Not Quite Holy Joe

In July, it's going to be 5 years since I had a drink, and today marks 22 days without a cigarette. The lovely miss Claire observed that we are now officially without any real vices. I pointed out that I am still an avid scratch lottery enthusiast, so don't be callin' me holy Joe yet. I will damn well scratch myself into debt to keep up the appearance of at least some semblance of impropriety (no, I actually wouldn't do that, but I can say I would).

Glenn Beck is one hell of a funny and cool guy, and he's as straight an arrow as they come. He once called Hillary Clinton Mussolini in a pant suit - how could you not love a guy like that?

Attitude - that's it. He's got attitude. Attitude is the bane of razor sharp intellectuals like James Bowman, but at least if I have attitude, it gives the impression that I am a walking den of debauchery, the kind of guy who drinks Johnny Walker like Aquafina, smokes like a cab driver and snorts cocaine off the backs of strippers.

I even have to limit my intake of diet soft drinks and coffee. The jack-booted henchman at Simply For Life have forbidden pop or coffee of any sort for the next 3 weeks, but I am allowed a cup of tea per day. YAY! Next I'll be snacking on Melba toast after my prune juice enemas.

I'm kidding. I was once such a problem drinker that weekend benders landed me in the hospital or detox on more occasions then I care to remember. I often found myself in really dangerous places or situations - like at after hours bars that swept you with a metal detector and patted you down for weapons before you could enter. A single shot of domestic rum at one of those hell holes would set you back about 8 bucks - going rate for the privilege of a couple of extra hours of drinking surrounded by guys swapping prison gang rape stories and women who looked like they could use a good delousing.

But who am I kidding? I was never a bad ass. Just some mild mannered, good natured guy with a quick wit, a modest talent for writing, and a hard core drinking problem. I joined AA, slipped and fell a few times, and once it caught, I never looked back.

Do I miss beer? Sometimes. Would I like a cigarette right now? F#*ck yes. I would light my hair on fire for a pull of sweet, sweet smoke. So I guess I'm a man of no - or nominal - vice.

Well, I'm getting married to the lovely Miss Claire this September. We've travelled to points far and wide together over the past two years, and life has never been better. I guess being a vice lite kind of guy isn't that bad after all.

Before I go I would like to thank all my readers for the overwhelming response to our first podcast. There will be more to come! Enjoy the sounds of Cloud Cult as we head into the weekend!

Cordially

Joe

Radio Free Hype

Welcome to Radio Free Hype!

Click here to listen to our first podcast!

Cordially

Joe

Oh Israel, My Israel

The Straight Hype has acquired, through our sources in the Nigerian underworld, a brand spanking new computer. Well, it’s actually an old computer that was acquired by fierce negotiations, but as the old NBC motto goes, if you haven’s seen it, it’s new to you. The guy who sold it to me bartered it for a Celine Dion CD and a bootlegged copy of “Manimal-The Box Set” VHS edition. This will hopefully lead to more blogs posts, but I wouldn’t count on it given my track record.

I originally planned on going in another direction with this blog post, after making the ill advised decision to tune into CBC Pacific radio while taking a relaxing bath - basically the equivalent of inviting Cynthia McKinney to sit on your toilet seat and allow her to go off unplugged while trying to luxuriate in your goat's milk bubble bath. After my anger had abated - precious seconds before my Incredible Hulk heart meter began flashing red warning lights - I decided to go in a (slightly different) direction, although I must warn the pod people at CBC radio that they would definitely not like me when I'm angry.

CBC radio is the Canadian equivalent of the U.S.'s NPR, which really should speak volumes to my more astute American readership. During the program on Thursday night - hosted by two sanctimonious middle aged crows - a Palestinian relief worker and someone from the PR department at the Israeli government were each given turns to speak. The Palestinian fellow - whose voice was so full of bile he sounded like he was strapping on a suicide belt - described how it was impossible to go out without wading through mounds of dead babies and puppies. He claimed that there was absolutely no power, water, food, medical supplies, diet Mr. Pibbs, Korans, Milk of Magnesia, or copies of Cracked anywhere to be found. Why? The Israelis, of course! If this fool was to be believed, they had bombed every hospital, school, and falafel maker in the entire Gaza strip. Then he said something that intelligence agencies have stated is a new and rapidly growing trick among Hamas sympathizers. He claimed he was especially terrified because his children had "special needs". You will hear this frequently from many people claiming to have been unjustly victimized by Israel. The reason they say this is not because their children have special needs. They say this because it elicits an immediate emotional response from Western listeners. Not once was this gentleman challenged, or asked to verify a single piece of information he had spewed out. He was simply given a free pass as the CBC harpies gushed over themselves to wish him a safe trip home.

Next up was the PR guy from the Israeli Government. Despite immediately being put on the defensive by the the radio hosts, he was calm and confident and reminded the ladies that just 2 days ago over 5 million dollars in humanitarian aid was safely delivered into Gaza under the auspices of the United Nations. He also confirmed that power and utilities were working in over 90% of the Strip and was happy to provide independent verification of these facts. CBC's lefty tag team would have none of it. They peppered the poor chap in rapid fire succession with statements rather than questions about how the international community was demanding the Israeli Government be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The spokesperson tried - amidst constant interruptions - to explain Israel's right to defend itself as a sovereign nation against years of unprovoked bombings, rocket attacks, and a laundry list of atrocities commited by Hamas and their ilk.

He was quickly dismissed but unrattled. It seemed he and other people in his department are well used to these kinds of media hit and runs.

Had he been given the time, he may have been able to crunch a few numbers for the fascists at CBC radio. Since the year 2000, 1,176 people have been killed by Palestinian terrorists. This number includes 18 Israelis who were targeted while abroad, and 3 American service personnel working to help the people of Gaza. The number of wounded at the hands of militant Palestinians tops the scale at an astounding 8,300 for a total of close to 10,000 wounded and killed in just 8 short years.

The international community's response? It would seem they are asking the Israeli's to sit back and take it on the chin as their buses, schools, homes, restaurants, and hospitals are bombarded by Hamas rockets on an almost weekly basis.

Let me be clear. This is not a war against the Palestinian people. This is a war against Hamas and like minded terrorist groups who do not believe Israel has a right to exist, and when they say that, they are not talking about the international validity of Israeli statehood - they fervently believe that the Jews are an inferior race, descended from rats, who must be annihilated off the face of the earth - and so do a lot of Arabs living abroad.

In anti-Israeli demonstrations from Britain to British Columbia, "ordinary Muslims" were holding signs and placards reading "Hitler didn't do enough" and "Build bigger ovens". Don't we have hate crime laws in Canada? Some poor schmuck from Alberta wrote a letter to the editor questioning the constitutional validity of gay marriage and he was harangued by the courts for years, yet people can parade in the streets advocating the gassing of Jews and extolling the virtues of Hitler without fear of reprisal.

Last year in Somalia, 16,000 civilians were killed by Jihadists fighting Ethiopian forces. I don't remember anyone in the main stream media, let alone CBC, call for war crimes charges to be brought against the Somalians who perpetrated that Genocide.

You can play with language all you want. When protesters around the world are holding up signs calling for the gassing and burning of Jews, and you continue to delude yourself into believing that Palestinians are simply "freedom fighters" waging war against an unjust Zionist occupying force, then you, my friend, are engaging in intellectual dishonesty of the worst order.

Hamas and their supporters don't want peace, land or self-determination. They want mountains of dead Jews and bigger ovens. It's happened before because of international apathy. It can happen again.

Alright. Sorry for all the doom and gloom in that article, but the Hype strives for a higher purpose than weekly doses of fart jokes and anecdotes about gastro-intestinal infections. At least sometimes.

Hope you had a great weekend. Here's a great new song by Ben Folds featuring my favorite song siren, Regina Spektor, called "You don't know me at all".

Enjoy.

Cordially

Joe

Happy New Year From All Of Us At The Hype

Hi, my name is Joe Leger. That's me in the picture over there - editor of The Straight Hype(TM). You may remember me from such movies as It Was Broken When I Got Here; Doctor, it Burns Where it Shouldn't Burn; and Cilantro, The Misunderstood Herb.

The New Year is upon us, and it is customary here at Hype Central to make an amusing and entertaining list of predictions. This year, however, in the spirit of "Change" that has been the credo of so many misguided North Americans as of late (ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little), I shall make a list of rants that may appear to have no purpose, yet when viewed collectively by future generations, will contain within them a wisdom that defined us in deep and profound ways. So here we go...

Thoughts on the past year and the year to come:

A - Being a child born well into the Age of Reason, I don't easily fall victim to claims of malevolent auras pervading the atmosphere - that was until I read of a near-fatal airborne bovine catastrophe in Turkey. Reports are that diners at a swanky restaurant in Istanbul were nearly flattened into their karniyarik after a cow crashed through the roof of the establishment. Miraculously, no one was injured, but the cow was quite dead. Whether the cow was already on the roof at the time of the incident - and just how it got there in the first place - remains a mystery. Curiously, this appears to be a occurrence that happens with some regularity.

B - Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks.

C - President Elect Obama will discover early in his Presidency that the war in Iraq is slightly more complex than pulling out large number of troops at will and declaring; "You sunk my battleship!"

D - Despite the continual flood of email, subpoenas, and cease and desist letters, Wolfe Blitzer will eventually see the wisdom of auctioning one of his kidneys on Ebay! in my mad "kidney for profit" scheme.

E - Israel will continue to bomb the living be-jeepers out of those who claim that Jews are descended from demons and rats, and will no longer allow radicals who have no interest in peace attack and murder their citizens. The world will continue to blame the Jews for the current situation, and international support will be sympathetic towards Islamic terrorists who wish to annihilate the Israelites. Gee! When has that happened before?

F - The Straight Hype will continue to be an unwavering and unconditional ally of Israel.

G - Best Movies of 2008 -

1 - Gone Baby Gone - A thought provoking and gripping thriller by Ben Affleck (yes, Ben Affleck) whose amazing ensemble cast and gritty reality make up for the film's less then credible ending.

2 - In Bruges - A witty and smart dark comedy starring a newly sober Colin Farrell. A true gem.

3 - Valkyrie - By god, Tom Cruise did it! Over budget and late on delivery, this movie packs a punch, despite lacking badly needed character development.

4 - Persepolis - A funny, warm, yet unflinching look at the horrors of living under the rule of Islamic extremism.

5 - Reservation Road - A little known movie and a personal favourite. Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo are riveting. A must see.

6 - John Adams - Though this is technically an HBO mini-series, it is the finest piece of work I have ever seen. It proudly boasts a stunning cast, an amazing score, and stunning cinematography. Based David McCullough's award winning book, it is probably the most accurate and entertaining look at the Revolutionary period seen through the eyes of John Adams. This was also the lovely miss Claire's favourite oeuvre of the year.

7 - Honourable mentions - Though I was less than impressed with these two offerings, my associate editor, the lovely miss Claire (and almost everyone else) nominates both the "Dark Night" and "Iron Man" as superb examples of comic book adventures brought to the screen. Heath Ledger was electrifying as the Joker, and Robert Downey Jr. was superb as Iron Man (I agree with the latter two statements, but come on! Tony Stark performing open heart surgery in a cave in Afghanistan? This would be less irritating to me if the director wouldn't have continued to blather on about the film's "realism").

H - I really try to be nice. I conscientiously read all of my emails and respond to all questions and comments in a timely and courteous manner. My readers are important to me. They are the lifeblood of this organ. Without you, the Hype would be just another dot-com cargo cult in the wasteland of cyberspace. But somewhere, in between your family outing to the monster truck pull and your appearance on Judge Judy, you email the site and pollute my inbox with the noisy static that crams up the inner workings of your brain. Admittedly, I am a bit of an intellectual tricotteuse. It's one thing to give bitch slaps to liberals, paleo-liberals, and rabid Jacobites, but some of you people somehow manage to fall outside of the ice-cold grip of stereotype. You are the people who think music hit it's apex when Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded "Sweet home Alabama", the kind of folks who declare they'll never visit "Effigy" because it seems someone's always getting hung there. You know who you are. You buy generic soda pop and own a copy of "Wrestlemania III". You think Western Civilization reached an all-new cultural plateau when Garth Brooks broke the mold by tearing down the walls between country and rock, spawning the insipid "Country Rock" genre. I guess we should thank you for demonstrating the perils of alcohol and free Internet access at public libraries.

I - Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" was the most thought provoking, meticulously researched and important books of 2008. It turns 50 years of conventional wisdom on it's head with it's humorous but not overly scathing indictment of the Left's cherished beliefs.

J - Most important of all is that I got engaged to the lovely miss Claire this year. My life is truly blessed.

Happy New Year from the Hype.

Cordially

Joe

Merry Christmas from the Hype!!

Ahhh, Christmas time! The day when the Great Pumpkin rose out of the pumpkin patch and appeared before Linus, bearing Festivus gifts for all the good progressives of the world, before he ascended 3 days later into the bosom of Gaia to rest up and prepare for next year’s Kwanzaa. I kid of course, but I would hardly be gob-smacked to hear that your children arrived home from school with similar tales from their teachers. After reading an article a month ago about a school teacher who drove an 8 year old girl to tears after calling her father a war criminal for fighting an “illegal” war in Iraq, nothing surprises me anymore. President Bush’s naïve - albeit well intentioned - “No Child Left Behind” policy should have had a provision that stipulated that no child should be left behind to endure humiliation at the hands if her pod-brained teacher, who believes the word “sacrifice” only applies to weeks when she’s feeling a bit pudgy, and has to skip the whipped cream on her Starbucks caramel mochachino.

The funny thing about progressives - as Jonah Goldberg points out in his book, Liberal Fascism - is that they are incapable of coming to terms with the sins of their past, or speaking out against the extreme elements of their movement that alienate them from the rest of thinking, breathing, carbon-based life forms. As Islamic extremists continue to bomb churches, trains, subways, cafes, and even their own Mosques, the progressive elites in this country continue to serve as useful apologists for these monsters, while heaping piles on abuse of President Bush who in their minds is “the real terrorist.” Sigh. While the conservative movement intelligently parsed all the nuances of the Iraq war – even luminaries like the venerable William F Buckley Jr opposed it – no self respecting, right-minded thinker, regardless of how they felt, was so daft as to ever blame the United States - or President Bush - for monstrosities committed in the name of Islam.

The left continues to drive a car with no rear view mirror. It was their very same saints and icons who marched outside the White House with signs denouncing President Roosevelt as a warmonger for sending aid to Churchill. I recently watched footage from the ‘40’s showing throngs of progressives in the same above mentioned rally saying “Hands Off Hitler”. Pearl Harbor finally woke them up, but only for about 5 minutes - as we witnessed after 9/11. I often think some crazed Jihadist could lop off the head of Ted Kennedy and use it as a soccer ball, and the left would still be ringing their hands over what America did to warrant such a thing. Of course, if Ted Kennedy where to lose his head, I don’t think we would notice much of a difference in the Senator.

Anyway, I’m being a curmudgeon on Christmas, but that’s a sacred and honored tradition here at the Hype (Hey! Did you Know that Microsoft spell checks Kwanzaa?).

Christmas is a sacred and wondrous time for me. I have never lost that child-like magic of watching the snow fall and bluster in the wind, the smoke curling from chimneys as you look out the window watching the array of colored lights adorn the neighborhood houses. I love decorating the tree, going to Midnight Mass, and having a big meal with friends and family. The spirit of giving and forgiveness, and everyone is able to forget - if only for a little while - the troubles and challenges of life.

Of course, Christmas isn’t happy for everyone. There are those suffering from illness, alcoholism and drug addiction, and those who have been forgotten by friends and relatives. Let us help and keep all in our hearts during this time, and always. May God bless you and your family over the holiday season and have kindness in your heart for all – even liberals…if you can manage. I realize that’s a tall order.

Cordially

Joe

The Tyranny of the Petticoat

Greetings, dear readers, and a plenary indulgence for a buck and half to all (Sorry, I can't do that. I'm not a Bishop and I don't want to agitate the mentally unstable ghost of Martin Luther into causing any more trouble for us Catholics).

I am about to enter into the sacred bond that John Adams once referred to as "the tyranny of the petticoat," although I've never seen the lovely miss Claire wear a petticoat. Maybe she's saving it for a second trip to colonial Williamsburg to wear during a July 4th costume celebration.

Oh yeah...I should also mention she's not a tyrant nor prone to tyrannical outbursts - even while editing, which is a rare feat for editors as a species.

I'm getting married to the lovely Miss Claire on Sept. 18th at the beautiful St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church. She said yes a few days ago and now we are on a collision course toward matrimonial madness. I should admit to this one caveat - I was married before, but it didn't quite take. There are many reasons for this, the primary being that I was always kind, respectful and nice, and she, um, wasn't. Anyway, that's the past. I've been divorced for over 7 years, and my marriage was annulled by the church, so I can re-marry with a Catholic Mass. Getting an annulment was a lot easier than I thought - First, it wasn't expensive; Second, it was quick; Lastly, Tomás de Torquemada wasn't as tough as they make him out to be. I was on the rack for 15 minutes and the guy falls asleep.

I couldn't be happier. We both share a love for American Revolutionary history, National Review, American Politics, lasagna, President John Adams, a belief that toast will one day rise again as the afternoon snack of choice, and of course, each other.

I won't agitate your gag reflex with tales of our mutual love and respect, but I will confess I am the happiest man on the planet. Even happier than that guy who died last year after a truck filled with Twinkies overturned and unloaded their contents, crushing him to death with their sweet, sweet spongy goodness.

Hope you all had a good weekend. The wedding is going to be a small private family affair so you may want to spare yourself (as well as me) the awkwardness of asking if you're invited. But I luvs you all anyway.

Enjoy some Great Big Sea as we head into the week

Cordially

Joe

Up Close and Personal

Everyone is an editor. I write too many personal humour pieces, and my fans write in to demand more politics. I write too many political pieces and people write in - pitchforks in hand -to demand more humour pieces. Is there no pleasing some people?

Well, I'm at your service. A writer is like a literary prostitute of sorts. You want me to write the first chapter of War and Peace on my belly with blueberry syrup? I'll do it, providing someone has a crumpled up 20 dollar bill to give me for my troubles.

I'm returning to work on December 19th, which is just about right for me. I was starting to get cabin fever from being cooped up in my apartment. One week, I was so overcome with boredom, I began to think I was some deranged version of Gandalf from Lord Of The Rings, and stood in my open apartment door in a tattered bathrobe wielding a golf club yelling "You shall not pass!" to passing strangers. No one took much notice. I live on Main street, and that kind of stuff is pretty much par for the course.

I am presently at my folks in Bathurst relaxing and enjoying life. I miss the lovely miss Claire but I'll be back in Moncton tomorrow.

Planning a trip to Boston in for February with my brother, Claire's sister and their respective partners. Hope to head out to Braintree to check out Peacefield, President John Adams's old haunt. It's one of the Founding Father's residences we haven't yet seen.

Big announcement to make soon, so stay on your toes, like a midget at a urinal.

Take care, my loyal and trusted readers...and those of you who can't be trusted as well.

Here's a little a treat for you!

Cordially

Joe

Conservatism's Valley Forge

I hear there's a new search engine out there whose environmentalist creators have pledged to plant a tree for every 100 search inquiries entered per person utilizing the service. Great if your into that kind of rubbish, but I would be more inclined to use a search engine that pledges to clear-cut an acre of the rain forest for every fifty searches entered. It's kind of like those great Sumatra coffee beans they grow in soil that has a high content of volcanic ash - some anti globalist do-gooders won't buy the coffee beans because it's picked by 6 year old children under less than perfect conditions; I say it's their tiny hands that make it tasty.

Anyway, on to the subject du jour.

How do they contain themselves? "They" being the Sunday morning pundits who are helping the progressives try and hammer a brittle nail into conservatism's coffin. The truth is that conservatism didn't die on the November 4th, and President-elect Obama's fortunes are not - as we discussed in the last post - a result of the rise of the so-called "moderate" cabal of the American populace. It's a cheap slight of hand parlour trick the media is so good at - creating an issue that didn't exist to begin with and making you think it was there all along. On November 5th, the big question on every news anchor's lips was "What does the Republican party have to do to reach out to moderate voters?" Did you catch that? You might have missed it if you blinked. My question is simple - who decided that the Republican party needs to change their strategy to reach out to moderate voters, or if these so called "moderates" (i.e. liberals) even require reaching out to in the first place? Was there a debate before the debate that even clarified what a "moderate" voter is?

Initiatives to ban gay marriage were on the ballot in 30 states, and these initiatives passed in every one of them. If, as my friend Jonah Goldberg pointed out, white liberals see gay marriage legislation as the single most important civil rights issue of their generation, then it seems that progressive Democrats are in a lot more trouble than the conservative base of the Republican party. The ban on gay marriage even passed in California, which is the Mecca of all things ridiculously liberal.

This is not a trivial matter and conservatives should take heart that the core convictions of Hispanic, African American, and blue collar voters remain steadfastly socially conservative.

I must admit that it would be intellectually dishonest of me to say that many in the conservative movement do not share this opinion - it was even the central theme of the recent Republican Governor's conference. Many prominent Conservatives such as Ross Douthat and Chris Buckley feel that Conservatives should concede that the great welfare state is here to stay, and the movement should work within these parameters to try and shape public policy to reward those -such as in the case of welfare - who are trying to return to work and be less gracious toward those who are using the social safety net as a hammock. Even Rush Limbaugh conceded this almost two decades ago in The Way Things Ought To Be. I say this is conceding defeat, when the opposing army is oblivious to the weakness of their position.

Conservatives, as Goldberg said, should strive to be happy warriors, throwing everything in the conservative arsenal at the Democratic party, and continue not only to be anti-left, but also anti-state.

In the winter of 1777, as Washington's Continental army froze at Valley Forge, soldiers starving and barefooted in the snow, it would have been easy to concede that the end was near. It wasn't until Washington realized that the reason his army was starving in the breadbasket of the nation was because farmers were selling their Summer harvest to the British army stationed in Philadelphia, who payed for food in Sterling pounds, instead of selling their goods to the Army, who were paying the farmers in worthless Continental currency.

Conservatives and the Republican party may be at their own Valley Forge at the moment. We all need to see through the snow and press on undaunted for the glory of the cause.

Enjoy a classic from Blues Traveler as we head into the weekend!

Cordially

Joe

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Ballot Box

Wow! It's been a busy week. My last post tore the lid off my inbox with new fans of the site, and a couple of Euro-dweebs that are perplexed that some blogger up in the cold white north isn't so enthusiastic about President-elect Obama's re-heated Swedish style socialism, the type of government that Alexis De Tocqueville once said endeavours to;



"keep them in perpetual childhood. . . . For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of poverty and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?"

As the voting tallies begin to be broken down, dissected and disseminated by beltway bean counters with giant computer-ma-jiggies, some curious data is rising to the surface confirming my previous assertion that many "new voter" demographic groups show a strange disconnect between who they voted for and what they actually believe in. National Review's Johah Goldberg points out a few telling trends;

"Something interesting happened on Election Day that didn’t get much attention. Bans on gay marriage were on ballots in several states, and they all won. In fact, gay marriage bans have ultimately passed in all 30 of the states in which they were on the ballot.

The ban in California was particularly intriguing. Proposition 8 would have failed in the Golden State if it were up to white voters, who opposed it by a 51-49 ratio. What carried it over the top was enormous support from black voters, with about 70 percent of them backing it. Hispanics also supported the ban by significant, though smaller, margins. In Florida, where a similar ban required a 60 percent margin, Amendment 2 just barely passed, getting 60 percent of the white vote. The cushion came from blacks, who voted 71 percent in favor, and Latinos, who voted 64 percent in favor.

In other words, Obama had some major un-progressive coattails. The tidal wave of black and Hispanic voters who came out to support Obama voted in enormous numbers against what most white liberals consider to be the foremost civil rights issue of the day.

Put aside the substance of the gay marriage debate; what’s fascinating is how these returns expose the underlying weakness, or at least vulnerability, of progressivism."

The media has been prattling on about how the GOP has to do some ideological soul searching, implying that the defeat of Republicans was somehow a repudiation of conservatism and a vote of approval for the progressives. As the data pours in, it is clear it was not. Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned that the hard way two years ago.

Anyway, 1st citizen Obama is ready to take center stage - let our long national nightmare begin.

Cordially

Joe

Gob Smacking Hypocrisy

Sorry if I don't join all of you in a rousing chorus of "Yes We Can". I doubt many people who voted for President Elect Obama can tell me what the hell they think "they're" going to do on a substantive level anyway. I remember a few months ago when Senator Obama was speaking before a jam-packed arena with a chorus of people chanting "Change! Change! Change!" It sounded like someone was being heckled by a thousand pan handlers.

There is nothing "new" about the change Obama peddled throughout the campaign trail. Anyone who's actually devoted their education and lives to the study of American politics will remember hearing this stuff before - from FDR and Woodrow Wilson. The change they brought wasn't pretty, and very few care to remember the goon squads that were at the beck and call of President Wilson, to quash those who weren't buying his brand of "yes we can."

That being said, there is no doubt that what happened on Tuesday night was overwhelming, and I congratulate Senator Obama on his win. What I don't get is the gob-smacking hypocrisy of those who are enraged that many people are still very leery of Obama's past, his associates, what he did on the campaign trail, and what he intends to do for the next four years. I and many others have been called "sore losers", and told that we should "get over ourselves".

Really?

Be honest with yourselves. For the past 8 years, how many of you have relentlessly attacked President Bush? How many of you have called him a liar, a moron, an idiot, and a terrorist? How many you even went so far as to implicate him crazy 9/11 conspiracies? All of you.

Now you're crying foul because not all of us are kneeling before your golden boy, and we don't need to rely on loonies like Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann to tell us what to think. You don't like that I am critical, and will continue to be critical for the next 4 years.

"Give him a chance", you cry. Why? I know the bill of goods he's selling, and I'm not buying it.

I'm going to write one more blog piece on Obama's past, then I'm going to move on to examining the "change" he's talked so much about for the past 16 months. I know the territory, I've been there before. I don't copy and paste my arguments from Wikipedia.

Cordially

Joe