Propeller Week In Review: June 27, 2008 — Jun 27th 2008

By James Marcus

HATE MERCHANTS

Which story earned the most votes on Propeller during the last week? That would be "Hate Groups' Newest Target," with 268 votes and 632 comments. You would think that a story about the spike in white supremacist activity in the wake of Barack Obama's de-facto nomination would produce a fairly cut-and-dried comment thread. Who wants to defend the Klan? In fact, one member, salir, proposed a novel approach to the resurgence of such groups: "I say bring the troops home from Iraq and immediately deploy them into the forests and woods in the US where the paramilitary groups and Neo-Nazis hang out. Clean 'em out, put 'em away." But the thread soon detoured into a referendum on the candidate himself. "I live in a very unionized blue-collar town," said mrbs. "And the working man isn't voting against the black man because he's black... but because we are God-fearing ignorant gun-toting bigots." Replied cushi: "I don't believe Obama ever used the term 'ignorant' or implied it. At least, I never heard him say that. And I know that his words have been twisted into something they were never meant to be, because he is one of the most empathetic people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing." Nowalive, meanwhile, cursed the entire system: "Politics is now a full contact sport with no sense of sportsmanship. The loser of this 'superbowl' is always the American people no matter who the winner." Also worth noting: an exchange at the end of the comment thread, in which Klarissa suggested that the liberal contingent on Propeller derived most of its knowledge of current affairs from moveon.org pamphleteering. "Where do you get your news?" she asked. CRYMTYPHON listed a number of publications, then added: "I also get the weekly 'talking points' from Nancy Pelosi's secret broadcast in my fillings, but I assume everybody gets that."

CARLIN DEPARTS

"Comedian George Carlin dies in Los Angeles at 71" earned 251 votes and 91 comments. Tangent001 recalled some of the comedian's earlier triumphs, spilling the chronological beans along the way: "I remember when he was a regular on Tony Orlando and Dawn (okay, now I feel old), my sister and I would get so excited when his routine came on. I was fortunate enough to see him when he came through Denver this year. Got the t-shirt with 2,000 dirty words and phrases. Think I'll get it framed now." Said dadesider: "I have all his vinyl, from Hippy Dippy Weatherman to..." BronxBomber, heeding Propeller's PG-13 rating, said: "I have just 'seven' words as a personal dedication to yah George, but unfortunately, I can't use them here." Then there was Mutainia's expressions of sorrow: "I haven't felt so sick over the death of a comedian since blasphemous Sam Kinison died in that accident between LA and Vegas. May God be merciful." Another member, zohar10, speculated that the show might go on after all : "He was an atheist, as far as I know, so now that he's probably met his maker and existing somewhere in some other dimension, he's probably busy whipping up some fresh new Carlinesque material. It's too bad we won't ever get to hear it straight from the man. Any mediums in the room?"

JUST SAY NO?

"States Reject Bush's Abstinence-Only Funding" rang up 146 votes and 315 comments. AtheismIsReality said no to the very idea of abstinence-only programs: "Telling kids to simply not have sex is just like telling them to simply not speed. We know that some are going to speed, so do we refuse to teach driving skills that will help minimize them having an accident if they happen to speed?" For tanglang, the very idea of schools teaching sex ed was alarming: "Right now our schools are graduating morons. They are failing at teaching the basics, so why the hell do you think they should teach your kids about sex?" But TheNewsseeker argued that sweeping sex under the rug was an even more perilous course for schools to take: "Suppressed sexuality, burdened with the idea of sin, is much more dangerous than the natural discovery of the other sex, whenever it is the right time.... It is very necessary to talk about the dangers of an early pregnancy at school." The mere mention of sin set off another polemical mudfight. "Kids need to learn about ethics, not morality," argued david nwpa. "They can learn the difference between right and wrong at an early age without introducing the concept of 'sin,' which brings with it a goodly amount of guilt." DropkickaLib made a pitch on behalf of that much maligned emotion: "There's nothing wrong with feeling guilty when you've done something wrong. It's called a conscience." Replied dunkirk: "Yeah, let's turn out droves of maladjusted people, especially when the hormones say yes yes and they suddenly have this dilemma of a natural urge being called a sin." But it was wtagg who suggested that the federal government get out of the business altogether: "Let it be dealt with at a local level. If a local community wants to abstain, great. If they want to hand out condoms, great. Let them decide how they want to tackle their problem."

AND DON'T OVERLOOK....

Can a single week go by without a spate of hotly debated Obama stories on Propeller? Perhaps--but folks, this ain't it. "Barack Obama Vows to Disarm America" accumulated more comments than any other post this week: 746. Should military spending be reined in? "I know the billionaires who feed off the military complex would be very sad if we stopped," opined jordan11. Said slate: "Yeah, I bet [Dianne] Feinstein's hubby will be very upset." According to scott4261, this jab at the California senator and her arms-procuring husband was fully merited: "Dianne Feinstein has been a sock puppet for the military industrial complex because of it. She's a DINO of the worst kind, and an example of the kind of Democrat that should be voted out of office." Meanwhile, CorbinDallas argued that our current high-tech arsenal was more than adequate to defend our interests, and that any danger stemmed from our strategic missteps: "What our military isn't good for, and isn't supposed to be used for, and is doomed to fail miserably at, no matter what the state of technology may be, is engaging in guerrilla warfare and police actions on foreign soil, against the indigenous population." But memestryker remained skeptical about Obama's plan to cut defense spending: "Criminals will always be armed. Disarmed countries like Congo are suffering horribly at the hands of armed thugs. So I disagree with Obama concerning several disarmament issues." A related post, "Gored: Obama could win vote, lose election," rang up 174 votes and 490 comments, including this pessimistic assessment from markmawn2 of the offshore drilling proposals now in front of the Congress: "It will take 5 years to produce anything in reality. If it is sweet crude, it will be sold abroad. By then, oil will be $200 and the price could only make a $2.00 max dent per barrel. You all are suckers if you believe otherwise." And then there was "Overlooked: Obama's Anti-Smear Site," with 133 votes and 305 comments. Said UnusualSuspect: "Obama's going to need this site, because I can see more swift-boating groups on the horizon than we ever thought possible, slinging all kinds of mud and garbage." Replied abntv: "Obama has some serious image problems [and] this is just another way of dealing with them." Elsewhere, the Propeller community sounded off on wolves, war, and detainee rights. And finally, there was "Lottery Winner Pulls Off 'Get Poor Quick' Scheme," which racked up 166 votes and 18 comments. Remarked cowboygrandpa: "Darn. I was hoping to get him to invest in my anti-gravity belt. It would have went well with his trampoline house." To which Uncle Dave replied: "He stole the trampoline house idea from me! I'm suing!" Good luck--these guys may have beat you to it.

Tags: week-in-review, wir

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