Fahrenheit 451

Category:	Books
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author:	Ray Bradbury

Wow, this book is scary. It was written back in 1953 but it feels like it's happening today. This book follows Guy Montag, a fireman, only in the future, firemen don't put out fires, they start them. This book sucks you in so that you feel like you're going through all the things Montag goes through, and he goes through some mind-bending changes as he wakes up to how dead people have become in real life (it has a lot in common with "The Matrix" in that way).

Bradbury deals with teen violence, war, shallow entertainment and "info-tainment," the speed of modern life, consumerism, commercialism, sound-bite politics, endless and unjustified war, divorce, fascism, alienation and a million other things that we struggle with here in the 21st century. It really is frightening how prophetic he was- how much we've become like the world of the future he describes. Wide-screen High Definition, interactive TVs, iPods, well, except that everybody drives VW Beetles instead of SUVs!

The strongest message, I believe, is not so much against censorship, as it is Bradbury's scathing indictment of our society as consumers- we want to be pacified and entertained, we don't like anything that challenges us or makes us reflect on what is really meaningful. Who gives a crap about genocide in Darfur or social injustice, or political corruption when poor rich actresses are being forced into rehab?!

Of course, if you've never heard anything about this book before, I may as well tell you that it mainly deals with censorship and reading. It's short, fast paced and exciting. Hope you're not afraid of robot spider dogs with hypodermic needles filled with poison, or of fire!

I encourage EVERYONE to buy a copy and read this book. Our society depends on it.

One Party System; one way or another

So... Tom Delay's gerrymandering in Texas, the Voting Machine company's CEO promising to deliver Ohio in 2004, and his daddy's appointed Supreme Court stopping the vote recount in Florida in 2002 wasn't enough. Even having Attorney General Gonzales fire all those U.S. Attorneys to replace them with politically loyal cronies who will accuse Democrats of vote tampering to guarantee a GOP win in 2008 wasn't enough... Now they're making sure that they can burn down the Reichstag so Bush can activate his version of Hitler's Enabling Act! He says that it is to "ensure constitutional government," but how often has he already violated, ignored, or circumvented the Constitution already?

I'm telling you- call me a nut or a crank if you want to, but what if more people like me would've spoke up in 1930's Germany? PLEASE, Republicans and Democrats alike- don't let this slip by. Write your Senators and Congressmen. Write your newspapers.

When fascism comes to America,
it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.

~Sinclair Lewis

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

~George. W. Bush (Dec. 18, 2000)

May 22, 2007 12:50pm The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a “catastrophic event”, George W. Bush can become what is best described as "a dictator":

"The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government."

This directive, completely unnoticed by the media, and given no scrutiny by Congress, literally gives the White House unprecedented dictatorial power over the government and the country, bypassing the US Congress and obliterating the separation of powers. The directive also placed the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic “security”. Read Article

Meanwhile, Congress capitulates to Bush and offers to fund the war after all, U.S. amasses naval fleet in the Persian Gulf, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Israel repeats the mistakes made last summer in Lebanon, the region's nations will eradicate her.

I want to say "Come, Lord Jesus," but that's actually what some (heretical) right-wing Christian's think that the Bush foreign policy is intended to do- bring about Armageddon. As if you could force the hand of God! Will someone PLEASE impeach this imbecile!

Beware of 'NeoCon' facism

I think that this is very important that a Goldwater, Arizona Republican is speaking out this way. What a shame that it's in a Brittish newspaper and not the American press...

Dictatorship is the danger
A Reagan-appointed supreme court justice voices her fears over attacks on US democracy

Jonathan Raban
Monday March 13, 2006
The Guardian
...recent attacks on the American judiciary were putting the democratic fabric in jeopardy and were the first steps down the treacherous path to dictatorship.

Sandra Day O'Connor, who retired a few weeks ago from the supreme court. O'Connor is a Republican and a Reagan nominee. Regarded as the "swing vote" on the court, she swung the presidential election to George Bush in 2000.

Equally surprising is that O'Connor's speech to an audience of lawyers at Georgetown University was attended by just one reporter, the diligent legal correspondent for National Public Radio, Nina Totenberg. No transcript or recording of the speech has been made available, so we have only Totenberg's notes to go on. But - assuming they are accurate - the notes are political dynamite.

O'Connor's voice was "dripping with sarcasm", according to Totenberg, as she "took aim at former House GOP [Republican] leader Tom DeLay. She didn't name him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year when DeLay took out after the courts for rulings on abortions, prayer and the Terri Schiavo case.

"It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are increasing. It doesn't help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with."

Click here to read the whole article in it's original context

A couple of my most venomous cartoons