Charlie Bicycle

Stewart’s Awesomely Smug Beck Beatdown

Charlie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:21:21 +0000

I enjoyed this with every smug bone in my body…

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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The Republican Candy Store

Charlie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:08:43 +0000

While Republicans may tout their strength on matters of military protection and protecting our freedoms, I’ve never seen a more hypocritical movement. If they were really going to protect freedom for Americans, wouldn’t they, hands down, want to protect gay rights? If they wanted to forge a path for everyday citizens to reap the benefits of a free-market society, wouldn’t they be first in line to make sure that those citizens weren’t being abused by profiteering corporate thugs? If they were so interested in deficit reduction, wouldn’t they recognize that unpaid for tax breaks for the wealthiest 10% of Americans would be a terrible idea?

It must be so easy to rail against big government and taxes and effectively kick the serious issues that face this country down the road. Anyone could win if they promised over and over again to give you all the candy that you wanted for free. It’s an affliction that seems to be quintessentially American. “If I want to eat as much as I want, I will, and no one but me will suffer…me and the tax payers that will end up paying for my Medicare bills when I’m bed ridden with heart disease. If I want to drive the biggest car I can and I will, no matter the origin of the oil that fuels it and the inability to provide that fuel for myself.” Aren’t Republicans all about self-reliance? If so, wouldn’t it figure that energy bills that help to make America more self-reliant would be a great thing? Or are corporate profits more important than the difficult task of building a strong country with a sustainable healthcare system, a self-reliant energy grid, a military and inclusive social fabric.

That is unless they really don’t believe the things that their entire platform is built on. It seems to me that there are many smart people in the Republican party. Smart enough to recognize that most people are sheep and are easily manipulated. It takes a true coward to twist trusting people’s thoughts and feelings into passionate ignorance. It takes real guts to make the hard decisions that are absolutely necessary for a sustainable future. We’re a very myopic bunch. We want what we want and we’re used to getting what we want at the speed of light. That’s why the idea of less taxes makes us shake with anticipation, but also keeps us from the reality that huge, unnecessary wars, tax cuts that wipe out revenues, out-of-control military spending, a failing healthcare system all begin to take their toll on American education, economy and security. I’d be willing to bet if Republicans had not done some of the unsustainable things that they’ve done over the last 30 years, we’d not be being strangled by a powerful and ever-growing China.

Why take on the tough decisions when it’s easier to rot America’s teeth slowly with loads and loads of candy that tastes great but, in the long run, leave you sucking on a straw and licking the wounds your once powerful self.

Do you KNOW “The Pledge of Allegiance”?

Charlie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:54:02 +0000

I recently saw a bumper sticker that said “One Nation. UNDER GOD!” It got me thinking. Who wrote that anyway? I didn’t remember that being among the founding father’s collection of country birthing texts so I did a simple search. Yahoo Answers had an interesting blurb about it. We all grew up saying it, but I doubt many of us even knew why and who wrote it. The answer may be a bit disheartening to the folks crying themselves to sleep over socialism’s great takeover of America…

Dear Yahoo!:

Who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance and when was it written?

David

Dear David:

The Baptist Minister Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. He was forced to leave his Boston church the previous year because of the socialist bent of his sermons. (He shared the political sentiments of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, who wrote two socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward and Equality.) Francis Bellamy was later hired by the The Youth’s Companion, a popular family magazine at the time. His writings reflected a Christian Socialist vision of a government-managed economy with “political, social and economic equality for all.”While writing for the journal, he was also on the Massachusetts State Education Board and was charged with organizing the state’s Columbus Day celebrations in 1892. He decided to craft a pledge that school children would say aloud in front of the flag — a pledge that would reflect his socialist beliefs. As published in Youth’s Companion, the first version read, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Mr. Bellamy considered using the word “equality” as well, but was aware that several members of his education committee were firmly against equal rights for women and African Americans. The phrase “under God,” which was added by President Eisenhower in 1954, would not have met with Mr. Bellamy’s approval. In his later years, Mr. Bellamy stopped attending services, dismayed by the openly racist sentiments of his church.

Eisenhower’s Military Industrial Complex

Charlie — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:36:54 +0000

This video showcasing Eisenhower’s foresight should be studied by all. We’re approaching this moment very quickly.

Uh, oh, the government blows

Charlie — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:41:46 +0000

I understand that a largely held conservative belief is that government is the enemy and should be limited at every turn, but that’s not how I feel. The middle ground would be to recognize that the country is in pain at the moment and needs a government that is truly dedicated to serving the PEOPLE of this country and not increasing the power of the people who just raped us financially and will continue to do so. I truly believe that the President is dedicated to fixing this and I don’t blame him for the anger I have for the government. He needs to make some adjustments, but I still think that in 12 months he’s stirred up more hornets nests of entrenched interest that any I’ve ever seen. The healthcare insurance industry is paying more than 100 million dollars to lobby against the healthcare initiative. Much of the financial industry is using bailout funds (indirectly I’m sure) to lobby against financial reforms that would protect against collapse again. Defense contractors are pushing for billions of dollars towards weaponry that the Pentagon says they don’t even want. The list goes on. Washington is in crisis. The partisanship, money influence, comical media coverage, makes it impossible to take anything seriously. The stunts that have been pulled this year have been entertaining, but absolutely toxic to our dialogue. The ridiculousness of “death panels”, socialism and the like have made the American people out to be gullible and uninformed and more interested in a mud fight than an actual functioning government. How is it that so many people have so little grasp of the issues, but such rigid ideology?

But the mudslinging just came up small potatoes. The influence to effectively control the people’s Congress was just given to special interests. This is a conservative leaning Supreme Court that just turned over our democracy “by the people” to industry. It is Republican’s (and some left) that will attempt to block financial reform because of it’s “big government” appearance. What a joke. I hear, “Damn you Washington for bailing out banks.” (even if, had it not, the economy would have collapsed). “Damn you Washington for letting the banks to get out of control” (even though Republicans basically were responsible for demolishing the financial protections that were in enacted after the Great Depression that would have keep them in control). “Damn you Washington for your big government ideology” (even though government would have been able to better protect us from unscrupulous bankers had the Republicans not diminished the ability for government to function correctly).”

It’s as if I’m watching a delusional sociopath. Someone so committed to blaming someone else, that they can’t even see that they’re largely responsible for the disaster that we’re in and getting deeper into. So, please, continue. I’ve always had an interest in reliving the whole Mad Max series.

President Joe Exxon

Charlie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:34:54 +0000

Today the Supreme Court overturned a law limiting corporate donations to candidates. Basically this treats corporations, entities that are run by a relatively small board of directors, as individuals. So just as you and I have a single voice and a single paycheck to sway opinion and policy in “our” Senators and Representatives, corporations now have unlimited power to sway them. I wonder who they’ll listen to. I doubt it will be the $50 a year donor. I’m curious how huge corporations, with bottomless pockets, that promote purely profit driven motives, will help to make policies that address the problems that actual citizens face. How is it that corporations, that have thousands of politically diverse employees and little to no responsibility to anything other than their bottom line, have the same rights as you or I as individuals? Ladies and gentlemen, if you thought our country was run by special interests, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Afghanistan and US in a Nutshell

Charlie — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:10:39 +0000

I mean not to tell the people that read my blog things that they already know and I definitely don’t intend to talk down to those who are nice enough to indulge me. I simply find so many things fascinating, infuriating or downright ridiculous about so many things in our world.
When we were attacked on 9/11, at first I was shocked and saddened. But, secondly I was incredibly intrigued. My naivté on the issues of Muslim fundamentalism led first to anger, but then on a quest to find out why. And why it had all festered in Afghanistan? Over most of the past decade I figured out some fascinating things pertaining to some of the history of America’s involvement in Afghanistan. My abridged understanding is ridiculously surface, but it may just help to understand why we are where we are.
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the 70s, America’s main concern was the spread of Communism but we understood that by directly confronting the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan, it would quite possibly lead to WWIII and nuclear conflict. Considering our options, our government decided to actively train and fund radical jihadists to use insurgency to drive out the Soviet Union. The University of Nebraska at Omaha was even responsible for publishing a text book that taught insurgency to Afghan children and the already functional opposition. In fact, the U.S. for the entirety of the the Soviet occupation funded and armed the many of the same opposition that we fight today. Like any good empire building exercise, while the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan, they installed a “puppet” government that would be sympathetic to Soviet needs and wants in the region. When The U.S.S.R. faced bankruptcy and a dismal economy back at home, they finally had to pull the plug on their occupation and pulled out. Seeing that our interests had been fulfilled and that we no longer had responsibility in the region, the U.S. also pulled out and left a devastated and exploited Afghanistan to fend for itself. America and Russia had basically waged their war and then left the battlefield smoldering. That’s not to say that Afghans didn’t get what they wanted, but it is to say that our short-sightedness left us facing what we do today.
Pakistan, while recognizing the weakness of an unsupported puppet government, formed what would become the Taliban, and began to fund and push for the takeover of the Afghan government. When they were successful, the Taliban were basically given control over Afghanistan with the understanding that they were ultimately answerable to Pakistan. This is one reason why Pakistan has been so resistant to taking on the Taliban until it was faced with a Taliban that wanted to take over huge swaths of Pakistan this last year. Pakistan has no interest in helping America. They only hope to help themselves to survive and to continue to drain billions of dollars from America in the form of aid packages and arms. With a fundamentalist government in place, Al Queda was given the keys to the castle and allowed to run rampant throughout the country. Left to their own devices, we all know what happened next.
Now we basically face the same thing. There are no great solutions to what we’re up against, but one thing is for sure, the current Afghan government is weak, the jihadists and insurgents are chomping at the bit to get back into power and, from my thinking, that just might lead to another “situation” that we have to deal with in the future. Hopefully this time we can use our American ingenuity to figure out how to at least leave our Afghanistan in a little less of a shit storm. Oh boy.

Happy Holidays!…yep, I said it.

Charlie — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:51:10 +0000

I’m not trying to be politically correct. I’m not trying to elbow out Christians (some of them can be so sensitive about getting their due this time of year). I’m trying to be respectful to everyone that shares space with me and that has ever buddied up with me. They’re not all Christians or Jews or Muslims or Black or Humanists. They’re a variety pack of interesting and diverse people that all have differing ways of celebrating the holidays. Therefore, I’m sorry if I don’t blanket you with a Christian holiday greeting. There’s just too many great people out there that deserve their due as well.
Happy Holidays!

Why healthcare at hyperspeed?

Charlie — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:08:34 +0000

If you don’t have concerns over this healthcare bill, check your pulse. While discussing it the other day, I finally conceded that I just didn’t know what was happening. This bill is so complex, and so involved, if you know exactly what’s in it, you’re lying. I’ve been asked by several people recently why this has to rushed through? Why does it have to happen right now? As many misgivings as I have about how this bill was formulated and picked to death, I’d still have to put my support behind it. It’s a bit of a leap of faith. But the alternatives have been laid out in front of liberals in very dramatic fashion. Historically speaking, healthcare has been dead in the water before it’s even grown legs. It’s indicative of how powerful healthcare insurers have become. This has been going on for a century. Democrats attempt to provide real change to a broken system, and the powers that be use their money and influence to make sure that it never happens. This is why we now face a watered down bill that offers some important regulations, but little true reform. Conservatives have legitimate points of disagreement. Unfortunately, those points have been overshadowed by the dog whistle that was blown by congressmen like Jim DeMint. What progressives face is an opposition that wants nothing more than to see this bill killed. Some on the right would actually be very open to working for a true healthcare reform bill, but the people on the right that see this as a black and white issue have destroyed any opportunity for moderates to be heard and forced Democrats to take action on a bill that’s far from perfect. The truth be told, if the far right and the insurance lobby are allowed to continue to misrepresent, vilify and lie about this bill, they’ll succeed AGAIN. And then the American public is left exactly where we left off with no opportunity in sight to reintroduce change to healthcare. I’ve watched commercial after commercial after commercial recently scaring viewers of a looming government takeover of their healthcare. This after the public option and anything vaguely resembling one, have been stripped. Most people in this country feel the same way about this bill. It would be great to debate it’s merits for an extended period of time, but I’m beginning to think that’s not even important to many conservatives. It has been stalled over an over again. And yet, many conservative lawmakers still have nothing more to add to the bill than “kill it”. If nothing else, this bill has put a chink in the armor of the healthcare monopoly and given an opportunity in the future to amend and improve what’s about to be passed. Unfortunately if this is they way business must be done, then so be it. It will anger many, but I ask everyone to look at your role in this process and recognize that both sides have acted like spoiled children.

Katrina’s Global Warming Fluke

Charlie — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:33:12 +0000

Ha! Isn't this a funny global warming joke?

Just to clear up any misguided cynicism on global warming—just because we still experience snow and cold weather every once and awhile, doesn’t mean climate change isn’t occurring. Incremental increases in temperature raise ocean surface temperatures. This in turn causes unstable weather patterns and glacial melting. This in turn causes disasters like increases in large storm systems (i.e. Katrina and the Indonesian Tsunami) and the droughts that fuel massive wild fires. This in turn begins to misplace millions of humans around the world due to lack of water, raising water levels and storm devastated mainlands. These changes will be gradual and won’t deliver the Star Wars effects that are required to actually make policy, but I can safely say, when global warming’s effects are finally causing people to stomp around demanding accountability for the failure to act when it was necessary, it’ll be too late.

So,while it’s entertaining to watch the cynics thumbing their noses at the problem, it’s actually really sad to see them simplify a problem by watching the snow fall in their back yard.