Well, it’s just been one of those weeks. For some reason, MSNBC has been choosing to spend enormous amounts of airtime on some football scandal (talk about a news dump!), but that notwithstanding, we at Big Green insist on full coverage.
Mess with Texas. I imagine you’ve heard by now that the great state of Texas is under threat of invasion and the imposition of marshal law by a socialist-slave U.S. military. You’ve heard, that is, if you spend most of your free time on paranoid right-wing nut-job web sites. This fantasy, rooted in the kind of conspiratorial blather that has animated the right since Obama’s election and before (remember Ruby Ridge?), is all the more bizarre because it is taking hold in a state that prides itself as being the home of many, many U.S. military personnel. All that flag-waving, and still Governor Greg Abbott feels it necessary to task his national guard with observing the upcoming special forces exercises. Freakish. Amazingly, these people think climate change is some elaborate conspiracy theory.
Favorite headline on this: Even Rick Perry thinks Greg Abbott is a dumbass (Dallas Voice).
Hebdo in Garland. A couple of pissed-off Muslims attempted to attack a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland Texas, put on by a notorious anti-Muslim freakazoid. Next thing you know, you’ve got another free speech debate on your hands. Why is it that when people say you’re stupid for doing something stupid, you are accused of attacking their speech rights? I guess because it’s an easy defense. I don’t see those people lining up to defend journalists killed by Israeli Defense Forces bombs in Gaza last summer. So, as always, opinions on free speech in America are almost always driven by who is doing the speaking and what they are saying. If you do your best to provoke people who are marginalized and under constant pressure and suspicion, you will be defended to the ends of the earth for your rights. If you call out the powerful, don’t expect the same courtesy.
It’s a lot like the International Criminal Court. I’ll start having some faith in it when they haul Dick Cheney’s sorry ass up to the dock. Until them, don’t even talk about it.
Song: Aw Shoot, by Big Green – This song is from our 2013 album, Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick. It’s a funky little number, somewhat reminiscent of the theme music from a bad 80’s foreign sci-fi film whose name I won’t mention. Scandinavian accents are kind of a giveaway.
Monday night Baltimore was burning, in places. Tuesday morning, we heard all the usual stuff. Why are they burning their own neighborhoods down? What’s the matter with these people? Hey … they looted a liquor store? Same crap every time this happens. These, incidentally, are not the questions asked after every sports-related victory (or defeat) riot that happens in major American cities. Of course, those “thugs” tend to be mostly white people. They tend to belong to a more privileged class. Nothing to see here.