Did you know that in a few days, Scotland will vote on becoming an independent nation?
On the 18th of this month, Scots will be flocking to polling stations to vote either “yes” or “no” on becoming a self-governed country, joining in the movement with many areas of Europe, currently campaigning for self-determination (though barring the Catalonians, Scotland’s probably the closest any have yet gotten).
And may that day yet come…
So is this a good thing? We here at CWR say yes. Continue reading
Posted in Economy, environmentalism, Europe, government, health, history, money, news, politics
Tagged age, bigotry, BNP, citizenship, EDL, ethnocentrism, Europe, fracking, freedom, GCHQ, healtchare, independence, Indyref, loch lomond, Military, missile, Nationalism, NHS, no, NSA, nuclear, pension, pensioner, poverty, proposal, racism, Referendum, scotland, Scottish, September 18, SNP, spending, taxes, trident, UKIP, vote, weapons, Yes
GORDON: Welcome readers to another exciting installment of [redacted], where we’ll be discussing [censored] and the [undisclosed] surrounding it.
(The topic for today is censorship, for anyone baffled by my oh-so-subtle clues…)
While this topic did originate out of Evan’s and my discussion of TV (how we’d deal with rating systems, more specifically) we HAVE touched on this topic before, with our previous discussion of the UK’s automatic porn-block for British ISPs.
KAT: You guys actually included a poll in your discussion on television, too. And while there weren’t an awful lot of votes, it seems like more readers agreed with censoring daytime TV to some degree.
Censorship is such a big topic, but before we go much further, let me get an idea of how you feel about it. Is censorship ever okay? If so when? And by who?
Posted in advertising, America, bizarreness, Canada, Culture War Correspondence, film, internet, literature, media, morality, news, politics, pornography, television, video games
Tagged A&E, ads, advertisements, advertising, AMC, Banned, Bill Hicks, books, Canada, censor, censorship, CRTC, Duck Dynasty, FCC, Geiko, government, house of cards, internet, legislate, legislation, media, Mein Kampf, NSA, offensive, Orange is the New Black, pornography, socialism, television, TV, Ulysses
Readers, I could spend a post and then some spewing acidic bile about the NSA, and as much as I am tempted to, I’m not going to. It’s not that the NSA doesn’t deserve to be lambasted, it’s just that this is a culture blog, not a political one, and it’s mentality we’re gonna be talking about here today- the attitudes (and people) which are giving this psychotic system fertile ground to grow in.
“It Protects You, So It’s Good For You…”
This isn’t the first time that stupid slogan’s been trotted out by whatever ******s are in power, but since it’s rearing its ugly head in public again, it’d be remiss of us not to take some shots at it.
That’s a quote from Californian representative Dianne Feinstein, defending, last Saturday, the NSA’s continued invasion of the privacy of both citizens and non-Americans alike.
I actually agree with the Congresswoman on this one. It’s why I’ve got my family encased in bubble wrap and locked in my basement. Supposing I let them out and they got hit by a car? I’d never forgive myself.
No, because I am a sane person.
Posted in America, morality, politics, Shame Day
Tagged attitude, CISPA, Congress, Congressman Rogers, Dianne Feinstein, Michael Rogers, Mike Rogers, NSA, paranoia, Privacy, security, talk like a terrorist day, trevor moore, TSA, You can't have your privacy violated if you don't know your privacy is violated
A few weeks from now will see the 50th anniversary of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”- the “March on Washington” as it is abbreviated today. Through the sweltering heart, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. boomed out his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Most everyone is familiar with the beginning, but lesser known is what King had to say later in the oration.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir… It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
Now I have a tendency to rail on America. Having been at the pointed end of US foreign policy, I don’t believe I’m unjustified in doing so. But for everything that this nation let’s slide, for everything wrong, I can always count on some American to live out the example described by King and demand the US hold true to the noble ideals it claims it was founded upon. On this 4th of July, I’d like to showcase some of the men and women who I believe are standing up and speaking out. Continue reading
As you probably well know, I’m the last person on this blog to write about politics. Gordon has that well under control, if the first two posts of this week are any indication. On that note, I feel that I fall into the category of “politically ignorant” in quite a few ways. I’ve never voted, for one.
There are a few reasons for that, of course, such as my living overseas and then being a Canadian attending college in the States, but the fact of the matter is that I know very little about even my own government. Heck, I can tell you more about the state of the politics at DC Comics right now more than the Harper administration.
In a lot of ways, simply being friends with Gordon keeps me up to date. Well, that and the snippets of news I hear when my granddad is watching TV and I’m on my laptop. I knew about this Snowden guy, and that he’d leaked some classified info, but Gordon told me something that I didn’t know:
The government could kill this man. Continue reading
Posted in America, bizarreness, Fame Day, internet, morality, politics
Tagged act of treason, America, big brother, Bill Nelson, Dianne Feinstein, disclosure, Edward Snowden, execution, government, NSA, politics, Prism, spying, surveillance, treason, US government, USA, whistleblower
Do you know what the origin of the word “idiot” is?
It comes from the ancient Greek for someone who is totally self-centered; someone without any interest in public affairs. To the inventors of democracy, “idiocy” was the opposite of “citizenship.”
Readers, we are surrounded by idiots.
When I was putting together yesterday’s post, the pictures I used inevitably had a host of comments sighing “It’s Washington, what do you expect?”, “Politicians have always been dirtbags,” and “This is why I don’t vote.”
The issues change, but the reactions remain the same. People throw up their hands and start spewing folksy, thought-cancelling truisms about how politics is inherently corrupt, or how it’s always been this way and always will be, or how it doesn’t matter who you vote for. Continue reading
Posted in politics, America, news, Shame Day, morality
Tagged Obama, politics, activism, ethics, conservative, Privacy, apathy, liberal, government, NDAA, civil rights, voting, freedom, action, democracy, ignorance, rights, prison, airport, wiretap, Prism, NSA, 4th amendment, idiot, definition, citizenship, Plato, public affairs, private affairs, censor, oppress, strip searched, airplane, labor rights, religious freedom, vote, grassroots, one of two evils, change politics, god king, origin of the word, peaceably assemble, the cost of ignorance is to be ruled by evil men
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