Thursday, January 14, 2010
A prime spot in Hell ...
Right next to Jerry Falwell and the rest of 'god's mouthpieces' should be reserved for Pat Robertson. Die already ...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Us v. Them
Stays on top today - G
Got a comment yesterday from reader bob plt187:
And it's been bugging me all night; at least the part of being "a far left version of the far right".
I would beg to differ, on several points.
1. Talking Points: Far right blogs regurgitate talking points from the conservatives and Republican Party without question. Regardless of how stupid or contradictory, if Rush or Billo or any other of the so-called "leaders" say it, it must be true. Here everything is questioned. It's not a question of ideology but of 'doing the right thing'.
2. The Future: The far right looks to the past, we look to the future in hopes of leaving a better place for future generations to live in, long after we're gone. The right does not care about anything but the 'here and now'. The actions of conservatives over the last 30 years, the last 8 years especially, will haunt this nation for a century or more. Now is the time to lay the foundation for a mechanism to correct those mistakes.
3. Racism: There can be no doubt the right is racist. Just a look at the demographic of the Republican Party says more than a thousand words. Listening to their words just reinforces it. When people talk about "real Americans", you know they mean "white, Christian, Americans". We are a nation of immigrants, from the days of Columbus, yet the right seems to forget that fact. Immigrants come in many different colors, speak many different languages, and worship many faiths yet, to the right, they don't qualify as Americans. We would not be "America" without a population as diverse as ours is.
4. USA Über Alles: Sorry to break it to people but we are not some kind of 'chosen land'. In the last 50 years, the world has gotten smaller and we have to learn to live with people in other nations. Imperialism is a dead ideology and we cannot go with the assumption that we can take whatever we need from whomever we want. We cannot force people to see things our way at the point of a gun. We've done that for too long and it's come back, now that the world has shrunk so, to bite us in the ass. Yes, we believe the United States is the best place to live, but we also believe that because people live in different circumstances, they aren't necessarily wrong. If we cause a ripple in the pond, it causes a tsunami in other places. We have to learn to manage our power responsibly, to make as little impact on others as possible, something the right does not see and doesn't appear to care about.
5. Gamesmanship: Unlike the right, we realize that politics is not a game. Political action has definable consequences. It's not a question of which side wins but one of doing what's best for the nation. When every other 'western' nation assures the health of their population is protected, in the most economical way, the right would deny our people that same protection. When the world is coming around to realizing people of the same sex can have mature, loving relationships and the benefits that come from it, the right would continue to deny them that happiness. To them, whatever the ideology prescribes is what should be, solely because it is opposite of what the left wants. In this land based on rights (check out the "piece of paper" called the Constitution), to deny people said rights is completely antithetical to what America is all about.
6. Science: Science is fact, or the pursuit thereof, and we realize those facts do not obey ideology. To put religious dogma on the same plane as scientific fact is ludicrous. To question evolution at this point in time is insane. To question man's effect on the planet is also. We know scientific fact transcends ideology and regardless of who wins an election, the facts will not change. Willful ignorance, by any party, is wrong and we believe that strongly.
Lastly, the term "far left" usually means Communist (not good), as opposed to "far right" meaning Fascist (also not good). I prefer the term Progressive. Progress is what brought the human race to the heights we have attained during our existence. In the past 50 years we have come farther, technologically and scientifically, than we have throughout our history. In the next 50, we will go so much farther and we have to be ready or that. We have to be ready for the vast changes that will take place and longing for the past will surely stagnate us, while others who have already grasped this will leave us behind.
The main difference between Progressives and Conservatives is we are going forward with our eyes open and staring reality straight in the face, not backing into it, looking back at the past with relish. The future will be here soon enough and unless we are open-minded about it and willing to live in it, our progress as a nation will cease, and then we will wither and die (see: Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Ottomans, the Japanese, the British et. al.). Here at the Brain, we want this great experiment known as America to thrive and prosper, now and in the future and it has nothing to do with ideology, it has to do with doing what's right and reminding our readers of that fact.
By the way, Bob, I'm proud of Gordon too and I'm glad you continue to read, regardless of how we piss you off.
Got a comment yesterday from reader bob plt187:
Sometimes you folks at this site piss me off. I think you're a far left version of the far right and I'm going to wipe you out of my computer. But, I'm addicted to your blog. Why? Because of posts like this. Good job Gordon. I'm proud of you.
And it's been bugging me all night; at least the part of being "a far left version of the far right".
I would beg to differ, on several points.
1. Talking Points: Far right blogs regurgitate talking points from the conservatives and Republican Party without question. Regardless of how stupid or contradictory, if Rush or Billo or any other of the so-called "leaders" say it, it must be true. Here everything is questioned. It's not a question of ideology but of 'doing the right thing'.
2. The Future: The far right looks to the past, we look to the future in hopes of leaving a better place for future generations to live in, long after we're gone. The right does not care about anything but the 'here and now'. The actions of conservatives over the last 30 years, the last 8 years especially, will haunt this nation for a century or more. Now is the time to lay the foundation for a mechanism to correct those mistakes.
3. Racism: There can be no doubt the right is racist. Just a look at the demographic of the Republican Party says more than a thousand words. Listening to their words just reinforces it. When people talk about "real Americans", you know they mean "white, Christian, Americans". We are a nation of immigrants, from the days of Columbus, yet the right seems to forget that fact. Immigrants come in many different colors, speak many different languages, and worship many faiths yet, to the right, they don't qualify as Americans. We would not be "America" without a population as diverse as ours is.
4. USA Über Alles: Sorry to break it to people but we are not some kind of 'chosen land'. In the last 50 years, the world has gotten smaller and we have to learn to live with people in other nations. Imperialism is a dead ideology and we cannot go with the assumption that we can take whatever we need from whomever we want. We cannot force people to see things our way at the point of a gun. We've done that for too long and it's come back, now that the world has shrunk so, to bite us in the ass. Yes, we believe the United States is the best place to live, but we also believe that because people live in different circumstances, they aren't necessarily wrong. If we cause a ripple in the pond, it causes a tsunami in other places. We have to learn to manage our power responsibly, to make as little impact on others as possible, something the right does not see and doesn't appear to care about.
5. Gamesmanship: Unlike the right, we realize that politics is not a game. Political action has definable consequences. It's not a question of which side wins but one of doing what's best for the nation. When every other 'western' nation assures the health of their population is protected, in the most economical way, the right would deny our people that same protection. When the world is coming around to realizing people of the same sex can have mature, loving relationships and the benefits that come from it, the right would continue to deny them that happiness. To them, whatever the ideology prescribes is what should be, solely because it is opposite of what the left wants. In this land based on rights (check out the "piece of paper" called the Constitution), to deny people said rights is completely antithetical to what America is all about.
6. Science: Science is fact, or the pursuit thereof, and we realize those facts do not obey ideology. To put religious dogma on the same plane as scientific fact is ludicrous. To question evolution at this point in time is insane. To question man's effect on the planet is also. We know scientific fact transcends ideology and regardless of who wins an election, the facts will not change. Willful ignorance, by any party, is wrong and we believe that strongly.
Lastly, the term "far left" usually means Communist (not good), as opposed to "far right" meaning Fascist (also not good). I prefer the term Progressive. Progress is what brought the human race to the heights we have attained during our existence. In the past 50 years we have come farther, technologically and scientifically, than we have throughout our history. In the next 50, we will go so much farther and we have to be ready or that. We have to be ready for the vast changes that will take place and longing for the past will surely stagnate us, while others who have already grasped this will leave us behind.
The main difference between Progressives and Conservatives is we are going forward with our eyes open and staring reality straight in the face, not backing into it, looking back at the past with relish. The future will be here soon enough and unless we are open-minded about it and willing to live in it, our progress as a nation will cease, and then we will wither and die (see: Egypt, Rome, Greece, the Ottomans, the Japanese, the British et. al.). Here at the Brain, we want this great experiment known as America to thrive and prosper, now and in the future and it has nothing to do with ideology, it has to do with doing what's right and reminding our readers of that fact.
By the way, Bob, I'm proud of Gordon too and I'm glad you continue to read, regardless of how we piss you off.
What to wear to the Apocalypse
Mark Morford
Much more.
Harrumph. All I've got are blue jeans, cheapass hiking shoes, 2-for-$8 Hollywoods, gimme caps, and all my hoodies are sewn into quilt-lined flannel shirts. I wouldn't want to make a fashion faux pas at the Apocalypse, so I guess I won't go.
This much we know for sure: The End Times are going to look extremely cool.
There are, from what I can tell, a few rules:
You do not wear shorts to the Apocalypse. You do not wear flipflops or capri pants or a kicky little pink halter from Betsy Johnson. You certainly don't wear skinny jeans or a nice pea coat and some Mary Janes. There are no Ugg boots at Judgment Day. Tasseled loafers? Please. Sweatpants are sort of tacky, but hoodies are widely accepted if you really must go the bleak oatmeal route. Then again, this is the apocalypse, sweetheart. Isn't it about time you got serious?
We're talking badass dusters and jet-black sunglasses and cool black boots, filthy fitted T-shirts and fingerless gloves and a few rugged industrial-strength duffel bags -- sorry hipsters, no Chrome Messengers at the Rapture -- to lug around your collection of giant sawed-off shotguns and/or enormous machetes, all of which you drive around in your mutant Hummer abomination thing -- a mammoth vehicle, by the way, that must be either black or gray or military green and never bright red or blue or in the shape of a Ford Festiva or Honda Accord or a Chrysler Town & Country. Hey, that's what Jesus drove to cart away all the slobbering faithful, and he's long gone, sucker.
Much more.
Harrumph. All I've got are blue jeans, cheapass hiking shoes, 2-for-$8 Hollywoods, gimme caps, and all my hoodies are sewn into quilt-lined flannel shirts. I wouldn't want to make a fashion faux pas at the Apocalypse, so I guess I won't go.
Headline of the Day
At BuzzFlash:
It's got a long way to go, but it's a good start.
"I have a dream, that one day we will not be judged by the color of our weed, but by the content of our bongs." Calif Assembly OKs recreational marijuana use
It's got a long way to go, but it's a good start.
A Demonic Hookup
Play this while you read, and I don't wanta hear no jokes about social diseases or All-U-Can-Eat Burrito Nite. Those things are sacred...
P.M. Carpenter with a good read on Moosebreath's inevitable deal with F**Noise and the state of what passes for journalism these days:
My take on Palin at F**? An even more ignorant Coultergeist with no Adam's apple and a nice rack.
Thanks to dreamsforevr.
P.M. Carpenter with a good read on Moosebreath's inevitable deal with F**Noise and the state of what passes for journalism these days:
As a new Fox News employee, her first words were a devilishly playful Fox News lie:
"It’s wonderful," said Sarah Palin in announcing her done deal and upcoming gig, "to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news."
The easy deconstruction of that calculated disdain is that, unmistakably, even Ms. Palin knows a schoolyard taunt from an advertising slogan, what with those double-barreled adjectives coming complete with vivid Bronx cheer and middle-digit gesture.
Welcome to our twisted snare, she was knowingly saying, where Arbeit Macht Frei. Yes, an excellent joke, Frau Palin; for you it is, I'm sure, quite wonderful indeed.
The former Alaska governor as "commentator," on the other underhand, drops us yet one more one hellish circle.
My dear Prof. Starr, I can only add that the James Callenders of yesteryear and even latter-day Westbrook Peglers were sublime models of informed bias compared to the abjectly clueless Sarah Palin.
But, as the mass-marketing genius of Roger Ailes understands, she's the new standard of huge ratings and towering profits; through that silvery electronic eye, one idiot talking to millions of idiots, reaffirming every conceivable prejudice born of profound density.
My take on Palin at F**? An even more ignorant Coultergeist with no Adam's apple and a nice rack.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Prohibition of pot feeds lawlessness
Duh...
SacBee
Even an ever-so-vigilant-not stoner couldn't let that slip by:
Please read the rest of the SacBee piece.
Not twenty minutes ago I finished watching my tape of last night's Border Wars on NatGeo which I referenced yesterday. The Border Patrol guys found weed headed north in cars - phony gas tanks, secret compartments, inside spare tires. They found 1000 pounds of it in man-packable bundles abandoned alongside a trail in the desert when the smugglers saw 'em coming.
They found tunnels from Mexico to the U.S., nicely engineered and with smooth floors so they could bring dope in on wheeled carts.
They found hundreds of thousands of dollars being smuggled back south.
They probably catch about ten percent of the dope and the dope money.
Speaking as a life-long resident of the United States' #1 (and proud of it!) marijuana producing state, this is a tremendous waste of resources.
California's economy is in the shitter. Legalizing mota i.e. letting folks burn a roadside weed and inhale the smoke legally along with the legalization of growing headache weed aka 'hemp', a renewable product with thousands of uses, would produce tax revenue, help farmers, produce jobs which produce taxpayers, eliminate a whole class of otherwise law-abiding criminals, and keep the money here in the U.S. where it belongs. A beneficial side effect would be to totally piss off the Puritans, the prison industry, the anti-fun busybodies, liquor producers, half of the half of Mexico that isn't already here and some that are, and make their heads explode. Whee!
Simple, huh?
It would also free up a lot of of Border Patrol and DEA agents whose time could then be better spent up north doing the vital homeland security work of preventing the flow of BC Bud into the U.S. and busting senior citizens re-importing cheaper meds from Canada. How hard could it be to catch a charter bus with an SUV anyway? Ooops. I take that back - some of our local Chinese gambling tour buses are absolutely uncatchable...
California leads the way. Our gearheads led the way for the nation on lakes pipes and apehangers. Here's hoping our legislators can finally lead the way on something.
SacBee
On Tuesday, members of the state Assembly will vote on California marijuana policy. The Public Safety Committee will vote on Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act, which seeks to regulate and control the production, distribution, and personal use of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.
Tuesday's vote will mark the first time since 1913, when California became one of the first states in the nation to impose criminal cannabis prohibition, that lawmakers have reassessed this failed policy.
It is high time that they do.
Even an ever-so-vigilant-not stoner couldn't let that slip by:
"It is high time that they do"...uh, so to speak;)
Please read the rest of the SacBee piece.
Not twenty minutes ago I finished watching my tape of last night's Border Wars on NatGeo which I referenced yesterday. The Border Patrol guys found weed headed north in cars - phony gas tanks, secret compartments, inside spare tires. They found 1000 pounds of it in man-packable bundles abandoned alongside a trail in the desert when the smugglers saw 'em coming.
They found tunnels from Mexico to the U.S., nicely engineered and with smooth floors so they could bring dope in on wheeled carts.
They found hundreds of thousands of dollars being smuggled back south.
They probably catch about ten percent of the dope and the dope money.
Speaking as a life-long resident of the United States' #1 (and proud of it!) marijuana producing state, this is a tremendous waste of resources.
California's economy is in the shitter. Legalizing mota i.e. letting folks burn a roadside weed and inhale the smoke legally along with the legalization of growing headache weed aka 'hemp', a renewable product with thousands of uses, would produce tax revenue, help farmers, produce jobs which produce taxpayers, eliminate a whole class of otherwise law-abiding criminals, and keep the money here in the U.S. where it belongs. A beneficial side effect would be to totally piss off the Puritans, the prison industry, the anti-fun busybodies, liquor producers, half of the half of Mexico that isn't already here and some that are, and make their heads explode. Whee!
Simple, huh?
It would also free up a lot of of Border Patrol and DEA agents whose time could then be better spent up north doing the vital homeland security work of preventing the flow of BC Bud into the U.S. and busting senior citizens re-importing cheaper meds from Canada. How hard could it be to catch a charter bus with an SUV anyway? Ooops. I take that back - some of our local Chinese gambling tour buses are absolutely uncatchable...
California leads the way. Our gearheads led the way for the nation on lakes pipes and apehangers. Here's hoping our legislators can finally lead the way on something.
Yurp reducks...
A follow-up to Fixer's post just below and the excellent link therein.
Paul Krugman
Besides, some of those places have really good food and beer! Some of 'em even give you a choice - good food or good beer...
Geez, what a concept...
Paul Krugman
As health care reform nears the finish line, there is much wailing and rending of garments among conservatives. And I’m not just talking about the tea partiers. Even calmer conservatives have been issuing dire warnings that Obamacare will turn America into a European-style social democracy. And everyone knows that Europe has lost all its economic dynamism.
Strange to say, however, what everyone knows isn’t true. Europe has its economic troubles; who doesn’t? But the story you hear all the time — of a stagnant economy in which high taxes and generous social benefits have undermined incentives, stalling growth and innovation — bears little resemblance to the surprisingly positive facts. The real lesson from Europe is actually the opposite of what conservatives claim: Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works.
Actually, Europe’s economic success should be obvious even without statistics. For those Americans who have visited Paris: did it look poor and backward? What about Frankfurt or London? You should always bear in mind that when the question is which to believe — official economic statistics or your own lying eyes — the eyes have it.
Besides, some of those places have really good food and beer! Some of 'em even give you a choice - good food or good beer...
So why do we get such a different picture from many pundits? Because according to the prevailing economic dogma in this country — and I’m talking here about many Democrats as well as essentially all Republicans — European-style social democracy should be an utter disaster. And people tend to see what they want to see.
Europe is often held up as a cautionary tale, a demonstration that if you try to make the economy less brutal, to take better care of your fellow citizens when they’re down on their luck, you end up killing economic progress. But what European experience actually demonstrates is the opposite: social justice and progress can go hand in hand.
Geez, what a concept...
Yurp ...
I've been saying it for years; they know what they're doing:
Late for work ...
...
The European Union (EU) is the world's largest and most competitive economy, and most of those living in it are wealthier, healthier, and happier than most Americans. Europeans work shorter hours, have a greater say in how their employers behave, receive lengthy paid vacations and paid parental leave, can rely on guaranteed paid pensions, have free or extremely inexpensive comprehensive and preventative healthcare, enjoy free or extremely inexpensive educations from preschool through college, impose half the per-capita environmental damage of Americans, endure a fraction of the violence found in the United States, imprison a fraction of the prisoners locked up here, and benefit from democratic representation, engagement, and civil liberties unimagined in the land where we're teased that the world hates our rather mediocre "freedoms." Europe even offers a model foreign policy, bringing neighboring nations toward democracy by holding out the prospect of EU membership, while we drive other nations away from good governance at great expense of blood and treasure.
...
Late for work ...
Thank god I'm married ...
Because I might have run into this woman and actually asked her to the dinner she describes. I probably would have got up and left after the aperitif though.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Quote of the Day: Hell Freezes Over Edition
Maru (of course):
Heh ...
Seeing his home-state poll numbers sink like Lindsey Graham on a Cub Scout, the principled and courageous Joe Lieberman turns around and defends President Obama.
...
Heh ...
If you thought Fox "News" was bad ...
It's about to get much, much worse:
...
It finally happened. The wedding that has been long awaited. Sarah Palin, the former [governor] of Alaska has signed on as a contributor to the Fox News Channel.
...
Silliest 'Quote of the Day' Yet and then some...
Chris Buckley on "Is anybody really in charge of Homeland Security?"
Don't get me wrong - I like ol' Dog. He's made a pretty good career out of going out with his extremely intimidatingly equipped and quite large family and a camera crew and rounding up bail skips, mostly dopers, who didn't show up for their court dates. Not exactly al Qaeda, but Buckley might have a good point: ya gotta find 'em before ya can cuff 'em an' stuff 'em. Dog's pretty good at that. Usually whoever co-signed for the bail and got left on the hook for the balance gives 'em right up.
If al Qaeda's mom put up her house for collateral and they left her in the lurch, Dog could could find their ass with one phone call to her. Heh.
I used to do that kind of work for a friend of mine who was a bail bondsman ("Dennis'll cut ya loose before they cook your goose!"). I just watched his ex-UDT six, not that he would have needed much help. Pretty ho-hum stuff compared to the TV version. Dennis handed me a snub nose .38 once before we confronted a skip in his own kitchen. I stuck it in my hip pocket and forgot about it while he talked the guy into showing up for his next court date. I remembered I had it when I sat back down in his car. Got paid, too. Yawn.
I used to work ticket security at concerts for the same guy. I have actually seen Deadheads avoid having to buy a ticket (they're famous for that) by floating down the Truckee River to listen to a band, get out of the water and walk back upstream and get back in and float down again all afternoon. I got $20, admission for Mrs. G, and a chicken dinner for both of us for this. Pretty laid back gigs. Had ta bust up a fight once in a while but that was about it.
I've also worked Mexican wedding receptions, and a lovely Quinceañera (if you get the chance, go see one of these! Beautiful.) as the Gringo With A Badge required for them to use the park, all by myself at an event with 200 people and as many bottles of Presidente and never had a problem. Here's how it usually went: if someone was causing a problem, usually just too much booze, the host would come get me and take me to the miscreant, whereupon I would tell him the host had asked him to leave. Invariably, the person would apologize for his behavior and leave as requested. Got fed good and paid good.
Contrast that with working a beer-fueled rodeo dance with a coupla hundred cowboys, ten absolutely unarmed security people in teams of two, with county sheriff's deputies present just in case, and we were busy all evening! That was mostly breakin' up fights. Here's how ya do it: two of us would just wade in between 'em, one goes left, the other goes right, and give each combatant a good shove on the chest. It surprises the shit out of 'em and separates 'em and that's usually the end of it, but ya gotta be ready in case it isn't. Knocked a guy right out of his shoes once. Heh.
I'll take the Mexicans any time.
Since I have successfully broken up fights between drunk cowboys and never got hurt, I too probably possess the requirements to be Chief of Homeland Security by Buckley's lights. No thanks.
I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.
It's Monday and I'm bored. Can ya tell?
Update:
Since we're talkin' Homeland Security today, I watched the first episode of Border Wars on NatGeoTV last night. It'll be on Mondays at 9. Pretty good show if you like that sort of thing.
Perhaps we need a security czar. What about Dog the Bounty Hunter?
Don't get me wrong - I like ol' Dog. He's made a pretty good career out of going out with his extremely intimidatingly equipped and quite large family and a camera crew and rounding up bail skips, mostly dopers, who didn't show up for their court dates. Not exactly al Qaeda, but Buckley might have a good point: ya gotta find 'em before ya can cuff 'em an' stuff 'em. Dog's pretty good at that. Usually whoever co-signed for the bail and got left on the hook for the balance gives 'em right up.
If al Qaeda's mom put up her house for collateral and they left her in the lurch, Dog could could find their ass with one phone call to her. Heh.
I used to do that kind of work for a friend of mine who was a bail bondsman ("Dennis'll cut ya loose before they cook your goose!"). I just watched his ex-UDT six, not that he would have needed much help. Pretty ho-hum stuff compared to the TV version. Dennis handed me a snub nose .38 once before we confronted a skip in his own kitchen. I stuck it in my hip pocket and forgot about it while he talked the guy into showing up for his next court date. I remembered I had it when I sat back down in his car. Got paid, too. Yawn.
I used to work ticket security at concerts for the same guy. I have actually seen Deadheads avoid having to buy a ticket (they're famous for that) by floating down the Truckee River to listen to a band, get out of the water and walk back upstream and get back in and float down again all afternoon. I got $20, admission for Mrs. G, and a chicken dinner for both of us for this. Pretty laid back gigs. Had ta bust up a fight once in a while but that was about it.
I've also worked Mexican wedding receptions, and a lovely Quinceañera (if you get the chance, go see one of these! Beautiful.) as the Gringo With A Badge required for them to use the park, all by myself at an event with 200 people and as many bottles of Presidente and never had a problem. Here's how it usually went: if someone was causing a problem, usually just too much booze, the host would come get me and take me to the miscreant, whereupon I would tell him the host had asked him to leave. Invariably, the person would apologize for his behavior and leave as requested. Got fed good and paid good.
Contrast that with working a beer-fueled rodeo dance with a coupla hundred cowboys, ten absolutely unarmed security people in teams of two, with county sheriff's deputies present just in case, and we were busy all evening! That was mostly breakin' up fights. Here's how ya do it: two of us would just wade in between 'em, one goes left, the other goes right, and give each combatant a good shove on the chest. It surprises the shit out of 'em and separates 'em and that's usually the end of it, but ya gotta be ready in case it isn't. Knocked a guy right out of his shoes once. Heh.
I'll take the Mexicans any time.
Since I have successfully broken up fights between drunk cowboys and never got hurt, I too probably possess the requirements to be Chief of Homeland Security by Buckley's lights. No thanks.
I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.
It's Monday and I'm bored. Can ya tell?
Update:
Since we're talkin' Homeland Security today, I watched the first episode of Border Wars on NatGeoTV last night. It'll be on Mondays at 9. Pretty good show if you like that sort of thing.
Oh, the irony...
Ironic Times
France Bans Psychological Abuse
Except in restaurants.
Mind-Reading Systems Could Change Air Security
Not to mention poker, dating.
Scientists Turn Rattan Wood Into Bone Nearly Identical To Human Tissue
Granny's old rocking chair could soon be granny.
New Smart Bra Expands When Body Temperature Rises
Hers, not yours.
Glenn Beck Honored
Topped every year-end “Worst” list.
Why ...
They "hate us for our freedom". Greenwald says what our elected leaders don't:
...
The evidence of what motivates Terrorism when directed at the U.S. is so overwhelming and undeniable that it takes an extreme propagandist to pretend it doesn't exist. What is Brennan so afraid of? It's true that religious fanaticism is a part of their collective motivation, but why can't he just say what's so obviously true: "they claim that the U.S. is interfering in, occupying and bringing violence to their part of the world, they cite things like civilian deaths and our support for Israel and Guantanamo and torture, and claim that their terrorism is in retaliation"? Indeed, Brennan's boss, the President, has often claimed that things like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib help Al Qaeda recruitment (and it seems clear it was part of Abdulmutallab's hatred for the U.S.), so clearly U.S. actions are part of the motivation. Yet Brennan is afraid to acknowledge that not just past actions, but current ones, fuel the desire to target the U.S. for attacks. Speaking of fear of acknowledging reality, note how Charles Krauthammer in yesterday's column -- when mocking Obama's (obviously correct) view that Guantanamo helps fuel Al Qaeda recruitment -- describes the first two grievances cited in Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa against the U.S. (troops in Saudi Arabia and death to extremely high numbers of Iraqi children through sanctions) while completely omitting the third (U.S. support for Israel).
...
Just because you convene ...
A 'Kangaroo Court' doesn't mean you'll get a conviction:
All the tough talk was just that, bullshit:
Wasn't that the reason we sent these guys to Gitmo in the first place? So they wouldn't "return to the battlefield"? I wonder how long it will take this guy to show up on a plane with a bomb up his ass ...
...
The Bush administration -- in which Liz Cheney's papa held a fairly high position, you might recall -- prosecuted, after 9-11, 828 people on terrorism charges in civilian courts. At the time of publication of this excellent report from the Center on Law and Security, NYU School of Law last year, trials were still pending against 235 of those folks. That leaves 593 resolved indictments, of which 523 were convicted of some crime, for a conviction rate of 88%.
...
All the tough talk was just that, bullshit:
...
With regard to military tribunals, the Bush administration inaugurated 20 such cases. So far just three convictions have been won. The highest-profile is the conviction of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver. The Hamdan legal saga, rehearsed here, doesn't exactly suggest that military tribunals provide swifter and surer and tougher justice. In the end, he was convicted all right, but sentenced -- not by a bunch of New York City Democrats, but by a military jury! -- to five and half years.
Then, the tribunal judge, a US Navy captain, gave Hamdan credit for time served, which was five years. So he served six months after conviction. Today he's back in -- guess where? -- Yemen.
...
Wasn't that the reason we sent these guys to Gitmo in the first place? So they wouldn't "return to the battlefield"? I wonder how long it will take this guy to show up on a plane with a bomb up his ass ...
Great thanks to Attaturk for the link.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Negro, please!
Rude Pundit is trying to figure out what was wrong with what Harry Reid said about Obama (other than using the word "Negro," but old people will do that). It seems like he was stating the obvious about racism in America, and that freaks us the fuck out.
I'm 64, so I guess I fit in the 'old' category. I remember when 'Negro' was the only completely publicly acceptable word for black people. 'Colored' was socially acceptable among whites in daily conversation. It degenerated from there. I had a boss once who used the term 'our ebony-hued brethren' in a spirit of irony. The use of 'black' came in the late '60s pretty much at the request of our ebony-hued brethren, and 'African-American' and the less cumbersome and my choice, 'Afro-American' came a little later. 'Brother' ( and 'Sister') came a lot later.
When I was in the service (1963-66), 'Negro' was too formal and 'colored' was considered pejorative, so we used the term 'splib' for black Marines. Staff NCOs and above sometimes used 'dark green Marine', but most of us thought that was as phony as a $3 bill. I have no idea of the origin of 'splib', but I have been told it's an acronym for something and would love to know what it's an acronym for.
The splibs called the white Marines 'chuck', from 'Mr. Charles', the archetypical term for slave owners of yore. Neither blacks nor whites took any offense at these words and they were helpful descriptors since we all dressed alike.
A typical usage might be:
"I'm lookin' fer Corporal Washington."
" Tall splib over there talkin' ta them two chuck dudes."
I wish we had functionally neutral terms like that now.
'Negro' is now considered by some to be an ethnic or racial slur. Not by me. I see it as archaic, but I see nothing wrong with it, though I don't use it much anymore. It is nice to be considered historic and archaic, I guess, you fuckin' whippersnappers...
There's no need to go into the truly hateful words used by both blacks and whites and every other skin color to put each other down. We all know and don't use quite a few of them, and there is nothing to be gained by it.
At this point, I must disclose that since Obama has become President and convinced all the ignorant throwback wingnut white racists that the country is on a steepening slide to socialist/fascist/Nazi/communist/mixed race godless fuckery, that I have used the word 'nigger' to make that very point. I've been called on it too, by people who didn't get my meaning.
I find myself agreeing with George Will (gasp!) on This Week With George Stephanopoulos' Hair this morning who asked the burning question, "What did Reid say that was false?"
Obama is light skinned, and whether that means something less threatening than 'African-so-black-it's-almost-blue' to many whites who don't know any better or not, or he's not black enough like some blacks may think who don't know any better or not, it's a simple statement of fact.
He doesn't have a 'Negro dialect' unless he wants to. He also doesn't have a Hawaiian dialect unless he wants to. He can slip into a light version of either of 'em pretty easily, and I like to listen to him when he does. It sure doesn't make him sound stupid like when Bush would slip into his phony Texican to sound more like Ignorant Joe Six-Pack.
I will not dignify the bullshit comparison of Reid's statement to the statement by Lott that, thank you Jesus, sent him packing other than to say that Lott's statement was demonstrably both racist and wrong. Reid's was not.
Dr. King was absolutely right when he said he longed for a time when men will be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. That day is coming, but as long as there is political advantage to be gained by the exploitation of race in this country, and as long as people teach their children to hate and look down on others on the basis of race, religion, color, or creed, that day will come more slowly than it should. It's been that way since the dawn of time and will probably continue 'til the planet is stardust again, but as individuals we do not have to participate in madness.
Headline of the Day
Calif. judge orders police to return 60 pounds of marijuana
Way ta go, yer honor dude!
Just kill 'em ...
And you don't have to send them back. We're worried about Gitmo and secret prisons? We're doing the same things to illegals detained here waiting for deportation:
Who cares? They ain't real 'Murikans.
Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.
But behind the scenes, it is now clear, the deaths had already generated thousands of pages of government documents, including scathing investigative reports that were kept under wraps, and a trail of confidential memos and BlackBerry messages that show officials working to stymie outside inquiry.
...
Who cares? They ain't real 'Murikans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)