Guy Fawkes

Traditionally, November 5th is designated Guy Fawkes day in honor of the man spearheading a plot to use copious amounts of gunpowder to blow up England's parliament building. He is usually viewed as a social anarchist intent on giving control of England back to the English people rather than the corrupt and greedy parliament. Such was the inspiration behind the 2006 movie "V for Vendetta" in which a masked superhero singlehandedly launches an uprising of people against an authoritarian regime that is in place in futuristic England dystopia.

But who was the man behind the hype? Well as a child he was raised in York by a single catholic Spaniard mother. He grew to embrace these qualities as an adult, even going so far as to fight for catholic Spain against the Dutch in the Eighty Years War. Later, Fawkes became involved with a group of English catholics who were displeased with how protestant their homeland was.

This gathering of like minded individuals went on to be the thirteen conspirators in the historic Gunpowder Plot.

These thirteen men met several times and they all agreed to participate in one way or another in the destruction of Parliament. Their one mistake came when one of them attempted to contact friends overseas for assistance. This backfired, and instead of providing assistance the contact ended up notifying the authorities of the impending attack. Fawkes was the unfortunate one designated to light off the gunpowder placed under Parliament, so he was naturally the first one caught and the scapegoat for the outrage of the people. Mr. Fawkes was hanged and then Drawn and Quartered after a lengthy torture as compensation for his crimes against England.

He is remembered today as a hero, but many ironies surround the historical interpretation of his most famous attempt. Perhaps the "V for Vendetta" was farthest off because Mr. Fawkes was by no means an anarchist. Quite the opposite in fact. The entire purpose of the Gunpowder Plot was to destroy the Protestant Parliament in order to install a Catholic theocracy in its place. It is for this reason that people today in England celebrate November fifth by burning Fawkes in effigy while lighting off firecrackers and fireworks.

No matter his motivation, Guido "Guy" Fawkes will remain immortal through the following rhyme:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd (or by God's mercy*)

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

And what should we do with him? Burn him!

Election Results Part 2

Now that all the ballots are finally in (except Alaska), I feel I can do a much more thorough interpretation of what this means for America's political future. Though rest assured, this will be my last post on the midterm election.

Two of my favorite senators lost last night: Russ Feingold from Wisconsin and Alan Grayson from Florida. These were two truly progressive senators who avoided the corruption that has so plagued our nation. They did not deserve to be voted out. This actually affected me more than losing the house of representatives.

Many pundits are comparing the loss in congress to the same thing that happened during Clinton's presidency and saying that this signifies that Obama will also be a two-term president who winds up popular towards the end. These are complete guesses. There is nothing to suggest that Obama's presidency will even remotely resemble Clinton's. As it is, Obama is likely to get voted out unless he passes some really comprehensive legislation soon.

I know a lot of my followers are from overseas, so I was considering switching from American politics to more global issues. Perhaps I'll do a couple of blogs on anti-religion. I'll put up a poll later to see what my followers would like.

Sarah Palin Sucks

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/10/sarah-palin-201010?currentPage=all

Apparently Palin isn't the homey down-to-earth common sense soccer mom that she pretends to be. I mean, everyone has a dark(er) side, but come on!

Follow Up on Yesterday's Post

When I said that "I used to be an Obama supporter", I meant simply that this new policy of ignoring the EPA and drilling for oil off the coast of America has pushed me over the edge. Obama is trying to be as bipartisan as possible-which would be well and good if the republicans were deserting the center as if it were the titanic-but I voted for a democrat to be in office.

Obama is attempting to appease the fringe right-wing groups by implementing this policy, but he will not succeed. No matter how centrist Obama tries to be, the Tea Parties and other fringe right wingers will continue to oppose him simply because he is not fringe like them.

That is why I no longer support Obama: because he is not Democratic enough. He has adopted a policy that is dangerous to our ocean life and will pay out very little many years from now. But worst of all: he has done this just to appease fringe tea parties which may include as little as 20,000 people out of over 303 million.

The polls clearly show that Americans want a strong progressive government, not one that caters to the interests of violent tea party extremists:

In case the picture comes out weird and people can't read it, here's a link:

http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/party-id.php

and here's what it says: 34.4% of Americans identify themselves as Democrat. Compare that to the Republicans, whose recent polarizing on the fringe has caused supporters to desert the party faster than a jackrabbit stepping on a hot griddle. The percentage of people in America who identify themselves as Republican is down to only 24.5% of the American population. That's down almost nine percent since May '09.

The polls are clear. Fringe tea baggers and right wing media outlets do not speak for the majority of the american people. We want a strong Progressive in office, and we want Sarah Palin and Glen Beck ignored. I nominate Dennis Kucinich or Rep. Barney Frank.

Post Script: The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Independents is 35%, outweighing both parties. And although polls show that the Democratic party may soon pass Independents in popularity, I definitely support Independence. I like to believe that it means that the american people are realizing that both parties are in the pockets of special interests, and we need to come together at least temporarily to halt the influence of big business in our government. More on that here:

http://goofy878.blogspot.com/2010/02/ive-got-politician-in-my-pocket.html

Obama is a better Republican than Busch was

• Obama has escalated the was in Afghanistan
• The main subject of Obama's health care bill was the formation of a National Insurance exchange, an idea first put forward by a Republican
• Besides that, the bill contained numerous concessions to congressional republicans, including the giving up of a public option
• Obama has signed an EXECUTIVE ORDER banning federal funding of abortion
• Obama has continued Bush's unpopular policy of giving tax cuts to rich individuals
• Obama has slashed federal spending nationwide, including funding for NASA's moon and mars research
• Obama has kissed Israel's ass for as long as he has been in office
• Obama's biggest spending spree was the bailouts, which went straight to big banks and were originally a Bush administration idea
• Obama has repeatedly favored big businesses over the American people
• Obama is in favor of building dangerous nuclear power plants rather than environmentally friendly ones
• Obama is against same-sex marriage
• And finally, the big political news today is that Obama is ignoring the EPA and is expanding oil drilling in the east coast

I used to be an Obama supporter. But now I realize that I voted for a center-right wing president at a time when that was exactly what I DIDN'T want. I wanted change from the Bush era, but instead all we got was a carbon copy, more of the same.

Progressiveness leads to Fascism?

Many Glen-Beck-for-brains tea baggers recently have been asserting that progressivism over time leads to fascism. Aside from the fact that the two philosophies are on perpendicular sides of the political spectrum (one can be a fascist while being a progressive or a conservative), and the fact that the extrapolation is entirely bass ackwards, what does conservative libertarianism lead to?

Considering the fact that libertarians stand in favor of limited government, one can extrapolate that libertarianism leads to anarchy. Having a libertarian President or majority in congress would radically change the country in ways that would make our founding fathers cry. All market regulations would be nonexistent, including child labor laws. We would all be forced to labor for too many hours per week at the minimum wage of $1 per day in the manufacturing plants that would dominate the landscape. Pollution would be viewed favorably, and we would all become sickly from contamination in our food and water supply very quickly. Anti-government sentiment fueled by ignorance would lead to a total dissolving of the federal governments, and state governments would be solely responsible for police and defense. Taxation would be too low to support either group, and anarchist post-apocalyptic gangs would run rampant stealing and raping until either China or Russia decided to bomb us and invade.

But at least American business would be on top.

American Education

This is not a rant about our failing education system, though that may come later. This is simply an observation of a single important detail that was left out of the curriculum of my grade school.

That detail is the fact that Alexander Grahm Bell, inventor of the telephone, was Canadian. While never mentioning his nationality, my classmates and I were always lead to believe he was an American citizen. Was this simply a clerical error in the curriculum in my grade school? Or was this something deeper, a plot by powerful educators to subtly induce ideas of American dominance into the clean-slate minds of young students.

This may seem like nothing more than conspiratorial speculation to the average reader, but keep in mind the recent decision of a texas school board to purposely include conservative bias in new textbooks across the nation. One representative of the schoolboard defended his decision by saying, and I'm paraphrasing, "This is a good day for American dominance."

This is despicable. Bias has no place in the textbooks of grade schoolers. It belongs firmly in debate rooms and courtrooms. Grade schoolers should receive historical facts, rather than cherry picked biased opinions based on whatever an insignificant school board decides.

Thomas Jefferson, third present of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, has no special emphasis in the new edition of textbooks, and John Calvin, a French theologian who lived and died before the American revolution ever took place is noted as an influential individual pertaining to the writing of the American constitution.

The only thing I can derive from this is that the texas school board who has chosen to send the youth of America into a modern day dark age has simply no morals. They may believe that they are helping the next generation to become more conservative, but in reality they are defecating in the pristine fountain of collective knowledge.

I am unsure as to what the average american can do to oppose such bias and defecation, however you can, like me, write a lengthy blog that calls out the school board and calls them several stinging names.

Just a thought...

In terms of business, Democrats want to turn us into Europe, and Republicans want to turn us into Myanmar.

One party wants regulation only to the point where it is impossible for a company to abuse employees/consumers, and the other party wants to deregulate to the point where employees/consumers are constantly being taken advantage of.

As a middle class American, I know which outcome I prefer.