from the gunshot wound (the bullet passed through his torso, gravely injuring him). Another of my co-workers was at an intersection when a man casually drew a pistol from his jacket and shot a third man standing beside my co-worker, (who hauled ass and was not injured).


If the numbers of killed and wounded in this nation were posted for any other country, one would have to conclude that said country was in the midst of a war. Even some civil wars don't produce the numbers of killed and maimed that we do in the USA with our warped and diseased affair with the mass production and mass ownership of guns.

And here's the deal:You don't have a fucking right to own a gun.

No matter what some right-wing sack of shit on the illegitimate Supreme Court might say. No matter the ravings of self-centered asswipe Libertarians, our Constitution called for a standing army, not the mass ownership of unregulated guns in the hands of any racist, spoiled rotten, criminal-minded dink who craves such.


You Nazi Rat Assholes...do us all a favor. Load your guns and turn them on yourselves like thousands of depressed, desperate people do in this nation every year. Do it right and it'll all be over in an instant. If Ernest Hemingway can do it, surely you can, too. But of course you can't be counted on for that. You're all a bunch of right wing tools, one of the plutocracy's trump cards, the pro-corporate base on which they lather the mortar. Fuck the lot of you.

Immigrants

A couple of years ago, when the Republicans were really trying to generate some racist groundswell, things were reaching a fever pitch when it came to the subject of "illegal immigrants". Everyone knew who they were talking about--generally people who hailed from Mexico, but also from other points mainly in Central America. One guy I knew seemed very upset at the "illegal aliens" and was complaining to me about them, asking me what I thought. This guy is Italian and Catholic and has a Jewish wife, so he should have known better than to buy into that "illegal immigrant" bullcrap.

So I let him have it. Both barrels. Twelve gauge JR Smith double-ought buckshot.

I think he got the message.

The thing is, I don't care about "illegal immigrants". I don't care. If they get health care, so be it. If their children can go to school, then great. If they can make money and buy groceries or even get some welfare, I don't give the first speck of shit. Good for them! As far as I can tell, almost all of them work, and they work hard. They also spend the money they make. If we all end up having to learn to speak Spanish...well, I don't care.

The way I see it (and I know the historical facts), we stole about half the nation of Mexico from them. We suckered them into a war, beat their asses, and took Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Arizona, etc. and etc. We fucking stole it. So if "Mexicans" are coming across the border...well, they're just coming back.

And even if you take the position that Mexico screwed the Native Americans out of their lands the same way the USA did, then I still don't have a problem with claiming that we stole half of Mexico. You know why? Because most people from south of our border are mainly of American Indian descent. They have the blood of the Incas and the Aztecs and the Apache and the Pima and the rest of the great tribes flowing through their veins. So even then, they're just returning.

Welcome home.

Pancho Villa.

Fans

There are things that I like in pop culture. Some of these things I like enough to consider myself a "fan". The word "fan" is an abbreviation for "fanatic". Now that latter term is not generally a nice word, but the shortened version means something far more acceptable. A "fan" buys autographs. A "fanatic" throws bombs at civilians.

I'm actually a fan of the works of a number of artists and writers. I consider myself a fan of the American writer Ray Bradbury and I consider myself to be a fan of the American comic book artist Steve Ditko. Both of these guys are very talented within their field of work, and both of them are right wing extremists when it comes to politics. That's okay, because I don't admire them because of who they vote for, but for the way they create works of art. And in Bradbury's case, it's clear to me and everyone else who bothers to look to see that he was a leftie in his youth and (like many other bitter old farts) became a right wing jerk in his twilight years.

Their political and philosophical views did not make me avoid, nor attract me to their works. In the case of Ray Bradbury he wrote so beautifully that I consumed every short story collection he published and scrounged for every magazine and anthology that carried his work. He started me down a road that eventually led me to becoming a published author. I owe him quite a lot for that, I love him for that, and I am his fan for that.

Similarly with Ditko I was attracted to his creations and his style of artwork in comics. He created two of my very favorite comic book characters: The Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. I have never used the word "genius" when it comes to comic book creators, but Steve Ditko comes pretty damned close to that term. His style is totally unique among comic book artists. No one else has ever been able to draw like him, and very few seem to use the comic book layout in quite so imaginative and intelligent a manner. But I'm convinced that the man is as crazy as a tick on a marble statue of Lassie. Still and all, I am one of his fans.

I'm so much a fan of the works of these two old gentlemen that I collect their various publications. I own first editions by Ray Bradbury, at least two of them autographed by him. Similarly, I own original comic books illustrated (and written) by Steve Ditko. I go out of my way to purchase these items and spend good money on them. I enjoy these things and I consider the collecting of them to be pleasant hobbies and actually good investments.

However, one thing that I did in the case of both men that I utterly regret is to join fan groups dedicated to them. In both cases I thought that I would read insightful commentary on the merits of the creations of Mr. Bradbury and Mr. Ditko. In both cases I was sadly mistaken.

For, in the case of both of these groups of so-called "fans", I found them to be packed with monsters who actually follow Bradbury and Ditko because of their crazed political ideals. It's one thing to like a man despite the fact that he's a fascist or a racist or an advocate of the rape of Mother Earth. But it's another thing entirely to actually agree with those ideas and admire the men who spout such bullshit. After joining a Bradbury group I found virtually the whole jumble of these folk to be right wing creeps. After a short time I vacated that online madhouse and moved on, trying to forget the insanity I'd seen there.

Later, having conveniently forgotten my experience with Mr. Bradbury's diseased fan base, I joined an online group of Steve Ditko fans. Once again I made the mistake of assuming that these people would want to discuss the various points concerning Ditko's artwork and his vast and varied career in the publishing industry. Oh, I knew there would be some discussion of his wacky political ideas, but I really couldn't believe that almost all of the people in the group would actually be adherents of fascism. I was wrong. After a while I realized that these creeps actually admired Mr. Ditko's diseased political and philosophical teachings! I was stunned, but why should I have been? I'd walked into a leech-infested swamp. I spread as much salt as I could on the infestation and left.

Oh, well. I guess I'll continue to be a fan of this or that. It's in my nature. But I'll never get used to discovering folk who wish to follow the rantings of tired senile old farts stewing in hatred and contempt for the common man who, strangely, admire them for that contempt.