Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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Blue State vs. Red State Explained

This one of the many things that float around the Internet. It may have been meant to be funny, informative or both. It was sent to me as Texas translations of Californiaese. I think it works very nicely to expain the difference between Red states and Blue states.

Enjoy.

      Blue States Red States
Arsenal of Weapons Gun Collection
Delicate Wetlands Swamp
Undocumented Worker Illegal Alien
Cruelty-Free Materials Synthetic Fiber
Assault and Battery Attitude Adjustment
Heavily Armed Well-protected
Narrow-minded Righteous
Taxes or Your Fair Share Coerced Theft
Commonsense Gun Control Gun Confiscation Plot
Illegal Hazardous Explosives Fireworks or Stump Removal
Nonviable Tissue Mass Unborn Baby
Equal Access to Opportunity Socialism
Multicultural Community High Crime Area
Fairness or Social Progress Marxism
Upper Class or “The Rich” Self-Employed
Progressive, Change Big Government Scheme
Sniper Rifle Scoped Deer Rifle
Investment For the Future Higher Taxes
Healthcare Reform Socialized Medicine
Extremist, Judgmental, or Hater Conservative
Truants Homeschoolers
High Capacity Magazine Standard Capacity Magazine
Religious Zealot Church-going
Reintroduced Wolves Sheep and Elk Killers
Fair Trade Coffee Overpriced Yuppie Coffee
Exploiters or “The Rich” Employed or Land Owner
The Gun Lobby NRA Members
Assault Weapon Semi-Auto (Grandpa’s M1 Carbine)
Fiscal Stimulus New Taxes and Higher Taxes
Same Sex Marriage Legalized Perversion
Overseas Contingency Operation 
War
Mandated Eco-Friendly Lighting   Chinese Mercury-Laden Light Bulbs
Global Warming or Climate Change 
  Weather & it ain’t rainin?
General Welfare of Americans
Gov’t Hand-outs at Taxpayers? Expense
Outdated History                
Constitution & Declaration of Independence
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Poor, Scared, Less Educated, and Left Behind = Conservative

” Sadly, the foot soldiers of Conservatism do not understand that they are winning a Pyrrhic victory, one which indicates a deep and systemic rot in this country, as opposed to a triumph of ideas and values that can lead us through the decline of empire and towards a brave new future.”  — From article below

It has long been very perplexing to me why blue collar workers and the poor would support Republican/Tea Party/Conservative values and positions.  Apparently, I am not the only one that feels this.  I have not phased it quite so eloquently, saying they were “shooting themselves in the foot”, as opposed to calling it a Pyrrhic victory, but same thought.

The mega corporations do not care about America anymore.  Profit is their god, and the planet has become open with all the Free Trade agreements.  A dollar made in Cambodia is the same as a dollar made in Flagstaff, as far as they are concerned.  I have no idea what the Tea Party wants except the demise of our government and thus our country.

What is that old Irish curse, “May you live in interesting times.”  Interesting are these times,  but they are also very sad.

Link to an article about how America has become more conservative.

Link is no longer valid.

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The Power of Poop

I found this very fascinating. This doctor and others are doing poop transfusions, taking the fecal material from healthy people and placing it in the intestinal tracts of unhealthy people. One doctor is claiming an MS cure. There is a type of diarrhea that is this is the preferred treatment. One fellow sees it helping Parkinson patients. There are still a lot of skeptics, but this starting to be some really serious research into these “transpoosings”.

I subscribe to the Freakonomics podcast which is how I came across it. Just so you know.

You can read the article, or download the podcast, or listen to it on this page. Enjoy!

Freakonomics-radio-the-power-of-poop/

An article on:  Mind-Gut Connection: Why Intestinal Bacteria May Have Important Effects on Your Brain

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Illustration of Michael Moore’s Stat About Inequality

More conversation about the wealth gap in this country.

From the referenced article, “Michael Moore joined the demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin on March 6, and mentioned that the 400 richest Americans have more money than all of their 155,000,000 fellow citizens at the bottom of the pyramid combined.”  As much as I dislike Michael Moore personally, I have to agree with his positions on many things.

Here is another way to think about this number. The current USA population is 311,000,000 more or less. Half of that is pretty close to 155,000,000. So 400 people have as much wealth as 1/2 of the total US population. Mind boggling.

400 = 155,000,000.  I started to quip, “in what universe”.  I then realized it is in our universe.

This is one of most dramatic demonstrations of that concept I have seen. You have to strain hard to see the white dot that represents the rich among the sea of “commoners”. Call me a socialist, but nobody needs or should be that rich. I’m back on the one pie analogy. In order to have an over sized piece of pie you have to take some from someone else’s piece of pie. Or in this case a bunch of someones.

Link was not longer valid….sorry

What really slays me is that our politicians seem to be on a tear to make these folks richer.  Call me old school, but I firmly believe that to whom that more is given, more is expected.

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This Land is Your Land

Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days.  In this day of union busting, growing wealth gap, and some say outright class warfare, maybe we need to be reminded of Woody’s words.  This is land is for all of us, just not a few, and certainly not the corporations that seem to have hijacked our government.

By the way, the gal in the middle of the 3 women singing back up is Moncia Taylor who I do a website for…check it it out.

MonicaTaylorMusic.com

Enjoy!

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Innocent Man Freed

I regularly download several pod-casts from NPR.  I listen to them as I jog or drive.  The programs almost always seem to air at times I cannot listen, or cannot listen with attention.  So I time shift.  One of my favorites is This American Life with Ira Glass.

They recently reran a story that originally aired in February of 2005.  The story was very disturbing and uplifting all at the same time.  It is a crime story.  It is legal drama.  It is a story of redemption.  It is a story about a man who was randomly picked out of a mug book by teenager.  The young man claimed he saw a murder when in reality he did  not.  He was being bullied by the police detective during the interview and just wanted it over.  So he pointed to a face in a book.  That innocent face spent the next 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Either the police and legal system were lazy, incompetent, or overwhelmed, but the end result was prison.  The newly convicted man fortunately had a childhood friend who spent the next 21 years working to get him out of prison.  This is that story.  I am not ashamed to admit that by the end I had tears in my eyes. 

I go back and forth about the death penalty, but this story is a good argument against it.   Below is a link to the page on This American Life website that has the story and you can download the podcast and listen to it. 

This American Life : Episode 282 DIY

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The Tiny Island Nation of Mauritius

Mauritius is an island nation off the west coast of Africa. Up until 1968, it was a colony of Great Britain.  Chaos and poverty were predicted for post independence, but that did not happen. Quite the opposite. It is a wonderful case study in what can happen if you forgo maintaining the gap between rich and poor, and stop wasting money on military.

Every time I think of the senseless, unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think of how that money could have been put to good social use in this country or other countries. I have no idea what we bought for our blood and treasure.

Below is the link to an article at Slate.com about this little country. Is is short, quick read and gives a little fodder for thought.

The Greatest Country on Earth

Mauritius Welcomes You – The Official Site for Mauritius

Wikipedia article on Mauritius

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Support America — Boycott Koch Brothers Products

The Koch brothers are the billionaire financiers of the Tea Party and other extreme Right political interest groups. They have one interest that is summed up as greed. Apparently they are not rich enough, and want more of the one pie we all share.

Here is an excellent article detailing the practices of the these two that hurt all Americans who are not  Kochs.  I am thnking that is a pretty big group. How Koch Industries Makes Billions Corrupting Government

If you prefer your information in a more audio-visual format scroll to the bottom of this Rachel Maddow article. You can watch a segment of her show that was about the Koch brothers. — Rachel Maddow: Koch Brothers ‘Pop Up In Every Scummy Political Scandal’

One small thing we can all do is boycott products produced by companies owned by these greedy bastards. If you think it does not matter remember that in our society dollars are votes. The Koch brothers just have a ton of votes. Here is a partial list from AlterNet.org article, How You Can Boycott the Kochs

It includes such things as: 

  • Angel Soft toilet paper
  • Brawny paper towels
  • Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
  • Mardi Gras napkins and towels
  • Quilted Northern toilet paper
  • Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
  • Sparkle napkins
  • Vanity fair napkins
  • Zee napkins
  • The article goes on to detail building products we are not likely to encounter in our everyday shopping, but if you know a liberal contractor…

We have to start fighting back in every small way we can.  It seems to me the greedy and crazies have gotten hold of our government and economic systems. 

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Big Bad Wolf

From season 5, episode 23, the Fractured Fairy Tale: Three Little Pigs. The wolf, surrounded by Racing Forms, Babes magazine, Beauty’s Women magazine, Girl’s magazine, is reading “Gay Boy” magazine and later in the same episode, he is reading “Gay Boy Annual”.

I suppose then the question becomes when did the definition of gay change or is this a not so subtle piece slipped in past the censors

The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show aired 1961 thru 1964 when Rob and Laura Petri were sleeping in twin beds.

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Would you buy a vehicle made in China?

A few months ago I bought a new truck, a Toyota Tacoma.   I wanted to buy American, but I did not want the gas mileage of another full size vehicle.  I loved my F-150, but a sipper of gas they are not.  In smaller trucks, the Tacoma seemed like a no brainer compared to the rest of the field.  There a few things I am not totally happy with, but on the whole it seems to be a very good vehicle.  I am happy with it.

I recently received a survey from a firm that I am sure is contracted to Toyota-USA to do these sort of surveys.  It was one of these surveys that sucked you in by appealing to your altruistic side.  Fill out this survey and help us make better vehicles.  It also appealed to your greedy side by promising to enter you into a drawing for a year of free oral sex.  The thought of all those blow jobs was more than I could stand.  I started filling out the survey with all due haste.

Well to make a long story short, it was a long not short survey.   I was ready to just quit about half way through their questionnaire, but dreams of unending fellatio kept me going.

What did stop me in my tracks was this question.  Would you buy a car made in China, yes or no?  And if you answered no, like I did, a text box appeared asking you to explain why.  I answered diplomatically, and said that I did not need another piece of junk from China, and went on to say, “there was not fucking way I would ever buy a vehicle made in China.”

I truck further through the survey quite satisfied with my China answer when I encounter, “Would you ever buy a vehicle made in India, yes or no?”  Again if you answer no, a text box appeared asking for why. This one was easy, “See China.”

I am all for other countries raising themselves up, but do we have to throw the baby out with the bath water for them to do it?