From Pine View Farm

May, 2009 archive

Flopperific 2

TVGuide dot com tells me that the Da Vinci Code is already on cable telly vision.

I tried to watch it once on On Demand and didn’t last 30 minutes.

Toxic Avenger was a better movie (warning, enough nudity that when Second Son walked in, he stayed for 15 minutes).

Indeed, Toxic had a better hairstyle than Tom Han–oh, never mind.

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Drinking Liberally 0

Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.

Plenty of parking on Front.

Come discuss how rightwingers baspheme by committing murders in churches. (There is, of course, nothing new about that.)

Fair warning: I’m back from Virginia Beach and intend to be there.

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What It Is . . . 0

. . . is rightwing terrorism.

George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.

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Extremism in the Defense of Liberty Is Still Extremism 0

And it eventually betrays what it claims to protect.

Q: So is sending this signal that we’re not going to use these kind of techniques anymore, what kind of impact does that have on people who do us harm in the field that you operate in?

PETRAEUS: Well, actually what I would ask is, does that not take away from our enemies a tool which again they’ve beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion. When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized, and so as we move forward, I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena, and to practice those.

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Chicago Politics Is a Tough Teacher 1

Especially for an outsider. Mr. Obama succeeded as an outsider in Chicago politics and learned well.

Delaware Dem analyzes how he baited the trap for the Repulsicans to descend forthwith into rampant nuttiness:

President Barack Obama is a shrewd, intelligent politician and tactician. Those on the right who think he is stupid, or nothing but a speechmaker who cannot think without a teleprompter, have severely underestimated their opponent, almost irredeemably so. President Obama knows all too well the nature of his opponents. He set a trap for them this past week that the virulent right wing base of the Republican Party, with all of their, shall we say, tendencies, fell right into.

The method to his madness: if your opposition is going to destroy themselves, step out of the way.

He nominated a judge who is more qualified in judicial experience than any Supreme Court Justice currently living. Indeed, she has more judicial experience than any judge going back 70 years. I have read some of her opinions already, and I must say, if she has an judicial philosophy, it is conservative and not liberal. She follows precedent, and shows restraint.

(Delaware Dem, by the way, is a lawyer. When he analyzes judicial opinions, he knows whereof he speaks.)

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Postcards from the Edge 0

At Marie Reed’s place.

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Virginia Beach Pictures 2

The symbol of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is the seagull:

seagull

More Pictures below the Fold

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My Cat Must Love Me 3

She keeps leaving the carcasses of her conquests for me.

JoCat

At least she doesn’t do what a friend’s cat used to do.

His cat would tuck little mousey presents in his shoes while he was sleeping.

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Oxy-Morons 0

Skippy explains.

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In a Nutshell 0

Affirmative action was created to redress a wrong.

. . . the idea behind affirmative action is that it allows opportunities for qualified people who otherwise would have been unable to access them because of racial/ethnic reasons. Indeed, the notion is that such persons actually deserve such opportunities and will excel if given them. The counter argument to affirmative action is basically that it allows less qualified persons of color to obtain slots in schools/jobs based on unfair preferential treatment.

Here’s the problem: if Sotomayor did receive affirmative action help in getting into school (and I don’t think that we know that she did) then she is a pretty lousy example of an undeserving recipient, as she clearly took full advantage of her opportunity. Someone who graduates Summa Cum Laude from Princeton clearly deserved to be there.

As such, she would be (again, assuming she even received such a benefit) a perfect argument for affirmative action.

And, as a product of Jim Crow, I know damned well that lots of talented persons were denied lots of opportunities by the ruling majority. I saw it. And it still goes on. It’s just not so blatant as it used to be.

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First in War, First in Peace, First in–Oh, Never Mind 0

University of Delaware:

UD’s visitor center recently was declared to have some of the best porcelain thrones in higher education when the school won the “TargetX Bowl” — a contest that named them No. 1 in visitor’s center bathrooms at a large university.

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Only in Delaware 0

At the Arden Gild Hall, about two miles from here, where Second Son has appeared in several community theatre plays, at a Memorial Service that I did not attend for someone I did not know:

So, it was at this low-key, but very moving, memorial service, as one speaker put it, “Part Irish wake, part Quaker meeting”, that the Vice President of the United States got up and spoke from the heart about his longtime friendship with Bob Cunningham. He talked about their exploits together in Arden, where Bob spent many of his formative years and where Biden lived briefly. He talked about how Bob was there in the family’s darkest moments and proudest triumphs. For 30 minutes, he eulogized Cunningham and told many stories, some humorous, some touching, and some both.

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In Summary 0

StevenD:

Facts are for Liberals.

Read the whole thing.

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Clowns to the Right . . . 0

The open, naked descent of the Republican Party into their netherworld of hatred and bigotry over the nomination of Sonia Sotomajor to the Supreme Court has been a truly amazing thing to watch.

In less than a week, they have revealed their maggoty racist innards so as to surprise even me, whose low opinion of Republicanism is rivaled by no one’s.

And, Jeez oh man! I grew up under Jim Crow.

    [JIM CROW MODE ON]

    Frankly, she looks white to me. I guess we wuz too busy hatin’ on black folks to worry us’ns with American citizens descended from other American citizens from the American territory of Puerto Rico.

    [JIM CROW MODE OFF]

It is to throw up.

The Booman:

With Republican talking heads calling Sotomayor a ‘racist’, a ‘schoolmarm’, a member of the ‘KKK’ without the hoods or the nooses’, stupid, and temperamental, there is no way for either women or latinos to conclude anything else but that the GOP doesn’t like them. And here’s the thing. Normally, political advocates argue their case in a way that they think will ultimately help their party win elections. Sometimes, their desire to win leads them to trim their sails a bit about how they really feel. But these Republicans are letting it all hang out without any regard whatsoever for the essentially suicidal rhetoric they are using.

. . . I really don’t like having an openly racist party in this county, let alone one that is the only realistic alternative to the Democrats. It’s not healthy and it’s not safe. And I want someone to come along and put this GOP party out of its misery before it comes back to power through the power of inertia.

Video via Delaware Liberal.

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Stones 0

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We Need Single Payer 0

“Scott sought to turn Columbia into the McDonalds of the health care industry.”

Now he is spokesperson for the status quo. Wonder why?

Listen up.

Via the Great Orange Satan.

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Judicial Activism 0

It’s only activism when wingnuts disagree with the outcome:

Via the Great Orange Satan.

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Breaking New Ground 2

Brendan comments on newspaper column.

And all heck breaks loose.

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Greater Wingnuttery XXIV 0

Every time you think they’ve reached the bottom and there’s no more swamp left, they turn around and burrow deeper.

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Help the Booman 0

His laptop died.

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