From a winger screed about Obama’s “National Day of Service” plan (via Steve Benen):
With the help of the Obama administration, the coalition is launching a public relations campaign under the radar of the mainstream media — which remains almost uniformly terrified of criticizing the nation’s first black president — to try to change 9/11 from a day of reflection and remembrance to a day of activism, food banks, and community gardens.
Are activism, food banks, and community gardens the new axis of evil? You can bet some of those food banks will be serving artichoke hearts with meatball marinara.
Update. A bunch of wingers showed up to say nasty things in the website for the National Day of Service. Note that this is despite the fact that one of the founders in the video is 9/11 family member. Classy.
MikeJ
Obama is ruining my plan to hunt down a homeless person to celebrate the way we hunted down bin Laden after…
what?
We didn’t? Why the fuck not? Oh yeah, Republicans in the White House. Carry on.
beltane
This cannot be. Our forefathers intended for 9/11 to be a day for solemn immigrant bashing, patriotic war drum beating, and cathartic celebration of lurid terrorist attack imagery.
And if Americans are having time affording food, they must not eat. Because they’re fat. And community gardens are for socialist vegetable eaters. Have you ever seen a bag of Cheetos growing in a community garden?
Legalize
Food banks and community gardens.
How will the nation survive the unending nightmare imposed by Blacky X Hussein?!
Dave S.
Are activism, food banks, and community gardens the new axis of evil?
When “reflection and remembrance” consists of chanting “America F*ck Yeah!” the answer to that is Yes.
vacuumslayer
Community gardens? Food banks? GODDAMMIT! That bad, bad negro! The evil just oozes from his every pore and his probably uncircumcised penis.
asiangrrlMN
What I wrote over at TBogg’s (with a little judicious editing), and yeah, I’m fucking citing myself. Deal with it:
I am pissed about this. Oh, it’s a weary pissed, but pissed nonetheless. For seven long years, W. and his posse have turned 9/11 into their personal springboard for dismantling the Constitution and basically pissing on small-d democracy in America. They have cold-bloodedly wrapped 9/11 around themselves as a shield for any criticism of their actions. Anyone who objected was called unpatriotic and treasonous.
Obama wants to make the day mean more than just empty rhetoric and destructive policy-setting? Fucking good for him. It’s telling that this asshat views service to one’s country as nihilistic. Jackass, the word doesn’t mean what you think it does. Fuck you.
gex
OT: Really interesting blog post about health care reform in America here by Jamais Cascio
Sloth
I think Obama owes them a sincere apology for scaring them with the community gardens.
And a pony for good measure.
Hunter Gathers
It is well known that food banks attract the conservative’s most hated enemy – the poor.
Da Bomb
Another thing that Obama can do(since he is the messiah and all) is to commerate 9/11 by allowing the levies of a poor city in a very corrupt state to fail epicly, so he can then create mandates to turn on the faucet in every shanty located in said town so they can flood themselves out.
Also.
r€nato
did you hear that Obama’s death panels are going to force the homeless to eat arugula with Grey Poupon mustard?
SO CIALISM!!!
Crashman06
People who write stuff like this must be genuine sociopaths. I mean really. They seem to have no empathy or understanding for any other human being. It’s like they think the rest of us are all robots.
vacuumslayer
@Crashman06: I do believe that most conservatives fall somewhere along the low-grade to high-grade sociopathy scale.
smiley
Can’t find the link now but the families of the 9/11 victims and first responders were the ones who started this, not President Obama. Ah yes, Benen linked to it:
http://911dayofservice.org/
Warning – sound
General Winfield Stuck
I sense a new offensive by the wingers.
The 83 Wingnut Ratfucker Brigade strikes a blow on teh Soshulism.
***************
From the Wut the Fuck files.
Damn you David Vitter
chopper
oh noes! food banks! run!
YellowJournalism
They won’t be satisfied until we observe it like other reflective holidays: barbeques, lots of beer, camping and blowing shit up with stuff bought illegally from China and Mexico.
Michael
Fuck community gardens and the notion of service. It is far better to act like a CEO and take care of oneself, and the service will be self evident by enjoying and increasing one’s personal wealth and power.
It is also good to buy the megaphones to start the “USA USA USA USA” chant among the idiots, that way, one doesn’t have to exert himself hoarse by chanting on his own.
Now cue the Greenwood…..
tc125231
The pathetic nature of the GOP brain never fails to amaze me. How is it POSSIBLE to be that stupid?
joe from Lowell
Do you remember your mental state on about September 13, 2001?
Were you thinking clearly? Did you have any fleeting ideas about what to do to “those people” that you aren’t terribly proud of? Were you so desperate for some stability and leadership that you thought George Bush had given a good speech?
Conservatives want you to be in that mindset all the time. Remember when they kept whining that the media weren’t showing enough graphic footage from the attacks? Of how they like to accuse/ask people about whether they’ve “forgotten” 9/11?
Having a citizenry in that state of mind is useful for their political purposes. Heck, that mindset got most Americans to support invading Iraq.
9/11 “remembrances” are really all they have left to try to whip up that sentiment, and if people are too busy doing useful things for their fellow Americans, then they’ll have lost even that.
ellaesther
It is not often that I am left speechless. Indeed, as anyone who has checked about my own little weblog-doohickie can attest, I can pretty much go on and on about anything, given half a chance and 30 seconds.
This? I’m speechless. If remembrance and reflection in the wake of murderous violence don’t include acting for the good of the community hit by the violence — and if, indeed, acting for the good of said community is a slap in the face of those lost to the violence — well then. Up is, indeed, down, and I, ellaesther, am speechless.
jibeaux
Well, duh, the only true American way to honor the families, despite what they might say, is to do nothing. Or you could go shopping.
Zifnab
The birth certificates! Why won’t anyone mention the birth certificates?!
ellaesther
Oh, oh wait!! I remember what “remembrance and reflection” mean now!
Go shopping.
Ash
I can’t even make fun of this or come up with something snarky. What the fuck is wrong with food banks and gardens? Are we supposed to mope around on 9/11 for the rest of eternity?
I don’t understand these god damn morons.
ellaesther
@jibeaux: Well, hell. I guess I owe you a Coke now!
jim
It’s a valid point – after all, everyone remembers how we ended war forever by wearing plastic poppies one day a year & wearing our “I HAZ A SAD” face at 11 AM … or how many of those wars were fought due to food-banks or community gardens.
Yes, what better way to memorialize the victims of 9/11 than to use them to take yet another cheap shot at President Obama – & what better place for a cheap shot than another effort to get Americans to cultivate mutual decency & kindness … keep it classy, American Spectator!
jibeaux
I bet the firemen and policemen who died on 9/11 would be appalled at the idea of community service in their honor.
Also too.
jenniebee
@YellowJournalism: you left out sales on mattresses, cars and all the end-of-season stuff the mall stores couldn’t move during their Labor Day Weekend sales. Don’t forget, the most important thing we can do to keep the terrorists from winning is to go shopping.
vacuumslayer
‘Cuz you can’t reflect and remember and garden at the same time. ESPECIALLY if your’re retarded, sociopathic conservative.
anonevent
9/11 is supposed to be the day we reflect on how awesome we are and how the rest of the world hates us for it, not on such things as taking care of the poor. Why can’t we just rest on our awesomeness?!!!
jenniebee
@Zifnab: Birth certificates are so July. Speculations about the big O’s circumcision status – I am not making this up – are the latest craze. 3.5 million pages, bitchez!
Bulworth
The 9/11 widows are unworthy of our 9/12 awesomeness.
SpotWeld
What’s even more amazing is how much the right-wingers are pretty much blowing up a chance to take some ownership here.
It would be incredibly easy for a right-wing org to create an event that is charitable, yet still tinged with some nice right-wing talking points. Free publicisty and it whitewashes some of the crazy.
Distributing free flags to vets, for example. Or gun-safty classes for kids. Finding a nice historical park or memorial that’s a tribute to an appropriate right-wing idealog and cleaning it up (There’s got to be a bunch of monutments to Herbert Hoover, right?)
scav
Wall Street Banks: Good. Food Banks: Bad.
Wall Street Banks: Capitalism. Food Banks: Soshalism.
Wall Street Banks: Axis of Awesome. Food Banks: Axis of Evil.
Something’s wrong. that’s actually logically coherent and they’re not managing that recently. OK, who’s been messing with the time-space continuum?
Michael
I really like the criticism of Duckworth (you know, multiple amputee Duckworth) over the VA “death pamphlets”.
I’d go check RedState on it, but I imagine that never-served puffy boy has undoubtedly said something about Duckworth that would make me go and hunt him down like a mad dog in the street.
Fats Limbaugh really needs a fist in his face for his commentary on it alone.
GambitRF
Michelle Malkin actually describes it on her site as “hijacking 9/11.” Stay classy, Michelle.
ellaesther
@GambitRF: Ok, back to speechless.
tc125231
@SpotWeld: Aw, you know, they like charity to be “private” –e.g. indulged only by the very rich, or as part of church tithing.
YellowJournalism
@jenniebee: I know, huh? I can just see the tacky slogan now: “The towers fell, now so do our prices! They’ll blow you away!”
tc125231
@scav: I salute your logic.
YellowJournalism
Oh, wait. Michelle Malkin’s is even better.
Martin
Well, in my mostly republican county we don’t celebrate 9/11 by helping people. We stick to the traditional festivity of people throwing themselves off the top of the highest local building and then blowing it up. We then invade a random neighboring county.
It’s all good 2nd amendment, heterosexual, Christian fun.
General Winfield Stuck
@Ash:
it’s not those, it’s that we do them together, as a “community”.
Which is much to close to the Scarlet C. This is how diabolical Red plots on our precious bodily fluids get launched, after all.
Zifnab
@jenniebee: Hehe, yeah I saw that. Although, to be fair, it really just boils down to, “Obama isn’t a real American unless I get to see his junk!” which is just another iteration of “Obama isn’t a real American!”
@Michael: Let’m yammer. Nothing says, “Support the troops” like constant, nagging, cheap shots at the walking wounded.
I don’t know if Limbaugh, et al, actually believe their winning people over with this bile. As far as I can tell, no one every expanded their base by chanting, “Down with those whiny disabled veterans!”
Corner Stone
@tc125231: “or as part of church tithing”
With no snark added, I present to you one and all, the Second Baptist Church of Houston, TX.
Second Baptist
*Warning!* The link opens their website and plays a video with sound.
Martin
I propose we start a teaparty competitor movement and proclaim 9/11 to be “Circumcise Your Future President Day”. New parents can take their newborns out in front of democratic congressional offices and do a little patriotic bris out there.
That’d show them!
Legalize
On 9/11 I suggest watching Woody Allen’s “Manhattan.” As a displaced New Yorker, it always lifts my spirits. I think this year that I will take some surplus tomatoes (both of them!) to the local food bank.
WereBear
@Crashman06: It’s actually more complex than that.
A true sociopath generally has learned to “pass” by their early teens. They would be the last person to publicly exhibit anything but the most exemplary moral behavior.
What we have here is your common, garden variety, hate-filled resentment.
IMHO
Leelee for Obama
The mind reels, indeed! Of course we shouldn’t spend 9/11 trying to be of service to our fellow citizens! That’s for candy-asses and wimps. If they can’t do for themselves, they’re obviously wasting perfectly good air, and bootstraps, also. Let’s invade Cuba and bring those people some DEMOCRACY! That’s the way we roll, yo!
Tell me again why a two-party system is good for us in the long run, cause I’m really having a hard time with that concept right about now.
gnomedad
@Zifnab:
I think they’ve maxed out their base. Their only option now is to amp up the frenzy level.
JGabriel
Paul Krugman citing FDR in yesterdays NYT:
After 30 years of prosperity theology, Randism, and Reaganomics, I suspect that much of our population no longer knows that heedless self-interest is bad morals; indeed, they’ve raised heedless self-interest to the level of a moral imperative. That, perhaps more than anything else, is what’s wrong with the GOP, Conservatives, and the right wing today.
Thus we end up with attacks on food banks, community gardens, and the very idea of a Day of Service, simply because all of them promote the idea that a heedful respect to the community in which one lives and efforts to improve it or give back to it are values to be admired.
.
BDeevDad
aaaaacccccckkkkkk Michelle Malkin appeared on my screen as a flash ad when I went to the American Spectator link.
canuckistani
I though one showed patriotism by barbecuing and watching football. Can’t there be a 9-11 Bowl?
Shawn in ShowMe
No. Because history has shown that fascists are incapable of providing stability and leadership.
Leelee for Obama
I am humbly letting my fellow BJs know that my use of too and also in the context of Our Lady of Never-Ending Horseshit is beginning to concern me. It reminds me of the first time I said “Come back, Y’all!” down here in Florida, at the restaurant where I was working. Even worse, though, was using y’all as singular and all y’all as plural. It’s insidious, I tells ya!
gnomedad
The right was for private charity before they were against it.
Robertdsc-iphone
Buncha goddamed animals.
Silver Owl
Feeding hungry Americans is for pansies while sitting one’s ass wallowing in a bullshit definition of patriotism and manhood is totally productive.
Now if the day were about inflicting more suffering and damage on Americans wingnuts would be all over it like stink on chit. It is the way the roll these days.
SGEW
@Legalize:
Ditto. Back in 2002 (or maybe 2003, I’m not sure), BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) had a free screening of Manhattan on September 11th, and it was extraordinary how moving it was for me. Something about seeing that skyline before they built the WTC reminded me that NYC would abide.
I still miss those towers, tho’. Even if they were kinda ugly.
ronin122
@Sloth: Well I didn’t get MY pony. That makes me an angry leftist!
Da Bomb
@Corner Stone: Second Baptist is the bestest evah!
I live around the corner from that church. I think they are trying to take over the city with brown little boxes.
ellaesther
@JGabriel: This reminded me of this piece that I found in searching for the “go shopping” quotes a little earlier: “He told us to go shopping. Now the bill is due.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100301977.html
(I know, it’s the Washington Post and we’re supposed to hate them, but it’s really quite good. And infuriating).
Legalize
“Ditto. Back in 2002 (or maybe 2003, I’m not sure), BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) had a free screening of Manhattan on September 11th, and it was extraordinary how moving it was for me. Something about seeing that skyline before they built the WTC reminded me that NYC would abide.
I still miss those towers, tho’. Even if they were kinda ugly.”
I attended that screening at BAM as well (It was in 2002)! It was a really uplifting experience. It’s always been my favorite Woody Allen picture for many reasons. Thus began my yearly tradition. That reminds me, gotta put it in the Netflix.
BDeevDad
Remember, the biggest event on Memorial Day Weekend is the Indy 500.
Notorious P.A.T.
“the mainstream media—which remains almost uniformly terrified of criticizing the nation’s first black president”
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/71513/original.jpg
Mary
@canuckistani:
Nah. It’s way to early in the season.
SGEW
@Legalize: It’s a big town, but a small world. Or maybe the other way around.
SenyorDave
Michelle Malkin actually describes it on her site as “hijacking 9/11.” Stay classy, Michelle.
And this piece of garbage was on ABC’s “This Week” a few weeks ago? I guess ABC felt that she was a balance to some liberal they had on. After all, Malkin is the conservative equivalent of a Paul Krugman, right? I mean Krugman won the Nobel Prize, and Malkin writes probing articles about Dunkin’ Donuts supposedly being pro-terrorist because Rachel Ray’s scarf resembled Yassar Arafat’s headdress.
El Cid
We don’t need no damn big city, big gubmit types tellin’ us what 9/11 means, that’s for loudmouth neo-Confederate New York- and Wahshington-hating jackass types.
tammanycall
I don’t get these people. Are they worried the 9/11 Day of Service will distract from their little fear party on 9/12? –>http://912dc.org/
Ash Can
@Crashman06:
@WereBear:
I think I understand what’s going on in their heads (shudder). They’re misanthropes, but they have a problem with their own misanthropy, because they’ve been told by authority figures (whom they fear) such as parents and teachers that misanthropy is bad, and they shouldn’t be that way. This causes guilt and stress, which causes them to deny and suppress their misanthropy. Over time, they find like-minded people in similar situations. Naturally, they identify with them and bond with them. Voila — the right-wingnuts, with their delightful trademark combination of denial, ignorance, fear, hatred, anger, and resentment.
T. O'Hara
With the thoughts you’d be thinkin’
You could be another Lincoln . . .
Blue Raven
@Leelee for Obama: I am a Yankee born and bred. Have never even lived in a Southern state. But the wonders of our modern age have exposed me to so much slang from other places, it would not be impossible for me to say something like, “All y’all are wicked stupid. Now bugger off.”
The Grand Panjandrum
The wingers have no shame. None.
I remember hearing this report when the off-Broadway show, The Fantasticks was closing.
It’s a small story, but it is emblematic of the rawness of our collective pain. Here’s a video of Jerry Ohrbach singing Try To Remember.
The screeds written by these wingers are beneath contempt. The unquenchable burning hatred that fills them has effected their ability to reason.
Comrade Dread
There are certain traditions when it comes to celebrating patriotic holidays or memorial days.
Either the day must be ignored altogether (ala Pearl Harbor day), or it must be the pretext for a three day weekend where we are expected to drink heavily to honor the sacrifices of our forefathers and go to work hungover on Tuesday to share in that sacrifice.
Leelee for Obama
@Blue Raven: Being Brooklyn-born and LawnGyland bred, I had more than enough colloquialisms to begin with. You are right though, we do pick up the sayings of others fairly easily. I just noticed in my original post, how well the “also” tripped off my fingertips-
R-Jud
@The Grand Panjandrum:
jibeaux
There is a very eloquent comment post on the original Spectator link from David Paine, I recommend it.
Throwin Stones
@BDeevDad:
Maybe back in the day. I’d have to say in repub circles, it now would be the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte.
freelancer
@Michael:
At the wedding I went to last weekend, this pudgy, white DJ played that as his last song before packing up. Everybody was like WTF? This is “their” wedding, wingnut, not your chance to put your hand over your heart and get all weepy for the nebulous notion of “The Troops” (Ask a Navy guy how awesome the Air Force is, and so forth). It was so awkward. To quote Sgt. Colbert:
The Grand Panjandrum
I guess they forgot to chastise W when he had his own National Day of Service.
Another day, another wingnut EPIC FAIL.
slippy
9/11: Because for Republicans, if you can’t distort a national tragedy to your political advantage anymore, you might as well vigorously wipe your asses on the faces of the victims in a fit of spiteful revenge.
This message paid for by Republicans Without Shame or Decency, LLC
YellowJournalism
@slippy: “This message paid for by Republicans Without Shame or Decency, LLC”
George W. Bush & Rudy Gulliani, Chairpersons
Calouste
Regarding the foodbank serving artichokes hearts with meatball marina, instead of the link to the National Review that DougJ posted, I would like to politely recommend the debunking of that National Review article I posted on Daily Kos
tigrismus
After September 11, 2001, I heard about people standing in line for hours to give blood, about people giving so much money to some charities their websites were almost inaccessible, even about people buying gifts for strangers anonymously on Amazon, all wanting to do something, anything to help and to comfort. A day of service and reflection would be far more in keeping with the actual spirit of the time than “I pay too much in taxes already so keep your gubmint hands off my Medicare and my guns, illegal immigrant usurper!” rallies.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@El Cid:
If you understand how a trauma inflicted on the citizens of Washington DC and New York, both of which cities have long been hated by neo-Confederates as symbols of Yankee domination, and which would be first on the list of places the latter would love to bomb all by themselves, came to be appropriated by those same neo-Confederates as symbolic totems of their own regional political movement, then you either have an super-master level of understanding US politics, or you have suffered severe brain damage.
binzinerator
@WereBear:
Yup. And something else is in the mix too….
JGabriel:
This too.
I knew all that shit was coming when in 1985 Ivan Boesky gave the commencement address at the UC Berkeley’s business school, telling the young crowd of fledgling masters-of-the-universe types “I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”
It really was a cultural touchstone moment. Our nation’s young people, bright, educated and full of hope and promise, being inculcated in a doctrine of feeling good about one’s own selfishness and greed. This was our future of business. This was to be how we would conduct ourselves in many of our important relationships. It marked the commencement of the ‘Fuck you I got mine’ cultural imperative.
This selfishness has always lurked at the core of conservatism. It was John Kenneth Galbraith who said, “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
So nothing new under the sun. But what was notable about the past 30 years is the success the Right in finding numerous ways to express these formerly taboo impulses, success to the point where even expressions of the opposite — empathy, charity, community and sharing — are now openly derided and or even attacked.
Now they even can have contempt for and attack those who are not greedy and still feel good about themselves. Conservatism evolved, as it were.
And they really really are going to be resentful of any effort that might lead to a change in our cultural imperative that could put their ugliness back in the place where it belongs — as something condemnable, ignoble, shameful, and worthy of shunning by society.
Mayken
The wingers are always comparing 9/11 to Pearl Harbor. Yet what did Pres Roosevelt as the American people to do PH? Serve their country. And from those who volunteered for military service to those who stayed and sacrificed their own well-being to the good of the cause. And grew Victory Gardens and shit!
What did Bush ask us to do? Go shopping! Oooh, sacrifice! Wow!
So, yes, a President calling for a national Day of Service is soooo fucking un-American. Yeesh!
Gods, I hate these wingers with their false patriotism and their IGMFU attitudes.
Mayken
The wingers are always comparing 9/11 to Pearl Harbor. Yet what did Pres Roosevelt ask the American people to do after PH? Serve their country. And from those who volunteered for military service to those who stayed and sacrificed their own well-being to the good of the cause, Americans responded. And grew Victory Gardens and shit!
What did Bush ask us to do? Go shopping! Oooh, sacrifice! Wow!
So, yes, a President calling for a national Day of Service is soooo fucking un-American. Yeesh!
Gods, I hate these wingers with their false patriotism and their IGMFU attitudes.
Mayken
Ooops! Sorry for the double post! Didn’t think the send had taken so I edited and posted. *User fail!*
Michael
@freelancer
Isn’t that the archetype for younger wingers? I was at the barbershop yesterday, and this lardy, stubbly, pastyfaced puffy punk was in there, spewing some Faux (the regular barber has the TV set to Fox, and his dad fills in on vacations, Mondays and Tuesdays. Dad just turns the thing on and doesn’t care to change the channel).
As it turned out, puffy boy got schooled, because the older fill in barber hates Fox and likes to mock it, while us older middle aged customers were hooting at it while telling stories about how health care in this country is an embarrassment and has to be reformed.
shelley matheis
Mayken
@gnomedad: Yeah, I found that interesting too. Their answer to everything is tax cuts and private (religious) charity and are always on about how they are they give more to charities etc. but gods forbid our President actually ask anyone to give and serve. WTF? But it was a Democratic (black) President’s idea so that makes it teh Eeeevul!
b-psycho
@gnomedad: Basically. They like to talk about how civil society should replace the State as far as aid goes, but then loudly slam any attempts at, y’know, actually doing it.
It’s simple: If you’re 100% for private collective action & actually demonstrate that support then you can be against the government doing it. If you shit on the concept regardless of whether the government is doing it or not, then frankly I’m puzzled as to how you ever manage to leave your fortified bunker considering your mortal fear that somebody, somewhere, is co-operating with another human being.
freelancer
@Michael:
Sorry, should have clarified. This wedding DJ was was in his late 50s/early 60s, a dead-ringer for Dick Armey. I’m surprised he didn’t club the girl that asked if he could play the Cuban Shuffle.
Notorious P.A.T.
The American Spectator seems to have blocked my ability to comment at their website. Now what will I do until World Of Warcraft finishes updating?
Elie
And we should proceed, in my opinion, to carry on with a national day of service.
We knew that the children would act up — Tantrums and screaming and such…that is what children do when they have been overindulged and are now having limits set. After years of indulging inarticulate rage and resentment, they have no means to express anything else. We should basically ignore it and carry on.
Another thing, slightly OT, please pay attention to your local races for such things as County and City level persons. In my county in WA state there has been a strong response from the right and some good people are under attack. I am organizing fund raising and grass roots get out the vote stuff in response. Please pay attention as much of the crazy gets expressed down here first.
We are not even breaking a sweat yet. There is much work to be done and we should have expected ALL of it, knowing what we know about this country in the last two decades. As the Exorcist calmly explained to the young priest watching his engagement of the bile spewing demon in the bed during the movie The Exorcist, though the voices coming from the demon and other manifestations varied, it was all the same thing. The voices differ in this case too, but they are all coming from the same thing and we should calmly but with determination, settle in, stop whining about it and do what we have set out to do: return rational democratic governance to the United States of America. It can only happen if we make it happen…
jibeaux
@Notorious P.A.T.:
That’s odd. I’ve carried on insulting them pretty merrily.
ruemara
@Notorious P.A.T.:
read up on leveling your new hero class, Pundit Death Knight?
jibeaux
“frankly I’m puzzled as to how you ever manage to leave your fortified bunker considering your mortal fear that somebody, somewhere, is co-operating with another human being.”
I love this line. For what I am not sure, but I am definitely stealing it per internet traditions.
Surly Duff
If saying “Happy Holidays” in December constitutes participating the “War on Christmas”, does that mean having a National Service Day on 9/11 should now be referred to as the “War on ‘The War on Terror'”?
freelancer
@Surly Duff:
New Wingnut Meme:
We have to go back and save 9/11!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_Tjhg4wsQ
I’ve had the song in this sketch in my head all morning thanks to this thread.
Makewi
Well if the founder is a 9/11 family member that means he must have absolute moral authority, which as we all know trumps all other opinion. How shocking that once again your arguments boil down to “shut up!
Elie
Freelancer:
Thanks for the yuks on the youtube link…
Elie
Makewi:
Shut up!
jibeaux
@Makewi:
Well, I think it probably means at a minimum that random internet assholes should feel a little fucking stupid about commenting on his website that he needs to be educated about what happened on 9/11.
If you have a different opinion about a Day of Service and Remembrance, might I suggest not simply serving or remembering in lieu of this idiotic game of Pay the Asshattery Forward?
Makewi
@jibeaux:
I have a better idea. I’ll mock those who think this is a good idea mercilessly. 9/11 is a day of mourning for those callously murdered for politics and religion. If you want to pick a day of service, just choose another day.
Sputnik_Sweetheart
@anonevent: Well, you know, if we try to help the poor then we have to admit we have poor people in this country and then we are no longer an awesome, perfect country. Their hero, Dubya ignored all the poor people and that seemed to work out well for him.
Also, why did I click on the link and read the birthers and teabaggers’ comments? I know it will only hurt me, but yet I do it anyway.
jibeaux
@Makewi:
You are going to spend 9/11 mocking people who are stacking soup cans or reading to kids. You are going to spend 9/11 mocking the fire chief I saw who posted to the website about his memorial plans to honor the firefighters who died.
Dude, good luck with that vast empty whistling wasteland of a hollow, bitter, soul you have.
jibeaux
@Makewi:
Plus, that’s extremely half-assed. I mean, if you’re really serious that no one could possibly remember and serve at the same time, you have got to go balls to the wall on this one. Mocking does nothing to prevent this travesty. You have to physically obstruct the people trying to help out at the food bank. You need to knock the mentally disabled kids down so that their mentors can’t get to them. You need to actually gnaw off your own restraints and escape the psychology students who come around and pretend to be so interested in you and stuff….
freelancer
@Elie:
Welcome.
Song’s still in my head btw…
“cuz it’s easy to fuck stuff up.”
lawls.
Sputnik_Sweetheart
@tigrismus: I think this is a really good point. I was living on Long Island at the time, and I saw first hand that 9/11 did bring out the best in many. I knew people who lived in New York City that after the Towers fell, gave out water and food to survivors. I knew Long Island cops, firefighters, emergency workers, and doctors, who in their free time, went to Ground Zero to try to help. I volunteered at a blood drive shortly after 9/11 and I saw people who had never given blood before because they were scared to death of needles lie down on the table and donate for the first time. Not to mention that the emergency workers who sacrificed their lives and health did so because they were trying to help people. I don’t think that a “Day of Service” is trying to hijack 9/11, but honoring it. And frankly, terrorists want to spread anti-American propaganda about how horrible and evil Americans are, and a Day of Service is a great way to counteract that.
Makewi
@jibeaux:
I would tell you to try and remain focused, but I can see that this would be impossible for you. You want to forget that evil exists. I don’t blame you.
jibeaux
@Makewi:
Of course evil exists. You think I haven’t seen Dick Cheney on the teevee lately? You think I haven’t noticed that Two and A Half Men is still on the air?
And in doing my little bit against evil, I think that reading to a kid or helping out at a food bank does a lot more than “merciless mocking” of an idea had and promoted by George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and a 9/11 family member — and by the way, you couldn’t mock Richard Simmons mercilessly unless you’ve got a lot more game than you have decided to bring to the ol’ B-J today.
Elie
Freelancer;
It sure is easy to “fuck things up”…and we keep acting like we live in a smooth cause and effect, linear universe…we don’t think of tipping points and unintended consequences — just the absolutes of good and evil…
Boy that video would be great to kick off a history class…oops! No one learns from history anymore…Groundhog Day — everyday is the first time…
Makewi
@jibeaux:
I see, you think that it helps your argument to pretend I’m going to mock people doing good deeds. Well good luck with that. I guess it’s much easier than actually paying attention.
Some days, the anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11, for example, are best left as remembrances of what happened on those days. They don’t need to be rescued and turned into nice things, because we aren’t remembering nice things on those days.
If you can’t understand that, then I can’t help you.
freelancer
@Elie:
You have no idea…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Zls2AReVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1n3HQZoahs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6EBFyrdWaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzedB6EQXqU
Whitest Kids: They’re as barbed as they are surreal and funny. Probably my favorite skit ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Uf9rsBbhc
jibeaux
I’ll mock those who think this is a good idea mercilessly.
you think that it helps your argument to pretend I’m going to mock people doing good deeds.
I see. You’re only going to mock people who do NOT think doing good deeds on 9/11 is a good idea, but decide to perform good deeds anyway. Thanks for the clarification.
jibeaux
When does the merciless mocking start, by the way? I think it’s a good idea. I could give you the address to the elementary school where I’ll be reading. Oh shoot, but once I actually perform the good deed then I’ve taken myself out of the mocking parameters. How confusing. Does the merciless mocking start now, and then once I’ve read to the kids you come and apologize? I think you should really flesh out this mockery plan a little more.
Zuzu's Petals
I think it should be pointed out to them quite publicly – and repeatedly – that the idea for a day of service originated right after 9/11 by 9/11 family members, first responders, and volunteers. They were vocal advocates of the bill.
Class act indeed.
Zuzu's Petals
@Zuzu’s Petals:
From the MyGoodDeed website:
Zuzu's Petals
@Makewi:
Well, your argument is with the 9/11 families, first responders, and recovery workers who set up an organization to do just that. And who vocally supported the bill.
I’m pretty sure there’s contact info at their site so you can address your mockery to the right place.
Skepticat
To avoid the taint of service and (shudder) compassion, perhaps my friend who started a charitable foundation in honor of his son, who died in the WTC, should turn it into a nice retail outlet. Guns and ammo perhaps, definitely some really nasty tee-shirts, maybe a right-wing bookstore.
It astounds me that Vadam actually would admit that the date is “a ‘day of fear’ that helps Republicans.”
Zuzu's Petals
More to Makewi:
Or heck, why not just cut out the middleman (MyGoodDeed.org) and address your mockery to the 9/11 family members and friends directly:
MyGoodDeed.org – Officers and Board of Directors
tripletee
@jibeaux:
Do you feel like your ankles are being haphazardly gummed by a toothless, heavily-concussed Chihuaha? That probably means it’s started.
Tax Analyst
scav said:
“Wall Street Banks: Good. Food Banks: Bad.
Wall Street Banks: Capitalism. Food Banks: Soshalism.
Wall Street Banks: Axis of Awesome. Food Banks: Axis of Evil.
Something’s wrong. that’s actually logically coherent and they’re not managing that recently. OK, who’s been messing with the time-space continuum?”
Your problem here is in putting the opposing points on the same line in such a way as to appear there is a connection.
Maybe if you “mixed and matched” the points in a less logical pattern it would more closely mirror their thought processes.
EEH
@Makewi: Oh for craps sake, if you want to sit in your little cave and have your little day of reflection and remembrance, do so. No one will stop you.
Honestly, how many people do you think really remember Pearl Harbor any more or can even name the date? We are loosing more and more of the WWII generation each day as they pass away and once they are gone, I really doubt December 7 will have that much significance to the younger generation because we will have allowed it to slip away by doing nothing. Perhaps 9/11 will be different if the National Day of Service takes root and when future generations participate, they will be actively keeping the memory alive.
Kathy in St. Louis
Sounds supspicious to me. I mean, really. Helping people, feeding the less fortunate…..pretty socialistic.
What Churches are these loons connected to? What charities do they support? Sounds like that would be the Church of Screw Everyone Else and the Me Fund.
I had a son-in-law like this. He was a libertarian that claimed that if the government quit giving handouts, then charities and private citizens would pick of the slack and take care of their neighbors. I asked him how many of his neighbors I could put him down for. Never got an answer.
asiangrrlMN
@joe from Lowell:
.
Yes, I was thinking clearly. No, I had no fleeting thoughts about what I would do to “those people”. I never gave any credence to a damn word W. said, not then–not ever. But see, I wasn’t also shocked that the two towers got hit like other people were because I never had the illusion that America couldn’t be attacked. I was numb and grieved and in pain, but not shocked. I understood what would compel people from another country to attack us (NOT excused, never that), and I knew from the get-go that W. would go terribly awry in his revenge plan.
So, it’s difficult for me to put myself in the Republican mindset because I never felt that way about 9/11. W.’s words have been from the beginning empty jingoism to me, and that is what they remain until this day. I didn’t understand the rational for invading Iraq, and I didn’t see how any of the steps W. took would make us any more secure.
Elie
I guess to me the right comparison to make about the tragegy of 9/11 is how this administation handled a national calamity of at least equal devastation to our sense of safety and security — Katrina.
The survivors of the Gulf Coast and NOLA did not even receive kind words to ease their suffering…Indeed, they experienced the privations that shame us as a nation to this day. The Bush administration (as well as more local governments) completely failed basic caring and relief of our own citizens! We couldnt give them water – WATER! We had old, sick people dying in humiliating conditions in public cesspools made by the lack of human and humane planing for the least of us. Unbelievably, Mayor Nagin manages still to hold onto his position — totally amazing in itself until you realized that most of the people who would have removed him from office no longer live in NOLA.
We need to remember who we are and what we are supposed to stand for. Those who scream loudly about pride and never forgetting, should rememember how low we sank — so low that the President could not be bothered to get out of his fucking plane to say anything directly to the many many folks who lost everything they had and then had to endure the contemptuous treatment by the government that was supposed to represent and protect them…
THAT is what we should also never forget….
Ellid
What upset me most was all the folk who were proudly stating that they would use 9/11 to do all they could to defeat health care reform.
Canada is looking more and more attractive all the time. Barring that, could someone please find me a one-way ticket to Vulcan? I’m really starting to wonder if I can stand to live on this planet any more.
Zuzu's Petals
@Kathy in St. Louis:
Not only that, every time Makewi sees a family request donations to charity in honor of their departed loved one, he mocks them mercilessly. After all, it’s a time of mourning, not something to be rescued and turned into a nice thing.