School Daze II

"'It's difficult for me to understand how listening to the president, the commander in chief, the chief citizen of the country, is damaging to the youth of today,' said Phyllis Griffin Epps, an analyst for the city [of Houston]." ("Some Parents Oppose Obama School Speech")

Well, Ms. Epps, your problem is obvious: Your problem, you see, is that you are not 100% CLINICALLY IN-FUCKING-SANE!!! We recommend that you get out of Texas with all speed and head for someplace a bit more tolerant of dissenting viewpoints. Myanmar, perhaps.

We're through the looking glass, people. We reported in yesterday's post about the vocal minority (we hope it's a minority) of conservative wackjobs incensed at the thought of their impressionable youth being exposed to President Barack Obama's particular brand of socialism when he addresses them next week with the clearly Marxist exhortation to "work hard and stay in school." Today the Times picked up the story.

(Digression: Not the first time, incidentally, the paper of record has plucked a story from The Solipsist. You remember that whole Bernie Madoff thing? Us. You're welcome. EOD)

The latest outrages against common sense include Canadian author Mark Steyn comparing Obama--apparently unironically--with Kim Jong-il and Saddam Hussein, and Chris Stigall, a Kansas City talk-show host, who said, "I wouldn't let my next-door neighbor talk to my kid alone; I'm sure as hell not letting Barack Obama talk to him alone." Well, KC Chris, considering that any random next-door neighbor in flyover country is likely to be the BTK killer, we understand your caution. We like to think, though, that the Secret Service and the millions of viewers watching his speech might--might--preclude President Obama from raping, killing and eating (not necessarily in that order)--your precious offspring.

(Digression: We stole that last bit from Harlan Ellison. EOD)

As FOS might ask of these conservative rabble-rousers: Do they seriously believe their own bullshit? We don't know which possibility is worse: that they do or they don't. If they DO, then we live in a benighted age, when a sizable portion of the American population believes that a duly and overwhelmingly elected president is a Manchurian candidate seeking to poison the minds of the nation's youth with subliminal socialist propaganda under a message of hard work and good citizenship. If they DON'T, though. . . .

If they don't believe what they're saying--if they are engaging in nakedly cynical political maneuvering--then they are no better than Hitler's ministers of propaganda, or those Rwandan radio personalities who stirred up their citizenry to acts of genocide.

Run, Phyllis Griffin Epps. Seriously. Run.