Meet Will Fulig Norance, American voter

While perusing various media for presidential race tidbits I felt as if I was checking out Politics For Dummies in the library. Besides the fact that some people actually sprint away from facts when they come to political conclusions (like vampires hate sunlight?), there is apparently a rabid infestation of willful ignorance when voters are presented with facts. How dare someone hurl such epithets as "statistics bear this out" at them! The nerve of stat boys.

Some voters go so far as to sell their soul just to feed their ravenous bias. A Christian pro-lifer I know is voting for a liberal candidate with a decades long pro-choice record (that was only recently flipped when they registered for the presidential race) simply because of the candidate's economic policies. How very "Christian values" of them to value money over the unborn. When I pointed out this glaring inconsistency in their supposed moral fortitude I was viciously and relentlessly attacked. The truth hurts and this particular child of God didn't mind crucifying me with their personal attacks. The mark of the beast is apparently "truth-spewing Democrats" and they must be destroyed!

What would Jesus do? Evidence suggests that some of His followers will:

1) Deny the poor access to this country and build a wall to keep them out
2) Deny the poor access to healthcare while the rich wallow in good health
3) Start an unprovoked war with His supposed guidance and kill innocent civilians
4) Support the death penalty because their judgment trumps His
5) Vote for pro-choice candidates to potentially save a few bucks

They will do all this while invoking His name as their guide and savior. Exactly how are they being guided when their actions are the opposite of what He deemed sacrosanct? Could it be they're using His name in vain? Will His divine punishment be a win for the Democrats come November? We'll know when and if the Republican pillars turn to salt.

Sewing the Astroturf.

The body of Ricky Bryant, Jr., 26 is being brought home today for funeral services on Monday. A tragic story from out of state with a hometown connection.

13WHAM reported on yesterdays six o'clock broadcast that as of their earlier story regarding Officer Bryant they had received numerous calls seeking details of the motorcade route. Really?

From 13WHAM:

People who live along the motorcade route are asked to show their support by placing an American flag outside their home or by standing along the procession route.

Shortly after the six o'clock broadcast I received the following email which was forwarded to me. Emphasis is mine.

Ricky Bryant Jr.was a Marine Veteran who served for four years and went on to work as a police officer in Georgia and was killed while working. He grew up here in the Rochester area and his body will be returned here tomorrow for burial. They have requested people to line the route from the airport with flags to show support for the family. Is this something that we can pass along to the volunteers?

Sounds fair enough to pay due respect to this fallen police officer and veteran. He served our country and community and for that we are grateful. But who is They? A grassroots organization? The Police Department? The Marine Corps? The family?

I suspect, and forgive me for appearing crass in such somber circumstances, that it is the media that is They. They need a story. They need good footage. They need to beat the competitors to the scoop. They want you to believe. They need you to believe. They are the ones that feed the hungry. A Bright Spot in your day amidst the muck.

This my dear friends is astroturfing. And there is no better astroturf than hyperlocal astroturf. Watch and hear the words and images placed before you, as you are the consumer, and it is your duty. Although consumption has its low desperate points. Reaching for the Ipecac, sliding your finger down your throat all the way to the wedding ring or an involuntary reflex of a body that has had enough.

Did I mention the forwarded email was from Allison K. Watts, Executive Producer, 13 WHAM TV.

Enjoy the show.

How to dismantle a nuclear country

How to dismantle a nuclear country: Bush's legacy in America

First, turn off the "on" button.

In metaphorical terms this means enacting policies that kill the economy.

What is the best way to turn off the economy? Start a fabricated war, base it on fabricated data, arm soldiers with fabricated protection, plans, and post-service health care, and fabricate the effectiveness of the fabricated war.

Pay for the war by cutting taxes? Urge citizens to shop their patriotism until their wallets are as empty as their president's heart and mind. The void can be comforting if it's for a good cause.

Second, separate the two wires.

This means working to nurture the divide between the two parties of Congress and also our allies. Use phrases like "You're either with us or against us." That really helps. Don't forget the thinly veiled suggestion of bombing our allies and trumping up infractions by Iran. Call other countries "The Axis of Evil." In fact, use the term "evil" when anyone crosses you. Annihilate the wires so that there is little hope of ever reconnecting them.

Third, pray and run.

This means invoking an invisible, all-powerful entity to guide your success and yet still run because you are used to being AWOL and you don't really want to hang out as leader of this country anyway. Besides, it was your daddy's idea.

Tom's mountain

"Monticello" means "little mountain" in Italian and it's the name of Thomas Jefferson's estate. Before he called it this though Jefferson and his best friend Dabney Carr affectionately called it "Tom's mountain."

Jefferson was climbing metaphorical mountains at an early age and the steps he carved into the country's symbolic landscape are the path we should be following. However with Bush and the Republicans, both nationally and locally, we have fallen off the trail. It is so much harder today for the majority of Americans to aspire to Jefferson's imagined utopia of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The economy is in a slow down, debt is rising, the housing market is abysmal, it costs a fortune to go to college and our country is at war in two countries and is threatening to enter a third. What kind of life and liberty is this? We're not pursuing happiness, we're pursuing economic and environmental oblivion. We've seemingly fallen off "Tom's mountain" entirely.

When the Boston Tea Party was held Jefferson enlisted Virginians to show their collective support by a day of fasting. It led to The Continental Congress which blazed the trail for The Declaration of Independence. Interestingly, what led to the Boston Tea Party is England needing money to pay for another war, so they implemented a tax on the British American colony. This incensed the American colonists and one little tea party became the first step carved into the mountain of American independence.

Bush and Congress should learn the lesson of the other King across the pond, the one who lost his prized possession when he needed more funding for a war and tried to garner it on the backs of Americans.

We need a leader who will get us back to "Tom's mountain."

The Color of Money

The Green Brighton Task Force, created by Supervisor Frankel, started off the new year with a shindig at the Brighton Town Hall on January 7th.

Asking the public to pledge a 10% reduction in their "consumption of finite natural resources and increase their use of renewable resources." I preferred the web version rather than the paper, but hey, what's a few trees between friends.

"We've got to make our government, schools & homes more energy efficient, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce our reliance on imported oil. It just makes sense on so many levels," said town supervisor, Sandy Frankel.

Apparently, no one mentioned this little hippie thing called carpooling to the event. PACKED from front to back, more than I've ever seen at Town Hall. How else can you show off how Green you are by driving your Prius, alone.

Color Brighton Green is the official website for the Green Brighton Task Force.

I guess its by chance but the domain name for the organization expires on November 4, 2008........Election Day.

Now that's commitment.

A new meaning for "Zero Tolerance"

From a recent post by ladkiddo, whose writing I respect, on Rochesterturning.com, a local progressive website:

"...population control isn’t something that we want to talk about. It invokes words like “birth control”, “contraception” and “abortion”, and boy, we don’t want to offend anybody with that kind of talk.

Population control evokes many difficulties. Human beings, like all living creatures, naturally wish to procreate. Attempts to prevent conception or to interrupt pregnancy instill fears of playing God. Implementation of a program to monitor population pits haves against have-nots and decision-makers against decision-takers. Even if today no more babies were born, the human population would continue to grow from the present-day 6 billion to 11 billion or more before tapering off."

The post included snippets from a letter to City News addressing an essay by Bill McKibben, author of "Maybe One: A Case For Smaller Families."

So, are local liberals seriously asking us to believe that the population can nearly double with NO procreation? How? Mitosis? A new definition of "personhood" that includes our imaginary friends?

Most importantly, is this a new definition for "Zero Tolerance," as in no tolerance for anything other than zero on our tax forms where it lists number of dependents?

I am concerned about global warming but if people want to be taken seriously they cannot advocate for removing one of the joys of humanity, specifically the innate desire many people possess to have a child. If we remove the things that make us human, in this case removing little humans from our lives, then what is the goal, a world with only animals living on it?

The birthrate of the western world is already declining. It seems the author (McKibben) is preaching to the choir. A more rational and feasible approach is to "teach your children well" (thanks, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) so that we live in unison with the planet instead of engaging in self-annihilation. Bush and Co. are doing enough of that by themselves.

LSD&C

From the Democrat and Chronicle:

"Thumbs down For the 3.1 million young people, ages 12 through 25, who have used cough or cold medicine to get high. A government report found that the use is comparable to LSD, and much greater that [sic] methamphetamine in the same age group."

Let me get the straight, no pun intended. The government report likens the use of cough remedies to LSD? Are we referring to the effects or the frequency?

If it is the effects, well, I'd have to say I've been under the weather a few times and never felt as though I was at a Dead show.

If it is the frequency, why then does the media pay so much attention to the destructive nature of methamphetamine production and usage? Because your local meth lab doesn't advertise. Just think of all the bucks they could bring in if you had an audience of crank freaks scanning the channels for cool, fast and ADHD laden imagery promoting the bump du jour.

Just because...

Sometimes you just feel like it.

This and that....

Today is Iraq Army Day and celebrations were disrupted by yet another bombing.

From Reuters:

Reuters television footage showed a group of soldiers dancing in a tight circle in the street, waving their AK-47 assault rifles in the air and chanting "Where is terrorism today?" just minutes before the bomber struck.

snip

Reuters photographer Mohammed Ameen was taking pictures of an elderly resident placing flowers into the barrels of three soldiers' rifles when he was rocked by a thunderous bang.

Today is also the wedding anniversary of the parents of The Decider.

Last night I ran into a local re-elected Brighton Dem at an Irish pub. When asked about a certain policy change of the Town the answer was, "It's a no-brainer, many towns have been doing it for a long time." Why then has it taken this administration 16 years to adopt this no-brainer?

My oldest son's gender was questioned by a spectator at his lacrosse game yesterday shortly before knocking the questioning spectator's kid on there ass. The Eldest Spawn of Monkey has long flowing blond hair protruding from his helmet and resting below his shoulders. It's dreamy.

The Town of Brighton has launched a new website. Wow! More on that later.

And finally... "Is photography dead?"

The Passing of Nona.

My neighbor, a dear friend, lost their mother last night. Nona was one cool lady and we had many a wonderful conversation over the ten years I've known her.

I suppose it was for the best as her health was rapidly deteriorating. She had moved up the street from us earlier this year to The Legacy at Clover Blossom here in Brighton. The Legacy purchased the property from The Sisters of Mercy amidst some financial hardships and plenty of stroking of the Town of Brighton. I'm sure the Sisters would be disgusted at the events I'll briefly describe.

Upon Nona's passing she was found, by an employee of The Legacy, in her room on the floor, gone. The family was called and upon their arrival entered the room to find Nona in the same position as that of her last breath. When asked why there mother was on the still on the floor surrounded in vomit, the Legacy responded, "We don't get paid to move'em.".

What about decency and a tiny bit of respect?

Hey Legacy proper, fuck you, and your SOP. And to the Legacy employee whose response made me ill, you are a sad commentary on the state of compassion in a world seemingly void of good deeds without a payday.

It was only today I learned her name was Mary Ellen.

Does Rudy shit in the woods?

After checking in on Exile's post over at Rochesterturning I came across this little diddy from Bonzo.











Somethings never change.

Stealing your soul

"Are you saved?" That is the question posed to me not long ago. If this stranger meant when Rudy Giuliani "bravely" grabbed that ultimate of all reassuring modern weapons, the megaphone, and yelled to the already converted (i.e., post-attack fervent patriots eager to embrace anyone with a mouthpiece), then yes, I was "saved." (If I ever forget, Giuliani's ads remind me nightly.) But no, this stranger meant had I submitted to ethereal theft.

Why theft?

If my soul is so valuable then why do religious organizations ask for tithes? I thought they were only interested in the well-being of my afterlife's wraith and faith. I'm fresh out of both. If I willingly comply and just fork over the cash then I am complicit in the stealing of my soul. Sorry, there's no Faust in this house. I refuse to be a victim of this celestial sleight of hand.

"But tithes will pay for our new mega worship building to the Savior so we can reach even more souls." Yes! Vainglorious displays scream "piety." Besides, Jesus was known for his ostentatious ways, right?

If in doubt ask "What would Jesus do?" I don't know, but if I go by the current modern mega church movement, Jesus would be doing it in style simulcast on three networks. "Your personal Savior brought to you by Halliburton" has such an intimate ring to it.

Sound the bagpipes!

Here at Sconset and Monkey the motto is optimism. (snark) For the new year I, as The Decider, have opted to open the doors to a new contributor and broaden the scope of rants about politics, culture, art, fetishism and well, whatever comes to the Internets via gigantic tubes from our newest poster.

After all, it's about the evolution of Sconset and Monkey not its creation. Granted if the standards of decorum are not bashed to pieces, our new friend will have their ass kicked to the curb. Not in some Green fucking hippy recycling way, but in the trash with the rest of the garbage, like a styrofoam cup from the eighties, perched upon a heap of never decaying waste, where time stands still, forever.

Without further adieu, it is with great pleasure to introduce you to Kaos.

Get to work, fucker.

East Rochester, NY 1/2/08

Too many cameras and not enough food.

Happy New Year.