Politickles

Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:

REVOLTING DEVELOPMENT
Revolution’s a natural desire
When we lack what our natures require,
But it loses its glow
When oppressed people go
From the frying pan into the fire.

From the archive:

IT COULD’VE BEEN WORSE
Democrats in the White House are scary.
Jimmy Carter and Bill made us wary
And relieved there weren’t more:
Mike Dukakis, Al Gore,
And spandexterous dullard John Kerry!
(2007)

WORLD FREEDOM
If freedom can come to Romanians,
Albanians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians,
Why must others abide
While their freedom’s denied:
Brother Syrians, Saudis, Iranians?
(2006)

Last week’s verse:

ARTIFICIAL FAMINE
There’s no benefit to coal
If you cannot dig a hole,
And the value is nil
Of oil you can’t drill.
Who would favor such control?

Mass times and readings

[Editor's note: Lars Hedegaard, a Danish critic of Islam, is on trial in Denmark for remarks he made regarding dysfunctions and abuse within Islamic family culture. Under Denmark's law 266b dealing with alleged hate speech, defendants are not allowed to prove the truth of their comments and all that is needed for conviction is whether any one person feels offended. Below are his final words in the Court of Frederiksberg on January 24, 2011.] – Common Sense & Wonder

SUBMISSION
These new guidelines are certainly odd:
“We must never denounce the jihad;
We must never demean
The mujahideen,
As they force us to worship their god.”
(2008)

Keeping a campaign vow to bankrupt the industry, the administration revokes the permit for an approved, working coal mine in West Virginia. . . .

We have an oil drilling moratorium in parts of the Gulf of Mexico and off both coasts. ANWR and other energy-rich areas in and off Alaska are off-limits, as are vast areas in the West. Nuclear power is stalled and even natural gas is under attack for its use of so-called “fracking” technology. -- IBD Editorial

Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe, but the Russian communists created an artificial famine there and starved millions to death. The U.S. has an abundance of energy reserves, but American communists are creating an artificial energy shortage and starving our economy. We need to reject all arbitrary restrictions on energy development, reject scacity, and embrace abundance.

Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:

ARTIFICIAL FAMINE
There’s no benefit to coal
If you cannot dig a hole,
And the value is nil
Of oil you can’t drill.
Who would favor such control?

From the archive:

WELL, WELL, WELL
Well, I’m not exactly thrilled
When I get my gas tank filled,
But it makes my blood boil
To know that there’s oil
In reserves of our own to be drilled.
(2008)

Last week’s verse:

PROJECTION
Whatever the woe they’re bewailin’,
It’s not long ’fore the Left starts assailin’
The “climate of hate”
That right-wingers create –
And their favorite bête noire, Sarah Palin.

Mass times and readings

Lee Harvey Oswald and I lived in two apartments on Magazine Street in New Orleans! Not at the same time, mind you, or even the same apartments. Still, it’s pretty freaky, right? What are the odds?

In 1974, during my senior year of college, 11 years after Ruby gunned down Oswald in police custody, I lived in a second-floor balcony apartment at 2712 Magazine, one house off the corner of Washington Avenue. World-famous Commander’s Palace was just three blocks up the street, and miles out of my price range. I had $32 left after paying the rent each month and survived on $8 a week eating peanut butter sandwiches. One day I got tired of peanut butter and threw the sandwich I was eating off the balcony and into the live oak tree in front of the house. As far as I know, it’s still there. If I’m ever hungry enough, I’ll go back, climb the tree, and eat it.

3700 Magazine Street

In 1980, 17 years after Oswald’s demise, I moved into a second-floor balcony apartment at 3700 Magazine, between Louisiana and Napoleon Avenues. Hey, I like balconies. There was no peanut butter on the premises. I had moved up in the world and dined regularly on discount pork chops. My landlord was a shoe repairman, with a shop conveniently located beneath my apartment to allow girlfriends to have their pumps repaired while visiting. (Was I bringing him business, or taking advantage of his trade? I’ll never know.) I was the only white guy in the building. One of my neighbors was named “Killer,” but he turned out to be a lady’s man, not a murderer.

You won’t find any mention of this in the Warren Report, or in Jim Garrison’s memoirs, but that is the true and thoroughly documented story of Oswald and me.

When Evann went out of town a couple of years ago to visit her mother in New Orleans, everything fell apart.

The next time she went out of town, it happened again.

What will happen this time?

Why not? Bigots are victims, too. In fact, they’re the ultimate victims, nowadays. Everyone hates them. But isn’t bigotry a disease, just like every other bad habit? Aren’t they born that way? And, if not, weren’t they infected with bigotry? Either way, it’s not their fault. So we can’t blame them, right? We have to understand, and accept, and affirm.

Where are the support groups for bigots? How about a national celebration of bigotry: National Bigot Day, Week, or Month? Legislation to protect the rights of bigots? Why aren’t the ACLU, the Democratic Party, and the United Nations championing the victims of the intolerance of intolerance? Is there a limit to their tolerance?