I love going to this site and seeing what is up in the world, but i hate so much of what the news is. It is very hard to get in the holiday spirit knowing there is not all the peace in the world that there can be, and that much of the mess is created by someone saying they are doing it in my name and for me. I am glad there are people like those here who can see that the situation "just ain't right", because there are too many people out there choosing to be blind to it (or worse yet, agreeing with it).

There is peace in my own little corner of the world: the hours of darkness are longer, and the lights of the "season" are beginging to perk me up some, but i wonder what it is like to live in a place that is lit up at night by bombs and fires of war.ANd i think that surely we have come to a time in humankind when we can put an end to all of that.
But there it is in black and white...book banning, torture,homophobia,crooked elections, greed. Sometimes it is just too much to take in.

So, maybe i want to say thanks for telling us like it is, and I know the content of the news is not the fault of POAC.

I hear ya... there's nothing I'd like more than to post something lighthearted. Hell, even another lame Leno joke about Clinton's penis would be a relief. Just now, though, we live in dark times, and it's not just because we're approaching the winter solstice...

'Bina.

Maybe we should all just make a little more use of the Watercooler, the humor area, and the Gallery. Humor is a great "sanity valve" for relieving pressure.

I thought about that. Unfortunately, all the humor I have left is vicious satire.

Laughter should never be lost, it is the sound that allows us to cry also. Fighting for justice is not a part time job, however as in any experience we must laugh and be silly just to keep our sanity? I lived through Nixon, Vietnam and the Watergate mess, we will survive because we start with 58 million Americans who go to bed every night praying and crying for the dead and dying. In the sixties we had almost no support for ten or 15 years. Remember Vietnam started for the US back in the 50’s. It was not until the late 60’s where the majority of Americans would even question what we were doing. This is a frightening time, but I believe we will come out of this better and more sensitive to the rest of the world.

Enjoy, it is important.

Words of wisdom to live by.

I just hope support isn't as long in coming as it was during Vietnam. 58,000 is a lot of deaths to waste...and so is the current number, which is nowhere near that, but still a waste.

'Bina.

You are quite right tendjoe, i am one who laughs as hard as they cry (except for that breif period when i was taking anitdepressants....)
When i had my first child in 1990, the future looked so damn bright, not it's 14 years later and i can't believe the things i am seeing. And yet, i think things can and will turn around.
The things that have been going on have made it easy for me to teach my kids that one should always question the government. They may think it is silly when mom draws mustaches on pictures of bush, or snarls and yells at the TV, but i think they see what i am doing and why, and they are learning.
I think as each day passes, more and more people will be waking up, and i don't think it will take as long as it did in the Vietnam era for the country to stand up and say "this is wrong"

There is no need to argue with the masses, slogans are much more effective. Slogans are like strong drinks to people. The crowd doesn't react like men but like women, who rely on their feelings, rather than on their intelligence, if they have any.

--Josef Goebbels

Unfortunately, sexism aside, he's right. The emotionalistic tone of rightard rhetoric has had just the desired effect: Scare 'em shitless, make them want to do ANYTHING to seem patriotic and politically correct. If someone says or does something that makes it clear they ARE using their mind, call them traitors. And if that doesn't cow them, kill their dog. Or send them to Gitmo.

Have I said yet today how much I h...oh, never mind.

'Bina.

Speaking of using laugher to survive in times like these, check out some of a Satire for Sanity show. Barry Crimmins, A. Whitney Brown, Randi Rhodes et al did "Satire for Sanity" shows each Tuesday at Rocky O'Sullivan's in NYC starting last summer and running through the election. I'm not certain, but I don't think they're doing the shows anymore. Still, you can hear a bit of one show at the link above.

And, for the record, I don't think there's any need to limit humor to satire just because the times are so bleak. Sometimes we need outright silliness. Not every thought we have should be tainted by the Bush administration. If every aspect of life is tinged or darkened by Bushco, then we've already been defeated. There's a measure of victory in escaping their grip, even just for a moment.

For a little bit of fun and escape, here are a bunch of things I've run across recently which gave me a laugh. (The link goes to items in my del.icio.us links collection which I've tagged as being funny.)