May, 2015 archive
Dystopian Utopia 0
Elon elucidates the verbal gymnastics. Listen to the audio at the link, then subscribe to TWIB.
Via Juanita Jean.
Appearances Matter. They Also Lie. 0
Colbert I. King doesn’t get the fascination with “clean cut”:
Oh, I get why a guy with a clean-shaven face might be called clean-cut. And surely short hair, neatly combed, might fit that description.
What I don’t understand is why it should be assumed that because someone has a neat appearance, is well-groomed and has fresh breath, he is somehow beyond breaking the rules or getting into trouble.
That phrase, “clean cut,” also cropped up in this little item several years ago.
How Stuff Works: The End of Privacy 0
Simon Phipps explains the theft of your privacy. He’s writing specifically about the recent British elections, but it works the same way on this side of the Big Pond. Here’s a bit:
They issue an instruction to block the fields. The objective is unarguably pure and the things that those one or two people are doing are disgusting, so it must be possible, right? If you object to blocking the fields, it only goes to proves that you’re one of those dirty people. Bureaucrats get to work on the demand. They can’t block an open field, so first they build a road across the field. Then they build a police control point in the middle of the road.
Follow the link to find out what happens next.
“The Smart One,” Reprise 0
In more news of the Smart One, Shaun Mullen discusses the Smart One’s decision to hide behind the flag when called on his saying that, knowing what we know now, he would still support the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.
Here’s a snippet, in which words are not minced, but the Smart One is:
No, what burned the red, white and blue ass of this veteran is that Jeb Bush defaulted to cowardice. Because, doncha know, any criticism of the troops and by extension his former commander-in-chief brother is unpatriotic — a battle-tested, if vile, tactic from the Republican playbook to tamp down dissent when it threatens to come uncomfortably close to the truth.
If this response has the ring of familiarity, it is because President Bush, and Vice President Cheney in particular, used it early and often in calling into question anyone and everyone who opposed that fool’s mission, which wasted nearly 4,500 American and perhaps 110,000 Iraqi lives, left the country in far worse shape than when the war began, further destabilized one of the world’s most volatile regions and handed Iran — and by extension Al Qaeda and an emergent ISIS — an enormous strategic advantage.
Do read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your friends.
Today there is one less friend in NRA Paradise.
Facebook Frolics 0
A little fracas down the road a piece:
According to court testimony, the case stemmed from a Facebook post Randall made last year.
Randall wrote that he regretted voting for Moody and referenced the councilman’s “side family.”
In 2013, it became public that Moody fathered a child outside of his marriage.
If saying something to someone’s face would be, as they say, “asking for it,” so too would saying it on Facebook.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Ken Eisold explores the workings of oligarchy. A snippet:
But there is another factor: the status and power of the oligarchy depends on large sums of money required to sustain their social position. In paying each other such immense sums, they are also ensuring the continuation and power of their class.
Facebook Frolics 0
One more time, teach yourself that the internet is a public place.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
If you can’t be polite to your friends, who can you be polite to?
A Fraud Is Not a “Mistake.” It’s a Fraud. 0
From the AP wires (full story at the link):
No, no, no, no.
Mismatching socks is a mistake.
The Great and Glorious Patriotic War of a Lie in Iraq was not a mistake.
Mistakes are accidents. Cons are on purpose. Same like “Republican Family Values,” it was a con. It was a purposeful orchestrated well-planned-out con, and the con artists still profit thereby.
Sending people to their deaths for a lie is not a “mistake.” It’s a crime, and the criminals have not and likely will not face justice.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Hey! Rubio! 0
Yet another Republican steps into the quicksand legacy of President George the Worst’s Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.
Lies, if and once they come to light, do have a way of coming back to bite their adherents in the nether regions, do they not?
Let the biting continue.