WHICH SEEMS TO BE PRETTY MUCH THE ATTITUDE WITH FOX PROLEFEED AND OTHERS AMONG THE DARK SATANIC MILLS OF CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA, as documented in this blog previously.

But enough of that:

The Holiday Long Weekend here in the Minnwissippi managed to turn out rather nice, even to the point of our "lucking out" on severe weather as wound up instead afflicting areas closer to the Twin Cities--Hugo in particular, which saw one casualty and much devastation.

Meanwhile, as I post this, things are rather unseasonably cool for the time of year; in fact, I hear where the Brainerd Lakes area was under a Frost Warning overnight, which is not unusual for northern Minnesota @ this time of year; generally, the last killing frosts in northerly latitudes of The Gopher State will tend to be around June 1st through 10th.

As the week wears on, though, warmer weather should make its presence known--even if it means an odd thunderstorm or two with substantial rain.

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NO WONDER HOMESCHOOLING SUPPORTERS LOVE TO OVERSENSATIONALISE EPISODES OF LeTOURNEAUISM AS CROSS THE WIRES and make the headlines as they occur:

Save The Children, an international relief organisation, hath it in a blistering new report for the United Nations that children as young as six are being sexually exploited to the point of perversion, and then some, by military troops, relief-agency workers and suchlike--usually in exchange for small gifts.

Africa is said to be especially notorious for such activity on a massive scale, with Côte d'Ivore said to be the worst offender thanks to ongoing civil war and its byproducts of social dislocation.

No wonder homeschooling carries the risk of being subjected to episodes of incest as an agency of exercising control and coercion....

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IN A QUASI-RELATED VEIN OF SORTS, Your Correspondent takes note of where the French film The Class took the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival @ the weekend, the first such for French cinema in 21 years.

Basically put, The Class revolves around the course of a school year in the milieu of a middle school classroom as could be considered a House of All Nations thanks to the multicultural nature and makeup of its students.

Next thing you know, the Kulturkrieg crowd will want to be raising funds to finance a "reply" film therefor, which would be expected to depict a Christian Homeschooling family in what's expected to be hagiographic terms and contexts ... only it turns out being even more dysfunctional than those of Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and The Kanker Sisters put together, thanks to episodes of abuse and incest packaged as "Christian love" all along.

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RECOMMENDED READING @ THIS TIME, IF ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF POTENTIALLY PROPHETIC INSIGHT (AND THEN SOME): George Packer's brilliant exugenesis in The New Yorker as enquireth whether the conservative political movement may be heading for a major crash-and-burn as Indecision 2008 looms all the closer.

And a crash-and-burn which the conservative movement may be unable to recover from, as its consequences could be far-reaching and then some.

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A NEW PILL FOR "PATRIOTIC" XENOPHOBES WHOSE MINDS ARE STUCK IN THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" UNITED STATES: City officials in the Sydney (AUS) suburb of Camden have rejected planning approval for an Islamic school there, claiming that its presence would not only worsen traffic and parking problems, but also risks "undermining the traditional social character" of the area.

No wonder there are Zealots and True Believers in the White Male Low Church Christian Power Structure across the English-speaking world all the more--not to mention the White Man's Burden as an agency of the so-called "New American Century."

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IN THE WAKE OF THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE AND AFTERSHOCKS IN CHINA'S SICHWUAN PROVINCE as have now killed (according to official estimates) some 65,000 people and left homeless some 5 million people after their communities were devastated wholesale, some are starting to wonder if such may be the beginning of the end for the Chinese Communist regime and its doctrine of "developing socialism with Chinese characteristics," especially as earthquake survivors complain about the destruction being aggravated by sub-standard construction materials and techniques.

And the corrupt tendencies of local officials and construction workers as accepted bribes and backhanders to look the other way vis-a-vis the shady construction; some survivors as have managed to post onto blogs and comment boards are asking if public officials are more interested in maintaining fancy apartments, high-end cars and stables of concubines @ the expense of public interest and welfare, especially in view of these same revelations.

(BTW, readers, "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is the inspiration for my own term "capitalism with American characteristics," as appears in this blog from time to time in an ironic and @ once sarcastic context as targets the Zealots and True Believers seeing in said capitalistic models and paradigms the "complete and final" empowerment of the "chronically and habitually welfare dependent" out of "unhealthy Socialistic tendencies" they supposedly developed "subtly" and towards--in theory--a Renewed Healthy Respect for Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life. Now you know.)  

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NO DOUBT THE PRECEDING WOULD HAVE TO BE RATHER APROPOS CONSIDERING WHERE Your Correspondent is pleased to announce the opening of his next Big Online Vesch--as in an online social-networking portal for anyone with connexions to Wisconsin Dells.

I call it DellsSpace, and you can find the same (even signing up for it) right here on the Information Stuporbahn.

Especially should you happen to be the sort as is:

• resident in the Wisconsin Dells or Lake Delton communities and who, by virtue of residency, has to deal with the tourist hordes in one way or another (or, for that matter, put up with their presence as a matter of residence);
• a long-time fan of the Wisconsin Dells region, especially to the extent of making the Waterpark Capital a sort of summer home; or
• a past or present summer worker in any of the tourist distractions in the Dells region.

If so, DellsSpace is for you. Your very own portal by which you can share yourself with a profile, a photo album, a video portfolio--even a weblog.

And which you can share your questions or comments through the forums or through the ur-slambook.

So if you're into Wisconsin Dells ... then come into DellsSpace. Especially if the other big-name social-networking sites just left you "crying in the wilderness," so to speak, trying to attract attention.

THERE WAS A TIME, NOT TOO MANY YEARS AGO, WHEN TRAVELOGUE MEANT either Burton Holmes or the Dennis FitzPatrick TravelTalks among American audiences.

That, readers, was before The Travel Channel came along on cable TV.

And it's enough to wonder on Your Correspondent's part just how much longer it will be before we see on The Travel Channel the kind of travelogue production as could be considered "white trash Burton Holmes" such, essentially low comedy with elements of National Lampoon's Vacation, Jackass, Family Guy and (for good measure) the Japanese game show Endurance throughout.

In short, travelogues featuring the (mis)adventures of a dysfunctional family trying to discover the Nobility of America with exercises in sheer obnoxiousness throughout guaranteed to generate cheap laughs in Peoria especially. @ least until Molly McGee, over @ 79 Wistful Vista, hits the remote accompanied by the curt "'Tain't funny, McGee!", only to be further interrupted by the awful, pun-filled stories of The Old Timer (as are highlighted by "That's pretty good, Johnny ... but that ain't the way I heard it! The way I heard it, one feller sez to the other feller, 'Saaayyyyy,' he sez....") or Wallace Wimple ("Hello, folks!") relating his latest tale of woe involving Sweetyface, his tough-as-nails wife.

Or, for that matter, Mayor LaTrivia going into discussions as wind up in hilarious displays of spoonerism.

In any event, expect the travel vids of a "white trash" Burton Holmes to feature some of the tackier specimens of "tourist trap" ever to grace the American roadside, all the old favourites like Rock City, Wall Drug, Weeki Wachee Springs, The Thing, South of the Border, Ausable Chasm, Pea Soup Anderson's and Wisconsin Dells, featuring plenty of hilarity sure to make Peter and Lois Griffin look like Burton Holmes.

Whether the audiences will fall for it is anybody's guess--especially if it gets free publicity from the Kulturkrieg crowd's attacking same for its excesses of low comedy that, in an earlier time, would have prompted the Catholic Legion of Decency to condemn the series.   

A FREQUENTLY-REPEATED BROMIDE AND PLATITUDE FROM THE DARK SATANIC MILLS OF CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA SOUNDING RATHER PATHETIC is that the "Liberal Media Establishment" is only making the situation in the Iraqi Theatre of the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism look worse, as witness a dearth (or so we're expected to believe) of "healthy" and "positive" news stories about post-Ba'athist Iraq moving towards the path of a free-market sociodemocratic model.

As an example of such pathetic desperation as above summarised, ConWebBlog offers the following:

The headline on Warner Todd Huston's May 9 NewsBusters post howls: 'Outrageous: McClatchy Praises Terrorist's 'Charity Work'." Huston writes:

McClatchy had their hearts go aflutter over Sadr's "humanitarian aid" imagining it to be the "other" softer side of the terror chieftain giving Sadr a nice little bit of free positive publicity quite despite the truth of his murderous actions.

[...]

Don't you love how they give legitimacy to "Sadr City's main humanitarian organization"? This is Muqtada al Sadr we are talking about here. He is 100% backed by one of our biggest enemies in the world, Iran. Yet, here is McClatchy acting as if the Sadrists are a legitimate "humanitarian aid" group.

[...]

This is shameless pandering to a murderer and terrorist.

[...]

Sadr is no humanitarian. He couldn't care less about people other than how he can use them to continue his terrorist activities. Let's put it this way: if a child predator gives a child some candy, should we praise the molester for selflessly feeding the children? Obviously, the molester's motives are to rape the child, so the food is a lure not an altruistic gift! This is the same with Sadr and his henchmen. They are holding a bit of candy out so that they may further rape the people of Iraq.

But, to McClatchy, Sadr is a really good guy because of this supposed "charity work."

Ah, the Depiction-Equals-Approval Fallacy at work.

Of course, the McClatchy article in question doesn't "praise" al-Sadr or call him "a really good guy"; rather, it points out that he is what passes for a functioning government in that area and that public support for his charity work is undermining the U.S. military in Iraq. Huston included excerpts from the article in his post--all taken out of context. Here's what Huston didn't excerpt:

Sadr, the fiery anti-American Shiite cleric, has again emerged as the U.S. military's No. 1 problem in Iraq, as his followers wage an increasingly bloody struggle with American soldiers for control of impoverished, militia-infested Sadr City.

[...]

Analysts point out that Hezbollah's military wing is much more disciplined than Sadr's younger and more fractured movement. But Sadr's charity work helps to maintain popular support for his movement even as its confrontations with U.S. and Iraqi forces plunge places such as Sadr City deeper into chaos.

"It's a reflection of the existing vacuum and the extremely poor capacity of the state to step in and provide these services," said Peter Harling, an Iraq expert with the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution think tank.

International aid workers and ordinary Iraqis say that the U.S.-backed Iraqi government is sitting on billions of dollars meant for humanitarian projects. Shiite and Sunni militias have stepped in to fill the gap, assuming control of basic services in neighborhoods they control.

"We would be glad if the government could really provide services," said Ibrahim al Jabri, who oversees the Sadr organization's humanitarian projects in eastern Baghdad, including Sadr City.

"But until now there is nothing provided by the government. It's not possible just to leave people waiting."

Iraqi government efforts to help war victims, by contrast, are a bureaucratic morass. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has established a committee to help Iraq's war widows, who are eligible to receive monthly assistance payments of $40 to $80. But advocates say that cases take months or years to wind through the system, and very few applicants end up receiving help.

[...]

Lt. Col. Frank Curtis of the 432 Civil Affairs Battalion in Sadr City is trying to jumpstart reconstruction efforts and help Iraqi officials spend the allocated money for the area. Now they get about 70 people a day at the center.

He acknowledged that the Mahdi Army may pay money to families but said that people are tired of its intimidation campaigns.

"Maybe they pay that money, but what the populace tells us and the sheiks tell us is that basically what they do is they steal their money and restrict where they're allowed to go," he said. "Everybody out there has to pay for the right to live in their home."

Warner, honey: Reporting something does not equal approval of what is being reported. But falsely conflating the two is something MRC writers seem to enjoy doing.

As if that weren't enough, you have to wonder if it's really the Dark Satanic Mills of Conservative Propaganda as are "aiding and abetting" our enemies, especially considering their nuanced tone.

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YOUR CORRESPONDENT ACKNOWLEDGES WHERE THAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY WAS INSPIRED BY A T-SHIRT seen @ today's Memorial Day observance here in Winona by Your Correspondent on someone distributing programmes for the same.

Said shirt featuring Old Gloryt inside a silhouette map of the Lower 48, below which the message read in a somewhat elegant script "Faded Glory 2008."

(It's the kind as would be worn by such of a certain class; i.e., such whose patriotic feelings and tendencies are easily-influenced, primitive to the point of crude and can be said, @ turns, to be jingoistic.)

In any case, credit His Fraudulency's Great Within, and their schemes, dreams, machinations and plots for all the more compromising the glory that was the United States of America to the point where weird and unwholesome elements as much from within as from without can quickly undermine the same to the point where that which "patriots" dread all the more--that of the Evil Empire otherwise known as the "New World Order" "usurping our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity"--can be all the easier accomplished.

Especially when you stop and consider where the Great Within, and their friends weird and/or unwholesome, played upon an easily-manipulate patriot love in Those Who Should Know Better to further inflame racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and even homophobic feelings under the guise of "patriot love." And even more so when you consider the possibility that such enforced patriotism may be an attempt to evade responsibility as much as liability on the Great Within's part and parcel for not only the quagmire known as the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism, but also its contributing casus belli of the Unfortunate Events of 9/11.

(And perhaps Fox Prolefeed deserves some blame for helping contribute to America's Faded and Fading Glory through pandering to the most latent of patriotic feelings in its audience of Those Who Should Know Better.)

So what exactly have they to hide for once, especially as Americans start realising they were handed a bill of goods under the guise of "reclaiming our past honour and glory"?

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EN 'N ANDER DING: Is it just me, or is Kansas being targeted for all the tornadoes they've seen of late as Divine Judgement, so to speak, for harbouring weird and unwholesome types whipping up Hate by invoking His Name (e.g., the so-called "Westboro Baptist Church" of Rev. Fred Phelps)--and for as long as they have?

(As in the 112 years since William Allen White's infamous editorial "What's The Matter With Kansas?" was published in his Emporia Gazette, quickly winning considerable national attention--and, for Kansas, laughingstock status @ the nation's expense perhaps reaching its acme with Doc Brinkley's goat-gland racket in Milford.)