The salad days of the bloated clusterfuck to the Whitehouse are all but over and the corporate Special Olympics is replaced now by the grandstanding political version of the WWF, where the blood and passionate diatribes serve as a surprise reminder that we are actually suppose to believe the verbal brutality has any veracity.

The mass media has chosen an interesting collection of second rate public officials. Interestingly enough, half of them don’t even believe in public service, effectively declaring that they deserve to be elected on the merits of their own unworthiness to serve the public. This very fascinating fact could only be compared to an all too early appeal to a violation of Godwin’s Law, for which I will take no part.

Instead, let’s take a book out of fine nude art and focus on the flaccid penis of a campaign by Ron Paul. To be fair, there is a deep resonating appeal of the ideals written and spoken by Ron Paul for me. I could read his thoughts and consider myself sold on someone who exemplified magnanimously the ideals of a freedom-loving libertarian. I even introduced Ron Paul to many others, with surprising results. I never stopped searching and learning about Dr. Paul. I learned that despite the fact that 90% of Ob/Gyns support a woman’s right to make decisions on her body, even if it meant the termination of the unborn, Ron Paul does not. I forgave him that, believing that most states wouldn’t be that stupid to make a law against it. I forgave Ron Paul for his cringe worthy belief that this country is a Christian Nation, despite the fact that his heroes, Ayn Rand and Thomas Jefferson were openly mocking of his faith. Believe me, this was really difficult for me. I forgave Ron Paul for ignoring seven handwritten letters asking him to clarify for me his stance on the separation of church and state and his desire to “restore” the first amendment to it’s intended purpose. I had always thought that the 200 years of historical affirmation of the establishment clause and religious freedom clause were sound, but Paul believes that prayer should be “brought back” into schools. Since prayer is already allowed, one must believe he means that he would support teacher led prayer, and the state’s right to enforce such a measure on it’s school districts. Some would argue that he wants to eliminate federal control of education, which is honorable, except that in his actions again, he has proposed big government amendments that would allow the current state run education system to violate the establishment clause. Of course, it wouldn’t be violating it if he personally changed it with an amendment, which was the desire, and ultimately the problem. I forgave him that. I really did. There are much bigger problems in America. The war, the economy. Which is why I defended Ron Paul to the best of my ability, and challenged his grassroot supporters in their fledgling embrace of the ideals of liberty. Ron Paul certainly seemed to understand it…

Which brings me back to his campaign. If Ron Paul believes most of what he spews, he would use embarrassing association with the Republican Party as a platform to launch a candidacy for President under another party or run as an independent. I have heard the many defenders of the position not to, and they simply don’t jive. If Ron Paul believes as strongly as he does about civil liberties, about non-intervention, about state’s rights, he will forgo the clusterfuck that is partisan politics and run a nasty grassroots campaign for President right now. His supporters are passionate, he has drawn from all walks of life in American people and he has brought together people of such wildly opposing viewpoints that one must stand back and observe in awe at what the system is suppose to look like…

Money is pouring in. The campaign was so well tuned for efficiency and spendthrift tidiness that it doesn’t know what to do with the money. Ron Paul is left defending himself in debates instead of preaching his message. I have seen commercials for fucking Drunkin Duncan Hunter, and I have seen nothing from Ron Paul. This is the time to make the move. This is the time to pull and push for those big endorsements, to force yourself in defiance to the established way of doing things and demand a platform, demand time, and use the support of the people pushing you to BUY that time if you must.

The campaign has pissed me off. This isn’t the passion of someone who wishes to win. I honestly don’t know what Ron Paul wants anymore. He doesn’t want the Presidency. Who the fuck is advising him? This is setting up to be the biggest joke on the voting public I have ever read about… to build up the passion of freedom thirsty people, and then to stragglefuck around like a self-deluded muppet is inexcusable, especially while invoking the real meaning of liberty, drawing from the apathetic a sense of power, a rise of common sense, a desire for involvement. As the representative who caused this, you cannot just fade away like a popped zit. You cannot sit back with that righteous half-wit goofy smile and suggest that you are going to win the republican nomination. He can’t be that stupid.

Dr. Paul, you had sold me. Against the things I disagreed with you on, things that were important to me, I still defended you. I hate the Republican Party, it deserves to lose every election from here to Anchorage. I registered as a Republican so I could vote for you. I’ve given money to your campaign. I convinced myself that it was all for the better. I dealt with the hordes of insane followers. The religious fanatics, the homophobic ex-neocons, the heartless droves of ignorant in hopes that this was going to be different. That you would lead us to the promise land.

Instead, you are more impotent than Fred Thompson, and he isn’t even trying. Your campaign is a joke. In fact, your campaign right now is comprised totally of grassroot efforts and passionate youths building websites, forums, youtube videos on their own. Where is your passion? Where is half of the passion of your supporters? This is incomprehensible. I cannot believe what I am seeing.

This is your failure. Not your ideals. Not your stances. Most of your policies would actually keep your own stupidity in check. I can excuse all these things, and I can exclude blame from the people I know who pour their heart out for you. No, I am not one of them, but I don’t have to be… this isn’t the fault of your supporters. This is your fault. This is your passionless dance. This is your time, and unlike 1988, you have a fighting chance. This country is anti-war. This country is anti-government. This country is pro-freedom. Where the fuck are you Ron Paul?

I don’t care if the backwood morons of Texas have voted you in as a Republican . You are running as the President of the United States of America. Act like you can handle that, act like you have a pair of balls. Don’t turn your back on the people who are fighting for you, as an extension of themselves. Yes. These people are voting for you Ron Paul, they are voting for themselves, for their reasons. You are failing them. This money, and there will be more, I promise you, this money is for you to compete on the level of the media chosen. You are meant to compete with them. Forget the success of the movement and focus on how the movement started. Focus on what you stand for… WE THE PEOPLE.

Dr. Paul your campaign is joke. Fire people, now. Do something different. You paid the same amount of money to be included in that debate and you choked. I’m not going to give you grief for appealing to big names. Impress a few celebrities, do what you have to do, because your message transcends you, it goes beyond you, and it resonates with people who should care. You have to act like you give a fuck.
Damn you Ron Paul. Don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to your supporters. You say you are not going to run if you don’t get the nomination.

Well, guess what? You aren’t going to get the nomination. So you’re not running. Tell that to our face. Grow a fucking spine and tell us exactly why you are not acting like you’re running for President; because you know deep down, that you aren’t running.

It was with great reluctance that I withheld this long from writing. From a personal perspective, this has been highly draining. Surviving both an emotionally draining but entertaining trip to South Bend to watch my Alma Mater get an enema from Boston College, I returned to Newport with the nastiest flu I can remember, and followed it with an even meaner case of tonsillitis. An entire month+ and I’ve only managed to add another few pages to my very enjoyable essay on Hart. I had told myself I wouldn’t post until I was finished with the piece, but as the title explains, this has become an untenable situation in and of itself.

So much has happened in this short time. Greg Epstein has signed a deal to write about Humanism in a book tentatively called Good Without God. It is often difficult to explain to some of my peers why I like Greg so much, but talking to anyone in person changes your opinion of them, the one and quite possibly only issue I have with the technological curtain. I’ve always maintained in defense of Greg that Secular Humanism, in general, is the only imperative replacement for securing social traditions left in the absence of strict religious activities and observances. Greg has also given credit to us vocal atheists in bringing more attention to Humanism… I charge him with making sure it doesn’t enjoy the same apparent fall of the previous generation’s attempt.

Today marks the first celebration of a so-called Great American God-Out, which I’m guessing is a play of the Great American Smoke-Out. I had only recently heard about this, but some big players have signed on, including (Facebook-Hating) Rational Response Squad, Greydon Square, Michael Shermer, and Margaret Downey. The event calls for celebration around the nation for the 29 million people who consider themselves non-believers. With a slogan like “Help give theocracy the philosophical hammer!” I’m sure it will serve as a beacon of hope for those of us who are to be hanged in the next presidency.

I do have to revisit my comment about Facebook Hating. As a former user of Myspace, a peruser occasionally on the forums of Rational Response, listener of their broadcasts, and their home on Stickam, I’m struck with the noticeable failure of the entire group of usually insightful people to even investigate the potential of Facebook. I’ve been to all the places they get their message across on, and I’m generally unimpressed by the amount of involvement. I’m not saying this because of my loyalty to AANR, or my personal connection to it, it just seems that their is a tremendous amount more people involved actively with the forums on Facebook then anywhere else that I contribute. When this fact is brought up to Brian “Sapient”, it is usually followed by a very derisive scoff at the mere mention of Facebook. It should be noted the only reason I even maintain any Myspace accounts any longer, is for þL||2þΩ535 |<\>√Ω£√|<\>6 7#3||2 4[[355|8£3 4<\>I> þΩΩ|2 [ΩI>3. That really is how bad it has gotten. The forums on the “active” atheist group is comprised 4/5th of the time with advertisements, followed by HTML hacks. Occasionally, very occasionally, there is a taste of insightful debate.

No matter, AANR has just reached 13,000 members, a group which has no competition on Facebook. One would think I would be trying to avoid the Rational Response Squad’s presence, but I think the last thing we need in our battle for hearts and minds is that ancient Atheist independence rearing its’ ugly head, and as a result I am a adamant activist for cooperation on all fronts. What AANR offers is that sense of community ironically. Somehow, the group has become rather close, with some of the active members becoming friends outside the boundaries of technology.

Let’s see. Weapon of Nation Destruction, or WorldNetDaily (WND) as they like to call themselves, has yet another monstrous commentary on the position of non-belief. This one, lovingly entitled “The irrationality of atheists” (lower case intact) , is, to put it mildly, nearing the “fighting words” category of hate speech.

I can sum up the entire article in one sentence the Inkdribbler wrote, “You see, the problem that the atheists (and anti-theists) have is not an intellectual one but rather a moral one. It’s not a matter of the head but one of the heart; they don’t believe in God because they don’t want to believe in Him.“

Yikes. I can’t even muster up sarcasm for that. The Theists, and Conservatives in general, must always prove a point by declaration and affirmation. The last line of the commentary, “the evidence for God is so overwhelming that it takes far more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a Christian. That fact was demonstrated yet again, … as anyone who watched [the debate] objectively would have to conclude”, is the most egregious and disdainful attempt to undermine a group I’ve seen in my lifetime. Granted, I was born in 82′, and missing out on the various civil injustices of the prior generation, I am generally offended by this piece.

The WND is garbage. Most of us sit back and just acknowledge that this is the case, that there are in fact media outlets like this, and it’s best just to ignore them…

The problem is that these venues are new to America. You have to travel to the likes of old Soviet Russia and modern day Eritrea, to find this kind of distortion of reality. Our drive-by criticism is not doing the job, these groups, Fox News included, are distorting the public in a way that media has never done before in America. The supposed “liberal” news bias claims are unfounded. Liberal here literally means truth, in the case of the news organizations. If CNN reports on a death toll in Iraq, that’s liberal. When Fox News spends 3 minutes trashing the legacy of Kurt Vonnegut, that’s fair and balanced. When Weapon of Nation Destruction claims loudly and defiantly “Anything Not Christian is Irrational” that is the American way.

If you track the face time of the political candidates, you may notice that Fox does in fact spend a fair amount of time on most candidates (excluding the Red-headed stepchild of the GOP Ron Paul) , but how many of you actually see one bit of news that is fair to Obama or Clinton? Think about that, face time isn’t good if it is an hour long special on how you will ruin America. I just can’t sit back and believe that the American people are really falling for the obvious distortion of the some of the media. When a person is allowed to answer criticism sent their way, that is fair, when a news media that calls itself fair and balanced actively and willfully pushes the candidate of their own choosing… that is neither fair nor balanced.

Speaking of which, The New York Times seems to think that Fox has chosen their horse, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/politics/02FOX.html.

The question is, does this article seem excessively liberal or conservative, when compared to this: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311838,00.html

Posted just an hour ago, I didn’t even have to look long for an example.

Sad… really sad. I’m ashamed to call myself libertarian when the movement gets even remotely associated with these neo-cons.

Edit: At the time of writing this, the Fox News Website also had this: Breaking News: Ball of Flame Erupts on Texas Highway After Truck Bursts Into Flames: Watch Live

*For the moral win.

This reminds me of the report that stated that Fox decisively shows more scantily clad women than any other news stations, in the guise of reporting on the failing standard of culture. Sensationalism…

Ayn Rand wrote about Fox News years before it was created… she called it The Banner.