Thank YOU for not using SNL to speak your political views.I really appreciate you exercising prudence.
I ask though, that you please continue to be careful with your words, and where and how you post them.When people go to your site, I ‘m certain they would love to laugh and be inspired.I would hate for you to disappoint more of us by contradicting yourself again…
We are in a very exciting time where we as a country can take a giant steps towards healing.Now, more than ever, we need to come together as a people…and we need leaders like yourself to stimulate this rather than divide.
You ended your open letter to Joy Behar by saying…
“Our system of government has checks and balances. Instead of complaining, why don't you take a political history course and run for office and see what good you can do for the world.”
…yet you have written and posted numerous passages from others implying or saying flat out that Obama is a Communist, and a Marxist.This is not accurate…Do you know what these terms mean?
Communism and Marxism have varying definitions, depending on who is doing the talking.Ask millions of Russian immigrants who escaped what they thought to be Communism, but was really totalitarianism… a dictatorship.THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
Look up Marxism.Marx was a philosopher who was describing a “process” that humans went through on their daily lives, depending on what class they were.A maid’s day cleaning and mopping is probably WAY different than yours when you were hot on SNL Vicki!He was describing a process of people realizing their potential and moving towards it.He was talking about a evolution of any society which is divided by a class system.
Unfortunately, others came along and started to debate HOW to change this, and this is where many definitions were sprouted…And AGAIN, totalitarians in Russian took advantage of this, and bluffed/scared the people into giving up their rights to the state.They hold up Stalin and Lenin as great Marxists, and that is a lie.But I am a political science major, and happen to know this stuff…
DO YOU HOMEWORK.You are a woman of high public standing, and you are doing yourself a disservice blurring terms…thus you come across much less intelligent than you really are.
And might I remind you that our troops have PTSD, high rates of suicide, Gulf War Syndrome, sickness from depleted uranium, and a high chance ofbirth defects for their future kids…not to mention the millions of people killed in Iraq that you don’t and will never hear about.We are wholly responsible for that…and THAT, is NOT CHRISTIAN.
You attack Obama’s interpretations of spiritual concepts.They scare you, so you do the same thing to him that was done to your ancestors just a few hundred years ago.You attack him…and I wonder if you had the power, would you try to get him drawn and quartered too?Weren’t our ancestors escaping this religious judgment when they founded this country?
Please do your homework.And if you are too lazy to do that, then at least turn OFF loud ranting heads, go within, pray, and meditate on what else you can do to bring light to this planet.You have brought us so much laughter and light already.You are an obviously powerful person.You have so much… Beautiful, blonde, funny…women would kill to be in your position.What are you afraid of that you spend more time attacking with words which contradict each other instead of inspiring others?This is why McCain is having such a hard time right now…
I don’t care who you endorse… I respect it fully.I WANT you to vote for who you believe in.
But please use your power to inspire instead of spreading more fear, hate and smoke.Jesus inspired, right?
I was beginning my day early the other week, listening to the radio as usual, when I heard a story that made me a little concerned.
I’m talking of course about the Andrew Meyer incident which took place at the University of Florida.Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have seen a YouTube display of this kind.
It is my understanding that the intent of this technology was to be used just for that, to safely stun and calm down one who is posing a physical threat to others and/or himself.I would hope that all cops are rigidly obeying these parameters, and from a good many videos I have seen, many seem to be.I’ve seen many instances in which people who were clearly intoxicated, drugged out, violent, and completely incoherent zapped by one of these things and calmed down, albeit crudely.
I have a HUGE problem however with how often it’s being used to just demonstrate who is boss.To demonstrate to our children NOT to question authority.Please!A smart-ass kid is nothing new…Cops have dealt with that since before we became a country.It’s the level of reprimand that I have a problem with.Why should one get electrocuted with 50,000 volts of electricity because they questioned or even yelled at an officer?
Andrew Meyer didn’t sound like one who you might always get along with…and that day he certainly had a chip on his shoulder.I went to school with a ton of arrogant pricks who would use their very last breath to put someone down.But that is not what I saw going on there…
I watched his questions a few times, really paying attention to what they guy was saying.Sure, he got on a soapbox for a spell, but we would expect, and some would reward this kind of behaviour at what is supposed to be an institution of higher learning.And when it came down to it, he was expressing a comparatively miniscule amount of outrage that millions felt after the voter disenfranchisement took place during the last two elections.You think those people who were harassed, taken off voter rolls, encountered road blocks, and never had their votes counted were just a moderately annoyed?I would imagine most are enraged, and Mr. Meyer deserves to be commended for asking Senator Kerry this, probably more pressing questions than Kerry has gotten by the REAL media in ten years.Unfortunately Senator Kerry, a combat vet I held the utmost respect for because he STOOD UP for his fellow soldiers, forgot to stand up for the inquiring student with a Greg Palast book in his hand.I am disappointed he didn’t try harder to exercise his power and quell the situation.
As it stands, Andrew Meyer is charged with disturbing the peace and resisting arrest with violence.I’m not a judge, and can’t comment on what parameters are taken into consideration to press these charges.I can’t speak for all that happened, because I was not there.Regardless, does anyone else have a feeling something is wrong?
Andrew was relatively lucky.An Iranian-American student, at ANOTHER United States university, Mostafa Tabatabainejad was tasered for not leaving the UCLA library right away for not showing/having his card.And Mr. Tabatabainejad didn’t just get the once over like Mr. Meyer.No… He was tasered NUMEROUS times…at least five or six to count…and after he had been handcuffed.Oh, and just to clarify, the purpose of the shock is the override the nervous system which floods the muscles with lactic acid, making them heavy and limp and unusable.Why then are they yelling at him to “stand-up” when he literally can’t move?Is this really necessary?
At San Diego State University, an area of the campus has signs posted prohibiting skateboarding and cycling.The law is very loosely enforced, but apparently on a Feb 2007 day, this law became more important than ANYTHING.After Josh was already on the ground, his skateboard on the sidewalk next to him, HE was tasered numerous times.
Why is it that we now feel it is necessary to electrically torture students on the very grounds of learning where they are just, doing their jobs?
What message are we sending kids in our learning institutions now…?
“You dare even ask,
we’ll taser your ass?”
Rules get broken, people get out of hand, and the rule to me would be to simply remove them from the arena, calm them down, then deal with the situation.But that didn’t happen.Increasingly I’m finding, NO QUESTIONS ARE ASKED.
A bartender has water thrown in her face while working.She calls the police to get the guy removed, and the cops taze her!!!
A teenager is trying to get his dad the care he needs.His dad just slit his wrists… He calls 911, and the cops don’t do anything.So he calls 911 again, trying to keep his dad from bleeding to death or going into shock…They taze him!!!
A wonderful thing about living in a capitalist country is that you often get the cream of the crop in terms of innovative products and services.I’ll never forget as a kid the first time I had the candy Pop Rocks!The downside however is that this same HYPE and push to make money can get certain things on the market in widespread use before they are proven to be absolutely safe.There is much controversy over certain cell phones, types of diet pills/plans, certain new pharmaceutical drugs, etc which may or may not be all safe before they hit the market.Look at what happened with Vioxx!I have this same concern with the taser technology because I am not at all convinced all has been done to actually prove they are safe… This is just my opinion.Amnesty International has a disturbing article regarding this from March 2006.
Yes, people can die from these things.Some have…Emily Delafield of Florida died after being tasered extensively.Investigations reveal that two guns were used, ten times each over a period of three or four minutes.Imagine have a burst of 50, 000 volts go into your body for 16 seconds, then 25 seconds, then again for another 13 seconds.Think you could control your muscles, heart rate, thoughts, ANYTHING by then?
I was in a bad car accident a few years ago that crushed my a disc in my neck.A cop decides to taser me there, I’d probably be paralyzed for life… They cause spinal injuries as well guys!!!
And of course the specific Meyer incident brings our precious “free speech” self-identity into a minor crisis, because apparently it’s okay now to taser someone for being a jerk.Gives us something to look forward to I guess.Imagine how much more entertaining our beloved pundit “debate” shows would be, if they now will be continually punctuated with sounds of sparks, flesh frying,and blood curdling screams.
I have a hard time with the fact that I have spent MOST of my life in some form of military service, fighting the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union, just to have it slowly and surely created here…BY US!Is this really the freedom we are “importing” to Iraq?
Please pay a visit Andrew Meyer’s site, www.theandrewmeyer.com and lend him your words of support.He needs it now.
