The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    A Tale of Two Crazies

    By Verified Atheist on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 6:12pm |

     

    It was the worst of times, then the @$%! really hit the fan. (With apologies to C. Dickens.) When I was in high school, I had a friend from Nicaragua who told me of his experiences there. What follows is my attempt to recreate what he told me:
    As a young child, I remember the Sandanistas having control of virtually everything in our town. The teachers had to teach what they were told to teach, or else they would be tortured. Then, one day, Reagan's Freedom Fighters came to town and changed everything. The teachers were no longer in the situation where they had only one option. They were now in the situation where they had no options. For you see, before "freedom" came, they could avoid being tortured by teaching what they were told to teach. That's a horrible way to live. But after "freedom" came, they couldn't avoid being tortured no matter what they taught. That's an even worse way to live. I remember coming into class one day and finding our teacher hung up by his fingernails, too tired to scream anymore. He learned the lesson the hard way. Of course, there are always options, and the option my family chose was to escape to America.
    I might've gotten some of the details wrong, but this is essentially what I remember him telling me. The connection I wish to make now is not with voting for Obama (although obviously I see that some might go there), but with how Obama should not have acted during the recent debt ceiling fiasco. I do agree with many here that he could've handled it better, but it seems that some on the left think that he should've out-crazied the right. That's a battle we can't win, for at least two reasons. One of them I've just alluded to, and I find the other to be self-evident.
     

    Comments

    Maybe you need to watch this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DHwaCAhmdk

     


    by The Decider on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 6:35pm

    Unfortunately, I think Republican goats enjoy that kind of thing…

    P.S. Just to be clear, of course Obama shouldn't have "let that first goat pass", but that's not the crazy I'm talking about, since, for one thing, it's not crazy. (Cue no real Scotsman…)


    by Verified Atheist on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 6:44pm

    I'm having a little trouble deconstructing the moral--is there something about guillotines?  No?  Well then, how about coin seignorage (there's a fancy french word, the decider will be pleased...)

    I know you would look crazy with the five trillion wheelbarrows full of dollar coins, but you probably think it would be crazier to have a handful of trillion dollar coins.

    Thing is, either way you have no fuckin' debt, and no shutdown government.


    by jollyroger on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 9:21pm

    The moral of the story is: just because being crazy has worked for the right, that doesn't mean it will work for the left. Having one crazy side is bad. Having two crazy sides is worse. I'm not trying to define crazy. If you think something isn't crazy, then we might disagree on that, but that's not my main point here. My main point is that if you think it's crazy, but that crazy is what we need, then I'm just going to have to agree to disagree. It's mainly a meta-argument. I know that Articleman loves those.


    by Verified Atheist on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 9:24pm

    Actually, I was feeling nostalgic for the guillotines...but, ruling them out, I would have opted for the application of the material aid to terrorists statute, directed against the usual suspects...

    Now, that's some crazy-ass shit!


    by jollyroger on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:53pm

    hahahahahahahah


    by Richard Day on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 3:32am

    While I agree leaving a sound position in favor of the ridiculous would be playing into the hands of the GOPer's, standing one's ground make's one look just as foolish too. So I wonder if Obama had another plan that was stealthily planted that has yet to percolate to the surface?  All that surrendering of public social services to appease the GOPer's may have been a decoy to distract the rabble-rousers as they were being steered into an enclosure of their own making. Perhaps Obama was engaging the GOPer's in a multi-dimensional game of chess knowing full well they were only playing the game in 2 dimensions? I just wonder if they secured the gate to the enclosure so once they GOPer's realize they're trapped in by their own devices, they can't escape?


    by Beetlejuice on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 7:03am