Shorter Big Hollywood

This Just In: Broadway Not Dead

Why so "glass empty," liberals? Sure, there are 46 million in the US without health insurance, but what about the 260 million with it?

See The World That Way

It really is insane that the nutters have decided that it's Obama's fault that protesters in Iran are being shot.

Might Find It Jarring

Another classic review by John Nolte over at Big Hollywood, this one on the Jack Black & Michael Cera film Year One:

“Year One” is one of those rare movies that can’t possibly be as bad as the trailer makes it look … but is. Actually it’s kinda worse. Sex jokes, gay jokes, incest jokes, lesbian jokes, poop jokes, urine jokes, bestiality jokes, no story, an episodic plot, fewer laughs and dialogue that’s mostly ad-libbed, makes extra sure of that.

I've never seen the film - it could suck. But John just sounds like an old man.

The timespan of the film makes little sense. Our protagonists start out in prehistoric times but then walk their way into the Old Testament era of Cain, Abel and Abraham. I bought it, but those of you who didn’t skip World History to smoke Newports and listen to Led Zeppelin might find it jarring.

In many ways, “Year One” most resembles Mel Brooks’ “History of the World: Part 1 (1981),” but one of those ways is that neither is a very good movie. As far as any talk about how the film mocks the Bible… The satire is silly, not mean-spirited, so some effort would have to go into being offended.

If you’re desperate for prehistoric antics this weekend, Netflix Ringo Starr’s “Caveman” (1981). It’s no classic, but there are at least a half-dozen laughs (six more than you’ll find in “Year One”) and Ringo’s wife, Bond-babe Barbara Bach, will help you to forget all about the comedic lulls.

You crazy dropout youths, with your...Zeppelin!

God of War III

God of War III looks awesome.



Direct-feed HD footage from G4.

Gateway Pundit = Dumbass

Okay, Gateway Pundit must seriously be the stupidest motherfucker on the planet. Who in God's name would look at this chart and come away with a conclusion that the President that took over control of the country on 1/20/09 has caused the runaway unemployment



(from US Dept of Labor)

Gateway Pundit, that's who. I don't think I've ever seen a more embarrassing piece of dumbassery.

Getting The PETA Story Straight

I thought PETA's involvement sounded a bit fishy. Here's some truth behind the "PETA Defends Flies!" nonsense.

Hahahaha

Ken Starr endorses Judge Sotomayor. Grasping for a narrative at how one of his hero Clinton-haters could give up the silly anti-Sotomayor crusade, Paul at Powerline calls him "old-fashioned".

Any Character You Meet

This Xbox community game Light's End has a fantastic new gameplay idea:

Not many developers are ambitious enough to put a multi-hour epic adventure game in the community games. And even more rare is to have one with such an innovative gameplay hook. In Light's End you can switch between pretty much any character you meet, which leads to some excellent puzzles as you discover which characters need to interact with each other to advance the game.

Makes me wish I had a 360.

SATs Never Looked so Fun as They do Now

The French "bac" tests preceding higher education are nuts! Check out these (mostly via Yglesias, with his idiosyncratic spelling cleaned up a little):

— Is it absurd to desire the impossible?

— Does objectivity in history presuppose the impartiality of the historian?

— Does language betray thought?

— Explicate an excerpt from Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation

From the "science" series:

— Are there questions that are un-answerable by science?

Like I said, nuts! My first thought is that each one of these presumes a student's understanding of each word's meaning in these questions, and that therefore, the questions are probably pretty familiar to well-studied students, who can probably get through it all by just reciting what they've heard before. Another likely way to get through it all is to bullshit about semantics.

So, in the last one, you've got to define "questions," "answerable" and "science" before you can answer. I have no idea what they mean in this context, but from a scientific perspective the correct answer is, "Yes, science cannot address untestable questions." All that hemming and hawing about semantics seems to be really attractive to folks who put more emphasis on "making an argument" rather than establishing the nature of reality. (And yes, our senses and mental representations of reality are not perfect, which is why we have margins of error, yuk-yuk.)

But is the U.S. system better? I don't think so.

And get a gander at Yglesias' comment section for this--it's awesome. This, from LIJ, is maybe my favorite:

The French are taught to the test just like U.S. students; it’s just that their right answers are expressed structurally rather than in multiple choice. The questions focus on testing the mastery of the logical dissertation form which is drilled in to high school students as being the pinnacle of studied discourse. What results is an idealistic and homogenized academic culture.

I have been in undergraduate classes in France, where professors will literally map out “the right” answer to research papers. I have also been in graduate classes where students were struggling to learn how to form their own thesis questions.

Is the bac model, centered on the logical dissertation, beautiful and rigorous? Certainement. Does it it cultivate deep, independent critical thinking? Malheureusement, non. Should we emulate the French educational system? Vive la difference !

Kills

Courtesy of the indomitable INSTAPUTZ,, a screenshot for the ages. Zeitgeist, is it called?

Same Wingnuts, Different Signs

John Cole on the "Fire Letterman!" protest:

The most amazing thing about it is that this could just as easily have been a McCain/Palin rally, a tea party, or an anti-abortion protest. Same wingnuts, different signs.

The Party of Toxoplasmosis

By way of John Cole comes Stiftung, a blogger I've never read before, who has interesting insights on the plight of the Republican Party. Stiftung riffs on Paul Krugman's recent column in the NYT about the crazy, conspiracy-obsessed right wing, in which Krugman implores "moderate" Republicans to rein them in.

Stiftung says, in approximately a million words, that such hopes are pointless, since the right-wing "Movement" only plays for keeps. It doesn't want to win office in a democracy -- it wants to rule absolutely, and it'll seek power by hook or by crook. Infiltrated and controlled by the parasite Movement over the past couple decades, the Republican Party and its members can't do a thing to stop the slide into crazy -- and opposing it is a sure way to mark oneself as a traitor.

Further, the mainstream media treat the Movement as if it wants to play by the rules, which is tragic because it risks letting the danger go unchecked.

Stiftung ends with some thoughtful questions:

Krugman just touched on three overriding conversations critical to the nation: (i) can the rump Movement ever be reconciled to participating in a liberal democratic society?; (ii) what is the price we pay for a enfeebled ‘Republican Party’ host shell paralyzed by more powerful parasite Movement?; and (iii) how can American liberal democracy be served if the media itself really doesn’t understand what it is reporting — *or more damningly* — won’t?

I wish I knew the answers to those.

Anyway, my main critique about the post is that it has always been this way to some degree, and it always seems to me that it's unpopular to point out that some folks won't play nice; that the truth doesn't always lie between two opposing camps; that some folks are insincere or stupid, and flat wrong, at that. People who lust for money and power will lie, cheat, steal, etc., as natural as breathing. At least as far back as the '60s, they enflamed the idiots for Republican votes and volunteers: the crazy anti-Communist John Birch Society; the racists; the Trilateral Commission conspiracists; the anti-tax fanatics; the fundamentalists. Now the idiots are running the show. But here's the thing -- there's a lot of overlap. Moderate Republicans are an anomaly, not a natural product of the system when it's working properly.

All About Them

Amanda Marcotte on Iran:

Conservatives are crying for Obama to make this all about the U.S. for a lot of reasons, but right at the top of the list is they really can’t stand to believe that something may not be about them, or that they don’t have a god-given right to control other people’s affairs and decisions for them.  And, as Jesse has been saying, the delicacy of the situation really requires the maturity to stand back a little and avoid throwing a giant temper tantrum about how this entire Iran situation should be ours to control and own.

I'm back from vacation, quotin' folks!

Shorter Weekly Standard

Miranda Rights for Terrorists

• Years and years and years pass, and still we'll pretend to not know the difference between terrorist and "accused" terrorist

Paganism Switch

Instaputz on Newt's ridiculous "we are surrounded by paganism" speech:

Do Republicans realize how much they sound like the people they keep insisting are the problem?

Endlessly Entertaining

On my out for some tasty Mexican food, but had to note that the nutters at RedState and Newsbusters are now complaining because Google had a Tetris-themed logo today and not a D-Day-themed one.

Keep digging, guys! Take Back America and all that!

Chet Zar

Illustrations by Chet Zar at Lost At E Minor.

Medical Bills

CNN.com:

This year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans will declare bankruptcy. Many people may chalk up that misfortune to overspending or a lavish lifestyle, but a new study suggests that more than 60 percent of people who go bankrupt are actually capsized by medical bills.

Interchangeable

The topic of Sotomayor is really bringing to light the worst aspects of the so-called conservative movement.

Normal

Hullabaloo:

Again, what's interesting here is the notion that the way men see things is "normal" and that the way women see things is biased.

Hasten

Cute comment on an article about how George Tiller is responsible for the holocaust, or something like that.

The left
I am so sick and so tired of the left and their endless, ceaseless two-faced hypocrisies, lies (both by comission and omission), deceptions and slimy, slippery treachery. One day we're going to find out just who's wrong and just who's right, aren't we? Lord, hasten that day!!

Full Outed

I really like these words from D. Aristophanes at Sadly No:

I recall that back in 2004, when it looked as if Kerry might beat Bush, friends and I would talk about how nice it would be if we could get to a place where political arguments focused on disagreements in the policy margins — instead of being front-loaded by the wingnuts who dominated the rules of engagement with garish loyalty tests that derailed any meaningful idea exchange before it got off the ground. Obviously, we know how that turned out. Instead of a return to sanity, the wingers became newly emboldened and it wasn’t until the 2006 elections that the tide really started turning.

How long did the inmates run the asylum of our national dialogue? A long fucking time, and it blew goats so profoundly that it’s no wonder many of us have been unwilling to pronounce that the nightmare is over. If only for fear that, like black mold in your bathroom, the crazy would come back in full bloom if we didn’t keep scrubbing and worrying at it as if it was still a powerful force.

Well, I am going to go out on a limb and pronounce that we have finally returned to a place of political normalcy after our long nightmare. A place where ideas matter and seriousness is not a starving orphan in the corner. I say this not because there are no longer wingnuts amongst us — the wingnuts will always be with us (and thank God for that, since occasional outbursts of earnestness aside, I’m pretty much in it for the lulz). I say it because, if you really take a good look around, you’ll find that kooks like Pam and Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck and Dick Cheney have finally been fully outed as the freakshow monstrosities that they always were, and at long last, all but a handful of people finally get the joke.

I was just thinking this morning about how happy I am to watch the American populace getting used to having a President that can think clearly and communicate effectively. Aren't we all getting used to that? How can we not be, and how can it not affect how the country looks at new potential leaders? How can new candidates not be measured against Obama?

This, I think, is a very good thing.

Jane and Ted

Just like the Jane Fonda stuff, these people think that Ted Kennedy booze references are endlessly hilarious and important:

What’s more, I’m not too crazy about a guy who names the family dog after his own initials.  I am curious, though, considering that Bo was a gift from Ted Kennedy, whether he drinks from a bowl or a bottle.

Woeful

I love those guys over at Alan Keyes' RenewAmerica.




Here's Bryan Fisher:

Obama's woeful speech
It's hard to know where to begin to critique President Obama's speech to the Muslim world yesterday. It was historically inaccurate, as almost nothing in the paragraph in which he listed Islam's contributions to society is true. For example, Muslims did not invent the compass, algebra or printing (Gutenberg, anyone?), and that's just for starters.

Further, he claimed that Islam "has a proud tradition of tolerance," and that "throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality." His speech contained no examples of such tolerance, for the simple reason that there are none.

[...]

In sum, the president's speech was historically inaccurate, theologically wrong, and alarmingly naïve. The world is a more dangerous place today for the Christian West after this speech.

You guys are great to have around - thanks for fighting the good fight to save Western Civilization! Someone's gotta do it.

Onward Christian Soldier!

Down A Peg

Sounds like "uppity" to me:

Obama hasn't heard "no" from anyone with signifcant power for some time.

One Place At The Same Time

Josh Marshall:

For those who aren't familiar with it, La Raza is basically a Latino equivalent of B'nai Brith or the NAACP. Garden variety and uncontroversial unless you thinks it's a public safety issue if more than a handful of Mexicans or Puerto Ricans get together in one place at the same time.

Y Kant Wingnutz Reed? Vol. 2 Billion

Just checking in on my favorite Cornell associate clinical professor of law and Dijongate progenitor, William Jacobson, doop-dee-doop.

In an earlier post, I noted how one Huffington Post blogger, Allison Kilkenny, had called John Bolton "crazy" just five days ago for warning that North Korea was on the verge of another nuclear test.

Huh! That's funny, but not "ha-ha" funny. More like "that's-crazy-how-you-make-stuff-up" funny.

I know, I know! You'd think that Jacobson's use of quotes around "crazy" would imply a direct quote, but while her prose isn't to my taste either, Kilkenny's actually saying Bolton's nuts simply because he's always, always belligerent.

Bolton has risen from the dead to show the world America's credibility is back by...rattling...his...saber...again.

Now I started to wonder if that would stop Jacobson from going sanctimonious, and--

I wondered whether there would be an apology in light of the North Korean's nuclear test last night, and the answer is no apology.

That reminds me! Jacobson needs to apologize for saying that puppies are not cute. They totally are! Not only can't the man read, he can't swoon!

Blood Is Thicker

Josh Marshall:

Why is Dick Cheney's daughter the only person he can find to go on TV to defend him?

Rachel Marsden: I Can Godwin That In 13 Words

Ahh, good morning, Rachel Marsden. What's new with you over at Town Hall? I see you have a new article. What's it called?

Obama: Not The First Head Of State To Design Cars*

Hmm, intriguing. I guess I'll read on - whatever other head of state could she be talking about?

“Sitting at a restaurant table in Munich in the summer of 1932, Hitler designed the prototype for what would become the immensely successful Beetle design for Volkswagen (literally, the "car of the people"),” says the Hitler Historical Museum’s website. He then said to the head of Daimler-Benz: “Take it with you and speak with people who understand more about it than I do. But don't forget it. I want to hear from you soon, about the technical details."

Sigh.

And then way way way down at the end of the article you find the antecedent of that apostrophe:

* I am not saying that Barack Obama is Hitler, just that they have a similar propensity for vehicular design.

Can't imagine why anyone would have gotten that impression.

Discriminate

How embarrassing is the Republican Party?

Democrats have focused solely on what they call green jobs. Those are jobs from alternative energy. I support green jobs, but why discriminate? American energy means American jobs, which is why I support red, white, and blue jobs

Can you please stop paddling backwards against any improvement we're trying to make?

This is also an example of them taking a word with a true historical context of real victims, and play the victim with it themselves (ie, "discriminate"). See also "torture," "waterboarding," etc.

Perfection

Not sure if anything could be better than a slow loris getting tickled.

(via)

Average

David Kurtz:

But if you frame it as a debate between Cheney's extreme position and Obama's very moderate position, you've suddenly dictated an outcome to this so-called debate that is considerably to the right of where the political center is right now on this issue.

Nonsense On Stilts

Cole:

There seems to be an effort to pretend that we chose to put these people in Gitmo for security reasons.

That is simply nonsense on stilts. It was little more than barbed-wire and plywood when we started detaining them there, and we had to build the damned place. We didn’t put the detainees there because it was super secure. We put them there so there would be no controlling legal authority and we could do whatever the hell we wanted with them.

Darwinius

PZ Meyers takes stock of the creationist freakout over the recently unveiled Darwinius masillae fossil, and also give this chuckly little take on the expectation the media coverage set up:

It's an interesting transitional form from an early point in the history of primates, and the sloppy media coverage had people expecting a revivified Fred Flintstone carrying a video camera that had been left running for 47 million years.

What We Do

Hullabaloo:

Prisons are what we do. We have more people locked up that any other nation on earth. It's one of our biggest industries. We may be bad at everything else, but locking people up we are really,really good at. The idea that we can't keep a few broken, foreign, torture victims in jail is patently absurd. If you don't believe that the government is capable of protecting a prison from attack by foreign terrorists, anyone who lives near a nuclear power plant should be completely petrified. Talk about a target.

Happee

Stressful times. This helps:

Doing His Thing

Bill O'Reilly has a "body language expert" who is agreeing with him that Pelosi is a liar. And now they move onto a Matt Lauer interview with Carolyn Kennedy.

Update: Apparently Obama's body language proves that Obama's a liar, too.

Suicide

I may have to kill myself because of this ad.

One Day

It's great to have William Gibson on Twitter, sharing bits like this.

5 Years of Planning

Cole:

Imagine if the Democrats had spent 2001-2006 arguing over what silly thing they should rename the Republicans.

Nauseous

This GOP strategy of countering Obama's attempts to close Guantanamo by claiming that he's sending terrorists to live with us is making me physically nauseous.

And Harry Reid, I used to like you...but fuck you very much.

P050809PS-0297

P050809PS-0297, originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

Don't miss the official White House Flickr photostream.

FOR REALS

The Editors ask the real questions:

How can we investigate if we don’t know all the facts?  How dare we enforce laws against things which might possibly be permissible in some highly artificial thought experiment?  What if ‘24′ is FOR REALS?!?

The Full Armor Of God

This is so profoundly fucked up. Donald Rumsefeld, while Secretary of Defense, included inspirational Bible verses on the cover sheets to the top-secret intelligence briefings he gave President Bush about the Iraq War. Here's an example:

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” [The quote appears over an image of a tank at sunrise]

And why is it Gentleman's Quarterly that does this investigative journalism? Has it really fallen on their shoulders to do this kind of thing?

Shorter Rightwing Blogosphere

• Every sperm is sacred!

Malkin-Style

Go for it, winguts. Stand firm against the concept of selfless action!

Orbit

Andrew Sullivan:

Don't under-estimate Obama's policial cunning, guys. But for those of us with some small hope of restoring decency and moderation to the right, this is a major blow. What Obama is doing is bringing all the sane conservatives  - from Crist to Huntsman to Gates - into his orbit.

And Cheney gets to be the the face of the GOP future.

Bird on the Head

Sometimes you just feel this way.


(via)

Spider Bodies

Some advice for the GOP from The Poor Man Institute:

Maybe next time the Democrats will be grafting al Qaeda heads onto spider bodies and putting them in your baby’s crib.  A winning message for 2012.

Shorter Gateway Pundit

Above: GP in "Venice3.jpg"

Soros-Funded Bogus Catholic Group Attacks Pro-Life Protesters at Notre Dame In Newspaper Ad

• Catholics who don't want to protest Obama at Notre Dame aren't real Catholics

Actually, GP, you're on the outside. Most Catholics have no problem with it.

This Is A Real Game

This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. It's called "Muscle March," by Namco, and will be coming out for the Wii.

What's New In Japan?

Do-de-doo, Japan is building a giant robot.



Photo(s) by Punynari, who also took the photos.

From Danny Choo (some nsfw ads).

Hijacked

I like Nate Silver's words about how the kerfuffle being raised by culture warriors about Obama speaking at the Notre Dame graduation is a selfish attempt to upstage what should be a happy and exciting day to celebrate the accomplishments of the students.

Those who have chosen the Notre Dame commencement as the latest battleground in the culture wars should remember that most of the graduates and their friends are celebrating their own accomplishments, and are pleased to be honored with the presence of the President of the United States at this event (I can understand, as someone whose college graduation was graced with an address by a local architect/real estate developer). Jack's right. The ostensible subjects of this event are complete bystanders, whose views are being solicited only to the extent that they are willing to turn their own big day into a political circus.

Papa Cheney

Bill O'Reilly is joining in on the odd move among dinosaur nuts to raise up Dick Cheney as their greatest hero.

Dick Cheney is unleashed!

It just proves again that the only goal of these people is to piss off liberals.

Quote of the Day

Michael Pollan: :

Don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised.

(via tristero)

Space Tweets

Twitter's pretty cool.

Key Figure

The Anonymous Liberal:

Pelosi-gate, in a nutshell: What did one member of the minority party know about the majority party's illegal war crimes and when did she know it?

This has to be the stupidest "angle" I've ever seen to coverage of a major scandal. Are reporters really this dumb and gullible? To the extent Nancy Pelosi knew about the Bush administration's torture program and didn't raise objections, she deserves to be criticized. But there's a HUGE difference between ordering the commission of war crimes and simply being on notice that they may be occurring.

My emphasis.

Brooklyn New York .1969 . William Gedney, from vintagephoto

This is one of the most beautiful photographs I've seen all year, from vintagephoto.

Triple Threat

Yahtzee!

Eric Dondero writing about Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs suggesting Geert Wilders for US President in 2012.

Mainly During the Period

Josh Marshall:

More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Ad Sponsored By

Wait, what?

Why is there a sponsor...for an ad?



Watch it here.

Hysteria

John Cole has a clear head:

I’m really not sure why an approach that includes treating drug addiction as a matter of public health is so controversial. You would think the hysteria and rampant incarceration of the last thirty years would be seen as more controversial

Appalled

Hilzoy:

[W]hat our government does in our name ought to be available to us unless there is some very good reason to keep it secret. And the fact that people would be appalled by it is not such a reason -- if anything, it just makes the case for disclosure stronger

So, You Say You Hate to Make Salad

A Great and Terrible Caterwaul

Man! So this one time, a stray cat came in the back door to eat my roommate's dog's food, and we were all, "Let's shut the door and see what happens!"

This new president and his "team," it turns out, does not appear to consider our Constitution of any value. [...] Taking away our liberties and our guns, and controlling us with his new police force, handing our nation over to George Soros' group who is desperately trying to create a One World government (the World Bank is already in place as are several worldwide military forces), the United States of America is going to cease to exist if "we the people" don't demand our own government honor the Constitution which established this vestige of freedom and opportunity in the first place.

Which is to say: When you're suddenly unfree, it is incumbent upon you to lash out at any threat, real or imagined; to tear around the circumference of the room partway up the wall at mach 2, taking paint off the wall and leaving little rips in the couch; and to let out a piercing yowl that would definitely motivate us to open the back door again, hopeful that you'll go back to tending your kittens under the house and getting old boots thrown at you when you do that other creepy wail, the one you do when you're in heat.

Okay, so Carrie Prejean, Miss California, posed topless. Is this suppose to disqualify her from standing up for traditional marriage? Then, the media came out with a story about her dad being gay. So, what! This is another dirty trick of the liberal left to silence conservatives.

As for what it's "suppose" to do, I'm not sure. But I do know this: When you can't even be a bigot at gay people without attracting scrutiny suggesting you're kind of a hypocrite, howl, "To arms!" to the all the other neighborhood strays, regardless of how much flying footwear you may attract.

Because people fall short, liberals trash the principle. When President Clinton had sex with Monica, the left basically defended adultery.

The moar you know!

White House Poetry

The White House hosted a "poetry jam" (slam?) last night. Not my cup o' tea, but I still think it's pretty cool.



(photo Newscom/Sipa)

U! S! A!

What if regularly torturing a sufficient number of people kept the general population free of cancer? What then, my dear country?

ONE TIME

From ddayen

Bots With Stories

I've been followed by another one of these Bots With Stories. I like them, and they usually disappear quickly, so I've captured a screenshot.



The first one I saw, from a couple weeks back, also started with the character getting an iPhone, er, "iphone."

Expediency Horror

Eric Martin says it doesn't matter if it works:

To use a slightly more extreme example to highlight the point, if Cheney had suggested that raping (or simulating the rape of) a detainee's spouse would be an effective means of getting the information desired, should our popular discourse engage the merits of that argument?  Or, rather, should we recoil at the notion of engaging in such immoral acts for the sake of some expediency, real or imagined?

The Fox News bimbo just asked the NASA spokesman: "Sure, Hubble is important, but is it important enough to risk lives?"

You mean, like construction of buildings?

Weasel

Are we on candid camera? Who in God's name cares what John Yoo thinks about Obama's Supreme Court appointment?

RedState Has A New Hero

These people, man.

James Tiberius Kirk is back.

For those who like to give the middle finger to the world of the politically correct, buy two tickets, and settle in for a great show.

Parents who want to teach their children examples of leadership and courage — and sacrifice, take the whole family.

James Tiberius Kirk has always been a leadership role model, a character of great courage and vision and purpose.

There are far too few examples in today’s world of you-can’t-shake-hands-at-graduation because you might get a mild flu.

To those looking for an antedote to the wimpy, lets live in a risk free world, hang-wringing whiners — this movie is it.

Godwin By June

Cole catalogs Obama's wingnut characterizations:

Poor Obama. Yesterday, Kim Jong Il, today, a Dickensian villain. It is early in the month, I am betting we can go full Godwin by June.

Make, Mine and Grow Things

Mark Noonan is having trouble deciding whether to argue that the economy is bad or good, but he does share a pretty legendary encapsulation of his own view on life:

We have to cut spending, cut taxes, free up regulation and do all we can to encourage people to make, mine and grow things.

And God Said "Mine Things!"

Hinderaker Loves an Orgy Of Hatred

It's mid 2009 and John Hinderaker is still pretending to not know the difference between "terrorists" and "suspected terrorists":

The public is left with two conclusions: 1) the Democrats' main indictment of the Bush administration is that it was mean to terrorists, and 2) if terrorists pull off an attack between now and 2012, the kinder and gentler Obama administration will be to blame.

He's also still a fucking tool.

This is a terrible position for the Democrats to be in, and the wound is entirely self-inflicted. We've been waiting for a while for the Democrats to pay a price for their orgy of hatred, and it looks like they finally have.

Yes, the GOP star is rising quickly, John.

Ugh

Josh Marshall notices:

Can it really be true that the list of Americans who will appear on the Sunday shows this weekend is David Petraeus, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich and John McCain?

Satire: UR Doin' It Wrong

Hi. My Internet name is Marmot, and I am addicted to Dijongate.

It's not so much the fact that Obama went and got a hamburger with dijon mustard, or that the right has cranked another ill-conceived smear out of nothing. The really tasty component of this is how it reflects upon the thought processes of certain right-wing law professors, i.e., very badly.

Dijongate's early adopter, and maybe its father, is one William Jacobson, a blogger and clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School. Whatever the man's professional qualifications, his satire needs work. Oh! Here he is now:

Andrea Mitchell (does she have nothing else to do?) reported that Obama ordered a burger and mustard. Sounds like it had that "real guy kind of quality."

Mitchell even noted that Obama left a $5 tip in the tip jar. But she didn't mention one arugula-like fact, and you couldn't hear it on the MSNBC video because Andrea and her correspondent Kelly O'Donnel (they needed two people to cover this story) were talking so much.

[...] Actually, the quote was "you got a spicy mustard or something like that, or a Dijon mustard, something like that".

Obama ordered his burger with DIJON MUSTARD! Bet he had to seek John Kerry's counsel on that.

Ah. So he's saying MSNBC covered up the fact that Obama is a Kerry-style elitist, as evidenced by condiment choice. Alright then, nothing new here. Liberal-media conspiracy? Check. Elitism revealed through windsurfing/condiment/Frenchness? Check. I'll just straighten up this pile of paper and--

UPDATE No. 2: The cover-up is getting deeper. Here is an MSNBC website version of the video in which they cut off the audio just before the mention of Dijon mustard. [...]

UPDATE No. 3: There may be addictive behavior involved. Here is one of Obama's favorite lunch recipes:

President Obama's Tuna Salad
Tuna
Grey Poupon mustard
Mayonnaise
Chopped gherkins [...]

UPDATE No. 4: He ordered a cheddar cheese burger with Dijon Mustard on his first flight on Air Force One, and the mainstream media didn't cover it. You know the sorry state of journalism when People Magazine is the only hard news coverage [...]

Ah. OK, so he's being a little sarcastic. He's not really pissed about a shadowy MSNBC conspiracy, after all. OK. He's writing satire about newsfolks' obsession with a trivial subject. Aha. So then that stuff about elistism and condiments must've been satire too. Ahhhhh. It's true -- it's silly to cover this stuff, and the right does make too much of windsurfing, etc. Back to my pile of paper then, and--

UPDATE No. 7: It is interesting to watch how unhinged many nutroots blogs have gone over this post. One thing that seems to have gotten under their skin is the use of the Obama Hope poster theme for Grey Poupon.

Whuh? But weren't you parodying the media? Now the left is "unhinged"? What about?

[From Comments]joeyess said... Jesus H. Christ on a Segway. Is this the best a law professor from Cornell can come up with? Snide comments about Obama requesting Dijon mustard??

Ohhhhh. I see--lefties are pissed that Jacobson, a righty, seems to be alleging Obama's elistism through condiment choice, and possibly windsurfing. But this commenter is in error, right? I mean, the post is clearly about dumb media stories--

William A. Jacobson said... I think Joeyess needs to get a life and get out of the house, and if so, perhaps he'd understand a little sarcasm is a good thing. It certainly seemed to work for the left when W was in office but I guess the One is off limits.

Huh? You were being sarcastic about the dijon? So then ... you didn't really mean that you didn't think Dijon was elitist? I'm confused--

[From Comments] Jesse Taylor said... The problem is that your "sarcasm" was a major campaign tactic for W for the entirety of 2004. So, yeah, going by the W standard, you're participating in one of the dumbest "MSM"-driven stories that's ever existed.

Uhhhhh--

William A. Jacobson said... So it all gets back to Bush hatred. I should have known. There are countries in the world where people are not allowed to mock their leaders, such as Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. I must have hit a nerve here.

Blurgle? And wait a--

William A. Jacobson said... Yes, completely unhinged. The reactions to this post confirm what has been obvious for years (and decades). The most intolerant people are those on the left who claim to be tolerant. The people who hate freedom of speech the most are those on the left who claim to be in favor of free speech. If left to their own devices, we would have tens of thousands of wannabe Hugo Chavez's.

Let me see if I've got it now: Post a seeming satire of airhead TV news coverage; layer on a fake-seeming elitism smear based on condiments; wait for lefty commenters to get pissed about that neither-fake-nor-real smear, since Kerry bore its brunt due to excessive windsurfing. This proves that lefties will abolish the First Amendment.

Ah. Just so. Now if I can only straighten up--

Two regular guys out for a guy kind of meal. A script written in the White House and read by MSNBC.

But MSNBC edited out the audio when Obama ordered his Hell Burger just at the moment when Obama asked for Dijon mustard. Now I have nothing against Dijon mustard, but the image didn't fit with the image being spun by the White House and MSNBC. Dijon mustard on a Hell Burger had a very John Kerry-ish quality about it.

Hunhmung bean? So you meant that as a smear all along???? But then why parody it with updates about silly news stories?

This void in Obama's story leaves the Democratic hold on power vulnerable. One disastrous photo-op, open mike, or tape recorder left running, could puncture the Democratic bubble.

Which is why the mainstream media and nutroots need to protect Obama's image. As others have noted, the late night comics have stayed away from the usual mocking given to all prior presidents, even though Obama has provided plenty of potential material through his teleprompter dependence.

Insecurity breeds anger, and nowhere is that insecurity more evident than on left-wing blogs. Some seek to impose a new commandment, "thou shall not mock Obama." And if that means "thou shall not mock Obama's mustard," then so it is written, so it is done.

Mygodman! You've demolished that argument yourself! If the media were trying to protect Obama, then maybe the mustard story wouldn't have gotten covered. Just maybe!

In the meantime, the left is worried that you brainiacs are going to stumble upon the perfect teleprompter/windsurfing/mustard gaffe? Granted, GW Bush used that tactic plenty through two elections. But we've got serious problems not involving public speaking aids/outdoor pastimes/condiments.

Allow me to suggest alternatives. The left is pissed that you're genuinely trying to smear Obama with trivia--and you really are! Meanwhile, you guys seem to be crazy morons, and it's kind of funny.

Hey, wingnuts - anyone want to write an article bemoaning the rise of "Barack" as a name in the US?

Better Put You In Jail

Dday considers the term "preventive detention", as used by Lindsey Graham and John McCain in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal:

"Preventive detention" is a nice turn of phrase. "I think you may steal a candy bar later. Better put you in jail for a few months until everything blows over."

Malkin Panic

Apparently Hawaii has overwhelmingly passed a resolution designating September 24th "Islam Day," to recognize "the rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions" that Islam and the Islamic world have made. And Michelle Malkin's freakin' out:

There is, as far as I know, no “Christianity Day” designation in Hawaiian law, though the state did designate Good Friday a government holiday, which courts ruled was “primarily proposed to increase the frequency of legal holidays.”

Really, Michelle? You're just going to stand there and pretend you know of no "Christianity Day" holidays in Hawaii?

Figurative Wingnuttia

John Cole wonders if we haven't moved into a new era of wingnuttia, where nothing is even meant to make sense:

Dijongate—along with a great deal of what happens on Glenn Beck—doesn’t make any sense. It isn’t clear to me that it’s even supposed to make sense.

It’s been said that it’s almost impossible to follow the real plot of a Raymond Chandler novel (famously, Chander himself was unable to account for one of the bodies in the “Big Sleep”), that the books work more on the level of conveying some vague, overriding sense of corruption and decay. Is wingnuttia moving away from simple easy-to-follow diatribes about Islamofascism and soc-ial-ism and towards more vague, inscrutable, doomy stuff? Or am I getting carried away here? I can’t help but feel that the whole texture of wingnuttia is starting to feel different these days. And that more generally, any kind of mythology eventually moves towards forms that cannot be understood on a literal level.

Your Mission Today

Dear Wingnuts: Your mission today is to defend Jack Bauer and Bristol Palin. Go!

"Strongest"

As we say so often, these people are beyond parody. Here's the first line of a new post from the legendary Mark Noonan:

If you’re a Democrat surveying the scene you’ll swiftly note that the two strongest possible challengers to Obama in 2012 are Governors Sarah Palin (R-AK) and Bobby Jindal (R-LA).

I just gave yet another $50 to the Save-Obama-From-The-Ooh-Scary-Ascendent-Palin/Jindal Committee.

Shorter Gateway Pundit

Above: filename is "Venice3.jpg", extra salt-of-the-Earth

Obama at Ray's Hell Burger Diner: "You Got a Dijon Mustard" (Video)

• Faggots eat Dijon mustard

Reasoned Debate Topic

I give a hearty "fuck yeah!" to this from The Poor Man Institute:

It’s interesting that folks such as Shlaes, Will, and Hiatt think that mean bloggers are afraid to debate them.  I’ve been running a very mean blog for over 7 years now, and never once has anyone from the Washington Post editorial page or the surrounding environs ever tried to engage me, except when dismissing mean bloggers en masse.  Anyway, I’m not mean, I’m just misunderstood, fuckface.  Any time you want to engage in a civil, reasoned debate on issue: You Are A Bunch Of Lying Hack Wankers Who Whine Like Tiny Wee Little Girls Every Time You Get Called Out On It, feel free to drop in.  My door will always be open.

Obin by Florentz (1000+)

I've really loved a lot of John Scalzi's work, including older short stories like Agent To The Stars, but I actually didn't care for his latest, Zoe's Tale. I found it sort of excruciating reading John envision a teenage girl's attitudes. Some may feel he succeeded well, but I just found it forced and awkward.

Nonetheless, I really really love this French cover for the book, courtesy of artist Didier Florentz. If you've read the book, or some of the previous ones - that's an Obin.



I must admit, though, that Zoe herself looks a bit like Yuna from Final Fantasy.

Lecture

Sadly No summarizes RedState's latest strategy:

Americans think we’ve gone nuts. Let’s tell Americans to shut up and send our failed candidates out to lecture them.

Evening of Fun

Oh, this sounds like a heart-warming night: American Muslims' motives debated at meeting of Fort Worth Republicans:

What are the intentions of Muslims in America? A local activist told a Republican club Monday night that Muslims are intent on overthrowing America. But the Tarrant County medical examiner, who is Muslim, denounced such remarks as hate speech.

Dorrie O'Brien was booked months ago to speak to the North Tarrant Republican Club. She riled local Muslims last month when she delivered a speech to a Republican club in Hurst in which she said most or all American Muslims support terrorism.

Oh, dear.


McCain rally attendee Gayle Quinnell: "He's An Arab!"

Go For it

Okay, wingnuts, we're all laughing at Joe the Plumber again. I fucking dare you to come to his aid. Tell me he's a victim of Political Correctness, and that it's his religious freedom to say he needs to keep queers away from his family!

More Party of Joe

Hey, GOP, please keep your party of Joe the Plumber front and center! Joe today:

I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children.

Where Have All The Commie Hunters Gone?

Scott Johnson at Power Line wishes people would hate Pete Seeger more.

"Your Income Redistribution... Doesn't Jive with the Constitution"

News from Powerline:

Kathleen Stewart is a jazz singer who lives in Michigan. She and her brother are conservatives; he is a lyricist and she writes and performs music. At her web site, you can download her internet smash "It Ain't Your Money to Spend," written in response to the "stimulus" bill, for free, and other tunes like "Just Say 'No' to Socialism" for 99 cents. Kathleen has recorded enough songs for a CD soon to be released under the title "Take Back America."

Oh my. If you have the guts, have a listen.

Warren Buffett, Socialist

Warren Buffett hates capitalism.

Buffett defended federal efforts to support the economy, ranging from last fall's financial rescues to the the $787 billion stimulus plan enacted earlier this year.

"Government does need to step in," Buffett said, referring to the 6% contraction of the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Poisining

Perhaps this is what O'Reilly was referring to? The Economist writes about the Obama derangement syndrome:

It is hard to judge so early in the game what the rise of anti-Obama sentiment means for the Obama presidency. Bush-hatred eventually spread from a molten core of leftists to set the cultural tone of the country. But Obama-hatred could just as easily do the opposite and brand all conservatives as a bunch of Obama-hating cranks.

What is clear is that the rapid replacement of Bush-hatred with Obama-hatred is not healthy for American politics, particularly given the president’s dual role as leader of his party and head of state. A majority of Republicans (56%) approved of Jimmy Carter’s job performance in late March 1977. A majority of Democrats (55%) approved of Richard Nixon’s job performance at a comparable point in his first term. But today polarisation is almost instant, thanks in part to the growing role of non-negotiable issues such as abortion in American politics, in part to the rise of a media industry based on outrage, and in part to a cycle of tit-for-tat demonisation. This is not only poisoning American political life. It is making it ever harder to solve problems that require cross-party collaboration such as reforming America’s health-care system or its pensions. Unfortunately, the Glenn Becks of this world are more than just a joke.

Shorter Bill O'Reilly

Obama Derangement

• I'm a moderate.

Trust Us, We're Armed Insurgents

Above: Two If By Mittens

Oh, what's this? An article at CNN called

Republicans kick off campaign to shine party image

I wonder how they're going to do that?

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists," he told the overwhelmingly Republican crowd, saying the Republicans needed to "once again lead the American Revolution."

Sweet strategy, Mittens!

Wimpie Fo Sho

Sadly, No:

Eggs today are better than chickens tomorrow.” - Latin Proverb

Segue Impossible

Thinking about the lowly Krauthammers of the world, I went looking for a good video from the Subhumans. You see where I was going with that. Anyway, I came back with this under my arm.

Powerful Like a Cabbage Hammer

In an impressive display of toughness, Charles Krauthammer promotes a policy of inflicting agony, fear and panic on suspects who can't defend themselves.

Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances. The first is the ticking time bomb. [...] The second exception to the no-torture rule is the extraction of information from a high-value enemy in possession of high-value information likely to save lives.

Well, as long as you've got such well-defined criteria. What could possibly go wrong?

Zubaydah has become accustomed to a certain level of treatment and displays no signs of willingness to disclose further information. Moreover, your intelligence indicates that there is currently a level of ‘chatter’ equal to that which preceded the September 11 attacks.

Chatter sure sounds like a ticking time bomb to me! It sounded like one to Jay Bybee from Bush's Office of Legal Counsel, so he wrote that memo to justify torturing Zubaydah. The joke was really on Zubaydah, though -- apparently he'd already volunteered useful information under conventional interrogation! It is to laugh!

We discovered, for example, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah also told us about Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber. This experience fit what I had found throughout my counterterrorism career: traditional interrogation techniques are successful in identifying operatives, uncovering plots and saving lives.

Well, there has to be a good reason Krauthammer is doing his part for barbarism. I mean, since everyone everywhere understands that only The Bad Guys use torture ...

It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse.

That's from pseudonymous Matthew Alexander's editorial in Krauthammer's own paper. But seriously, all he did was lead an interrogations team assigned to a Special Operations task force in Iraq in 2006.

Sarcasm aside, it's hard for me to tarnish despicable people by associating them with Krauthammer. Absent any evidence that torture is a net positive, and with plenty of evidence that it's the last fucking thing on Earth that a good country should do, Krauthammer scrambles for a way to punish his enemies. The man has something wrong with his brain. I suspect right-wing authoritarianism:

1. Authoritarian submission — a high degree of submissiveness to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives.
2. Authoritarian aggression — a general aggressiveness directed against deviants, outgroups, and other people that are perceived to be targets according to established authorities.
3. Conventionalism — a high degree of adherence to the traditions and social norms that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities.