A robe of seeming truth and trust
Hid crafty Observation;
And secret hung, with poison'd crust,
The dirk of Defamation:

A mask that like the gorget show'd,
Dye-varying on the pigeon;
And for a mantle large and broad,
He wrapt him in Religion.
Hypocrisy A-La-Mode

--from "The Holy Fair" by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

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THE GOP, FOR ITS PART, MUST ENJOY GIVING HIGH CARNIVAL TO THE LIKES OF DOUBLETHINK AND HYPOCRISY GALORE, especially considering their unwillingness to face Reality in the face of emerging scandals as reveal a clear and compelling pattern of hypocrisy when it comes to their supposed defence of "Traditional Values" in army with the Elmer Gantry Institute of Religiopolitical Theology.

Consider:

• A report in today's New York Times hath it that GOP Presidential candidate presumptive John McCain has been having what amounts to les liasons dangeruses with a lobbyist for a Senate committee on which McCain served during the 1999-2000 period, thereby raising conflict-of-interest and morals issues. (McCain, for his part, denies the story, claiming, as is usual among the forces of conservative Zealotry and True Belief, that the Times is in it with the Greater Liberal Media Conspiracy; IMHO, conservatives may be using "liberal" as anti-Semitic code in this and similar contexts.)
• Over recent days, two Federal judges--both appointees of His Fraudulency, know--have been caught in Pantsdown Parade, so to speak, for, respectively, wearing clothing "not belonging to his or her sex" during an arrest for drink driving and perousal of child pornography on the Information Stuporbahn.
• Phoenix New Times, the Valley of the Sun's alternative weekly, hath it that a GOP precinct committeman in suburban Phoenix was seen distributing white-supremacist and Holocaust-denial pamphlets and tracts during a recent meeting of the Maricopa County Republican Party. (Hat tip here to the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Centre; as well, be advised that the linked article contains language which some people may find offensive.)

What do you have to say now?

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CONSERVATIVES MUST HAVE THIS PARTICULAR FEAR AND LOATHING FOR THOSE WITH MENTAL DISORDERS, as witness Michael Savage's oft-repeated bromide of "liberalism [being] a Mental Disorder"--howbeit not formally recognised by DSM-IV.

Consider where a since-discredited report of female suicide bombers conducting a Notorious Terrorist Attack in a Baghdad market recently having been recruited from the ranks of the mentally-defective may have to be discredited itself: It's emerged that the suicide bombers themselves had previously received psychiatric treatment for schizophrenia and depression.

But then such, such is highly unlikely to stop the GOP's dirty-tricks operatives from looking @ innovative ways to use mental defectives as cheap patsies for (officially) "terrorist" acts His Fraudulency's Great Within will feel compelled to use to excuse indefinite suspension of Indecision 2008--and while the hue and cry for the "terrorists" goes on, the "real" culprits are quietly shipped off to Canada and put on conditional remittances.

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WHY THE "DANGER OF HOMOSEXUALITY" SHOULD REMAIN A NON-ISSUE for Indecision 2008 is best exemplified by these remarks from Judge Roy "Ten Commandments" Moore, as quoted by Right Wing Watch via WorldNetDaily:

Driven by political correctness, candidates have likewise failed to discuss moral issues like homosexuality. Content to placate their audiences with vague generalities about the need for strong families and a desire to care for our fellow citizens, they refuse to call attention to the moral decay associated with the glorification of "alternative lifestyles." All the while, federal courts allow public schools to teach kindergartners about homosexuality against the wishes of their parents, but prevent Christians in public schools from espousing a biblical view about this immoral behavior.

Which amounts, methinks, to nothing more than a cheap distraction from The Bigger Picture, as in:

• The failings of the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism, and the ensuing pariahdom brought upon the United States and its antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity;
• The ever-widening gap between rich and poor, and the dangers of socioeconomic polarisation thus ensuing;
• The consequences of the "sub-prime/Alt-A" mortgage meltdown, and the involvement of His Fraudulency's "inside of the inside" in policies allowing high-risk mortgages being made to those with problem credit, and yet unlikely to make timely repayments; and
• The ascendency of weird and unwholesome elements in positions of confidence and trust within His Fraudulency's Administration, and their (un)conscious potential for being an unwitting Fifth Column as could compromise "our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity," not to mention causing wholesale moral lapse.

Come to think of it, for an unlikely example:

• How many communities with substantial populations of homosexuals have seen serious loss or dilution of real property values as a direct byproduct of homosexuality?
• Has the mere presence of homosexuals in substantial numbers (particularly in traditionally lower-working-class "white trash" neighbourhoods) actually led to "blockbusting" or threats therefor among Those Who Should Know Better?
  (N.B. "Blockbusting," as in dumping real properties on the real-estate markets for significantly less than fair market value en bloc, is a penal offense under fair-housing laws.)
• How many communities with substantial homosexual populations saw significant and measurable loss of business volume, closing or scaling back of business operations, reductions in bank deposits or deposit runs, wholesale unemployment or mass layoffs, or threats to close down local operations, solely because of the homosexual presence in the community?
• Have the likes of Wally World, Aldi and Homer D. Poe's had to close stores in communities afflicted by the mere presence of homosexuals? Were such closings because of said homosexual presence?

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SO MUCH FOR SHOWING DIVINE JUDGEMENT UPON AMERICA FOR EXCUSING HOMOSEXUALITY, to use the pet platitude of the so-called "Westboro Baptist Church" in excusing their protests @ funerals of troops killed in the ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism:

On several occasions through this winter so far, the cultural conservatives' perfection and ideal of a "morally superior" Amerikanischer Realkultur, otherwise known as Branson, Missouri, has seen episodes of ice and sleet storms unrivalled in climatological history for the district.

Making you wonder if such amounts to a collective show of Divine Judgement upon nothing less than a warped reincarnation of the "folk culture festivals" which the Kraft durch Frude (KdF) movement sponsored wholesale back in Nazi Germany for the sake of "promoting national and racial honour and pride." Never mind the propaganda message being kept discreet by deliberate design.