Watching Jon Stewart here and he's pointing out that, for the past four years, there's been a lot of talk about "being prepared." Of course, the unspoken slogan was really "being prepared for terrorists." You see a lot of excuses regarding the recent natural disasters that focus on this. "Hey....the weather....how are you going to prepare for that?" That sort of bullshit will not be addressed here.
So now that it's been made painfully clear that there is no natural disaster policy in place, let's not forget that there is no terrorism policy in place. Hard talk and flag waiving is not a policy. Jingoism is not a policy. "Taking the fight to X" is not a policy. This country has had four years and it is no where CLOSE to being able to ask hard questions about the causes of terrorism, or, "root causes," if you prefer.
The myth that American policies and American actions have zero consequences is more alive and well than it was four years ago. You would have thought that the opposite would have occured, but then you would have underestimated the effects of narcissism, ignorance, and blind self-righteousness.
You are not safer than you were four years ago. Write it down.
I saw March of the Penguins this summer. I thought, “that was kind of cute.” On the other hand, WorldNetDaily, man-child National Review editor Rich Lowry, and World magazine all saw the movie and decided that it would provide support for their own idiotic crusades.
On the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com, an opponent of abortion wrote that the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it." At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy. A widely circulated Christian magazine said it made "a strong case for intelligent design."
Michael Medved gets in the act, too.
"March of the Penguins," the conservative film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing."
Speaking of audiences who feel that movies ignore or belittle such themes, he added: "This is the first movie they've enjoyed since 'The Passion of the Christ.' This is 'The 'Passion of the Penguins.'"
Yep, he actually said that. I know when I was sitting there in the theater, little kids laughing, my girlfriend smiling at the shots of the baby penguins, I was thinking to myself, “Passion of the Penguins” would be a GREAT subtitle for this movie. If only we could get some Romans to scourge the penguins on their march across the ice, this movie would be totally dope.
World magazine and National Review are themselves great pieces of evidence cutting against the idea intelligent design. Still, I know you’re wondering, where’s the gay-bashing? No conservative review of a seemingly innocent movie would be complete without some remark about how fags just don’t fit into the grand scheme of natural law. Sadly, I was disappointed by the Times round-up, but then I thought, maybe Lowry and crew had read this:
Wendell and Cass, two penguins at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn, live in a soap opera world of seduction and intrigue. Among the 22 male and 10 female African black-footed penguins in the aquarium's exhibit, tales of love, lust and betrayal are the norm. These birds mate for life. But given the disproportionate male-female ratio at the aquarium, some of the females flirt profusely and dump their partners for single males with better nests.
Wendell and Cass, however, take no part in these cunning schemes. They have been completely devoted to each other for the last eight years. In fact, neither one of them has ever been with anyone else, says their keeper, Stephanie Mitchell.
But the partnership of Wendell and Cass adds drama in another way. They're both male. That is to say, they're gay penguins.
Oh. Dammit. I thought this was supposed to be the conservative feel-good movie of the summer! And they ruin it for me with a story about queer penguins! Let's see how well those queer penguins like it in queer penguin hell! You'll wish you were back in the Arctic. hahahaha
Apparently, gay penguins rear kids just fine, too.
At the Central Park Zoo, Silo and Roy, two male Chinstrap penguins, have been in an exclusive relationship for four years. Last mating season, they even fostered an egg together.
"They got all excited when we gave them the egg," said Rob Gramzay, senior keeper for polar birds at the zoo. He took the egg from a young, inexperienced couple that hatched an extra and gave it to Silo and Roy. "And they did a really great job of taking care of the chick and feeding it."
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Rich Lowry to call this to your attention.
NYT: “March of the Conservatives: Penguin Film as Political Fodder”: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/science/13peng.html?incamp=article_popular_1&pagewanted=print
Gay Penguins: http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-06-10/591.asp