Irreverence FTW!

The primary reason for creating this blog was to deliver irreverent commentary on the strange beliefs that people cling on to for dear life. I had a second blog which I used to cast derision on the shitty things that politicians do.

I decided to merge the two because ideology and politics seemed like a match made in heaven, and it kinda made sense for me to take the piss on both these forms of lunacy on the same forum.

After a while I decided that since there were so many other things that were of interest to people, I would not limit myself to just writing about strange beliefs and dirty politicians. And so the part about “… just about anything else not as perplexing or vile…” was born. However of late I have not focussed nearly enough on the irreverent bit and seemed to drift off into posting a lot of stuff about everything else.

Nothing vex’s someone more than when you try to burst their ideological bubble. It may seem cruel, and I sometimes feel a little remorseful afterwards, but the eventual benefits of making someone see things differently, even if a little, is to my mind worth the effort. I have had lengthy debates arguments here with some of my commenters. Nearly all invariably grow weary and never come back; a fairly large number exit with the traditional, but very annoying parting shot “I’ll pray for you.” Yeah, you will not believe how many people are praying for me. I’m truly blessed.

I am all too familiar with the adage that you’re not going to convince someone to change their mind by poking fun at their beliefs. Fuck that! Sometimes it’s the only way. The other benefit is that I too have learned from this process. I harboured many ideological beliefs, some of which have been modified, others turned completely on its head, more still totally discarded.

Anyway, I think I’m gonna start being irreverent again with my very next post. Until then…

Shame, you voted like an ass and now you’re pissed…

There’s been a lot of crap going down politically in South Africa the last couple of weeks, but I’ve restrained myself from venting because I may just be partly responsible.

You see, I did not vote in the last general elections through sheer disgust for the politicians. I now know what an ass I’d been and I’m not making that mistake again when the polling stations opens for the general elections early next year.

The kleptocracy in charge have been taking the public for granted the last four years, as they did the previous five years, and the five years before that. Their total and utter disdain for the citizens of this country has reached alarming proportions, but the real shocker is the terrifying reality that we appear for all intents and purposes, to be embarrassingly impotent to do anything about it.

Oh sure, we’ve ranted online on social media, participated in a few protest marches, added our names to those useless petitions and polls. But what’s the point if the only people really listening are those most affected, not the perps. Preaching to the choir, what?

The awful truth is that the politicians in charge don’t give a shit. If anyone has not realised this by now, they’re immensely dense.

We only have a fleeting hold on power – on election day and then we relinquish it when the winners are comfortably settled into office. Power to the people then simply evaporates and becomes power to the politicians.

We are given this once chance to dump the bastards in office, but do we use it wisely? The last two election results reveal that we’re quite happy to be ruled by thieves, immoral, incompetent,  sycophantic, self-serving, pompous assholes, and yes, psycho’s too. And the crazy thing is that the very people who are short-changed the most, are the most likely to vote for the most undeserving of politicians.

So, you have a chance once again to change things; grasp it and choose wisely. That’s the only chance you’ll get for another five years as you grin and bear it.

Photo credit: Thompson Rivers

Corruption Wars xxx – Return Of The Phantom Handbook

Over the years the Presidential Handbook which allegedly contains the rules for expenditure on perks such as cars, housing and travel for the top-ranking government officials, has come under fire from various quarters, especially when used by ANC members to justify some of their more gratuitous and ostentatious spending.

Strangely, from what I could gather, no one apart from the ruling members of government have laid eyes on this elusive, yet much referenced Handbook. And presumably this is a different Handbook from that which governs Ministerial perks, which also begs the question of why there are two different Handbooks.

Following demands from the opposition Democratic Alliance to make the Presidential Handbook public, it has been revealed that it is still in draft form – since being compiled in 2007. So it would appear that public officials have been using a draft document which is not yet official policy, to spend lavishly, and defy accountability for at least five years. And this in a state in which the ANC touts as one of the most advanced constitutional democracies in the world.

The voters have been repeatedly duped and have been somewhat passively accepting it much longer than five years; in fact since corruption on a massive scale by government officials suddenly started being unearthed following the Arms Deal Scandal of 1999.

But voters are notoriously stupid gullible. Take this cretin for example, commenting on the latest iteration of the Handbook saga:

He claims to know the facts – that governments pull money out of the air to fight wars, and that attacks on the ANC is a Corporate agenda. With voters like these, is it any wonder that the ANC is enjoying a corrupt hegemony that threatens the future of beautiful South Africa.

Aluta continua!

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. – Edward R Murrow

© 2012 Zapiro (All rights reserved)
 Printed with permission from www.zapiro.com
 For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com

Freedumb Day

Tomorrow South Africa will celebrate Freedom Day. I wrote the same thing exactly two years ago.

Little did I know [perhaps I did, but didn’t want to believe it] that celebrate would not be the appropriate word to preface Freedom Day. Yes, people will be celebrating, but they would mostly hail from that elite group that have managed to connive their way into positions of political and economic power. Any others would have to be either monumentally stupid or ignorant, or both.

Perhaps you’ve guessed by now that things have not gotten any better. No, they most certainly haven’t. Government corruption has reached alarming levels, only dwarfed by government arrogance and incompetence.

We now have democracy, the right to vote, and although under threat, the right to free speech. But tomorrow when the people of Diepsloot queue up once again to dispense and carry water from distribution points back to their shacks, these rights and privileges will be hardly comforting at the onset of Winter, perhaps hardly in their thoughts. Diepsloot is but a microcosm of service delivery problems across the country – problems that have forced the very people who voted these government goons into power, to break out into riots.

An informal township in Diepsloot, Gauteng Province, South Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But on the eve of Freedom Day, another burning issue has got the attention of the people, like never before. E-tolling!

This vile word represents nothing more than a crass, calculated scheme by government to defraud the people of their hard-earned and ever diminishing cash supply. The opposition to the implementation of this cruel and wicked plan to relieve people of their money, has unbelievably united all the estranged races on a common social issue for the first time, in really large numbers. Only sport has ever managed that feat before. The concerted efforts of business and consumers alike, manifested itself in the form of a legal challenge to stop the implementation of this cowardly act to enrich politically connected individuals. At the time of writing, the news reports indicated that the courts will present a ruling over the weekend.

e-toll gantry Business Day

The arrogant manner in which the government tried to railroad this abberration into our already over-taxed lives, has left a bitter taste in the mouths of even their most ardent supporters. What will be the outcome of the revelations that many high-ranking politicians stood to benefit financially from this preposterous taxation scheme, remains to be seen. It is however now clear that government will be forced to postpone the implementation yet again.

More important however will be the fact that this self-serving government has been taught a grudging lesson; that power invested in them by the people is temporary. The people shall decide what is best for them, not government goons.

But will they learn? Will I be writing again next year this time, about further levels of government deprivation? Will I be allowed to write at all?

The shit they’re saying in politics #3

Democracy for the ignorant masses

Not so long ago [oh! lets cut the crap, 18 years is a friggin’ long time], the world was celebrating South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy, or what we all thought was democracy back then.

As it turned out, the new system of government was just an improved form of apartheid – only now non-white people also get a chance to wait in long queues to vote for assholes of a different hue who take your money and fuck you.

Yes folks we traded White domination for Black domination. Now they fuck you at every opportunity and tell you how good it is for you; how it’s progressing democracy – that magical word that has the ignorant masses in awe.

Back then the ANC looked like knights in shining armour, delivering the down-trodden from the fury of oppression. Over the last 18 years  or so, the armour has rusted, revealing the apartheid we knew so well.

You can gauge the level of moral and intellectual decay in the ANC just by the spokesmen [spin doctors] that they employ to inform the masses about government’s bewildering policy decisions. These same spokesmen are used to placate the masses whenever government gets caught with its hands in the cooky jar. Yes, you guessed it – telling them how good it is for them and democracy.

Road to democracy? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One such specimen is Jimmy Manyi [click here if you need to find out more about this bigot].  He’s been caught with his foot in his mouth so often, it’s become his favoured position. Today he told South Africans that e-tolling of our national roads was “quite simply a roll out of democracy.” You could argue that it was meant for the voting fodder, because sensible people see e-tolling for what it is – just another [arguably their most elaborate] nauseating government scheme to steal from the people.

Yes, people, Jimmy and by extension the government want you all to believe that the roads that were built with your taxes, should now be tolled as well, and at seriously exorbitant rates. Yep, it really is fun paying for something twice, right? And you just have to believe that it’s good for you and democracy, to boot.

If you still don’t realise the cost of “rolling out of democracy,” I expect I’ll be seeing you again at the polls… voting for more tolls.

People aren’t smart: just look at the calibre of politicians that win the votes

I’m not alone in maintaining that democracy is not the best political system; just the best

system we have currently. And politicians who work within a democratic system do so knowing full well that it serves to give them a veneer of respectability, in a lifestyle of villainy.

Not so with common dictators, monarchists, personality cultists and theocrats. They dispense with the niceties of democracy because fear works better for them. You could say this lot are honest rogues.

However politicians don’t exist on their own. They need people. Preferably not so smart people.

Now there’s a scientific study that confirms that people are not so smart when it comes to choosing the right candidates, and that’s why democracies invariably don’t elect the best leaders.

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments. [People Aren’t Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say]

It all simply boils down to the unfortunate incidence of people giving/conceding power to politicians in ways they neither comprehend nor bother to take responsibility for. And that’s never a good thing.

I know; I live in South Africa, where this is amply demonstrated.

Non-belief and political commentary now consolidated…

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been toying with this idea for weeks – to merge ScumWatch, my blog on political commentary, with Lenny Says.

It is now done…

I got this mad idea late last year to create a separate blog to express my disgust with politics and politicians. After a while it began to seem like I had this whole other personality which was divorced from the person who writes about non-belief and other things more regular.

I’ve finally realised that my disgust for politicians is just a mirror image of my disgust for clerics, and uncritical thinking.

It therefore makes sense to keep all my irreverent thoughts on the same blog. I trust you’ll agree.

Blog merger

I’m thinking about merging my sister blog Scumwatch which is mostly concerned with politics, with this blog Lenny Says.

I would sincerely appreciate other opinions about it. And perhaps suggestions for catchy sub-headings that reflect the mix of skepticism and politics.

Blasphemous? Hell no! Desperate? Good heavens yes!

This is a repost of a blog I wrote on another forum. I thought it would be of interest here as well:

There was much consternation this weekend over President Jacob Zuma’s moronic utterance while campaigning for the upcoming election, that a vote for the ANC will get one into heaven.

While many people, including Church leaders saw this statement as blasphemous, others were perturbed that a politician, especially one who wields the ultimate power could so callously drag religion into politics when the constitution clearly demands a separation of Church and State.

Catch the rest here.