(Listening to the audio version. Excellent!)
(Very interesting, quite different. Written by Carl Sagan's son, Nick)
(my favorite atheist book so far)
(It made me LOL)
(It sucked me in. Fun and funny.)
(movie was much better)
(best trilogy I've ever read!)
(very clever satire from the headlines. cynical but funny)
(gritty, violent, excellent retribution!)
(BBC series. Good acting, 80's low budget effects)
(good movie, much better than the book)
Being as I live about 20 minutes from the Xcel Center I can’t help but go to the Republican Convention next week. I’ve mentioned in the past that I hope to get some good audio to use for the show (I’ll definitely have pictures if nothing else) and I plan to stick to that.
I’ve been poking around the web and making phone calls to find out who’s going to be where and at what time. It seems 11am Monday, on the steps of the capital, is the place to be. A number of groups have coordinated to meet, then march to the Excel and have a party later in the evening. I question the usefulness of protest in this day and age, especially at an event like this, so I’ll be there hanging out but not actively protesting beyond being another body in the crowd.
This was my plan until this morning: Go, talk to people, get some pictures and video, hang out and have a good time. That is still on the agenda but while trolling around the web it was brought to my attention that the westboro baptist cult is planning on making an appearance. They’ll have a contingent of loonies out there all week but from 12:30 to 2:30 PM on Monday falls right into my schedule…it’s an opportunity I can’t pass up.
The westboro cultists are at the top of my intolerability index; the all star d-bags of fundamentalism. Seeing the videos, pictures and written word of these people is enough to get me riled up so I’ve no clue what to expect in person. Here’s what their picket schedule has as a description of Monday’s protest:
St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center – RNC Convention Event Day 1 175 Kellogg Blvd W
You conservative fags are in big trouble. Pretending you want to serve God, and in fact are just wolves in sheeps clothing. You have done more to promote the fag agenda and enrage the Living God than even those Demo Fags. Everlasting shame on you, to wit: Jer 23:40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. You are going to prop this adulterer up to be your candidate – a military mutt who is good friends with that adulterous Nancy Reagen. You are each one responsible for the wrath of God pouring out on this nation. Jer 49:16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. You are fighting against God, you dummies – God is YOUR ENEMY.
Based on that they’re clearly protesting the GOP. They protested the DNC, they’re protesting the RNC…heck they’re even protesting in Baltimore because they don’t like Micheal Phelps. I’ve no clue what these people would look for in a government, much less a political party. They seem to hate everyone, aside from themselves, and don’t care whom they take down in the process of letting the world know it. At this rate they’re bound to end up protesting themselves at which point, perhaps, they’ll simply explode in a ball of paradoxial hate.
So my day of non-protest will be interrupted with a bit of WBC counter-protest. I don’t expect it will accomplish anything but it should prove to be a good time.
I’ll be updating my Twitter feed as the day goes in case anyone wants to follow. If something totally garbled appears just assume that I’m being arrested and that was may last ditch effort to let people know 
. Any pictures and/or video should be up Tuesday morning, assuming I’m not detained or otherwise occupied.
My podcast about my day at the RNC will be the first of many to start appearing here on HDC.
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And a good time will be had by all! HA! Well have fun and be safe, Hess.
Sounds like such fun. What a shame that I can’t go to the hatefest and get arrested too.
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The last thing I need is to be arrested so I won’t be trying for it
I’ve heard a lot of rumors locally about how the police are going to operate so I’m really not sure what to expect. It might be one of those “you’re standing here so you’re under arrest” situations…hard to say.
I do know the city dumped a lot of cash into more riot gear, some fancy crowd control devices and non-lethal deterrents. I’ve never been foamed before, might be an interesting experience!
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All right, I’m following your Twitter now. The WBC are kind of the rock stars of religious lunacy. Watching the “Most Hated Family in America” documentary made me fear for what will happen to that family when Fred dies. He seems to have used fear to imprison them all inside his own little sphere of utter insanity, and I didn’t get the impression that any of them have developed the ability to think for themselves (not that I think that this, if true, would release them from responsibility for their disgusting actions).
If I still lived in Wisconsin I would probably drive up and add my body to the group of protesters. Have fun, and good luck avoiding any unprovoked arrests. Hopefully having new riot gear will be enough for the police, and they won’t actually feel like just testing it out for the heck of it.
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