I knew Republic very well, years ago. I played the main watering hole there around 10 ~ 15 times

a year for several years, and grew up about 40 miles from there as the crow flies. We used to rock the Blue Cougar up in Curlew just north of Republic, too. Folks in those parts don't have many cultural options, so they tend to excel mightily at partying, and they probably took a few years off my life with their great skill as "party hosts".


Republic is a small, beautiful, isolated. insular, and very conservative little logging and mining community pretty much surrounded by government land, although there is a fairly substantial alternative "hippie" community and a nice little coop. Or at least there was a few decades ago.

Many folks in the area knew me, and were really nice to me, and I did not advertise my "orientation" there, but did not hide it either, although I know some suspected but never asked. I'm glad no one ever asked, despite my partner accompanying me frequently, because, as in most conservative rural areas, it would probably have been really bad for our business, especially back then, I believe; it is sad to think about how some of those folks who treated me so wonderfully might not have done so if they had known that I was LGBT. I hope that I'm wrong about that, and that the awesome times I had there would have been just the same if the folks there had known.

I can't say I'm at all surprised that Sarah Palin is a hot item in Republic. Ah, the juicy stories I could tell y'all, but really shouldn't.

Just because we don't spend our entire lives on the streets getting beaten up

by cops doesn't mean we are not all still together as a movement. We all have lives and families too. We have to exist and can't spend every waking moment in the streets sacrificing and struggling for justice and equality.

An army that is not currently actively engaged in a war does not make it any less of an army, or mean that there are fewer members in the army than there were during a war.

It is baffling to me how so many people appear to have trouble comprehending this simple, obvious fact.

Sometimes I wonder if some folks are genetically disposed to needing a king, queen

emperor, Fuhrer, Shah, Pope, President, "Prophet", Grand Wazoo, whatever, to follow. Either that, or they don't have the confidence in their own ability to distinguish right from wrong, so they allow a leader to determine what is right or wrong for them, and subsequently blindly accept the judgments of the leader, no matter how nefarious the intentions of the leader, and no matter how awful and destructive the consequences of the leader's judgment and subsequent actions are.

They can seemingly rationalize and justify anything, as long as it is sanctioned under the "supreme authority" of their leader.

The phenomenon of authority idolatry is fascinating, but really scary, in that some people will trust a leader instead of themselves and their better judgment, and will literally follow their idolized leader to destruction, while committing and supporting all sorts of immoral, unethical acts of violence and destruction.

They will commit or condone all sorts of immoral unspeakably wicked acts of violence and destruction and believe that doing so is justifiable, as long as they are ordered or sanctioned by their idolized authority figure leader.

Human history is full of examples of people blindly and mindlessly following or supporting leaders who order or sanction destruction, torture and murder in the name of material gain. Crusades, Inquisitions, invasions, slaughtering indigenous persons across the planet, and of course the prime example would be the blind adoration and following of Hitler and other fascist leaders in Europe during the last century.

Seriously ~ How could so many people blindly and adoringly follow a fuckstick dirtbag idiot monster like Hitler? What were they thinking?

The problem was, they weren't thinking. They trusted their idolized supreme authority figure, Hitler in this case, to do their thinking for them. Which leads many of us to ask once again ~



Indeed. How can almost 60,000,000 Americans be that unforgivably stupid?

When Occupy was in the first stages of the revolution, there were some posters here at DU who were horrified that Occupy has no leader. It seemed to so go against their strongly and dearly held belief that a single individual authority, such as a king, was absolutely necessary in order for a group to make genuinely democratic decisions and take effective action. The very idea of collective leadership seemed to frighten them and make them irrationally angry. It seemed that they literally could not, and still cannot, comprehend how a group of like minded individuals can form a democratic collective and take effective action without a single individual leader to be subject to, to follow, and take orders from.

Yet Occupy very rapidly and successfully achieved our first goal of permanently raising awareness of economic injustice and inequality all over the planet.

Question everything; bow to no one.

Hallelujah! The vaccine seems to be working. (Graphic, pic heavy expose of conservatism)

Someday, conservatism will become as rare as the black plague smallpox, TB, and polio

Keep inoculating, and someday, children everywhere on the planet will be free from risk of being crippled for life by conservatism, the deadly disease that withers and deforms the heart, mind, and spirit of all who are afflicted by it.

In the photo below, a young woman is shown in the process of neutralizing the classic Stage IV Conservative Zombie who abused her:


We've all witnessed the horrible, devastating effects of conservatism as its victims regress into permanent madness:


Before: Stage IV Conservative ---After: Stage V Conservative



Here is a genuine photo of an innocent child victim of former humans who have transformed into Terminally Uncool Conservative Zombies after their hearts, minds, and spirits were been eaten away by the the disease of conservatism.


Conservatism is a disease that is more expensive to treat than all other diseases combined, and it causes almost everyone to suffer, not just those who have this crippling disease. Everyone is affected by the deadly pathogen of conservatism.

Keep your children, friends, and neighbors informed ~ conservatism will make you permanently stupid, corrupt, evil, and tragically, irrevocably uncool:



Conservatives, in Stage IV Evil Zombie Terminal Uncoolness:


Two packs of predatory Stage IV Uncool Conservative Zombies, one past, one present, attempting to destroy love on the planet. Notice the similarity among members of the two herds?


Conservatism kills, and conservatives kill. Inoculate early and often. Protect your children, friends, and neighbors.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Conservatism is a disgusting, disfiguring, tragic disease that affects everyone. The threat is real. Help stop the spread of conservatism, and save our children and all future generations from the widespread, horrible suffering caused by this devastating disease. We're winning.

Let's wipe conservatism off the face of the planet forever.


This message brought to you by non-members of the Occupy/Anonymous Freedom Workers Non-Coalition for Equality and Economic Justice

I apologize to you, Bryant.

It appears that I have underestimated your grasp of Judeo-Christian theology and metaphysics.

It appears that the church has modernized the concept of hell, or at least finally grasped the intended scriptural communication of what hell is, and changed the accepted concept of hell from that heinous superstition based place that they threatened me daily with as a toddler/child. The church is slow to change, but as new information becomes available, it does have the wherewithal to eventually adapt.

Unfortunately, largely due to 20+ centuries of pushing the concept of Dante's Inferno as hell, the church has successfully cemented and institutionalized this concept of hell into the collective consciousness of the "western world".

That's really awesome. I was forced to go a Catholic School, 5 days a week, and Mass, 6 days a week, beginning when I was 4 years old. During my 8 years there, I never once heard a nun or a priest describe hell as "our unwillingness to be saved". I did, however, hear almost daily, often while being smacked with a stick, that if I did not believe in the church, if I did not believe what the church told me, and did not do what the church told me to do, and did not remain in the good graces of the church, that I would go to this place forever:

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).

Frankly, I can't fathom that an omniscient, omnipotent divine entity would really give two shits about most of the do's and don'ts, such as eating shellfish, folks' sexual preferences, or that S/he/Whatever would consider an individual's purposely not going to Catholic mass on Sunday "unwillingness to be saved". Rather, it would be, to my mind, logical and reasonable for an omniscient, omnipotent divine entity to intrinsically simply "know" what is in the heart of any and every individual.

I can kind of buy "unwillingness to be saved" as a type of hell, I have often thought that maybe people who deliberately and perpetually do rotten things to others create their own private nasty little hell for themselves within themselves.

Loosely, in the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh religions, karma is the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence. I kind of like this better than the church's concept of hell, because no one is eternally separated from the divine. Everyone keeps getting another shot at "heaven' until they "get it right". Which in reality does not appear to overtly contradict the Christian concept of hell as you seem to be expressing it.

I don't necessarily believe nor disbelieve in karma, but am simply pointing out a similarity between the concept of karma and "unwillingness to be saved" and redemption. Of course, by definition, an eternal, omniscient, omnipotent being would know from the beginning of human existence if an individual was ever going to really get it or not. If so, then what would be the point of forcing them to live this life, and only to suffer in eternal misery because they didn't ever "get it". (This is known in Christian theology as the "Doctrine of Predestination&quot . It's kind of a WTF for me, why would a Loving God let someone exist in eternal misery if they never even had a shot at "heaven" to begin with?

I am totally down with my evolving understanding of simple "Love" and "Light", in all manifestations, as my personal path; that is what works for me in my existence. I feel that maybe, in the "Overall Grand Scheme of Things", the essence of what we perceive as a good way for us to be as individuals, is the same.

Again, I sincerely apologize for underestimating you.

Wow! "38 men per day versus 33 women per day" 71 people every day!

"The U.S. has the world’s most powerful military machine. Its navy controls the seas, its air force the skies. Almost 70 years after the end of World War Two, its armies occupy bases from Germany and Italy to South Korea and Japan. Its CIA-operated drones attack Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. Its multiple intelligence agencies have black sites and black budgets and carry out black operations. The financial costs of maintaining an empire are enormous. The moral costs are incalculable. And some would suggest the external violence connects to the murderous rampages and shootings here in the homeland. The signs of structural decay are all too apparent. Nation building begins at home.

Can we imagine a culture of peace? Can we create a political and economic system that serve the needs of people and protects and honors the Earth?" ~ Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Unfortunately, skilled, smooth talking, charismatic corporate sponsored politicians

pretend to be progressive and get nominated by deceiving too many gullible people into believing they are progressive by repeatedly lying to us while they are campaigning.

After they get elected, they only primarily represent the wealthy private interests that sponsor them.

This is how the Third Way/DLC operates. They are skilled corporate marketers who make a living preying on the hopes, dreams, and needs of naive and uninformed citizens.

People crave progressive policies due to their reason and necessity.

People get RW Third Way representation because of their naivete.

Marketing. It's what wealthy private interests do to increase their profit, power, and control. They excel at deception.

You can make a lot of coin selling snake oil in this world ~ all you need is a smooth, forked tongue, a pretty face, and a shiny bottle of dreams to sell.