what is a "lefty"?

Obviously meant as a term of condemnation, if you are deemed to be a "lefty", apparently this is not a good thing. However, lacking from this intelligent discourse is the counter phrase 'righty" and "centrey".

From what I can gather, lefty is a nickname for people who are left wing. Now of course, if you oppose the murder of 100,000 civilians, the needless deaths of over 2000 coalition troops, the use of nucleur weapons in combat, conventional war, the destruction of the environment and support civil rights, freedom and democracy, that makes you a left wing doesn`t it? No, actually that makes you an intelligent human being who cares about the long term survival of mankind, but this is just semantics.

So, the term lefty is used to denegrate anyone with the slightest ounce of human compassion whatsoever. It is of course a carry over from the MacCarthy persecutions of communists in the 50s. Now obviously, MacCarthy was a bloody lunatic, but for the main stream media, things like mental stability and rational thought go out the window in their desperate search for handles so they can simplify complex issues in order to spoonfeed their audiences. A side note, mental stability also goes out the window when they screen for their presenters, in fact, rationale and sanity are charastics that will more than likely get you excluded from any high paying employment on radio or television news, you need to be a raving madman with no sense of reality to get these jobs, as exemplified by the nonsensical ramblings of Limbaugh, Hannity and O`Reilly.

So I`m a lefty, Cindy Sheehan is a lefty, websites like WRH and Truthout are lefties, the anti-war movement are lefties, anyone who drives a car that has fuel efficiency above 8mpg are lefties, vegetarians are lefties, anyone who has realised Dubya has the intelligence of a dead dog is a lefty and so it goes on. People who don`t work are lefties. People who smoke pot are lefties. People who read "books" are lefties. Teachers apparently are lefties also. Priests are lefties, Spongebob Squarepants is a lefty. Hindus and Buddhists must be lefties because they are vegetarian. Seems to be a hell of a lot of lefties in the world.

So whats a righty? Well obviously the term doesn`t exist, because it sounds silly, and lefties would have to use it to criticise their opponents. However from what I can surmise, a righty would be a fundamentalist christian,creationist, truck driving, raw meat eating, Dubya supporting "amuricun". Rightys support war, so long as they don`t actually have to do the fighting. They support the troops, by sticking yellow magnets on their trucks. However, they only support troops who think like they do, troops that are leftys, like maimed Vietnam Vets don`t count. Apparently, in the righty world, once you have your legs blown off and come home to be screwed by the righty government as it cuts VA benefits, and you get a tad pissed off, then they don`t have to support you. They only have to support soldiers who are fighting. The Red States wiould be classified as "righty" for example.

Then of course you have the "centreys". I don`t quite know what would define a centrey, in todays polarized world you have to be part of the rightys or leftys, because its the law apparently or something, but there must be centrey`s. I guess a centrey would be someone who opposes war some of the time, eats meat occasionally, prays to God, but only when he needs something, drives a hybrid turbo car and smoked pot once but didn`t inhale.Centreys are unhappy people, because they are constantly torn between a peace loving, ecologically sound way of life and stuffing their faces with raw meat and driving their trucks over crosses that symbolise fallen soldiers.

Of course this convenient labelling serves no purpose whatsoever to actually open any discourse of the issues at hand, the Bush administration and the main stream media don`t actually want you to think for yourself, because then you would be a lefty, all it does is polarizes people.It is a short cut to thinking, which is a convenient thing as this is about as deep as someone like Hannity can go (BTW and on a tangent, I really am convinced Hannity is wearing a wig. Do you remember Weebles? Well, next time you see a weeble, those little toy people who wobbled but wouldn`t fall down, look at their hair. Then, watch Hannity and look at his hair. Hmmmmm, nothing will convince me Hannity`s hair is anything other than a badly made wig manufactured by the same people who made weebles). However, I digress.

Before anybody emails me to explain that lefty`s are people from the left wing of the political spectrum, I do know this, this is a vague attempt at humour to expose the total lunacy of the phrase lefty. It really pisses me off, you are having a nice discussion with someone and the conversation turns political. The minute you bring up anything that questions Dubya, it is apparently all a conspiracy by the lefty media to enforce their lefty agenda. You try and point out the irony in the fact that "rightys" hear about the biased lefty media on shows such as limbaugh, Hannity, O`Reilly, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Clear Channel, but in the righty world, facts and reality don`t actually matter. The irony of the above channels, which control approx 90% of all news broadcasts, stating that they are opposed to the lefty media just doesn`t seem to hit home. As Bill Hicks once so succinctly pointed out "You ever noticed how people who believe in Creationism look really unevolved? You ever noticed that? Eyes real close together, eyebrow ridges, big furry hands and feet. "I believe God created me in one day" Yeah, looks like He rushed it."

So, I`ll take myself as an example, I apparently am a lefty. Now this label has been applied because I speak out against the war in Iraq. However, whilst I abhor violence of all types, I do understand that there will be times when we need a military. As such, far from condemning the troops, I applaud their honour and bravery and respect their service. My issue with Iraq isn`t anything to do with me being a pacifist, although I do believe that humanity has to find another way of dealing with its disagreements other than blowing the shit out of each other, perhaps tiddley winks or Ludo. My issue with Iraq is that THERE WERE NO WMDS AND PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF A LIE. Now, does this make me not quite a lefty? Perhaps more of a centrey? Added to the fact I work hard and respect business success. I also believe that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are possibly the finest documents ever written, that the police have a job to do and the vast majority of police are decent human beings.I also believe that people should have the right to bear arms, for the very reasons the founding fathers included the second amendment. I also believe in God. Are these lefty traits, or would they be more Righty traits? See I`m confused as to which gang I belong.

So then we have what I like to call "decisive issues". Abortion and the death penalty. These are the two that the righty`s use to decide whether you are in their gang or not. See most righty`s are part of what they like to call, "the culture of life". Now this strange term, means you support the war and murder of Iraqi civilians and you support the death penalty, but, ironically, if a woman chooses to expel a fertilized egg from her body, then she is murdering an unborn life. The argument is incredible, you can`t murder people who haven`t actually been born yet, but, once they are alive, then hey, all gloves are off. The fact that the bible actually states that a child isn`t a child until it is over one month old doesn`t count, because fundamentalist righty`s like to interpret what God meant, rather than actually take his words at face value.

The argument for and against pot pretty much runs along the same lines. Righty`s will tell you God is perfect and his creations are sacred. The planet, humans, animals, insects, the seas, the plants everything is creation of the great God. Fundamentalists rightys will tell you that although God is perfect, he made a mistake with pot. So not quite so perfect then. In the fundamentalist righty world, contradictions and logic are completely ignored, rather like the 10 ommandments. The words hypocritical murdering bastards come to mind, but far be it from me to cast aspertions. Bill Hicks summed it up the best "Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit... unnatural? You know what I mean? It's nature. How do you make nature against the fucking law? And on the seventh day, god stepped back and said "There is my creation, perfect in every way... oh, dammit I left pot all over the place. Now they'll think I want them to smoke it... Now I have to create republicans." .

I guess the point of this rant is to try and highlight how a simple words carry huge symbolic meaning and are used to distract from the issue at hand.The villification of Cindy Sheehan involves the fact that she is apparently being controlled by "lefties". This Catholic Sunday School teacher who raised an honour student marine who gave his life for his country is a lefty. Yikes, these leftys are dangerous people. This ridiculous name calling conveniently removes all discussion as to what Cindy Sheehan really represents, namely a mother who loved her son, who nurtured her son from the day he was born, who provided a safe loving environment for her son to grow up, who did her job as a loving parent only to see her son die at the age of 24, before he could realise all the hopes and dreams he had. Cindy Sheehan represents the anger that she feels as a mother at the loss of her son, an anger no doubt Laura Bush would feel if one of her daughters died in a war that was built on lies, not like that is ever likely to happen. Interesting statistic here, did you know, Barbara Bush has 17 grandchildren, none of whom has ever served in the military. Strange that eh?.

Cindy Sheehan represents every mother, every father, every brother, sister, son and daughter who have lost a loved one. She just wants to know why. She just wants to know that her child died for a good reason. She wants to know she did her job as a parent.She needs to know this so she can grieve. She wants to know that the country she loves is still the country she loves. She wants to know that truth, honesty, justice and freedom still are the dominant characteristics in her country and in the world. This has fuck all to do with a political agenda.Cindy Sheehan is asking the question that not only every American should be asking of their president, but also every human being on this planet should be asking of their leaders.Leaders who by the way, owe their very existance to people like Cindy Sheehan, you, me and to everyone who participates in the democratic process.

The founding fathers set up America to be a government for the people by the people. Not, as appears to be interpreted, a governemnt for some people by some people. Dubya stated this week he 'wants to go on with his life". I have no problem with that, except that his life as Commander-In-Chief and president of the USA is to uphold that very basic and profound sentiment, a government for the people by the people. Cindy Sheehan is an American, therefore, whether George Bush likes it or not, he is working for her and as such, he is obligated by job definition to respond to her questions, and anything else is a abdication of responsibility and ground for his immeadiate removal. If you can`t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, if you don`t want the responsibilities that come with being President of the United States of America, then I am afraid George, it is time to walk away.

As for me, I`m not a lefty any more than a righty, a centrey, a left- of- centrey-moving-to-the-righty or whatever you want to call me. You want to put a label on me and many other people like me, then go ahead, but please understand, you are wrong, you know you are wrong, you know we know you are wrong, that is why you feel so threatened, and the trouble with people like you who don`t understand, is you don`t understand you don`t understand.

To you people who really don`t understand, I leave you with a quote from Bill Hicks, "Go back to bed, America, your government has figured out how it all transpired, go back to bed America, your government is in control again. Here, here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go America - you are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!"

Peace

Please take time to visit We Will Not Be Silenced