D.J. Coffman – Sequential Artist, Thinker

I think one of my major pet peeves is… I hate liars. Now, like everyone on this planet I’ve lied in the past, and I’ve stretched the truth… I’ve lied to get out of uncomfortable situations. Yeah, I was the one who took the last cookie and shook my head innocently no. But every time, I felt a bit dirty inside. Sometimes telling a lie and getting away with it, you feel exhileration and think “wow, I got away with that!”-

I guess you could say, for creators or writers of any kind, lying and bullshitting is a sort of skillset. We make up things and want you to believe them, even if they are lines or symbols on paper or your screen. All people do it occassionaly for the same reasons. In many biographies or comments I’ve heard many many Creators, writers, artists, actors often come to the realization, wow, they can get paid and entertain people for making things up and playing make-believe…

When you KNOW someone is lying to you in real life, or lying to the public to benefit their corporation or political party, when you DEFINITELY KNOW they are lying because you know the facts… there’s not a worse feeling. Creators have a BULLSHIT sense. Mine is finely tuned and has served me pretty well. I’m the guy who spoils the movie by guessing the surprise twists or dissecting a plot. I’m not alone, I’ve had that conversation with many creators. As the old irish saying goes…. “you can’t bullshit a bullshitter.”

The quote in my header, “An honest man will never have any other.”, (I heard while watching the John Adams series) really resonated with me. When I heard the words, I related. It means that you will surround yourself with honest and good people. I’ve unknowingly done this for years, but recently I’ve done it on purpose and almost made it a rule to live by. I cut loose people that I see have lied to me, or been less than honest, or who are just trying to use me for something. When it’s someone I considered a good friend, I usually gather all the evidence first, and then give them a reason to explain why they just lied to me. Sometimes, I forgive them, sometimes not. I guess it depends on the extent of the lie.

Speaking of liars…

I decided to watch the Sarah Palin speech last night to hear what she had to say. After all, we don’t know much about her, and she’s a few heartbeats away from the biggest job in the world. So this was her first impression for folks like me. Keep in mind, I don’t consider myself a democrat or republican, I consider myself a patriot. In 2000 I was actually routing for McCain to win, because I thought he WAS a Maverick back then, and I enjoy “straight talk” — So last night, the first impression was, this lady came out swinging, LYING, cynical nature. She immediately put down “community organizers” in a very condescending way. She said Obama has accomplished “NOTHING” in the Senate or his career. There was a lot of hooting and hollering about VICTORY this and that…oh and people chanting “Drill Baby Drill!” — There was a point I felt sick to my stomach. After the speech, the sheeple crowd of old women were interviewed and saying “She’s ready to be VP! She knows what it’s like to live in America!”— it reminded me just how dumb some Americans are. TO sum it up…. terror, victory, POW, Obama bad!, 911, Iraq, OIL, OIL, DRILL, VICTORY!

Before I jumped on the Obama bandwagon, (and I was on it pretty early) I looked at his record. Beyond the good things he’s actually done, he is able to inspire people as a leader. The right wing came at him with everything they had, belittling his family, telling lies saying he was a “Muslim” trying to scare people… because, the republicans want you to know, “MUSLIM=TERROR=911 gonna get ya!”

Anyway, I could go on and on about the stretching of the truth last night before my eyes. But you can read exactly what the Associated Press reported this morning about the speech and mistruths in it: “ATTACKS, PRAISE STRETCH TRUTH AT GOP CONVENTION”

And McCain/Palin have started some sort of war with the media, (not giving interviews but wanting the photo ops)– like Chris Matthews of Hardball had said similarly, I’ve got news for them, the press is the 4th estate. And we have a right to know who these people are. You can’t wisk someone in 60 days before an election and say, let’s not ask questions. Especially after the disection of Barack Obama and his family and religious views. I assume that even though Sarah Palin is a story, she put blood in the water by attacking the media as a whole just because of liberal bloggers going after her… and now the REAL PRESS will be gunning for every bit of dirt on her, and let’s see if she can actually sit down with reporters and answer some real questions about domestic and foreign policy that hasn’t been fed into her ear by a McCain staffer or speech writer. We’ll see.

Personally, in my own bloviated opinion, I don’t think being a mayor of a small small town (population of 5470) , or the Governor of Alaska for 20 months automatically qualifies you to be President of the USA. You know why a PTA Hockey mom can rise from mayor to the governor??? It’s not because she’s awesome… it’s because it’s FUCKING ALASKA!!! Who wants that job there? (I kid, I kid!)

I’m naive. I think the American people are smarter than this. They have to know that the change they want to see, isn’t going to come from more Republican Party in the White House. Suddenly, the republicans want to do EVERYTHING the Obama campaign has been pushing… but for eight years they sat on their hands and just took us to more unjustified wars.

And in closing this rant… about WAR– Giulliani, McCain, Palin, and the slew of faces of the republican party talk a lot about victory and WINNING a war. They asked last night, well, if the war is lost, who won? Osama Bin Laden? Al Qaeda? — they’re not even willing to realize the reality of…. YES… we lost a war. But the Iraq war has nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden or Al Qaeda… they’re mixing it all together for the retard vote in America. Can’t we lose a war? Nooooooo!!!! No way. Not if you’re a republican, they’ll demand victory everywhere in wars they create, stretching us everywhere, until everyone of our service men and women are dead or wounded, and we have to draft more. They’ll do nothing to improve or repair our standing or good name in the world, as the last 8 years have shown.