more cat pictures

TO ESPECIALLY SUCH MISGUIDED SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF SEEING THEMSELVES AS "PATRIOTS" AND "DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN SOVERIGNTY" for their own selfish ends, do I direct this item.

I should like to ask of you the following, and in return, I would like some honest and sincere answers, not bromides and platitudes passed off as answers which could suggest the same were scripted:

• Where does it state in the Constitution that American soverignty and soverign identity is conditioned by, and conditioned on, isolationist self-sufficency?
• Where in the Constitution does it state that only white male Low Church Christians are entitled the rights, privileges and powers thus enshrined and ennumerate?
• Where in the Constitution does it state that free-market socioeconomic policies and paradigms shall prevail when it comes to regulatory policy?
• Where exactly in Holy Scriptures does it state that free-market capitalism and Christian faith are mutually compatible?
• Where in the Constitution is it explicitly stated that there shall be no legal tender other than gold and silver coin?
• Where in the Constitution does it specifically state that ignorance is to be valued more highly than knowledge?
• Where in the Constitution is anti-Semitism, racism, white supremacy, xenophobia, sexism, male chauvinism and general intolerance sanctioned or justified as one with "the defence of our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity"?
• Where does it state that the defence of free-market capitalism requires the defence of racist, xenophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and isolationist policies, attitudes and articles of faith?
• Where in the Constitution is it explicitly stated that the poor and vulnerable be subject to nothing but contempt, fear and loathing?
• Have you no sense of Decency, Sirs, @ long last?
• Have you left no sense of Decency?

You know where to leave the answers....

more cat pictures

AFTER QUITE AWHILE AWAY FROM BLOGGING--WHICH CAN BE CREDITED, IN PART, TO THE DELLS TRIP AND A FEW OTHER THINGS ON MY MIND--Your Correspondent begs of you readers for patience and forbearance as he tries to get back into blogging form in the stylee he's accustomed to.

And then some--especially so that emphasising more immediate and timely posting of material.

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

IN VIEW OF CHANGES IN THE BUS SCHEDULE HEADING TO AND FROM THE TWIN CITIES OUT OF WINONA of late--as in leaving for the Cities on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with the return on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays--Your Correspondent may be seeing something of a first when it comes to visiting the Minnesota State Fair this year.

Which would be his 27th consecutive such in 32 years (34 visits in all), for the record.

As in: Visiting TGMnGT on two consecutive days, which, to many, must seem like a dream when one day would be more than satisfactory. But then again, my receiving Renter's Credit rebate in August affords it in its own way.

Yet, the challenge will be not to blow all the money on one day's visiting.

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

ONGOING PRONOUNCEMENTS BY THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG OF INDECISION 2008 that the American Colonial Occupation of Iraq in the guise of ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism will essentially remain indefinite, depending on local conditions and circumstances, begs the question of whether the final decision to leave Iraq under a John McCain Presidency will depend on "the proper signs"--as in consultation with astrologers and fortune-smellers of the worst possible repute, and @ public expense (howbeit subject to rather clumsy attempts @ euphemism to avoid attracting the attention of "those meddling Secular-Progressive Bloggers" in case suspicions start to arise).

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

STAYING WITH McCAIN'S PRESIDENTIAL DELUSIONS FOR A MOMENT, it's enough to make you wonder if his "real" agenda for socioeconomic recovery is conditioned by a warped and twisted agenda suggesting that a "pure" form of free-market capitalism with American characteristics is Great White Father (cf. United States Government policies towards Native Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as concealed the real intention of same being, for one, the forced relocation of Native Americans to the worst possible sort of lands as have been designated "reservations" ... and, for another, the desire of Native Americans to assimilate by denying any and all right to exercising their heritage and culture).

The same expected to be pushed all the more upon the Lower Classes seen in conservative thought as being "helplessly enslaved into Socialistic or otherwise un-American thought" by way of State Welfare (howbeit discreetly), same to essentially be "reeducated" into seeing the free market (per Ayn Rand in particular) as their Last and Only Hope and Salvation for their Empowerment and Developing Healthy Tendencies towards Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life--unaware all along that a "pure" free-market capitalist system only concentrates wealth into the fewest possible hands, and by deliberate design @ that.

That, and a belief in "complete, final and binding regulatory relief" which expects "undue and unnecessary [governmental] regulatory burden" to be replaced by "healthy" Self-Regulatory Codes of Good Practice which, on closer inspection, indirectly endorses cartel behaviour in the name of offering greater selection thanks to "freedom of choice" @ lower prices.

Unfortunately, though, cartel behaviour serves only to limit competition through price-fixing (usually reinforced by Reseller Price Maintenance Agreements) and/or "tied-house" agreements (limiting retailers to carrying only one particular brand under preferential terms) ... not to mention controlling or limiting supplies from time to time to create the aura of scarcity which, in its turn, can be used to manipulate prices and profits ... controlling or otherwise proscribing brand advertising ... even creating a "back door" by which fraud, waste, inefficency, mismanagement and corruption can be excused (howbeit requiring all manner of trick and deception to avoid "attracting unwelcome attention").

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

NO WONDER THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT IS AS PATHETIC AS THEY ARE in their whining about their message somehow being "misquoted" or "misunderstood" or otherwise "taken out of proper context" by groups like Media Matters for America and People For the American Way, who are usually the first to expose Religiopolitical Right pronouncements to air and sunshine--and in their entirety, the better to ensure their being in full context.

Which hasn't stopped the ilk of Pat "700 Club" Robertson from whining about "misquotation" on their propaganda outlets (as per PfAW's Right Wing Watch blog):

Dittoes for South Carolina State Senator James DeMint (again, per Right Wing Watch):

Which begs the question of what exactly the Religiopolitical Right sees as "misquotation" or "misinterpretation" in their remarks short of their manipulating or otherwise heavily editing same to mislead or confuse once the damage has been done with the initial revelations--as in "what did they really want us to believe before it was somehow misread?"

more cat pictures

WITH A HAT TIP TO THE GOOD PEOPLE @ BRAVE NEW FILMS COMES THE FOLLOWING REMINDER of the sheer tastelessness of The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang in Indecision 2008--as in Keith "Countdown" Olbermann making note of where TTMB offered up a joke about interspecies rape @ a campaign appearence back in 1986 (with documentation made), and yet seeks to deny any and all liability therefor, let alone its consequences:

Something for to swift-boat The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang with for once, especially considering his seeking to play footsie with the Elmer Gantry Institute for Advanced Religiopolitical Thought and its articles of faith calling for a defence of "Traditional Morality" as ranks right up there with what White South Africa expected as a direct result of apartheid and its supposedly "empowering White Christians" based on their own warped delusions of Civitas Dei and "rights by conquest," among other bromides.

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

I WOULDN'T EXACTLY KNOW HOW THIS RELATES, but in any event, I feel it's worth noting:

You may/may not have heard by now where the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the Federal Communications Commission's imposing a US$550,000 penalty upon CBS for that infamous "wardrobe malfunction" of Janet Jackson's back during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, contending where it was "capricious and arbitrary" for the FCC to impose such a harsh penalty for fleeting obscenity.

In the Court's words, as quoted by the AP:

The Commission's determination that CBS's broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency's departure from its prior policy. Its orders constituted the announcement of a policy change—that fleeting images would no longer be excluded from the scope of actionable indecency.

But then again, there might want to be raised the question of whether the complaints as triggered the action were the byproduct of manufactured and carefully-scripted hysteria from the Elmer Gantry element, knowing the ensuing "call to action" would be unfailingly responded to among their weak-minded and easily-led droogs.

Especially when said scions of Elmer Gantryism are more than likely of the emotionally-disturbed sort, unlikely to come to terms with hidden mental disorders as may have been the product of childhood or juvenile abuse or neglect the parents would likely defend as necessary for "building character" and/or "teaching Christian Love."

Something worth asking.

more cat pictures

To whom it may concern:

Perhaps you or your organisation may be aware or otherwise unaware of the designs, dreams, schemes and themes of former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke, himself a notorious white-supremacist Zealot and True Believer, aimed @ seeking to create a "united front" among those of descent from the several European countries to "defend and protect our European-American Culture and Heritage" in the face of moves and overtures towards multi-culturalism, diversity and tolerance that Duke and his droogs are seeing as "Communist-influenced" or "Communist-inspired," howbeit lacking credible evidence.

The which, if anything, amounts to nothing short of "dog-whistle" overtures pandering to racism and bigotry, not to mention a selfish and misguided delusion suggesting that White Male Low Church Christians are somehow "entitled as of right" to "antient and pecuilar rights, privileges and powers" supposedly based on unwritten tradition and custom more so than statute law @ the expense of "inferior" and otherwise "subhuman" peoples--code for National Minorities, as it were.

Unfortunately, though, our nation is not about giving "antient and pecuilar rights, privileges and powers" to a select few based solely on race, ethnicity and religious belief--but, thanks to His Fraudulency's Great Within and its delusions, is becoming all too dangerously close to it. A scenario which David Duke and his droogs weird and unwholesome want to cash in on, and wants from groups representing legitimate ethno-national and cultural heritage and feelings as one with pride.

The which should not be confused with, nor otherwise perverted to serve the cause of, bigoted delusions of White Supremacy and Honour. The excesses of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany--and, to a lesser extent, those of the apartheid regime in South Africa under Malan, Strijdom, Verword, Botha and DeKlerk--ought serve as sufficent lesson and warning from history as to just how far delusions of welding "racial honour" to "national honour" can go before their soverignty risks being compromised from within.

With that in mind, I would urge you and your organisations to take all reasonable steps possible to vehemently resist any and all overtures from those in league with David Duke and others weird and unwholesome claiming to speak for "European-Americans" en bloc to manipulate, even pervert, your organisation and its agenda solely to advance a misguided and dangerous agenda suggesting that "European-American Culture and Heritage" is somehow under threat and "requires drastic measures***to uphold and defend" what amounts to dangerous arrogance. And, instead, to speak for the cause of diversity, multiculturalism and tolerance, as if showing that so-called "European-Americans" are but part of one race:

The Human Race.

Which, as someone once said, will be the one race which matters in the end.

Are we not all Americans?

Are we not all human?

And whence the notion that "White European-Americans" are somehow "superior" to all others--let alone perverting Holy Scripture to advance such an argument?

more cat pictures

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

MEMO TO READERS: Your Correspondent urges you to pass along this item and share it with your like-minded friends--especially among those of you taking much pride in ethno-national heritage and culture.

The more support, the better.

However, please avoid "spamming" if you can help it; "spam" serves only to dilute the effectiveness of the cause and its aims, and only risks the message becoming all the more dilute.

more cat pictures

BEFORE TOO LONG, YOUR CORRESPONDENT WILL BE BACK TO SOME SEMBLANCE OF NORMALCY WHEN IT COMES TO HIS BLOGGING ROUTINE here @ The Exaggerator after his well-deserved summer break.

Hence, this was perhaps as good a time as any to explain a few changes I intend to be making to make this blog more viable and worthwhile to all of you.

For starters, most of the postings will be live, "on the fly" such; this a byproduct of where Blogdrive, who hosts this blog, seems to forget where I've postdated a number of postings for later display, essentially requiring me to go back and get same posted in case it doesn't show as scheduled--usually 00h UTC--and perhaps such may be some class of a bug in the software as precludes this.

Which, in any case, will mean a greater emphasis, blogwise, on the day's events per my own interpretation. (I hope so, @ least. I guess you readers would concur.)

Not to mention more of my own thoughts as they become available to my own non-drug-influenced mind (hence, stop getting the idea that I'm somehow smoking cannabis or taking other mind-altering drugs on a daily basis if you get ideas that these opinions are somehow too much for you to stomach.)

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

FOR ANOTHER, THE AVAILABILITY OF FURTHER TOOLS BY WHICH YOU CAN ADD THIS BLOG TO YOUR OWN WEBLOG OR WEBSITE, should you feel so inclined; this over and above mere subscription to the RSS feed therefor (which is the foundation for said tools).

These are highlighted in that part of the sidebar where I discuss subscription options for said RSS feed, and are especially welcome for such who are fond enough of The Exaggerator to include such on their own weblogs, as opposed to merely receiving a daily e-mail brief or reading such in any feed readers they use. Which, in its own way, can help attract traffic to this blog in the process.

Check them out.

(This particular example is a rather easy one to add to your own site; all you need do is fill in the details, tweak it around to fit your own blog's parameters, and--Bob's your uncle!--just copy and paste the ensuing scripting code into your own blog's HTML scripting.)

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

JINGOES AND XENOPHOBES, ESPECIALLY THOSE AMONG THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" AMERICANS, TAKE NOTE: Because America is, sadly, not the same as The Entire World, particularly so when it comes to the news, I happen to be among that group of bloggers who feel that any news feeds worth offering on their blogs shouldn't necessarily be limited to American sources like CNN and (shock! horror!) Fox Prolefeed exclusively.

Hence, my adding the latest headlines (via RSS feed) from SwissInfo.ch and BBC News on the sidebar, towards the bottom of the page; the better to ensure a more realistically "fair and balanced" mix of the news (as opposed to Fox Prolefeed's travesty thereof).

As for my choosing SwissInfo, such can be said to go back to a certain gag of Stan Freberg on his summer 1957 radio series as called for referring to all National Minorities so appearing in character as "Swiss ... that way, we don't offend anybody." (As in playing on Switzerland's traditional neutrality, the which also extends to their public-service radio and TV broadcaster's news coverage as is the backbone of the SwissInfo website.)

Does this answer your question?

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

IN CLOSING, I HOPE THAT I'VE GIVEN YOU A GOOD IDEA OF THE CHANGES TO EXPECT HERE WITH THIS BLOG with an eye towards making it a more enriching experience, yet still offering a virtual canvas by which Your Correspondent can still express himself as the mood requires.

And as long as he's close to the computer, understand.

So, to that end, consider subscribing to the RSS feed and make it all the more a habit. And be sure to recommend this blog to your friends.

Oh, and One Thing More: If you have any online shopping to do, consider doing so through the online-shopping section. Your Correspondent has a rather worthwhile e-tailer affiliate selection that would be a terrible thing to let waste, let alone use as an honest and worthwhile way to supplement his disability benefits through the Internet; my distaste for scams and frauds invoking the Information Stuporbahn is obvious and well-known, and would prefer making money online through honest ends and means.

Now: Any questions?  

more cat pictures

YOUR CORRESPONDENT CAN'T HELP BUT THINKING OF POSSIBLE BLOGGING TOPICS FROM TIME TO TIME during his absences from blogging.

Among them the recent trip to Wisconsin Dells, for one.

And why that can be allowed to happen is anybody's guess.

Especially where topics in season (such as Indecision 2008) come into the equation.

Could it be just me, or are there like-minded bloggers in much the same circumstances?

more cat pictures

LAST NIGHT, WITH THE TRAIN DELAYED BY OVER AN HOUR OR SO because of connexions in Chicago from a New York train being delayed by same hitting a pedestrian somewhere in Indiana, Your Correspondent returned from his annual trip to the Waterpark Capital of the World.

Otherwise known as Wisconsin Dells, for the uneducate.

This, I will admit, is perhaps my way of marking my return to the world of blogging, which will have to be in somewhat tenuous steps for the time being; it may be a little while more before I return to full-on daily blogging schedules. So bear with me.

In any event, there can be no mistaking the fact that the Dells can only get to be rather interesting, even if Lake Delton suddenly drained dry in a flood's opening a new spillway on 9 June ... followed exactly one month to the day later (Ripley, take note) by a mysterious fire in the summer-worker housing @ the Tommy Bartlett complex, whose flagship show has been modified to reflect the fact of Lake Delton's now having no water for the time being. (Fortunately, though, Your Correspondent was able to see the modified edition, and was not disappointed with the end result. Even if one of the chestnuts called in to compensate for the loss of the waterski portion, Dieter "You like it, I'll do it again!" Tasso, acknowledged where his age was making his act a little more difficult to pull off.

(Especially that of balancing several cups and saucers, and a teapot as the crown, on his head.)

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

AS IT TURNED OUT, THE EVENING I ATTENDED THIS MODIFIED PERFORMANCE OF "THE SHOW" saw a rather potent thunderstorm pass through, with attendant loss of electric power while @ the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory as forced standby lighting to be resorted to during the outage. (The 4:30 performance had to be cancelled in consequence of the said storm, only the tenth time since covered grandstands went up in 1966 that a performance had to be cancelled.)

And while on the storm front, Friday morning saw a rather potent one kick up as I started walking down to Noah's Ark during a lull in a thunderstorm as prevailed much of that morning; luckily, though, I found shelter in a convenience store @ the Lower Dells junction just as the skies grew all the darker. And it took around an hour or so to wait before getting a taxicab to go to Mr. Pancake, where I usually have brekkie before going to Noah's. Luckily, though, the storm broke and my day @ Noah's went off without a hitch.

(But could you call the smaller-than-average crowds as made waits for the likes of Black Anaconda, Kowabunga or StingRay shorter than average a serious hitch, let alone the Big Kahuna wavepool being a little easier to navigate?)

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

STILL, THOUGH, HIGH-SPF SUNBLOCK MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE in a place like Wisconsin Dells, even considering where summers there can get to be hot and muggy; in my own case, I prefer the likes of Hawaiian Tropic O-Zone Sport (SPF 60+) on the body, while the face got Banana Boat Faces, Etc. (SPF 40)--this particular fondness for high-SPF sunblock on my part being explained by past episodes on my part of really awful sunburns as led to peeling of the skin, particularly on the back.

The which surfah types like referring to as "delamination."

Not to mention a super-absorbent towel of the kind you can find @ outdoor supply shops instead of the so-last-Wednesday traditional beach towel as can get smelly and difficult to handle after awhile.

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

RECOMMENDATIONS MATTER, AND THEN SOME, DEPARTMENT, SHOOBIE-TRAP DIVISION: Riverview Park and Waterworld broke in a new mascot character this season, going by the name of Duncan Dragon--blue throughout, can't quite swim but enjoys a nice splasharound every now and then.

Had a chance to meet up with him during his walkabout on Monday, when I called there. And after calling it a day, Duncan, through his handler, suggested Famous Dave's for dinner. And what a dinner it was: A Two-Meat Combi (I chose beef brisket and rib tips, not to mention sides of baked beans and wedge fries), corn on the cob, a corn muffin, what seems like gallons of sweet tea--and, for dessert, a hot fudge Kahlua brownie.

Sat next to a couple who managed to drive all the way from Winnipeg, Manitoba (CDN) to vacation in the Waterpark Capital--come to think of it, found plenty of shoobies from Friendly Manitoba there, as well as from the likes of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and even Washington state. And plenty of summer workers from Eastern Europe, Bulgaria being especially well represented; Pakistan and Turkey saw their share as well.

I even ran into a visitor from South Africa.

No wonder the Dells are getting quite the global reputation ... and come to think of it, could you just imagine a Wisconsin Dells T-shirt appearing on that (in)famous Brussels statue of the Peeing Boy?

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

ANYWAY, AS I SAID @ THE BEGINNING, MY RETURN TO BLOGGING WILL LIKELY BE TENATIVE AND SPORADIC FOR THE TIME BEING; I just need the time to readjust before going back to daily form.