A Few Words About the Gazette

It occurs to me that, given the level of "education" in this country and the current nature of our culture to jump on anybody who criticizes the status-quo and the official line about almost anything, some explanation might be necessary for what the Gadfly Gazette is about. This should have been the first post. Mea culpa.

The offerings here are not "just" some postings by a jerk-wad being negative. There is a purpose. More than one, really, but they wind up being the same in the end. First, as long as we are pretending to still be a free country, it is the duty of those who can to point out that things are far from perfect. The perpetual-happy-and-positive virus is a very dangerous thing, indeed, and one (if not the only) antidote is to present truth and arguments that demonstrate that all is not great in happy-bunnies-and-lightville.

One of the duties of free people is to ask what we mean by "freedom." And to point out where our definition of freedom does not apply to current reality. It is the critics who keep the system honest. In theory, anyway. The constructive purpose of criticism is to make people think. I know, that's a tall order in America these days. Sometimes criticism needs to be harsh and in-your-face instead of cocktail-party polite and genteel. Sometimes it is necessary for somebody to point out that the emperor is naked. Or that there is a turd in the punch bowl.

What the Gadfly Gazette criticizes most of all is the sheeple's acceptance of almost anything that drips down on us from above, be it from our "leaders" or our so-called spiritual mentors. Sinclair Lewis said that when (notice he did not say if) fascism comes to America it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a bible. Think about it.

One of our supposedly cherished freedoms is freedom of religion. The right-wingnuts seem to believe that means freedom to practice their religion, and to bash everybody else with it and try to force it down our throats in every conceivable way, while whining when anybody resists the erosion of separation of church and state and objects to the decidedly uncivil attitudes and actions of those "good" people. They will give public lip-service (though some do not) to your right to have your religion, but they turn around and try to end the freedom of pagans in the air force, for example, to have a place to hold their ceremonies. Does anybody really have to point out the gross hypocrisy there? Well, apparently so. The mainstream media sure won't. And is it appropriate for supposedly educated people to passively claim the Bible is good without examining its contents and answering basic questions about its goodness when there is so much in there that violates every notion of morality? Is it wrong to challenge the idiotic claim that the bible is perfect and infallible when even the tiniest scratch on the surface of genuine scholarship reveals this to be utterly stupid? So why do we call the ranting bigots who hide behind the legal shield of their religious freedom good people while they actively promote hatred, bigotry, unnecessary and illegal wars, murder and state-sponsored oppression of chosen targets?

I don't have to be gay to support the efforts of gay people to simply enjoy the same—not special—rights and protection under the law everyone else has. If a gay couple down the block gets married, I fail to understand how that threatens my relationships. Gay people are being lambasted with exactly the same lies and bigotry that blacks were before the civil rights movement forced society to change its attitudes about segregation, mixed-race marriages, employment policies, etc. Of course, the wingnuts on the right are trying to dismantle some of that, too.

Although it is tempting to paint many of the realities that threaten the tatters of what remains of our freedom in terms of left-wing/right-wing politics, it really isn't about that. It is about truth, honesty, integrity and yes, morality. Is it moral to value power and dollars over people and life? Is it moral to start, and continue, wars based on lies and fabricated "intelligence"? And to support those wars when the false basis for them has been exposed? Is religion always good? Are our leaders honest and capable and true to their duties to us? Or do they have agendas and alliances that are detrimental to the citizens of this country, who they are sworn to protect, to the constitution, which they are sworn to serve and defend, and to any sane concept of freedom?

For example. The former administration, under the excuse that it is necessary in our fight against terrorism, "suspended" habeus corpus for those who are rounded up as suspected terrorists. With no debate, no challenge from the authorities who are supposed to protect our freedom. In order for this power to deny habeus corpus to be invoked, the government only has to assert that the prisoner is a terrorist suspect. They don't have to show evidence, establish probable cause or respect any standard of due process. In addition to the prisoners at Gitmo, more than 200 American citizens have been held by the government for years. They have been denied legal representation or consultation. They have not been charged with anything. They are simply prisoners without rights because the government decided--with or without evidence, we don't know--that they wanted to arrest them. Shades of Stalin. But, this is not simply a right-wing agenda. Obama is continuing this policy. As he has adopted and declared the right to have American citizens killed if he deems--no evidence or due process necessary--that they are "enemy combatants." Both parties support this crap.

It is not about the politics. It is about the threats to freedom and democracy. It is about the attitudes of way too many people, and the passive complicity of more, that allow this kind of totalitarian shit to go on. It must be challenged. But first, it must be exposed. So much hides in plain sight. So many questions go unasked, much less unanswered. It is not about being a negative jerk-wad. It is about making you aware; making you, hopefully, think.