IN THE NAME OF STIMULATING THE ECONOMY BEING ONE WITH "NATIONAL UNITY AND IDENTITY," leave it to His Fraudulency's Great Within to come up with what may best be described as illogical and misguided ideas.

Especially when you stop and consider that the Great Within may have engaged in some of the worst fiscal mismanagement of any soverign state in world history since the German hyperflation following World War I (with only Zimbabwe becoming a serious rival right now, where Z$60 million buys a tube of toothpaste).

Mismanagement complicated by a misguided War on Terrorism as is all too quickly turning into ur-RAHOWA (though they're probably under lettres de cachet to not acknowledge it openly, For Obvious Reason), equally-misguided "ideological reasons" excusing the tacit endorsement of "new and innovative" mortgage-loan products for those with marginal or non-established credit (especially so welfare "basket cases") and an overzealous belief that keeping taxes as low as possible was necessary for the sake of National Unity and Identity.

The latest example of good concept, but no sense:

Offering advanced tax rebates of as much as $800/person by summer, hoping that the Lower Classes especially as qualify for the same blow the whole on misadventures in predatory consumerism @ the nearest Wally World, having no respect for practicality, utilitarian value or common sense. And quickly, too, they hope, they hope.

Not to mention persisting in their hard-wired belief that making tax cuts from the first term Complete, Final and Binding will actually translate into consistent streams of tax revenue and prompt employers "out of the goodness of their hearts" into hiring more from the Lower Classes especially.

Seems His Fraudulency has some serious maths errors to answer for, especially considering where the National Debt has ballooned to over $9 trillion throughout His Fraudulency's tenure in office and his Zealotry and True Belief in maintaining tax cuts only making matters worse.

No doubt explaining the attraction of some to GOP Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee's support of the "FairTax" model--as in scrapping income taxes altogether in favour of a consumption-based tax; here again, you have to wonder just how much revenue consumption-based taxes would generate to sufficently supplant income taxes.

@ least until Huckabee makes that one fatal slip which could be the Waterloo for his designs.

*************

THE SAME SMALL-TOWN/RURAL AMERICAN ARCADIA beloved of certain specimens of conservative Zealotry and True Belief as the one which would save the Great Silent Majority from Themselves, unfortunately, has a Dark Side its supporters would rather you not know about.

As in a latent and inbred tolerance for racism, bigotry and xenophobia by and large.

Case in point: Chosen Valley High School in Chatfield, Minnesota is coming to terms with a Possible Hate Crime in the form of a noose being displayed with a black doll dangling from same after classes resumed following the holiday break; two students as were involved have received discipline, although some parents wonder if it was adequate enough, especially in light of a poster for a white-supremacist group being found in the locker of one of the disciplined.

Olmstead County sheriffs' officers are looking into possible hate crimes charges as a byproduct (never mind where the students' names were not disclosed as they are considered Juvenile Offenders).

Such is the state of affairs in a rather warped vision of Arcadia where support for anti-government movements (especially so "Wise Use" and other pro-business such) is rather notorious and Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur is looked upon as the Acme and Perfection of American People's Culture, or what passes for it.

Seen, it turns out, through beer goggles rather than the rose-coloured glasses producerist types prefer.

*************

THE DIGITAL TRANSITION, THOUGH NEARLY A YEAR AWAY, is providing broadcasters on FreeVee channels what could be an unlikely opportunity they don't quite realise exists: Videlicet, selling what amounts to surplus time on their multicast channels to such broadcasters wanting to fill up otherwise wasted digital-TV bandwidth, not unlike such outfits buying air time on talkback radio stations on the weekends when not much else is available.

(Consideration, of course, having to be given to the FCC's public-service mandates of broadcasters, not to mention the Electronic Programme Guide, the V-chip and the TV Ratings Scheme.)

Making such all the more viable (especially for such who would still prefer to receive their TV programmes free-to-air, as opposed to cable or satellite services) would have to be the FCC's rejection of Sinclair Broadcasting Group's "Multicast Must-Carry" petition (which would have obligated cable systems to carry all multicast signals of TV broadcasters so transmitting) a few years back, citing where the multicast programmes were unlikely to carry enough programming to meet public-service obligations.

=============

AND THERE'S ALSO THE MIRACLES OF WARPED SCIENCE that certain deluded conservatives with nothing but fear, contempt and loathing for the Lower Classes would love to sneak upon same as part of the multicast opportunities made possible by the Digital Transition and plenty of bandwidth which broadcasters fear would otherwise go to waste from time to time:

Videlicet, perfecting an automatic tuner that would trigger nothing better than the finest exercises in sick humour @ the expense of the Great Unwashed in their want of sophistication, morals or decency (or so the conservatives must be thinking all along), otherwise known as switching the signals of certain multicast channels viewed among the Lower Classes (and in such sets so owned) when "inapproriate" programming is about to be broadcast--only to direct them to channels broadcasting, and deliberately, nothing but pornography lacking plot, story or morals, let alone production values.

No wonder conservatives must have this fetish for unleasing sick humour as a way of further loathing the vulnerable and marginalised of society, and excusing the whole all along as "pacification." 

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN WAS RECENTLY OVERHEARD calling for the development of initiatives by Her Majesty's Government to develop Internet-based instruction in English as a Second Language.

(This, Your Correspondent understands, would mean the British version, as is quite different from the American such.)

With that in mind, what exactly would prevent we "morally superior" Americans from competing in kind by developing a rival platform to teach English via the Information Stuporbahn? (In our own case, expect it to be based on "real life," as opposed to a more "polite," Noah Webster-model platform, emphasising the likes of colloquialisms, slang, cant/argot, similie and metaphor rooted largely in the likes of various subcultures--urban "hip-hop," beach/surf, rural, various regional colloquialisms, American football, baseball, gambling, xtreme sports, GLBTQ and even drugs--and with liberal doses of sexual, scatological and "white trash" argot.)

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COME TO THINK OF IT, perhaps such as are seeking to preserve the Jewish dialect known as Yiddish might want to consider looking into using the Information Stuporbahn as a way of teaching and promoting the use thereof.

Especially the written forms, as traditionally use the Hebrew alphabet.

*************

IT'S EMERGED THAT POOR, UNDEREDUCATED AND EASILY-INFLUENCED SPECIMENS OF BRITISH "WHITE TRASH" may have been led astray into the Evil Influences of International Terrorism (al-Qaeda in particular) thanks to the Information Stuporbahn, prompting appeals by British authorities to other nations to take "all reasonable measures" to prevent misuse and perversion of the Information Stuporbahn for purposes of recruiting and exploiting the vulnerable and marginalised of society.

And such should be applied equally against all enemies of the State and People, as much from within as from without.

And not just against International Terrorism: Neo-Nazis/Fascists, racists, White Christian Supremacists, militant homophobes, xenophobes, neo-Confederacists, apologists for Jim Crow/apartheid, "citizen militia" and other anti-government extremists (as in the likes of the Montana Freemen and "Wise Use Movement" types), even militant anti-abortionists, all having in common clear and present threats from within as could appeal all too easily to the vulnerable and others in close proximity to the Dregs of Society with Information Stuporbahn access.

Which, no doubt, will start out sugar-coated, with all manner of saccharine appeals to G-d, Country and Christian Values as the "set-up," gradually progressing all the lower into more militant rhetoric, including appeals to fear and violence, keeping a low profile as much as possible (the "lone wolf" approach, as it were), and even offering "guidance" on what to say in case of arrest or other police enquiries.

Too, you have the danger of "hate rock" bands offering an especially attractive message to vulnerable teenagers and youth in particular--for all the wrong reasons, it turns out, what with their glamourisation of the Nazi regime and its leaders, their "Aryan" racial ideal, their loathing of Jews, immigrants, Blacks, homosexuals and "chronic and habitual" welfare cases, and the justification for using violence towards their aims.

*************

AND YOU'VE PROBABLY ENCOUNTERED ALL MANNER OF SPAM FROM SO-CALLED "CHRISTIAN" BUSINESSES in your e-mail Inbox (or, in some cases, a Junk Mail folder) offering all manner of products and services "based on Christian Principles," among them:

• home mortgage loans and refinancing;
• debt consolidation/factoring;
• dating and matchmaking websites;
• travel and tourism;
• remodelling and renovation services; and
• satellite-TV services.

Which, to reinforce the "Christian" angle, will incorporate various displays of Christian iconography such as the dove, the cross, the fish symbol and even the Greek letters Chi and Rho intertwined.

Christian symbolism alone does not make a business "Christian" automatically, mein friend: Your Correspondent is one to wonder if the "Christian" angle is really cover for Affinity Fraud targeting especially the vulnerable and marginalised seeking cover in the guise of faith, and especially so the Fundamentalist/Primitive stream of Protestant Christian thought.

That, and the prospect of such "Christian" businesses being Christian In Name Only (ChINO's), if Truth be known.

As if that weren't awful enough, there's also the likelihood for such "spamming" in the name of "Christian" business interests, CAN-SPAM notwithstanding, likely to be excused as "Christian Witness," "evangelistic" or "mission" work when no such evangelistic intentions came about in the first place. In other words, an attempt to buy an alibi and avoid possible "martyrdom" in the courts by invoking His Name for what may really be blasphemous ends.

So much for operating on "Christian principles" by what are really nothing short of disreputable purposes these same ChINO's would blame on Jews, as if the irony wasn't obvious....    

THE REGIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA WHERE YOUR CORRESPONDENT RESIDETH are under a Wind Chill Advisory through much of today, forcing him to remain, by and large, in his flat.

Where, among other things, he prepared the essay you are now reading.

And, in the process, is trying to stay sane (he has a history of mental disorders complicated by episodes of emotional abuse and cruelty in his adolescence) all the while.

*************

"All you have to do is look at me, and know
that everything I say is true...."

--"Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," from Evita

AS IF GOP PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE MIKE HUCKABEE'S designs on remodelling the Presidential role into one of "Prophet, Seer and Revelator" endowed with superhuman powers and superdivinity wasn't anathema enow to Right-Thinking Americans (not the perversions Fox News wants you and me to think exist in this repsect), it's now emerging that Governor Huckabee has been speaking to neo-Confederacist causes whose articles of faith are, for the most part, racist and xenophobic (per the Southern Poverty Law Centre) heading into today's South Carolina GOP Primary.

Not to mention said causes seeing in the Confederate battle flag, essentially a travesty of the Scots saltaire, an icon of National and Racial Identity somehow endowed with superdivine powers.

Care to explain yourself, Governor Huckabee, for such associations weird and/or unwholesome?

*************

NOW WILL BILL "NO-SPIN ZONE" O'REILLY ACKNOWLEDGE HE HAS NO SHAME, or will he keep on being a wind-up toy in the pay of "the Dirty Digger"?

I say this in light of the following fresh-released video from Brave New Films disproving Bill O'Reilly's contention that homeless veterans in the United States do not exist, nor should his "right-thinking Americans" as fall for this pablum have "any worthwhile interest" in the same:

Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome -- good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

Continuing this informative public service of The Exaggerator designed to challenge certain specimens of illogic on the part of the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right challenging the right of the several States to:

• establish systems of free public education; and
• proscribe use of public funds for religiosectarian instruction,

by way of the actual relevant clauses in the several State Constitutions:

MARYLAND:

• The General Assembly, at its First Session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall by Law establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation, or otherwise, for their maintenance. (Article VIII, section 1, Maryland Constitution)
• The School Fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and appropriated only to the purposes of Education. (Article VIII, section 3, op. cit.)

MASSACHUSETTS:

• Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people. (Chapter V, Section II, Massachusetts Constitution)
• All moneys raised by taxation in the towns and cities for the support of public schools, and all moneys which may be appropriated by the commonwealth for the support of common schools shall be applied to, and expended in, no other schools than those which are conducted according to law, under the order and superintendence of the authorities of the town or city in which the money is expended; and no grant, appropriation or use of public money or property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized by the commonwealth or any political division thereof for the purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any other school or institution of learning, whether under public control or otherwise, wherein any denominational doctrine is inculcated, or any other school, or any college, infirmary, hospital, institution, or educational, charitable or religious undertaking which is not publicly owned and under the exclusive control, order and superintendence of public officers or public agents authorized by the commonwealth or federal authority or both, except that appropriations may be made for the maintenance and support of the Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts and for free public libraries in any city or town, and to carry out legal obligations, if any, already entered into; and no such grant, appropriation or use of public money or property or loan of public credit shall be made or authorized for the purpose of founding, maintaining or aiding any church, religious denomination or society. (Article XLVII of Amendment, section 2, Massachusetts Constitution)

MICHIGAN:

• The legislature shall maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools as defined by law. Every school district shall provide for the education of its pupils without discrimination as to religion, creed, race, color or national origin.

  Nonpublic schools, prohibited aid.

  No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the legislature or any other political subdivision or agency of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school. No payment, credit, tax benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such nonpublic school or at any location or institution where instruction is offered in whole or in part to such nonpublic school students. The legislature may provide for the transportation of students to and from any school. (Article VIII, section 2, Michigan Constitution of 1963)

MISSISSIPPI:

• The Legislature shall, by general law, provide for the establishment, maintenance and support of free public schools upon such conditions and limitations as the Legislature may prescribe. (Article VIII, section 201, Mississippi Constitution of 1890)
• No religious or other sect or sects shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this state; nor shall any funds be appropriated toward the support of any sectarian school, or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school. (Article VIII, section 208, op. cit.)

MISSOURI:

• A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the general assembly shall establish and maintain free public schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this state within ages not in excess of twenty-one years as prescribed by law. (Article IX, section 1(a), Missouri Constitution of 1875)
• Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other municipal corporation, shall ever make an appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any religious creed, church or sectarian purpose, or to help to support or sustain any private or public school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other institution of learning controlled by any religious creed, church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of personal property or real estate ever be made by the state, or any county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, for any religious creed, church, or sectarian purpose whatever. (Article IX, section 8, op. cit.)

MONTANA:

• (1) It is the goal of the people to establish a system of education which will develop the full educational potential of each person. Equality of educational opportunity is guaranteed to each person of the state.
  
  (2) The state recognizes the distinct and unique cultural heritage of the American Indians and is committed in its educational goals to the preservation of their cultural integrity.
  
  (3) The legislature shall provide a basic system of free quality public elementary and secondary schools. The legislature may provide such other educational institutions, public libraries, and educational programs as it deems desirable. It shall fund and distribute in an equitable manner to the school districts the state's share of the cost of the basic elementary and secondary school system. (Article X, section 1, Montana Constitution of 1972)
• (1) The legislature, counties, cities, towns, school districts, and public corporations shall not make any direct or indirect appropriation or payment from any public fund or monies, or any grant of lands or other property for any sectarian purpose or to aid any church, school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination.
  
  (2) This section shall not apply to funds from federal sources provided to the state for the express purpose of distribution to non-public education. (Article X, section 6, op. cit.)

***TO BE CONTINUED***   

YOU READ THAT RIGHT, DEAR READER: This is the 50th posting of Your Correspondent into this his new blog, The Exaggerator--committed to not being quite the worst blog online, but trying hard to create a healing time and space beyond reality for you.

@ least it's attracting some traffic, thanks to BlogMad; however, I'd welcome your greater support. Especially so by recommending this to your online friends as are into blog reading.

*************

ARE THESE THE REMARKS OF A SANE MAN, OR ARE THEY DANGEROUS FUEL FOR INCITING the mentally-disturbed towards Notorious or Infamous Crimes? (WAARSKUWING: The following video contains disturbing content which Mrs. Grundy would disapprove of:)

• Wyeth Consumer Healthcare (as in Advil, Centrum and Robitussin)
• Stamps.com
• GEICO Insurance
• TurboTax
• Chattem, Inc. (as in Gold Bond, Icy-Hot and Garlique)
• ITT Technical College

(Please visit NoSavage.org for contact links and freecall numbers for the aforementioned.)