Words Fail Me category archive

But someone does.

Honestly, who could have thought to make this up?

My freshman comp professor, who was a conceited arrogant jerk with the morals of a tomcat (sorry, Fluffy), but otherwise an excellent teacher, kept returning throughout the year to the theme that art was “bringing order out of chaos.”

Back in the 60’s, there was a modern “artist” who would lay a large canvas in his driveway, drive through various colors of paint (oil-based–Latex hadn’t come along yet), then drive his car randomly over the canvas.

I’m not making this up; I saw him on the black-and-white telly vision in between the test patterns. No one could make that up.

His working definition of art was, I reckon, “bringing money out of chaos.”

People paid real money for his vehicular meanderings. Lots of it. I guess it had “investment value.” Sort of like Care Bears.

Then came “performance art”–sort of like the car thing, but without a permanent record.

Now comes “Twitter art.”

There’s no other explanation for it.

Oh, my goodness.

I could not watch this all the way through.

Can you?

Via Atrios.

The prosecution rests:

Andrew Sullivan keeps the powder dry.

The Nation on the wingnut reaction to the Sotomayor nomination:

Of all the comically desperate attacks on Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor last week–she belongs to the “Latino KKK” (Tom Tancredo), she’s a “Hispanic lady chick” and a “Marxist” (Glenn Beck), she’s “racist” (Beck, Newt, Tucker, Coulter, Rush, to mention a few)–the only one with real conservative cojones is the charge that real Americans are being forced to “unnaturally” emphasize the last syllable of her name instead of the first. Get us by the short tilde and our hearts and minds will follow.

“Are we supposed to use the Spanish pronunciation, so-toe-my-OR, or the natural English pronunciation, SO-tuh-my-er…,” asked the now Worst Person-ed Mark Krikorian, a National Review blogger and the executive director of the anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies. “Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English,” he went on, “and insisting on an unnatural pronunciation is something we shouldn’t be giving in to.”

Krikorian. Yup. Sounds like a name that came over on the Mayflower to me.

The Guardian:

Thousands of hopeful mystics will attempt to use psychic powers to locate an itinerant psychologist this week in a mass experiment into the paranormal.

The volunteers will use Twitter, the instant messaging service, to try to pinpoint the whereabouts of Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, in a supernatural version of the children’s game Where’s Wally?

The Anti-Christ revealed.

Via ASZ.

Bargain basement Hernando’s Hideaway it ain’t:

Seven bedrooms, pool, cabana, tennis court and six acres of waterfront privacy added up to $55,000 a week for a vacation rental on the island of Nantucket last summer.

Recession price: $45,000.

“Without question, it is the best summer to come to Nantucket,” said Brian Sullivan of Maury People Sotheby’s International Realty, who has been selling and renting estate compounds on the Massachusetts resort island since 1996. “Between the rentals, the restaurants, and the bed and breakfasts, all kinds of great deals are being offered.”

What happens when you use non-union electricians:

The Department of Defense paid former Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $80 million in bonuses for contracts to install electrical wiring in Iraq. The award payments were for the very work that resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers, according to Department of Defense documents revealed today in a Senate hearing. More than $30 million in bonuses were paid months after the death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a highly decorated, 24-year-old Green Beret, who was electrocuted while taking a show at a US base in January 2008. His death, the result of improper grounding for a water pump, has been classified by the US Army Criminal Investigations Division (CID) as a “negligent homicide.” Maseth’s death had originally been labeled an accident. Bonuses were paid to KBR in 2007 and 2008, after CID investigators had officially expressed concerns about the quality of KBR’s electrical work. For its part, KBR denies any culpability for the electrocution deaths.

Of course KBR “denies culpability.” You wouldn’t expect them to say, “Oh, yeah, we knowingly hired bozos and cut corners,” now, would you?

Nothing but lies, that is.

Natch.

Via Atrios.

Fueled by rumors that the Obama administration will ban assault weapons and heavily tax ammunition, gun enthusiasts are stocking up.

Handguns, semiautomatic weapons, and all types of ammunition are flying off store shelves, despite the recession.

The FBI reports a 27 percent increase in background checks for guns purchased by federally licensed dealers for the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2008.

Meanwhile, the family that slays together stays together:

A 7-year-old boy who was allegedly shot in the head by a couple who thought he and three other people were trespassing on their property died yesterday, authorities said.

(snip)

Authorities said the couple fired when they mistakenly thought the group was trespassing on their property.

(snip)

Liberty County Chief Deputy Ken DeFoor said Sheila Muhs fired a 12-gauge shotgun once, then handed it to her husband, who also fired once.

This is the stupid on so many levels I don’t know where to begin.

But it boils down to “Don’t take the name of the Limbaugh in vain.”

R2TooDumb.

Once again, what kind of moral creed makes a central tenet of torture?

When Van Susteren asked if waterboarding is torture, Gingrich hemmed and hawed. “I think it’s something we shouldn’t do,” he said, but he qualified his statement, adding, “Lawyers I respect a great deal say it is absolutely within the law. Other lawyers say it
absolutely is not. I mean, this is a debatable area.” When asked if waterboarding violates international law,

Moral Bankruptcy R Us, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

Via Raw Story.

Oh, my. One person’s reaction:

In fact, as we discovered this week, it’s simply the start of a bold change in strategy on the part of the US government. The Department of Defense may be cutting and running, but their colleagues over in the State Department are getting ready to pick up the pieces and deliver the one thing post-war Iraq really needs to help it get back on its feet. I’m not talking about clean water or safe streets or bomb disposal dogs – that’s old fashioned thinking. No, the one thing that Iraq really, really needs, according to the State Department… is Twitter.

I am not making this up. The department has just airlifted Twitter’s Jack Dorsey along with representatives from WordPress, Meetup.com, YouTube and Google into Baghdad to discuss how social media can help build Iraq 2.0.

I noted the background for this here.

Support the ACLU here.

John Cole has more.