Getting a Bit Worried

My favorite moment is at the very end when it sounds like the camera guy lets out an unintended laugh.

Seriously though? This shit is scary. I grew up in a cult, and I have to tell you that what I've been seeing in these town halls reminds me of my childhood. I'm gonna review the full meaning of a very important word today, as defined by Dale McGowan of Parenting Beyond Belief.

Indoctrination:
1) Shut out opposing views
2) Demand unquestioning acceptance

The town hall nuts are certainly shutting out opposing views - as they've been instructed to by the corporate front group "grassroots organizations" that have indoctrinated them. When you equate someone (Obama) with Hitler (or any other particularly vile excrement of the human species) you make it impossible for the dissenters to listen to the other side. This woman is accusing Jewish Rep. Barney Frank of supporting a Nazi policy. This is outrageous behavior!

These people are victims of a system that is exploiting them and profitting off of them. It's really quite disgusting and absolutely immoral (not that I'm claiming absolute morality - I'm just sayin'). See - the reason people are behaving so nonsensically is because their heads have been filled with really scary nonsense. Which is why they are arming themselves.

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That guy with the sidearm strapped to his hip interviewing the assault-rifle toting African American? (See? Now FOX can say that none of the protesters are there because of race.) That guy is ___ an internet conservative radio host, and he organizaed the Arizona "let's all bring guns to see the President" stunt. Rachel Maddow reports.

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Talking Points Memo (yeah, yeah, I'm liberal, but what am I supposed to read - FOX News?) has a really good write-up and more information than I personally feel like researching on the Viper Militia. But, um, Waco-deniers? Shit how many right wing conspiracy theories ARE there?

Oh. People are scared of LOTS of things.

• Someone's gonna take ma' guns
• Obama's ferrin (foreign for those not south of the Mason-Dixon line)
• Health care reform is a guv'ment take over
• Obama wants to kill my grandma (and hey, if it's just my grandma? I'd probably let him)
• The New World Order runs everything
• The Illuminati runs everything
The Jews run everything
• The Holocaust never happened
• God thinks abortion is murder
• Healthcare is really just reparations

Okay, first I have to say I felt dirty just writing that list. *shudder* Why are people so crazy?

On an only marginally-related note, please sign my petition to get the religious exemption language removed from HR 3200. This can be one crucial step towards removing the religious right to deprive children of life saving medical intervention.

The government doesn't tell us how to raise our kids, but it does tell us that physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect are unacceptable. Medical neglect should be treated the same. (We don't allow a religious exemption to beat your kids.)

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Birth Certificates: Why It's Good to Have One

So I'm sure everyone's aware of the Birther Conspiracy by now. This is the gem that claims Obama's secretly foreign, and therefore secretly not the actual President. The funny thing is, everyone's focus is primarily on the birth certificate. (It's real - go check it out for yourselves, damnit.)



To me this is extra funny because of course, I wasn't born in a hospital; there was no attending physician; and I didn't even get my birth certificate - or social security number - till I was 4 and my sister was 6.

Home birth, abstinence from medical care, and general crazy-in-the-woods isolationism were all really important to the theology of my now-senile (but always crazy) cult leader grandmother. She conned my mother and hundreds of other women into these home births, and encouraged them to stay "out of the system". That particular aspect of her theology kicked in sometime in the two years between my brother's birth and my sister's, so he has a normal birth certificate (although, obviously, not signed by a hospital administrator) and my sister and I eventually got "delayed birth certificates". A DBC is basically a piece of paper saying "Some people claim to be related to this kid". It helps when getting a driver's license or applying for a job, but it is missing some critical elements of credibility.

When she was 19, my sister had a chance to accompany my mom on a foreign business trip to Venezuela. Since my sister has been in love with the Spanish language since she was a second grader, she set about getting her passport. And you know what? It's hard to get one of those when you have no proof of your citizenship/existence before age 6. We ended up putting together a package for the Passport Office that included photocopies of birth records in the family Bible and dozens of pictures of my sister from being a squashy newborn, through years of pictures with my mom, my older brother, and myself, to her blonde-goth high school yearbook photo. Eventually she got the passport, went on her trip, and two years later even spent a semester abroad in South America. When I was applying for my own passport a year later, it was easier. I just sent them the same box, with a letter saying basically "You gave her one." Of course, I ended up tearing my shoulder a week before I was supposed to go to Germany, and in the past 8 years since then, I still haven't made it off American soil. Tragic, really.

All this is really is just to say: Not only did my grandmother totally warp my mind with her crazy dogma; She's ruined my chances of becoming President. Oh well, at least my kid was born in a hospital - I've got the paperwork and everything.

The picture in this post is of Barack Hussein Obama's certificate of live birth from the State of Hawaii. Never believe what FactCheck.org has thoroughly debunked.

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