Day: August 10, 2004

Wow, not only am I back online, but so is orangeguru and his amazin’ blog. I first stumbled upon Dieter’s site through a rather random link (I believe it was a /. comment) and must say that his commentary on various graphics, photos, and images absolutely astounded me. Unfortunately, not long after my discovery he decided to close up shop and eventually pulled the archives. It was rather disappointing as I never even got around to sharing his wonderful site with others.

Thankfully, the other day I found an e-mail from Dieter in my inbox letting me know that he just couldn’t stay away for that long. So the link goes up on the sidebar, and now I get to promote his site to my (limited) viewing audience. Whether he is commenting on the modern view of beauty, reinventing pulp fiction, modernizing the classics, engaging in the oddest of political debates, or questioning our digital souls Dieter has a brilliant eye for the world around him and a rather singular wit. I hope you enjoy his site as much as I do. And if you get the chance, let him know what you think about his own artwork.

Although posted in a decidedly more conservative forum, here we have 20 things you have to believe to be a Republican today. The list actually has a lot of good points, and summarizes many of the rather duplicitous actions and/or statements of the Republican Party. A lot of it focuses on areas in which the GOP attacks Dems and liberals for one thing, and that okays it when one of their own is found guilty (prime example of this would be the current Keyes fiasco). Hypocrisy goes both ways, and I know that many Democrats are guilty of the same, but certainly not to the level of the Republican party as a whole. Don’t even bother reading the comments on that page, they’re just ridiculous.

Not too surprisingly, someone decided to do a rebuttal with “Things You Have to Believe to Be a Democrat Today”. They managed to squeeze out 28 items, but considering 7 of them are directly related to anti-gun statements, it’s a tad bloated. I’ll give the guy credit for some good ones (such as the comparison of gun laws and birth-control laws or even respecting all religions except Chrisitianity), but many of them either don’t reflect the common beliefs of Democrats, the leaders of the party themselves, or make any sense (I really don’t understand number 7 at all). When all you can do is simply reverse the wording and act as though you’ve made a counterpoint, you’re really stretching.

Liberals didn’t attack Rush for being a drug addict, but for being a hypocrite. Democrats didn’t say Arnie should be removed from office for his past womanizing, but questioned his principals when it came out. And the “baseless claims” that Bush went AWOL merely hammer home the point – why are his records so secured yet the records of Democrats are constantly forced open?

I guess what it comes down to is that I’m not a Democrat, and barely even a liberal, so I already disagree with a lot of what the counter list states. But on the other hand, the original (albeit somewhat childish) Republican belief list does manage to follow much of Bush’s thinking. Whether or not the Party truly believes that is another story.

Why am I writing about politics again?