Very telling…and very scary. You don’t suppose young people were protesting because they didn’t want to get their asses blown off, huh?
Degenerate scum? And what were you doing with your time while our government was destroying America during our involvement in Vietnam?
Doing what he does now I guess. Give aid and comfort to the people doing the same thing in this decade.
All you need to be an good protester is a pair of comfy shoes and the following lines:
“Hey Hey - Ho Ho - ____________ has got to go!”
and
“What do we want? ____________! When do we want it? Now!”
A person in power will hear the protest and say, “Ya know, I never thought of that insightful and compelling argument before … __________ really does have to go.”
Precisely. So You Think You Can Dance is a TV program. Furthermore its broadcast in prime-time on a major network. Its producers want to reach as broad an audience as possible, get the highest ratings possible, and make as much money as they possibly can. Anything that might make a portion of their audience turn the channel or not tune in next week is something they want to avoid. The choreographers are also invested in the success of the show as they are pulling in hefty paychecks and getting exposure like they never have before, including Emmy nominations. So in other words, offending people is at odds with some of their other goals, so they’d rather not. Of course I’m of the opinion that offending people won’t do shit for changing people’s minds, it just closes them. I also think that anti-war dances and wearing tore-up uniforms, etc. is just masturbatory bullshit that, again, will do nothing toward getting us out of Iraq any sooner.
Having said that, I watch the show regularly, and I had mixed feelings about it when it aired. First of all Wade’s dance was crap. I laughed everytime the dancers screamed, which I’m pretty sure was intended to evoke the opposite reaction. The song and the peace symbols and the general message I didn’t see as being offensive at all. It was basic hippy-trippy anti-war pap, but its not like it made any specific reference to the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan or anything.
The part that bothered me was when they made the dancers make their own shirts with some anti-war message on it. Again, the dancers all put some sort of vague slogan on the shirt chosen not to offend. But what if one of the dancers is pro-war? I guess they could have put “Death from Above” or something on their shirt, which would have been hilarious. The problem I have is that the show was essentially forcing these dancers, who are there for a dance competition, to make a political statement. Sure, the dancers could have refused, and risked losing a chance to finish the show, and made a big stupid stink over the whole thing, if they had felt strongly enough about it. But putting the dancers in a situation like that is poor show management. They came for a dance competition, not to play a part one of the choreographers pet political projects. Its just smacks of unprofessionalism.
As for Mia’s jacket, I didn’t even notice it.
The pattern does seem oddly familiar:
What’s not clear to me is what will happen if we ever do achieve Martin’s Utopian society in which the populace is 100% behind each war effort and dissent is non-existent.
In Martin’s mind, I suppose this means victory is guaranteed. In mine (always the pessimist), I wonder what we will do with nobody to blame for our failure.
People who sign up for a reality TV show don’t know how to protest properly? Why, I always thought they were supposed to be the cream of the crop, the best and the brightest our society has to offer. You mean they aren’t? Say it ain’t so!!!
Speaking as a recidivist protester, I’ve always hated that first line – it always makes it sound like we’re saying that Santa Claus is against the war in Iraq.
Nevertheless, protest chants aren’t supposed to be cogent arguments. The cogent arguments are hopefully the ones being made when members of the protest get interviewed or published because the size or even just the presence of the protest made news.
And no, I don’t think any contribution to the public discourse is wasted. That it doesn’t instantly change the world, or even that a particular, single intervention’s net impact is tiny, is not a reason to say that its impact is zero. We theoretically live in a democracy part of whose governance is the continual dialogue of the citizenry.
Interesting. Let us know when you contribute something other than the sound of you scratching your itchy crotch at us.
:eek: 
Whooda thunkit? So what happened to you?
I started reading. 
Prima facie evidence that book burning is not always a bad thing. 
You goddamned fucking asshole liar! Not too long ago you said you were 51!
Prick!
It is more shame than I can bare.
Now, let’s not start baring our shame - this is a community here.
Or Oh Henry!, if the contest was sponsored by the once popular candy bar.
If a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged, is a libertarian a liberal who finds himself in a higher tax bracket?
And don’t dis Oh, Henry! bars, Doug. They are worlds better than Baby Ruths, which I found out after being forced to sell them for the Boy Scouts in 1964. At a buck a bag they didn’t move like Girl Scout cookies so I had lots of inventory to liquidate via my parents and, y’know, they were just laying around the house calling my name. It meant I had to change my name to Henry for a while, but it beat my grandfather going around named Heinie.
I’d say a libertarian is a liberal who has discovered that managing his own life will keep him sufficiently busy. 
Amen to that.
While I hold to my Christian ethos (read - I dig Jesus - not the abomination that passes as American Xtianity), I agree with most of what you posit.
I was an unthinking Conservative raised on the myth of Ronald Reagan. Reading progressive christian literature led me to actually read the Bible and I discovered Jesus was a long-hair hippie type who was into love, and I can safely assume would detest the war in Iraq.
Sorry for the slight hijack.
Lots of rich liberals out there. A libertarian is a liberal who’s been audited.
I love it how righties rewrite history. The peace marches put huge pressure on the politicians. There was a famous picture of Johnson looking out the widow of the White House which was circled with protesters. He was down and blue. He discovered his pro war stance was going to make it impossible for him to get re elected. He surprisingly withdrew. If you were pro war reelection was in doubt.
If there were protests now, it would be fun watching Bush hide from the critics he pretends do not count. He wont even come out and face a single protester at his ranch. (Sheehan). He is a coward .
They are prepared to crush protesters nowadays. You will hear them say "someone threw a bottle’. Do not believe it.
