Tuesday, January 24, 2012

If It's Tuesday, It's an Apology and a Rant!

In case you missed it, long time commenter Anonymous posted this the other day.
It's an election year, hard to ignore politics but have enjoyed your postings more without the weekly reference to your most-hated at the moment politician, er...Republican.

Just remember they're all phonies and crooks (you might even stumble upon Charlie Rangel's homage to Adam Clayton Powell when you're down there along with the Clinton's holdings....er...hidings in the DR).
To which I can only reply...actually, you've got a point.

Seriously -- I've said here on numerous occasions that I'm aware the name of this blog is PowerPop, not PissedOffLeftie. And for any number of reasons (including the courtesy I believe is owed to our valued readers who do not, perhaps, share our political perspective) I strive (to the best of my ability) to resist the urge to use the forum NY Mary has given me to wax all doctrinaire Dirty Fucking Hippie.

That said, it's not a secret that the traditional first paragraph Weekend Listomania joke has mostly always been (as they said at Warner Bros. in the '30s) ripped from the headlines, which is to say topical. To which I can only add, uh yeah, I'm lazy and lacking in a certain level of comic inspiration, so what do you expect?

That being the case, I think you'll agree that there's really not much interesting or appalling happening on the Democratic side of the spectrum of late. Certainly, nothing that compares to the on-going Carnival of Crazy we call the Republican primary race. And I think it's also fair to say that said televised train wreck has struck even a lot folks on the right, who would dearly love to retire President Obama in November, as troubling. In particular, the in your face homophobia, blood lust, and racism exhibited by the audiences at the debates.

All of which is a long-winded way of leading up to the following:

For at least the forseeable future, I'm gonna strive to be as bi-partisan in the snark department as I can. Unless I can't, of course.

Oh -- and no Listomania this week, due to a killer schedule.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

no they're not the same, one side don't play the game, we need awareness and pretending they are the same is careless. so being bipartisan seems unnecessary, unless ny mary demands it.

tommy quest said...

snark away!!

NYMary said...

NYMary demands nothing and is at least as PissedOffLeftie as simels.

As both Matt Taibbi and Chris Hedges (looking for that link; haven't found it yet) have noted recently, the whole presidential game is a sideshow. The real news is in states and localities undoing Citizens United for themselves, and the Occupy movement.

Period.

Anonymous said...

ny mary, i didn't think you would. but if you did steve would and should respect that. since you don't, i do not think steve should rein it in just cause some folks don't like it. some people do like it. more important, i suspect steve likes it and it's his work; he shouldn't have to self-censor here.

steve simels said...

I'm just trying not to be tiresome. It's not exactly the same as self-censoring.

IMHO.

Whether I'm succeeding is up to you guys, obviously.

pete said...

Speaking as a conservative to whom George W. Bush provided much the same disillusionment as Jimmy Carter did for '70s leftists, first: reproductive choice is a conservative issue. It's about the size and reach of government. Re-legalization is is a conservative issue. It's about the size and reach of government. Fighting the military-industrial complex and its wars for oil is a conservative issue. It's about the size and reach of government. Re-regulation of the financial industry is a conservative issue. It's about the size and reach of government - the real government.

Hypocrisy, on the other hand, is an equal-opportunity bitch, whether it's self-styled "conservatives" working against people's freedom or labor unions destroying the country's industrial base in the name of the people they're putting out of work. The left/right dichotomy, derived as it is from the seating arrangements of the French National Assembly 200-plus years ago, doesn't really serve anymore.

steve simels said...

Pete:

Well, obviously I disagree, but the jokes are another matter.
:-)

Brooklyn Girl said...

Pete, you sound more like a libertarian than a conservative. And you certainly don't sound like one of today's crop of Republicans, none of whom give a crap about the size of government (even though they profess otherwise).

Anonymous said...

Its supply-side economics of a sort. Republicans supply much more and better raw material for humor/rants, so more trickles down to comedians and rantists. Republicans simply outperform Democrats as objects of sneer. I'd welcome a Democrat half as funny as Romney or Gingrich.

AP

pete said...

I'm not quite sure what we're supposed to be disagreeing about. I presume we both feel that a woman's health choices are the business of no one but that woman and her doctor, that the financial industry needs to be more strictly regulated, that the military-industrial complex needs to be downsized, and that 8 years of George W. Bush completely debunked the mythology of tax-cuts and deregulation.

GLLinMO said...

Not really sure how much different a Pissoffleftie is from a Pissedofflibertarian - except for the context of things. That said - free speech is still good, opinions even better, and a sense of humor th best. I'll take a good snark no matter what direction it comes from.

Plus - if we all thought alike life would certainly be boring.

Anonymous said...

But Steve:

What do you really think about the Easybeats?

ROTP(lumber)

Anonymous said...

Steve,
anonymous here. THE anonymous. I'll admit I do try to shake it up every now and then but try not to do so in a knee-jerk way.

I don't mind your snark but certain ones have prompted me to respond.

You do good work here; that's why I visit daily. Keep up the good work. p

tommy quest said...

i said before and i'll say it again - snark away! besides, everybody know a shark a day keeps the political doctorates away!

dave™© said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: IT WAS PERFECTLY LEGAL TO FIRE ON FORT SUMTER!

Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary said...

I just wanted to see Michelle Bachmann naked.......

buzzbabyjesus said...

When I was a kid, during Bobby Kennedy's rise, I asked my right wing nutjob dad about the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
He said, "Democrats think people are basically good, and Republicans think people are basically bad."
He went on to elaborate, but that first part is all I remember.
Anyway it's okay to snark.
They are nasty people.

TMink said...

I for one do not have to agree with your politics to appreciate your rants or jokes. Funny is funny. So please, everyone, continue to speak your mind.

Trey