Giant Pea Pods: Invasion of the Lunatics

by: DocJess

Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 05:47:05 AM EDT

When I was 13, I spent a Saturday night at my friend Adrea's house. Her parents were out of town, and her older brother was left in charge of us. Billy told us not to get into any trouble and then left. We watched the old version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers on the late show. I didn't sleep for weeks. If you missed it, here's the trailer:

Go to sleep, and be replaced by a giant pea-pod version of yourself. Devoid of independent thought. Walking zombies. "Leaders" who indicated it was all a good idea.

I think about this movie, because I'm not convinced the process is not going on. More and more people seem to wake up stupid and crazy. Tonight, I'm going to be sitting in front of my tv, with my laptop, posting election returns, watching the results of a lot of these people voting. Likely in funny hats, possibly carrying chickens.

It looks like Linda McMahon will win the Republican Senate nomination in Connecticut. A woman who kneed a guy in the groin on national television, married to a guy who thought it was fun to make a woman get on all fours and bark like a dog. Also on national television. That's how they treated their employees. You can only imagine what they'd do to their constituents. Did Connecticut learn nothing from Joe Lieberman? You might point out that's he's not personally violent, but he is behind the idea of sending tens of thousands of young men and women half a world away to be injured and killed. 

Colorado? Ken Buck and Jane Norton? It's hard to find a functional neuron between the two of them. 

Minnesota? There's a guy named Tom Emmer running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. He'd be completely below the radar except that Target corporate gave $150,000 to help get him reelected. How does a company that has a pro-gay rights policy for its employees (and all that nice Michael Graves stuff) support a guy who is aligned with a group that says: 

Muslim countries calling for the execution of gays and lesbians are “more moral than even the American Christians” 

Incongruous? 

And then there's this:

Does anyone look familiar to you? How about the guy with the black robe and straw hat? This is a group of "secret society" members of the "NoZe Brotherhood" variety.

The cited drunk is currently running for the US Senate.

Still stumped? Answer and more lunacy after the jump.

While there have been denials (and who wouldn't want to deny knowing him) - the potential felon in question is Rand Paul: secret society member (probably) and he of no college degree. Details here. I don't find it surprising that people did alcohol and pot in college, and there's no crime in not having a college degree. Kidnapping, however, is over the line. Even for fun. So the question is: how many people need pea pods placed next to them while they sleep for this guy to win? Yes, I know the math, but is it really possible that a sane person could vote for Rand Paul without the pea pod?

These teabaggers are so schismed from reality. Paul Krugman explains it best. You should read the whole article, which begins:  

The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.

Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.

And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.

And who's fiddling while modern Rome burns?

I get that these people are corrupt, and power hungry, and have less economic sense then my dog Olivia, who complains, but understands that if I don't go to work, there are no biscuits. But the people who vote for them? Again and again? It's gotta be pea pods. 

In the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Donald Sutherland is driving in Chinatown in San Francisco. A man runs off the sidewalk, into the street. He's yelling "I've seen this all before, and it's happening again." Then he's struck and killed by a car. In the darkened theatre, my dad turned to me and said "That's Kevin McCarthy. He had the Sutherland role in the original. He knows." Dad's always kept up with things like that. 

And there is precedent for the current lunacy. I'm thinking the Confederacy. And the Reaganites, when most people drank the Kool-Aid. Not to mention the Shrub administration. But even by those standards, the current teabaggers are beyond the pale.