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If this is what it takes to get Americans worked up, I guess we deserve what we get...
27 July, 2004 :: 11:23 a.m.

Yes, it's old news by now...

But thousands of toy collectors got upset that G.I. Joe isn't in the toy hall of fame...

What? Now a while back I probably would've done an entry the same day that I heard about this (it was July 3rd that I heard it on CNN) about what great memories I have of Chuck and I playing with our G.I. Joes and how I can't believe the toys aren't in the hall of fame (I didn't even know there was a fucking toy hall of fame until this story), but now the story pisses me off for different reasons...

Why is it that a stupid-ass thing like this can rally people to a cause, but more than half of Americans don't bother to vote? Granted I'm sure the percentage of people protesting Joe's omission from the hall of fame is a tiny percentage of our population, but it's still thousands of people...and the story made me realize that there's always something like this...people protest the Dixie Chicks for bashing Bush, people protest toys and television shows and music, but when it comes to something that has an actual, serious affect on your life, you sit by and leave it in the hands of others???

So America, what does it take to rally you to important causes? The Patriot Act is a danger to our personal freedoms, but this doesn't piss you off? The U.S. has lost more than 900 soldiers in Iraq (and lets not forget the soldiers from the other countries of the coalition, Iraqi civilians, and those who haven't lost their lives but have lost limbs or suffered other life-altering injuries) and I cannot find reliable numbers for Afghanistan, but I think the point is made...anyway, this doesn't piss you off? The war in Iraq was waged under false pretenses--our president LIED to US and the rest of the world...he now doesn't even acknowledge his original reasons, he just keeps saying, "Iraq is better off without Saddam." This may be true, but there are dictators killing people in other countries that we've ignored for years (Sudan comes to mind as just one) and this wasn't the reason you told us we were sending soldiers there lying piece of shit...this doesn't piss you off, America? Our president avoided being criminally charged for his involvement with Harken Energy only because his father was the president then and general counsel of the SEC, the agency in charge of the investigation, had been his personal lawyer... He claimed he was going to reform big business after the Enron, Tyco, WorldCom disasters were revealed...but mysteriously all this brave talk disappeared as suddenly as Iraq became in imminent threat to the US...this doesn't piss you off, America?

CEOs are making more and more (tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars)money year after year while outsourcing jobs to other countries and laying people off in this country and Bush does nothing to stop this...this doesn't piss you off, America? Bush has undone or severely weakened almost every single law Clinton passed to protect the environment...so it's okay for companies to pour more and more toxins into our environment and it's okay to destroy national parks for profit...this doesn't piss you off America? This is just off the top of my head, I know I'm missing other important things...but what does it matter? Apparently none of this is enough to stir the emotions of the average citizen in this country so that he or she can set aside part of a day in November to vote for change...but overlook a toy for the hall of fame and people are frothing at the mouth...Yo Joe!

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