The Simple Truth

Normally, I don't go out to offend anyone much. If you have acted like a dimwit...I will kinda hint that to you. If you acted like a fool....I will hint that to you. I try to stay honest but walk on the friendly side of life.

Today....a video became obvious...on YouTube. It's from the White House green jobs Czar Van Jones. Van decided back in February to call Congressional Republicans ) "assholes".

This speech where Van had to use the expression....was in a lecture at a Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) event. The chat was supposed to be on the green economy. You must remember...he was still just a professor...not a Czar at that point.

The question that brought up this comment?

"When [President George W. Bush] was in office, [Republicans] had a majority; it wasn't 60, it wasn't more than 60, but they pushed through all of these bills," the questioner began. "But when we have 58, we seem to not be able to move things as progressively as many of us here would want, as Obama wants. ... how were they Republicans able to push things through when they had less than 60 sens, but we cant?"

Van then answered the question: "Well the answer to that is, they're assholes."

"I was afraid that was the answer," the questioner replied.

At this point, Van added that he himself could be an asshole.

I sat there and thought about this. To be honest....Democrats are assholes too.

Then I started pondering this....ABC, NBC, NPR, and CBS....could all be assholes.

Then I started pondering even more...Rush Limbaugh could be an asshole. Glenn Beck could be an asshole.

So I kept pondering....Cheney could be an asshole. Most of the coaches in the NCAA could be assholes. The leadership of the top twenty-five banks could all be assholes.

Yes, for a brief moment, Van had shown great wisdom. We are greatly populated with assholes. Assholes run AMTRAK and Delta airlines. Assholes own the New York Yankees. Assholes determine the future of the Microsoft.

We have an ample population now of assholes....well spread through two political parties and the entire news media. Frankly, what Van handed out....really isn't news. We already knew it.

Another Stupid Cartoon

Back three years ago, in Denmark, some cartoonists got together and drew some cartoons that infuriated a bunch of Arabs. Yes, they kinda took Muhammad and gave hi some character....which really went in a negative way.

So the years have passed....and now...Dutch prosecutors announced today that they will charge an Arab cultural group with a hate crime.

The crime? They made up a cartoon that suggested that the deaths of six million Jews in WW II was fake. This apparently fits under the Dutch hate speech laws.

This is all happening in Utrecht.

The punishment if convicted? Max is a year in jail and the fine could be up to $6,700. If you were going to ask the situation here...it's probably a suspended sentence and mostly a fine. But the case has yet to be heard, and some folks are talking already about a double-standard.

The guys who did the cartoon....admit it was mostly a test of the system. They consider it to be "act of civil disobedience".

Almost all of the European countries have a law or two on denying the holocaust. If you were stupid enough to say anything in public, or especially to get it printed in a book....you just bought yourself a fine of some sort. They simply won't allow you to get away with this.

The curious thing is that you can deny God....you can deny evolution....you can deny we landed on the moon....you can deny bigfoot, aliens, and Loch Nessie....heck, you can even deny Obama was ever born in Hawaii and not even get into trouble. But you ever stand up and suggest that the Nazis only killed half a million Jews...then you start to get into serious legal jeopardy.

In this case, I think the Arabs outplayed the western concept of law. This whole case is based on a cartoon. The minute that people take a cartoon serious....the whole game starts to fall apart.

I went out looking for the cartoon....with almost no European news site putting it. I posted it up above. Obviously, none want any trouble. After you look at the cartoon....it is a political commentary type cartoon. Could I give it any stars? No. Does it compare to the Mohammad cartoons? Well....here I have a long pause. Once you put Jesus or Moses or Mohammad in some cartoon....you tend to cross some special boundary.

So what next? That's my question.

The judge could make an impression here....declare them guilty and then fine the guy 1 Euro ($1.30). That might upset alot of folks....but truth is that we are messing around with laws of the Republic......and taking people to the extreme....over cartoons. Something's not right here.