A year ago, I decided to start this blog so that I can discuss politics and society and stuff (a) without clogging up my Facebook page with debates; and (b) so that the debates can be searched and can last longer than a Facebook debate.
It’s done really well on the second part, but people still prefer to debate on Facebook than here. Go figure. 
The first post of this blog was about Constitutional Fundamentalists — people who interpret the Constitution in the same way religious fundamentalists interpret the Bible: “There is only one right interpretation, I know what it is, and it matches my own viewpoint exactly!” This has continued to be a theme on this blog.
The blog has had over 40,000 hits over the year. That’s not 40,000 people, but it’s still nice to see. It averages out to about 100 hits a day. Some posts have gotten a lot more exposure than others, especially when you share them (use the “share” buttons below!). My post about the Atheist monument had over 1000 hits one day, mostly because American Atheist President David Silverman shared it (Thanks, David!). The one about the Westboro Baptist Church still gets hits, and I am still wondering if the Fred Phelps who responded in the comments is the real Fred Phelps.
The few posts I have done about the Beatles have generated some hits as well due to search engines, but my favorite is still the post I did about how the anti-gay marriage advocates always use animals as their slippery slope argument. I called it “Sex with Animals” knowing it would get some attention. I still laugh when I imagine people who search for that and end up on that page.
So thanks to all of you who read this and comment and share!
So Michael Dunn gets upset at some kids playing what he calls “thug music” (that means “black” for those of you keeping score). He walks back to his car, gets his gun, and shoots them. Then he calmly goes back to his room, orders a pizza, and doesn’t call the police.
Yesterday, a jury in Florida found him guilty of attempted murder on all the kids who were in the car that he didn’t kill. 
They were deadlocked on Jordan Davis, the kid who was actually murdered, whose 19th birthday would have been today. There was at least one person on the jury who believed Dunn’s incredible story that he was “scared” and that Jordan had a gun (which was contradicted by every other witness).
Even if Jordan had a gun, Dunn was the one who walked up to the car with his gun first, looking for a fight.
Hey, this sounds familiar. Wasn’t it George Zimmerman who, with a gun, chased down Treyvon Martin and then shot him when Martin didn’t like having a gun pointed at him?
At least one juror on the Dunn trial still believes that this is absolutely fine.
Dunn himself was astounded by the verdict — as are some gun advocates who apparently interpret Florida’s crazy “Stand Your Ground” law to mean “Shoot whoever bugs you.” Dunn, being an unapologetic racist (although he prefers to refer to himself as “prejudiced”), thinks that the world would be better “if more people would arm themselves and kill these **** idiots.” I am not making this up. These quotes are from letters he wrote from jail. Somehow, these letters were kept out of the trial, even though they seem absolutely relevant to show his mindset and to counter his claim that this was in self-defense. I wonder if the result would have been different otherwise.
Anyway, what also surprises me about this verdict is that Florida allowed a conviction and a mistrial in the same verdict. I’ve never seen such a thing before. I guess that means they can retry him on the murder charge and the other charges stick (assuming they’re not thrown out on appeal).
Florida is crazy.
Republicans are the Daddy party, and Democrats are the Mommy party.
If you read enough about politics, you’ve heard this before. The Daddy party represents “power” and the Mommy party represents “warmth.”
Daddy provides for our safety, protecting us against the evil outside our door. 
He teaches us to be independent and strong, and to fight when things don’t go your way.
Mommy worries about our comfort. She tries to get everyone to get along and solve their problems without fighting. She makes sure everyone wears their sweaters, does their homework, and doesn’t go hungry.
These are, of course, gross simplifications but somewhat revealing. Democrats believe we are all part of a family and we need to take care of each other; Republicans believe that you advance by being independent and self-reliant.
Neither of these viewpoints is wrong. It’s just how you personally see yourself, society, and government. And if the parties adhere to these roles, we can have reasonable debate.
The problem lately is Daddy. Daddy is no longer the reliable, strong independent leader — he now lies and deceives to get his way. Instead of reasonably debating where we should go, he beats up the family until he gets his way (“Do what I say or I’ll shut down the government!”). And then when he doesn’t get his way, he has a temper tantrum. (“Fine! Then I will block every bill in Congress even if it benefits us all.”) He’s willing to hurt the family for his own selfish goals.
Having a Mommy party and a Daddy party is not a bad thing. But as columnist Josh Barrow points out, we now have a Mommy party and an “Abusive-Ex-husband-With-a-Substance-Abuse-Problem party.”
And the dominoes keep falling.
Virginia is the latest state where a Federal Court has ruled that prohibitions against gays and lesbians getting married violates the Constitution. 
Yes, once more, we radical liberals are forcing our views down the throats of unsuspecting bigots through the terrible practice of “using the exact words of the Constitution.” (Hey, you ever notice that these homophobes always say we’re “shoving it down their throats”? Is that subconscious wish fulfillment or what?)
The decision is stayed pending an appeal. This means that either the Supreme Court will take all of these and make one final decision that will be applied to the entire country, or they will deny the appeals, thus confirming the lower court’s decision, permitting marriages in those states only.
A Federal Court yesterday also ruled that Kentucky could not refuse to accept marriages that occurred in states where the marriage would be legal. The issue as to Kentucky’s anti-gay marriage law was not before the court, so that may still be coming in another case.
There are still plenty of other cases in the pipeline (including here in Pennsylvania, where our Attorney General has refused to support our states’ anti-marriage law). So this trip is far from over.
Carnies have the attitude that if you’re gullible and stupid enough to fall for their rigged games, then you deserve everything you get. They’re very proud of their deceptive actions, because they’re so much smarter than the rubes who fall for them.
The Republican party feels the same way about you.
This is nothing new. Dick Nixon had a “Dirty Tricks” committee specifically designed to do these things. 
And now the current party has taken a book from Tricky Dickie and has created a series of false and misleading campaign websites for Democratic candidates.
The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee bought up hundreds of URLs on Democratic candidates and created sites that mimic the real ones. They have the candidate’s picture really big, and then a big “donate” button, and then in small print, it says “Help us defeat the candidate.”
These are so misleading that Google has started putting their warning pages up before you can see them, telling you that it is a potential phishing site.
This fits in with the theme of the the blog this week, which is that the GOP has a specific policy of lying and being misleading. What’s more, like carnies, they’re proud of it. Daniel Scarpinato, the NRCC’s press secretary, brags about the fake website program and plans on expanding it.
In response, the National Democratic Committee states that it has no plans to ever create deceptive web sites of this sort.
ventrellaquest.com 