Ideas for Wakeup Stupid Conservative Idiot Gift Baskets

[DuaneBidoux]

I'm wanting to get together some gift baskets for some extreme right wing members of my family and I'm looking for ideas. I sincerely believe that most liberals think their way into becoming liberal (at least I did) while most conservatives are just that way and aren't sure why.

My first item in my "Wake-up Stupid Conservative Idiot Gift Basket" is a book that deeply influenced me in my undergraduate studies: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. For those of you who don't remember or never read it it is a semi-biographical novel of the authors experiences in turn of the century Chicago slaughter houses pre-union and pre food regulations.

My next item is the dvd Mississippi Burning. I especially like this one because it has all those good old Southern Christians lynching the "negras" while they praise Jesus. Boy those were the good old days when America was TRULY a Christian nation. I think it is also a very accessible film for even dense religious type folks who claim to be Christians but vote is a way Jesus would puke at (likely, since I haven't talked with him about it).

I want to stay away from the vitriol such as Michael Moore (although I love him, I tend to think that he creates defensiveness instead of thought in most conservatives). I truly want to get some people to think about the very foundation on which they base their beliefs. Probably could use three more items in my basket.

thanks for your ideas and "sock-it to that draft dodger" Mr. Kerry!!!

[Infomaniac]

1. Al Franken

How about a copy of Al Franken's book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. It's in paperback now.

[DuaneBidoux]

4. I love Franken and the book was great

but I wish he would have watched the language a bit more. Even though there is simply not an untruth to speak of in the entire book (at least according to www.spinsanity.com) that language really would be vitriol for the folks I have in mind.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Orwell's 1984

and maybe even Animal Farm

[DuaneBidoux]

3. Not bad

Might be a little too esoteric for simple minds (I like Upton Sinclair because it's real easy to grasp how sliding off into an unregulated cauldron of boiling animal waste can be bad for your health).

[realisticphish]

14. ah, but the end

it turns into the socialist thing.. that might make them disregard all the beginning stuff. maybe rip out the last few chapters? :)


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[nofurylike]

5. hi

What's the matter with Kansas?: How conservatives won the heart of America, by Thomas Frank.

http://www.henryholt.com/holt/whatsthematter.htm
-snip-
Frank, a native Kansan and onetime Republican, seeks to answer some broader American riddles: Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests?
-snip-
A brilliant analysis -- and funny to boot -- What's the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People.
-snip-
***


peace

[DuaneBidoux]

6. PERFECT - Two of them are from Kansas

Okay, I need two more items for my gift basket

[NMDemDist2]

7. look for the articles from Mark Twain on the war in the Phillipines

and citizenship

[DuaneBidoux]

8. thanks

And maybe I can get it cheap (my basket is getting up there). I'm not familiar with it but it sounds like it could cross the decades to say something relevant about a certain other war that is current. Or would I be presuming too much to say that?

[NMDemDist2]

9. yup, google it and print it out on nice paper with a ribbon

cheap and fun

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

10. How about

a tin of Right Wing Nuts? Salted or Honey Roasted.

[realisticphish]

15. plain

:) and bleached white...


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[AspenRose]

11. If they are Faux Newsbots then get them "Outfoxed."

eom

[DavidMS]

12. What about

Imperial Huberis?

It critizes Bu$h in a manner that some conservatives are more likely to accept.

[One World]

13. What I've learned about U.S. foriegn policy

This is a great 2 hour video on VHS and DVD that is a compilation documentary by my friend Frank Dorrell. Best of all it's cheap. I think $10 bucks. If you send me a PM with your address I can even send you one for free. I have copyright permission to distribute the film for free.

Check out the web site.

http://www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html

Good idea btw!

[Zulan]

16. IKE quotes

How about a framed list of Eisenhower quotes?
The heroic republican said many relevant things that need to be aired.

Here are a few.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."


"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."


"You don't lead by hitting people over the head-that's assault, not leadership."


Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.


"If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man's intelligence and his comprehension... would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution."


A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.


Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.


If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.


In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?


In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.


There are more, but you get the idea.

[4morewars]

17. "War is a Racket"

by Smedley Butler, Major General - United States Marine Corps
He won the Congressional Medal of Honor, TWICE !! Here, take a look :

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[sofa king]

18. Hot Wheels Cars.

Put a little $3 Hot Wheels Corvette in each basket and label it "tax cut."

Then go out and buy yourself a real Corvette, put a sign that says, "tax cut for the rich" on it, and use it deliver the baskets to your friends.

When your pals comment on it, tell 'em, "Hey, you got a tax cut too. Oh, by the way, we're splitting the monthly payments on my ride."

[kittynboi]

19. A few ideas.....

DVDs.

-Uncovered:The whole truth about the Iraq war. (main focus is on the WMD issue, with lots of former cia, military and intelligence people featured.)
-Distorted Morality. (A chomsky lecture at a college about the war on terror, but I don't know what your friend is like, and this lecture is three hours long, and very slow paced.)

I can't them of a lot of other things. I like stuff like Chomsky, and Gore Vidal, and lots of Common Courage and Seven Stories Press stuff, but a lot of that stuff might not quite be on the "entry level" that you seem to be looking for. ^_^;;

[mahina]

20. How about a copy of the Constitution?

I realize it is optimistic to imagine they will actually read anything. DVDs are good. F911!
I'd frame up a copy of the Beatitudes too:

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

n stuff.

[UCSBLiberalCat53]

21. here's a book

What's Wrong with Kansas...

but it might be too intellectually stimulating for them. They'll probably read the first few pages and then turn to Rush.
*in Mike Malloy's Rush voice "Rush, save us! We love you Rush!"