hello, world

[//\/\/]

Originally Posted by Sean

There have been some exchanges that literally scared me - like a thread that was all about how there needs to be a modern day civil war - a violent overthrow of the government. A couple quotes:

"The Answer for the Federal Govt will be to use U.N. troops from about any other country. I think these troops will be happy to use force against what has been the most powerful country in the world simply because of their years of jealousy of our prosperity and having such a wonderful country. Remember, blue helmets will make excellent targets, should the time come. And, according to my premonition, we are approaching the last 12 months in which the war is going to strike. God bless and help us save America, and return her to the Christian country she was founded for."

"WE the TRUE PATRIOTS of this great Nation, who believe in this REPUBLIC and HER CONSTITUTION have had it period with all the progressives mamby pamby bullshit!! However with that said, Its not entirely just the progressive pos, its the attitude of all THE ELITIST SHITHEADS who occupy Washington, demorats and repubnics alike!!!! The audacity of these morons is outstanding, they really think they can continue to shove their shit down our throats without recourse??

"I say go ahead and continue to push us, I really don't think they will like it to much how we push back!!!
MAYBE NEXT TIME WE WILL BE CARRYING MORE THAN JUST FLAGS!!!!!
CHEW ON THAT AWHILE, ASSHOLES.........."

"It might sound stupid to most, but when the shit hits the fan, I'd rather have republicans as my buddies. I have yet to greet a democrat that can hunt and live off the land. If their is a civil war republicans know what type of terrain the US has cause of all the hunting and etc... : ) Hopefully next year will be my gun purchase year : ) R700 / M4 is all I'm going to need : )"

"At this criminal pace, there will have to be simply to save ourselves and restore our constitutional rights and freedoms these Progressive scoundrels keep stripping away from us.
And just why do you think they keep wanting to take away our right to bear arms time and again? Far too late, liberals! The true American citizen is armed to the teeth already, and is perhaps one of the largest armed forces in the world."

But since these are the people that I think pose the biggest threat to American society today, I'm very keen on being informed about what they believe.

[bryantm3]

i'm not too shocked or anything, but i don't think these people represent the right in america any more than joseph stalin represents the left. militaristic survivalist people who have stocked their houses up with cannons and spend all their time posting to an online forum with a blast helmet on are not as large a portion of the electorate as they would like you to believe.

[Deckard]

i don't think these people represent the right in america any more than joseph stalin represents the left.

They don't represent the right but these people appear to be on a definite increase, both in number and visibility/noise, and that's worrying. With undeniably mainstream political and media conduits like Sarah Palin and Fox News, I should think any decent, sane individual of either side of the political divide would be right to be concerned about the momentum and consequences of this extremism (let's be honest - if they were Muslims, we'd have no hesitation in labeling them extremists for their views).

US facing surge in rightwing extremists and militias
'Civil rights report shows 250% rise in 'patriot' groups'
(Disclaimer - liberal news source, and I've only skim-read it!)

Btw, hello Cacophony Thought about you last week funnily enough. Hope you and family are keeping well.

(EDIT: ...and thanks heavens_night - feeling your lurrrve!)

[heavens_night]

You're quite welcome. world needs some love.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Hey Cacophony! Good to hear from you.

Like Sean, I have moved to pastures new for my politicking and can be found metaphorically mouthing off on the Guardian "Comment Is Free" site, largely because there is a huge variety of subject-matter and some really interesting commentators - and posters.

Hope life is treating you and your family well!

J x

[cacophony]

glad to see everyone coming out of the woodwork. admittedly i'm at fault for my own conversational laziness, but i can blame at least part of my absence on raising the world's youngest boy band:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamsmapte/4434081000/

we put the korg and the guitar on the floor and let the boys have at it. i think boy #1 is ready for a guest appearance with karl and brian eno:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamsmapte/4434079562/

for those of you who i've known on dirty for years and years and years, that's my voice in that video. in another decade i'll post a photo of my face.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

caco-nacho! we should have an alpharetta dirty meeting. seriously. how many alpharettans are on here, like four? it's got to be fate, or something.

i "joined" the atlanta coffee party movement (insofar as fanning the facebook page counts as joining). you interested?

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/

[chuck]

@cacophony. Nice one on the baby performance.

Like others - my focus is on offline things - in my case my daughter has just gone 13 months - and is digging being able to walk by herself. She's a right little groover, and enjoys eating her breakfast listening to Hot Chip.

Work as a teacher never seems to stop - and fb has taken up a lot of the social networking side of life. I don't really vent as much as I used too - could be I'm mellowing with old age - or that after a decade around here or on the dirtylist - it seems to be the same issues still around.

I was looking at some old LIFE magazines, from 1983 last week. That's almost 30 years ago. It makes me feel a little old reading some of the details - 1983 - the year Connery returned to 007, KAL 007 got shot down over the USSR, the Marines were bombed in Beirut, Vanessa Williams was Miss America, Culture Club and Beat It were top of the charts, Sally Ride went into space, Flashdance and Return of the Jedi were on the big screen.

And the US troops invaded Grenada... because as Ronald Reagan said, "Grenada, we were told, was a friendly island paradise for tourism. Well, it wasn't. It was a Soviet-Cuban colony being readied as a major military bastion to export terrorism and undermine democracy."

See. The more things change the more they stay the same.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by chuck

or that after a decade around here or on the dirtylist - it seems to be the same issues still around.

holy cats i just realized i'm closing in on a dirty decade, too.

maybe children rob us of our cynicism or something. although i do have to say i've been playing "poke the republicans with the sharp stick of hyperbole" on facebook so maybe it's just that i'm bleeding off the pressure over there.

watching small humans learn to walk is so neat, isn't it?

[chuck]

Originally Posted by cacophony

holy cats i just realized i'm closing in on a dirty decade, too.

maybe children rob us of our cynicism or something. although i do have to say i've been playing "poke the republicans with the sharp stick of hyperbole" on facebook so maybe it's just that i'm bleeding off the pressure over there.

watching small humans learn to walk is so neat, isn't it?

yeah - it must be 10 years i've been here - I think i got onto the list about mid-90s when i was touring with uw boys. i'm not one of the originals mind - there were some cracking individuals on the list.

little people are ace - my daughter is just a right crackup - tough as nails, loves giving people cuddles - loves chatting, playing, eats like a horse, laughs like a drunk, waves byebye to the water as it goes down the bath plughole.... every day is something new.

it's brilliant.