Most people would do whatever it takes to give the appearance they
are doing something as well as possible to try to make a good
impression, and perform in a way that causes other people to have a good
opinion of them. Organizations take care that their agents represent
the best and brightest of their particular industry and it is certain
that political parties carefully groom and prepare their best advocates
to embody their mission and agenda. Over the past three days,
conservatives paraded their best spokespeople to advance their cause,
and if they were trying to make a good impression on each other and
observant voters, they failed miserably. Between the nutjobs and failed repugican candidates, the CPAC2013 gathering represented lunatic
extremism at its finest and a group clinging to a version of reality
unique to out-of-touch wingnuts.
One did not have to follow the daily recapitulation of crazy to
comprehend the wingnut conclave’s purpose was to put on a torrid
display of groundless anti-Obama rhetoric based on the roster of
speakers. One by one, wingnuttery’s best and brightest fired up the
crowds preaching that America’s salvation is steeped in religion,
austerity, guns, and voiding the federal government, and the speakers
each reiterated that repugicans lost the November election because the repugican cabal failed to articulate wingnut’s values and not that voters
rejected lunatic extremism. Marco Rubio
opined that “
We don’t need new ideas. The idea is called America, and it still works” and it revealed that to repugicans, extremism defines America, and voters are out of touch with America.
The featured speakers at CPAC represented fanaticism at its finest
with Donald Trump, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan rambling on about
America’s demise stemming from voter’s rejecting conservative ideas. To
educate Americans on the value of embracing their vision of, and for,
America, CPAC brought conservative’s marquee spokesperson out of
retirement and turned her loose to lay the nation’s woes at the feet of
President Obama. In fact, Palin reiterated nearly every criticism about
the President for twenty minutes she has dutifully uttered since 2008,
and still failed to put forth a coherent thought, much less one based in
reality, but that is the Palin Americans have come to know and
disparage. However, although Palin cemented her role as one of
conservative’s premier dunces, it was a racist at the assembly that
stole the show and reminded Americans that intrinsic to repugicans’
inability to win elections, or appeal to voters is their racial animus.
During a repugican-run panel on “Trumping the Race” card, a North Carolina man
complained that embracing diversity in the party by reaching out to blacks was “
at the expense of young, white, Southern males like myself, my demographic is being systematically disenfranchised.”
When the discussion leader from the Frederick Douglass repugicans
shared a story about abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s letter to his
former slave-owner forgiving him for holding him in servitude, the
racist said, “For giving him shelter and food?” The racist’s remark
evoked cheers and applause from the crowd.
After the brief exchange, the racist muttered “
why can’t we just have segregation?” When the racist was asked if he supported an America where African Americans were subservient to whites, he said “
I’d be fine with that,” and continued that African-Americans “
should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “
all the tea parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was. When a woman confronted the man on the repugican cabal’s racist roots, he said “
I didn’t know the legacy of the repugican cabal included women correcting men in public.” The repugicans still contemplating their loss in November can look back at the conversation on the
benefits of slavery
and subservient women, and consider that if that is their ideal of
America, it is no wonder they lost women’s vote, the minority vote, and
the election.
The interchange, although not part of the scheduled program, highlighted repugicans’
racism
that the election of an African American as President has brought to
the voters’ attention and alienated minorities in November’s election.
To reinforce the point, tea partiers blamed the racist’s remarks
on an African American woman reporter for asking a question they said
was “
disruptive and coercive;” she asked, “
How many Black women were there?”
The Black reporter also took exception to the contention that Democrats
are to blame for the existence of the Ku Klux Klan, that enraged the
crowd who shouted the woman down with cries of “
We don’t want your question,” and “
we don’t want to hear it.”
One teabagger regaled in tri-corner hat, waistcoat and breeches typical
of a Revolutionary War soldier shouted incessantly at the Black
reporter and finally stormed out of the room.
The message from repugicans since their electoral loss, and at CPAC,
is that there is nothing wrong with their policies and agendas that
more extremism cannot remedy. Recall that during his portion of the
program, Marco Rubio said, “
We don’t need new ideas. The idea is called America, and it still works,”
and it encapsulates the extremist position repugicans will not
abandon. The idea that America still works as a nation of racists and
patriarchs was extreme in 1950, and despite the nation moving forward
into the 21
st century, it is the wingnuts yearn
for and repugicans are intent on reestablishing as evidenced by their
incessant demand to “take the country back.”
For a little over four years, repugicans have assailed President
Obama regardless he saved the economy, created millions of jobs, reduced
spending and taxes, and created an environment that gave business,
corporations, and Wall Street record profits. At CPAC, conservatives
lambasted the President for all manner of fallacious sleights, but in
one panel on diversity and outreach, the sole, underlying reason for all
of the repugicans’ extremism and hate was laid bare; sheer racial
animus. CPAC was an extremists’ dream, and they brought out the cream of
the lunatic crop to parrot extremist rhetoric and to demean
President Obama for their electoral loss, but despite Palin’s worn-out
one-liners, Rand Paul’s sudden regard for civil liberties, or Rubio’s
assertion that the repugican cabal’s ideas are incredible and immutable, the basis
for their extremism and opposition to President Obama is pure racism.
Based on the group sponsoring CPAC’s white nationalist
background, it is little wonder racists stole the show.
Has anybody seen the bridge? Sometime since yesterday, an entire bridge was taken from a village in Turkey.
Just who decided that we should slap our hands together to indicate that we like something?
The
funeral industry wasn't always like it is today. Rituals and practices
evolve over time, and made relatively sudden changes when society
changes. Collector's Weekly spoke to undertaker Caitlin Doughty, the
founder of the 
Ireland's
Great Famine in the mid-19th century led to the demise of farms,
starvation, and many Irish emigrating to other countries. The most
common potato affected was the Lumper, a popular potato at the time
because it would grow in poor soil. It had all but disappeared until
recently, when farmer Michael McKillop grew some heirloom seeds to
resurrect the Lumper.
