Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Defending the Indefensible

First up: Bill Donohue on Larry King says that these priests aren't really pedophiles, since most of the boys they abused were post-pubescent. And of course, the real problem with the church is, wait for it. . . .The gays! What a shock! The seething ragetard thinks the gays are the problem!



I can not for the life of me understand why American Catholics allow this hateful moron to speak for them. If I were a Catholic, I would punch Bill Donohue in the dick. Actually, I would anyway, just on principle.

Next, Ross Douthat who is somehow allowed to write for the actual, honest-to-god New York Times, blames the Seventies. Really.

http://www.bookmark2007.com/photos/Ross%20Douthat.jpg(This picture is not doctored or photo-shopped, he really does look like this!)

In reality, the scandal implicates left and right alike. The permissive sexual culture that prevailed everywhere, seminaries included, during the silly season of the ’70s deserves a share of the blame, as does that era’s overemphasis on therapy. (Again and again, bishops relied on psychiatrists rather than common sense in deciding how to handle abusive clerics.)



Batting third, it's perennial asshole Newt Gingrich defending people who have made death threats to congressmen and senators who voted for healthcare:

http://img.timeinc.net/time/quotes/2007/07/0730_gingrich.jpg
“I’m happy to condemn any effort to engage in personal threats," Gingrich says. "But I think that the Democratic leadership has to take some real responsibility for running a machine that used corrupt tactics that bullied people and enraged much of the American People.”


So, yeah, I really don't like people making death threats, but I gotta say they had it coming. And this is a guy who is probably going to run for president making this morally bankrupt and completely disingenuous argument.

And in the cleanup spot, it's some horrid little person named Monica Crowley writing in the Washington Times in defense of the cop-killer Hutaree Militia:
http://www.complex.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/crowley.jpg
The Democrats handle dissent by isolating it, smearing it and delegitimizing it in order to crush it. The warning should be clear: If you have small-government, traditional values, you may be considered by your own leadership to be an enemy of the state.

As if on cue, this week, Homeland Security, the FBI and the Department of Justice's Joint Terrorism Task Force carried out raids against a purported "Christian militia group" in the Midwest. According to reports, nine people have been charged with plotting to kill police officers with "weapons of mass destruction." The indictment describes the group as an "anti-government extremist organization" and the FBI special agent in charge, Andrew Arena, cast it as "radical and fringe." That may be, but the description has a conveniently familiar ring to it.

It's mind-blowingly coincidental that these raids on a supposedly "Christian" militia group would come at the exact moment that Democrats were trying to change public opinion on Obamacare by claiming persecution by their opponents. They have cast Tea Partiers, conservatives, independents, Christians and militia members as all cut from the same unstable, volatile cloth. How can anyone take their opposition to the Democrats' agenda seriously when they're toting guns and being raided by Homeland Security and the FBI? They're all nuts, don't you know?


Oh, it's just awful how these poor little "Christian" folks are being smeared by the big bad Obama administration. All they wanted to do was kill a few cops and ignite a civil war! And for that, they're being portrayed as dangerous and unstable? It's all just so unfair!

Ruining Sarah's Joke

So, How





Um, OK I guess.  So far. You know, not too bad.

Wait, What?

Gawd, Mom! Your jokes never work!


But he was supposed to say. . .




Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Hold On, Ladies! The Solution to All Your Problems is On the Way!

Teri Hatcher to the Rescue!

NEW YORK (AP) — Teri Hatcher is launching a Web project titled
"A Chick's Guide to Life."
Hatcher said the site will offer "solutions to the needs and obligations of today's modern woman."


Because who knows more about the problems that average women face than Teri Hatcher?
http://people.virginia.edu/~sgv6f/Hius_316/images/Housewives1_468x502.jpg

Get ready for sage advice from someone who once played Lois Lane, and was on an episode of Seinfeld!

Here are a few sneak previews that I totally made up:

Trouble with your kids? Why not hire a separate nanny for each?

Struggling to lose weight? Maybe your personal trainer should be coming to your house twice a day? Or maybe your dietician needs to have a word with your kitchen staff!

Money woes? Don't be afraid to make a quick buck doing made-for-TV movies. Lifetime is always hiring!

Can't decide between the Mercedes and the Lexus? Why not get both?


http://www.virginmedia.com/images/1bondgirl-gal-elektra.jpg

And don't miss Teri's tips on making love with Pierce Brosnan! (hint: think handcuffs!)

Monday, March 29, 2010

Fuck You, CNN

What the hell is CNN doing putting lying libelist Erick Erickson on the air?

And then letting him toss out these patrhetic little explanations for his disgusting comments, like "I meant to call someone else Joseph Goebels," or I've grown up since I called David Souter a "goat-fucking child molester?"

And then you just sit there and accept his complete bullshit at face value and pretend like he isn't a complete asshole?



Erick Erickson adds nothing to the political discourse except vulgarity, name-calling and dishonesty. CNN used to have standards. Ted Turner must be rolling over in his what, ranch? farm? wherever it is he's living out in Montana or whatever. Come back, Ted. We need you.

Oh, and since I have yet to mature as a blogger, it is apparently Okay for me to state that Erick Erickson is a baby-murdering kitten rapist. Which he totally is. Raped a kitten yesterday, just to whet his appetite for infanticide. Erick Erickson. Kills babies. Can I be on CNN now?

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Under The weather

The Chaos Compound has been hit with an outbreak of flu-like symptoms, which we can only assume was caused by some sort of biological weapon introduced by our enemies. We're on to you, haters of goodness! You won't get away with this!

Hopefully, we'll be back up and at it tomorrow or the next day.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

I Am So Sick Of This Argument

I don't know why I keep hearing this argument:

Health Care Is Not a Right

By Leonard Peikoff, Ph.D.

. . . Now our only rights, the American viewpoint continues, are the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. According to the Founding Fathers, we are not born with a right to a trip to Disneyland, or a meal at Mcdonald's, or a kidney dialysis (nor with the 18th-century equivalent of these things).


(This particular example is from a paper given in opposition to the Clinton Healthcare plan in 1993 Interesting that he added the right to "property" which was actually edited out of the final Declaration of Independence because the Founding Fathers knew it would make them look kinda like greedy dicks, and the Declaration was nothing if not a PR move. But I digress)

Health Care is not a right

By: Iain Murray and Roger Abbott
Washington Examiner
11/17/09 5:10 PM EST



Health Care is NOT a Right
By Jake Towne


Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in eastern Pennsylvania's 15th district in 2010.

Anyway, you get the point. I keep hearing people say "healthcare is not a right, and blah,blah,blah. . ." and it's driving me crazy.

First off, who says it's not a right? I think that's probably a point on which reasonable people might be able to disagree, but if you have the right to LIFE, why not health? How much life are you going to have if you can't get to a doctor when you're sick? How much pursuing of happiness are you going to be able to do?

But, for the sake of argument, let's say that healthcare isn't a right. Who fucking cares? Do you think there's a Constitutional right to paved roads? No, but no one objects to the government providing paved roads (except maybe the nihilist wankers at the Ayn Rand Institute)
Is there any guarantee of the right to public libraries? Or mail delivery? Why don't the teabaggers decry the Postal Service as an at6tack on our basic liberties? Why isn't the library being picketed by rednecks in tri-corner hats shouting about Communazis and death camps? I think it's because once people get used to a government-supplied service, they realize that they like it. It may even occur to them that paving roads is a good use of their tax dollars and not something which they could really pull off themselves.
What the "not a right" freaks either don't understand, or ignore, is that in a Democratic system, the job of the government is to do whatever we decide we fucking want it to do. Libertarian types like to prattle on about how the job of the government is to provide police and an army and maybe a couple of other things, but anything they don't like is "not the job of the government." Bullshit! The government works for us, we can tell it to do whatever we want (within Constitutional limits, but even the Constitution can be amended.) If the majority of Americans want the government to give out ice cream cones and puppies to all the good little boys and girls, then that, by God, becomes the job of the government. And if a majority want the government to stop paving roads and delivering the mail, then those services would no longer be the government's job. I know, it's a little more complicated than that, because we're a republic, not a democracy, but that's basically how it works. And all the screaming, wailing and teabagging in the world won't change that.

The Dogfood Ad that Made my head Explode

The last couple of days, I've been seeing this ad for some brand of fancy-schmancy dogfood that begins with the line "You wouldn't give your family dry food from a bag, so why would you give it to your dog?"

Seriously? Why would I give it to the dog? Maybe because he's, um, a dog? Maybe because, left to his own devices he'd be eating the squirrels that get run over in the street, then gnawing on a bone that has been buried in the dirt for six months? Maybe because when dry food is placed in front of him, he's on it like me on Haagen Dazs?


Or maybe because of this?

Prevent Stool Eating Any owner who catches their dog eating stool is sure to be disgusted at least, wondering what could bring their family pet to resort to such a nasty habit. Yes, it's gross to humans. No, it doesn't mean your dog is abnormal.

Who is the target market for this product? Are there really that many people out there who think, "Well, gosh, the dog should be treated at least as well as my own flesh and blood offspring?" Or are there just some snooty fucking dogs out there who are too good for regular dog food?




Houndsworth Van Doggington pooh-poohs your wretched table sraps!

And then the ad ends by telling you to look for their product in your grocer's refrigerated pet food section. I'm telling you, if your grocer has a refrigerated pet food section, you need a new grocer, cuz you're getting ripped off.


For the record, I love doggies. All doggies should be treated nicely, cared for, fed well and loved. But come on!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Before Everyone Gets All Worked Up

about Joe Biden dropping an F-Bomb, take a minute to remember this:

The More Things Change. . .


http://i.imgur.com/reOAh.jpg A cartoon from 1934.
A cartoon from 1934.

A New Scary Theory

Since something like 25% of Republicans apparently believe that Barack Obama might really be the Anti-Christ, it seems no less crazy to wonder:

Could Al Gore Be The USHER?

Check it out:




Is it just me, or is the similarity eerie?
It is just me?
Oh. OK. Never mind.

Island Disappears


Disputed isle in Bay of Bengal disappears into sea

NEW DELHI – For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island's gone.


Or so Al Gore would have us believe! (Dramatic music:Dum Da Dummm!!!)

http://www.closermag.fr/storage/images/biographies/_images/al-gore/6546-1-fre-FR/Al-Gore_closer_star_large.jpg
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! The fools! And all I had to do was melt a few glaciers, raising the level of the ocean and covering an island! And they bought it hook, line and sinker!
Yes my plans are all coming to fruition, soon I shall be the, um, what was it exactly that I was supposed to have gained by making up the concept of global warming and then convincing every legitimate scientist in the world to go along with my scam, and then actually warming the globe so that the globe appeared to be warming? Well, whatever it is that I'm supposed to gain from this giant scheme, I will soon have it! It will be mine!!!! A-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!! And there's nothing you can do about it Mr. Bond!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Please, just shut up. I can't take it anymore.

McCain: Don't expect GOP cooperation on legislation for the rest of this year




http://img.timeinc.net/time/quotes/2007/09/0904_mccain.jpg


"There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year," McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. "They have poisoned the well in what they've done and how they've done it."


I'm sorry, am I to understand that what we've seen from the Republicans this last year or so has been "cooperation?" You know, this bill was gutted of everything that would have made it worthwhile to try to please you assclowns and all you did was piss all over the process, drum up phony outrage and spread outright lies about bullshit like "death panels."

You were sitting in the passenger seat, you grabbed the wheel and ran the car into a tree then complained that you weren't allowed to drive. So I hope you're right for once. I hope there is no more cooperation, since it seemed to be a one-way street anyway. I hope that Harry Reid grows a pair and starts actually ramming legislation down your throats. You don't deserve to be involved in the process. You've shown yourselves to be completely irresponsible, obstructive whiners whose only goal is your opponents' failure.

You guys have been pretty upfront about your motivations for stopping healthcare reform.
South Carolina dickweed Jim DeMint said that if they could stop the healthcare bill "it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." Not "we need to stop this bill because it's a bad idea." No, you had to try to stop a bill that would give millions of Americans better access to doctors and medicines because it would be politically advantageous. So fuck Jim DeMint, he's not allowed at the grownups' table anymore.
http://blog.buzzflash.com/files/images/demint.jpg

And remember Orin Hatch? He said that the bill had to be stopped because it would make the Democrats too strong. (really!) Party politics is more important than the health of the American citizenry? Fuck you, Hatch. You don't get to be involved in any discussion of substance anymore.

If you had complaints about the actual content of the bill, like the cost or whatever, you had your opportunities to register your objections, but you opted to scream and whine about socialism and health rationing and killing grandma. If you're not going to take this shit seriously, then why the hell should you be involved? The majority gets to pass the laws it wants to. If the people don't like those laws, they can vote the bums out and send in a new batch of bums to enact different laws. That's the way a Republic works. That's the way America works. You all seemed to have no trouble grasping the concept when you were in the majority. Well, now the people have sent in a different group of bums because they didn't like what you bums were doing. That's the system. Grow the fuck up and deal with it. Either put on your big boy pants and try to participate constructively, or shut the hell up and stay out of the way.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Things I Learned in Mexico

1) No matter what part of the world you go to, if there is a beach, there will be middle-aged European men in Speedos.

http://www.tvgasm.com/shows/images/americasnexttopmodel/s12/NigelFatGuyAnime050109.jpg
Oh, yeah. She likes what she sees!

2) A Mexican Bus Driver Joke:
A priest dies and appears at the Pearly Gates. As St Peter begins to welcome him, he suddenly says, "stand aside, father, this man goes first, for he was a Mexican bus driver."
The priest says, "why does he go ahead of me? I was a priest. I said the mass every Sunday of my life!"
And St Peter replies "Ah, yes, but while you said the Mass, no one was praying, they all slept. But when he drove his bus, no one slept, they were all praying!"

(That joke was told by a tour guide on the way to the Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza. His name was Ivan and he was really cool.)

3) The origin of the name "Yucatan"
According to tour guide Ivan, the name comes from the first Spaniards to land on what is now called the Yucatan Peninsula. The story goes that the Spanish asked the locals "What do you call this place?" The locals, of course, spoke not a word of Spanish and answered in Mayan "I don't understand you." Which sounds something like "Yoo Ka Ton" in Mayan. This story is probably not true, it was apparently started by Cortez and may have been an effort at ridiculing his rival Velasquez, but I like to think that it's true anyway.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AvzN0Ty3QcQ/SbME3Z5JQPI/AAAAAAAAAD4/TrIeKgCT9T0/s400/Conquistadors%2BDad%2BPainting.jpg

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Viva Mexicats!

This will be my last post for about a week, as the Chaos Compound will be relocating to Mexico until next Sunday. (laying low until the heat dies down)

http://abrooklynlife.com/photos/uncategorized/sombrero1.jpg


Meanwhile, please enjoy Los Gatos en Sombreros!
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dS0Ru8uWu0s/SoOXfr9M90I/AAAAAAAAB1g/kpmRTbW99SQ/s400/il_fullxfull.84575436.jpg

http://corndogger.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/keyboard-cat-mexican-gato.jpg

http://www.slowtravtours.com/images/planning/cat_sombreros.jpgAdios para aqui y hasta la vista!

Maybe the Dumbest Argument Ever

I thought that the Thomas Sowell column of a couple days ago might have contained the dumbest argument ever when he posited the claim that if healthcare were made affordable, people would go to the doctor at the drop of a hat:

Back when the "single payer" was the patient, people were more selective in what they spent their own money on. You went to a doctor when you had a broken leg but not necessarily every time you had the sniffles or a skin rash. But, when someone else is paying, that is when medical care gets over-used. . . Both waiting lines and waiting lists grow longer when people with sniffles and minor skin rashes take up the time of doctors, while people with cancer are waiting.


Because, sure, once people have decent insurance, they will just take every opportunity to take time off of work, drive to the doctor's office, fill out paperwork, sit for 45 minutes reading year-old Golf Digests, then wait another 30 minutes half-naked in an examining room to be poked and prodded by nurses and technicians before the doctor finally comes in an tells you take Tylenol and get plenty of rest. People just LOVE going to the doctor. I know I can't wait to turn my head and cough!

But, no. This, I think is even dumber.
From the New York Daily News.com:

Can the Smoker in Chief really lead America in health care reform?

Wednesday, March 10th 2010, 4:00 AM


With President Obama making his final push for health care reform, I ask you to consider the following "If, Then" theorem: If our health is the President's business, then the President's health should be our business.


Okay, couple things. First, the President is not claiming that our health is his business. He's just trying to find a way to make it possible for more people to be able to see adoctor when they need one. (so far, not doing a great job, but. . .)

Second, even if your premise were true, that doesn't mean that the inverse would be. That's like saying, since the president is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, shouldn't the Armed Forces be commander in chief of the president?

(I don't know why everything is getting underlined, and I don't know how to make it stop)

The recent revelation that Obama still sneaks a cigarette now and then, contributing to an industry that costs us more than $167 billion a year in lost productivity and health care, and gambling with a substance that kills more Americans every year than anything else, means that the issue deserves a healthy debate (pun intended).

Yeah, sure. The president's personal habits are so super totally relevant to the debate over healthcare. And I can tell that the pun was intended because of your earlier attempt at humor, which I was just going to ignore, but, now...


Alas, I chose to commune with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of the art history department instead - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.

There's an outside chance that that joke might have come off as slightly clever if it wasn't common knowledge that the turle characters were named after Rennaissance artists.
But even then, it's pretty weak.


http://www.scubaduba.com/robinson/2_turtles.jpg

So let's consider the following arguments:

* The President's push for health care is disingenuous.

In June 2009, he called the sweeping tobacco legislation that he passed "a victory for health care reform" and "a step that will save lives and dollars." Whether Obama's main interest in passing health care reform in America is to save lives or save dollars - and it has been both over the past year - one could argue that a President who smokes isn't really doing much of either.

Really? Let's say that he actually outlawed tobacco. But he kept his own private stash of cigarettes for extra-stressful days. Now Joe Smoker can't get cigarettes and has to quit, so he ends up avoiding lung cancer. And so do a bunch of other Joe and Jane smokers. Would the president's occasional smoke break diminish that? Would you really say, lung cancer is down 90% in the US, but since the president still has a puff now and then, it doesn't count? Well, you probably would, but would a sane person?

* But the President has rights, too, and smoking isn't illegal.

Libertarians and some conservatives will argue that the President should be able to do what he wants in private, as long as he doesn't break any laws. Whether he refuses to buckle up in the back of his limo, throws back his body weight in bourbon every night or wolfs down three Big Macs a day, how he treats his body is arguably his business.

View Image


Arguably? Would you really have to be a crazy libertarian to think that the president can eat whatever he fucking wants? He's an adult for God's sake. What he puts in his body is no one's business but his.


* Well, sure. But his body isn't just any body.

Even far-right Republicans like me are still patriots, and want the President to live a long, healthy life, especially while serving our country. His continued health, therefore, is important, and maintaining it should be one of Obama's priorities. In fact, he owes it to us to take care of himself. He isn't a private citizen anymore.

Oh, my God, your concern is so touching. Yeah, let's pretend that far-right Republicans haven't been upfront about praying for Obama to die. (really) (no, really) (seriously) Even if you're not one of those extreme assholes, do you really expect anyone to believe that you give a flying ratfuck about Obama's health?

* Obama's habit makes the health care bill hypocritical.

"The time for talk is over," as he said, all jacketless and fiery, at a speech this week. He wants an up-or-down vote on the Democrats' bill, which promises to change your life, whether you like it or not. From potential violations of privacy to ethical concerns over abortion funding and constitutional questions about penalizing Americans who don't buy insurance, the President is inviting the government into your private life in unprecedented ways. So maybe we should invite ourselves into his.


Change your life!!! By maybe making it somewhat easier to afford medical insurance? Oh, the heavy yoke of tyranny! And what potential violations of privacy are you talking about? Can you back up that claim at all? Give one example? No? Anything? Yeah, I didn't think so. But even if you could, what the fuck would that have to do with the President smoking?

The debate doesn't bring much in the way of closure. I for one see compelling threads of truth in every point. The only thing I know for sure is that we need health care reform, but this isn't the answer.

So this whole column was just to fill up space until you got the requisite number of words and then end with the current agreed-upon talking point for anti-healthcare folks wasn't it? You people have given up on the whole "we have the best system in the world, don't change a thing" theme, right? And now you're all conceding that, "well, we do need some sort of change, but not this particular one, because, um, Look Out! Nazis!"
Pathetic!



















Thursday, March 11, 2010

Miss Him Yet?

This picture of a billboard in Minnesota has been making the rounds lately:

Billboard near the Twin Cities, MN by wstera2.

And I thought, yeah I sure do!
You know the new guy has been in office for over a year and has yet to invade a single country? He still hasn't declared any of our Constitutional rights optional. He hasn't, as far as I know, authorized any new forms of torture, or any warrantless wiretaps. He still hasn't claimed the ability to declare US citizens "enemy combatants," or any other made-up term and decide that habeus corpus will just not apply to them. I mean, what the hell? What has he been doing all this time? He certainly hasn't been clearing brush or reading My Pet Goat, the book so important that national crises will just have to wait until you're finished.

But anyway, I figured that this billboard just represented the viewpoint of one nutty Minnesotan, and no respectable person would share this opinion.
Apparently, the New York Times does not consider respectability to be a prerequisite for appearing on its op-ed pages, cuz look:

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Do You Miss Him Yet?

Stanley Fish


I know you’re not supposed to, but I just love to say I told you so.

What I told you back on Sept. 28, 2008, was that within a year of the day he left office George W. Bush would come to be regarded with affection and a little nostalgia.


Yeah, if you had said that he would be regarded with affection and nostalgia by some nut in Minnesota, then you'd be within your rights to gloat, but most people have the same low opinion of Bushie as they did when he left office.

Well it’s a bit more than a year now and signs of Bush’s rehabilitation are beginning to pop up. One is literally a sign, a billboard that appeared recently on I-35 in Minnesota. Occupying the right side (from the viewer’s viewpoint) is a picture of Bush smiling genially and waving his hand in a friendly gesture. Occupying the left side is a simple and direct question: “Miss me yet?”


Like a said, some nut in Minnesota. Do you have any polling data that says that people in general are feeling more forgiving of Dubya?

The image is all over the Internet, hundreds of millions of hits, and unscientific Web-based polls indicate that more do miss him than don’t.

Oh, well if the polls are unscientific AND Internet-based, they're bound to be relevant!

Oh, and you know who else has millions of hits? Charlie.



I know you said"hundreds of millions" of hits, but I don't believe you.

A perhaps more substantial sign incorporates a sign famous (or infamous) in the Bush presidency. The March 8 cover of Newsweek reproduces the famous 2003 photograph of Bush on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Lincoln. The president is in the left of the picture, striding away from the famous banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished.”


Wow, the cover of Newsweek. He can now join the exalted ranks of those who have graced the cover of Newsweek, like:

http://www.contextfurniture.com/images/covers_newsweek.jpgJohnny Depp,

http://www.googlecommunity.com/upload/040717_COVER.jpgThe I-Pod,

http://library.lmu.edu/Assets/Academic+Affairs+Division/Von+der+Ahe+Library/Reference/newsweek.JPGFacebook,

http://everybodyskatesnj.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/newsweek.jpgand a guy with autism.

It is a story that intersects with another, the story of the precipitous decline in Barack Obama’s support and of a growing suspicion, found on the left as well as on the right, where it is much more than a suspicion, that the politics of change may have been a slogan with less promise in its future than “Mission Accomplished.” (The imminent passage of a health care bill keeps being predicted, but so far no “victory at last.”)
Meanwhile, Bush’s policies came to seem less obviously reprehensible as the Obama administration drifted into embracing watered-down versions of many of them.


No, they still seem just as reprehensible, that's partly why Obama's approval ratings are down.
Are you really arguing that people are starting to miss Bush because Obama is doing a lot of the same things as Bush? And also, that people are disillusioned with Obama because he's too Bush-like?

How do you come up with this ridiculous argument? People are mad at Obama for being like Bush, whom they hate, and Obama's similarities to Bush make people miss Bush. If people miss Bush, wouldn't Obama's popularity increase in proportion to his similarity to Bush?

And now, right on schedule, Bush has resurfaced (just as I imagined him doing a year ago last September ) to join Bill Clinton in a humanitarian relief effort. He is officially a member in good standing of the ex-presidents club


So was Nixon.

and the longer he lives the more his reputation will be burnished. To be sure, his post-presidency resume is still thin, but we can expect it to be beefed up by good deeds, ceremonial appearances and the activities that will surround the building and opening of his library at Southern Methodist University.


Good deeds? Where the hell would you get that idea? When has Dubya ever done anything for anyone but Dubya or his cronies? What would you consider a "good deed?" Taking a few minutes between collecting 6-figure speaking fees from wingnut organizations to ask people to contribute to Haiti? You wanna see an ex-president doing good deeds? Watch Jimmy Carter build houses for Habitiat. Making nice for the TV cameras after a tragedy doesn't really compare. That's not a good deed, that's PR.

We’ll see Bush the tour guide and Bush the patron of historical scholarship and, perhaps, even Bush the seminar leader.


Tour guide? What the hell? Where would he be giving guided tours? You think if you go to his presidential library, he's gonna be showing folks around?
And patron of historical scholarship? That would be the death-knell of history in America. Seriously, no one, even the most ardent Bushie has ever used the words "Bush" and "scholarship" in the same sentence.

And the judgment of history? He will not go to the top of the list, but neither will he be the figure of fun and derision he seemed destined to be only a year ago.


Oh, hey, don't sell the man short! Let's start clearing some space on ount Fucking Rushmore! Squeeze over, Lincoln!
Of course he will still be the figure of derision he is now. What, is he going to get any less stupid or corrupt in the near future?

You heard it here.


Which is why I will never come here again.

At this point, I'd say I miss Corey Haim more than George W. Bush

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Ratchetting up the Crazy

Glenn, Glenn, Glenn. Shoulda seen this coming.

See, the problem with building a movement around paranoia, is that it's just a matter of time until the paranoids turn on you.

Case in point:
Pamela Geller's Latest Screed:
My PhotoI swear, this is her picture from her website!


Glenn Beck, think before you preach

Something very disturbing happened today on FOX. Glenn Beck, who has, for the most part, steered clear of jihad, sharia and Islamic supremacism, put his toe in the water, and for the first time since I started fighting the long war, I got nervous.

Okay, Glenn, I don't know what you said, but something convinced Pam Geller that you are flirting with jihad, sharia, and Islamic Supremacism. What did you say? "Allahu Akbar?" "Death to America?"


Beck just called Wilders a fascist, and far-right.


Okay, I didn't know who that was, either, so I looked it up.

From the London Daily Telegraph:

Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician, has used a visit to London to launch an attack on Islam.

And the Guardian refers to him as:
Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right anti-immigrant maverick

According to his Wikipedia page, Wilder has proposed:

Replacement of the present Article 1 of the Dutch constitution, guaranteeing equality under the law, by a clause stating the cultural dominance of the Christian, Jewish and humanist traditions.

A five-year ban on the founding of mosques and Islamic schools; Foreign imams will not be allowed to preach.

So, referring to him as "far-right" or even "fascist" doesn't seem like a real radical departure from other mainstream views of Wilder.
So, what's the problem?

What is he doing?

Why would he stigmatize Wilders this way? Wilders is the embodiment of what our founding fathers extolled. Individual rights. Freedom of speech. Not sharia law.

Freedom of speech. Except for foreign-born Imams. Individual rights, except the right to build a house of worship of your choosing. Sounds just like John Adams!

Beck is out of his depth in this. You cannot get up to speed on Europe in one crash course. The Islamic/left-wing fringe is everywhere, but what right fringe is he talking about in Europe?

Really! I don't think there is any right-wing fringe in Europe!

http://www.theotherrussia.org/images/skinheads-source-ntv.jpg
Russian Skinheads / British Union of Fascists-flag

Polish neo-fascists (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Polish neo-fascists, here with Rafal Trytek

neo-fascists-3.jpg
Neo-fascists greet election of Gianni Alemanno as Mayor of Rome in 2008

Far-Right activists give Nazi salutes to speakers arriving at the meeting in Milan attended by Bruno Gollnisch MEP, who has been convicted of Holocaust denial
Far-Right activists give Nazi salutes to speakers arriving at the meeting in Milan


Aaaanywayy. . .
You think it's just one crazy lady?
Here are some of the comments readers have left on her blog:

Haven't you heard Pam? Glenn has taken the blood money and changed sides on us. He now works for the Elites as their newest little bitch. He is spreading all types of lies these days.

He is paid by a muslim so he must make his masters happy. He also now believes in global warming. So defending islam is not even a stretch for him.

I regard both Beck and O' Rielly as sell outs along with Fox.

Glenn Beck is a fraud and a traitor. He scorns those who question Obo's eligibilty.

I'm completely disgusted with Beck. . . what good is he in fighting socialist infiltration of our government if only to pave the way for an islamic takeover?

Since Murdoch and Saudi strengthened their financial ties, Fox News has gone the way of CNN. It's over for Fox News being "fair and balanced." It's going to hell along with Murdoch, Beck, and O'Reilly, who've all sold their souls to the devil.

That's right, Glenn. The DEVIL! You made one criticism of some Dutch nutbag, and in their eyes, you've sold your soul to the devil.
Hell, even inflatable hate doll Michelle malkin has turned on you: http://www.politicususa.com/en/malkin-beck-eric-massa

So, maybe that's why you felt the need to ratchet up the crazy?

Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice


On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that "social justice," the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a "code word" for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.


Damn! You know how to bring the freakin' insanity! I can't believe I underestimated you! That is just head-spinning, pea-soup-spitting, cut-your-ear-off-and-mail-it-to-a-hooker CUH-RAZEE!

Churches who try to, say, help the poor, feed the hungry, you know, all that Jesus-y stuff, are really Commu-Nazis? Well, bark at the moon, my friend, you have kicked it up another notch!

"I'm begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. . . I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"


So, if you want the freedom to read the Bible as your church wants to preach it, LEAVE YOUR CHURCH!?!? How do you even manage to wrap your weird little Mormon head around an idea like that? Oh, Mormons. I get it. Leave your church and go to one that doesn't give a crap about social justice, like the Mormons! It's just a marketing ploy for the Mormon Church?

God damn it, Glenn! Now you've got me thinking like a conspiracy nut.
Anyway, attacking churches is probably not going to get you back into the good graces of the lunatic fringe of the far right, but I admire your chutzpah! I believe in football, that sort of play is known as a "Hail Mary." There's a pun in there somewhere, but I can't quite seem to grab hold of it.

Can't We Just Put Alan Grayson in Charge of Stuff?

Alan Grayson is my favorite member of Congress.






Limbaugh sinks to a New Low

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/limbaugh-rush-2-0608-full.jpg

So someone called in to the Oxycontin Follies show yesterday asking about Eric Massa's replacement in Congress.

Since Massa resigned mid-term (also known as "pulling a Palin") his replacement will be appointed by sorta black governor David "I fucked everybody" Patterson.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/07/pattersonny.jpg

Here's what the bloated sack of contemptuousness had to say on the subject:

"Let's assume you're right," Limbaugh responded. "So, David Paterson will become the massa...who gets to appoint whoever gets to take Massa's place. So, for the first time in his life, Paterson's gonna be a massa. Interesting, interesting."

A "massa" Joke? Seriously, a joke about slavery?
This:
is funny to you?


It will be interesting to see how the dittoheads twist this into their "Rush is not a racist" narrative.

To avoid any confusion, let me state for the record. Rush Limbaugh is a RACIST.
And an idiot.
And impotent (The Smoking Gun)




Oh, and I stumbled on to this a minute ago. Not germane to the subject at hand, but pretty much sums up the axis of arrogance and ignorance that is Limbaugh:

http://pabloonpolitics.com/images/limbaugh_CPAC.jpg