Birtherism Is Not a Joke

The birther conspiracy theory is part of the hysteria that passes for politics these days. Today, Romney demonstrated his willingness to surf this wacky wave while pretending that he's just joking.

Source: MeetTheCrazies on Flickr

Birtherism is no joke. There are crackpot public officials out there that are threatening to take up arms if the 'un-American' Obama is re-elected. For them, his 'questionable' birth is the heart of his illegitimacy. If Romney doesn't apologize for this joke and unreservedly renounce birtherism, he is fostering hysteria that will lower our political discourse down so far, that a back-alley knife fight will seem genteel in comparison.

The First Tomheader

A judge in Texas, Tom Head, believes that if Obama is re-elected he will sign treaties with the UN ceding our authority to them. In response to that, per Head, real Americans will rise up and, in response to that, Obama will send in UN troops to quell the dissent. This entire theory was brought to light as the judge was being interviewed about a proposed 1.7% property tax hike. (This tax hike will in part fund the extra law enforcement resources necessary to fight the UN invaders.)

Source: www.co.lubbock.tx.us

So, as you are scraping your jaw off of the floor, I will urge you to begin thinking of American politics in a new way -- as a conflict between the hysterical (and no, I don't mean funny as hell) and the reasonable. We almost don't have any room for reasonable Liberals and Conservatives to disagree among each other -- the proliferation and, indeed, the mainstreaming of hysteria is too dangerous a trend for such luxuries and could lead to a complete breakdown in our political discourse.

Based on his impressive foray into utter lunacy, I believe that Tom Head is the perfect poster child for this burgeoning hysteria and, consequently, I would like to propose the term 'Tomheader' for someone espousing his level of 'take our country back' hysteria. Spread the word.

A Stark Choice

Source: businessinsider.com

Source: Wordpress.com

So, now that Romney has chosen Ryan as his running mate, the choice in November is starker than it has been in recent memory. Ryan, the aficionado of Ayn Rand, has hanging around his neck his dramatically destructive budget proposal, which replaces Medicare with private insurance vouchers. These vouchers don't necessarily cover the costs of premiums and may in fact be worthless since insurance carriers will not be obliged to offer coverage.

So, the choice for American voters is now between:

• Obama/Biden, who say we're all in this together and we have to cooperate and help each other to succeed. 
• Romney/Ryan, who not only philosophize about everybody watching out for themselves, benefiting from the misfortunes of others, and the strongest surviving (Ryan), but have actually implemented that philosophy (Romney).

I do not believe that Americans are a heartless people and, faced with this choice in November, I believe they will choose righteously.

Freedom = Freedom for Me

Source: Wikipedia

...and yet another example of the shameless, tribalistic myopia of some proponents of "freedom" and "tradition." Just as Thomas Jefferson shamelessly (or obtusely) stated that "all men are created equal," while in his head excluding black men, Louisiana state representative Valarie Hodges is shocked that Governor Jindal's new voucher program could be used to send children to Muslim schools, not just schools promoting "the Founding Fathers' religion." I wonder if Hodges truly didn't realize that words actually mean what they say or if it just didn't enter her mind that "religion" could actually apply to more than just Christianity.

Mandatory Pregnancy Tests

The Delhi Charter School in Delhi, Louisiana makes young women take a pregnancy test if someone even suspects they are pregnant. The only way she can stay in school is to take the test and for it to be negative, otherwise she's out.