August, 2010 archive
Exploding Balloons 0
Pretty much what John Cole said.
My fellow lefties need to live in the real damn world, for Christ’s sake.
You don’t like the way your Congressperson votes. Write a letter to your Congressperson, don’t blame Obama. It’s easy with these here computer thingees to write letters.
You don’t like that Obama has trouble getting stuff through Congress. Write your Congressperson, for heaven’s sake.
Obama ain’t voting against Obama’s initiatives. Your Congressperson–yes, you, your Congressperson–is.
You don’t like an Obama policy. Write the White House.
But don’t act surprised that’s he’s turned out to be a slightly left-of-center moderate (at least as viewed through a reality lens, as opposed to a wingnut lens).
That’s what he campaigned as; he did not pretend to be otherwise. If you have forgotten that, read the campaign speeches, for Pete’s sake.
If he has failed as a unifier, it is because some have refused to be uniter, not because he has not tried to unite.
Has he made mistakes? Sure.
I made one just last year. It happens to all of us.
Don’t blame him for not trying to do what he didn’t promise to do (such as leave Afghanistan, which falls into the mistake category but that’s for another day). Blame yourself for not paying attention and for building castles in the ai–oh, never mind.
And grow up, for Heaven’s sake.
Think back over the past decade:
Do you really want Republicans to be in charge again?
Contract on America 0
Dave Johnson:
We, the People built this country’s prosperity and this built wealth. We reinvested that wealth, building the world’s most competitive economy. Now a few people are gaming the system and breaking the formula, taking for themselves vast riches, leaving the rest of us to clean up the mess.
It’s worth a read.
Via Skippy.
Call HUAC 0
Bicyles unAmerican:
I must be surrounded by unAmericans, because a lot folks in these parts seem to like their bikes.
Afterthought:
And you wonder why they put the “nut” in “wingnut.”
Via TPM.
40 Years Ago, Who Woulda Thunk? 0
Plus ca change:
The week-long activities focus mainly on non-combatant exercises and are part of the 15th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Washington and Hanoi.
Waste Reduction, Have Cake, Eat It Too Dept. (Updated) 0
Politicians of all persuasions love to complain about government waste. It’s this great big shadowy thing that is always there, even if it’s not.
Except, of course, when it’s their waste. The Department of War Defense wants to eliminate what it considers to be a wasteful and redundant command headquartered in this part of the world.*
Oh noes.
It is noteworthy that many of these pols, especially on the state and local level, have willingly eliminated teachers, garbage collectors, police officers, and highway repair persons because they couldn’t figure out how to pay them.
It reveals how much of the caterwauling about government “waste and bureaucray” is just so much cant.
“Cut his waste,” they say’ “but don’t cut mine.”
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*I don’t have a position on this particular command, but I do believe the government spends far more than needed on ways of ending lives and far less than needed on ways of improving them.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Noz points out the inconsistency:
(snip)
but if that’s the case, how to they explain the bipartisan outcry whenever something like this (base closure–ed.) happens?
No Einsteins on the Right 0
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
I guess all those nuclear power plants aren’t really producing electricity after all.
Furrfu.
Stupid Car Tricks 0
Police are not pampering this driver. Indeed, some would say her conduct was beyond the pail:
Twits on Twitter 0
Jockeying for position.
Eyes Wide Shut 0
There is a rather bizarre letter to the editor in today’s local rag which says, that the teabaggers are not racist, but that
. . . It’s the media that have portrayed the tea party as racist. If there are two signs out of thousands that are rude and inappropriate, you can bet that those will be the ones that make the headlines.*
So that showing pictures of actual teabaggers indulging in teabaggery is the problem, rather than the teabaggery itself.
I won’t bother to Google around for the evidence, but it’s a damned sight more than one or two signs. Steven D has already assembled a sampling of it in his recent post at the Booman Tribune. (And, no, I don’t agree with the topic of Steven D’s post–it would be a pointless and likely counter-productive gesture. I’m just pointing to the pictures and videos because I’m too lazy to look for others, but you’ve all seen them.)
A characteristic I have observed in racists–all but the fringiest of the fringe–since I first started to become aware is this:
They do not admit to anyone, not even themselves, that they are racists, for to do so knocks them off the moral pedestal to which they elevate themselves and thereby robs them of their credibility. They create instead elaborate rationales to prove to themselves and to others that the policies and beliefs informed by racism are morally correct.
To pick a common one that I saw the other day (and that I grew up with):
-
“The Civil War was not an attempt to free the slaves. It was about economic systems.”
This is spin.
Folks who say this do so to imply that slavery had nothing to do with the inception of the Civil War.
The CIvil War was about slavery, but to admit that undermines the moral arguments of those who idolize the Old South and what in my youth was referred to as “Our Way of Life” (TM).
The CIvil War, in political short term, was about Southern resistance to any limit on the spread of slavery into the western territories. Limiting the spread of slavery was the “moderate” political solution of the day for those who opposed the institution. No “responsible” politician could figure out how to end slavery without also destroying the monied class of the South, for the monied class of the South counted in its wealth the retail value of its slaves. And the monied class of the South, recognizing their peril, fought back.
The teabagger who wrote that letter may not be a racist.
But to pretend that teabaggery does not attract a significant portion of support from those who are afraid of having a scary black man in the White House denies the evidence of things seen.
__________________
*I chose to omit the link to the letter. This is not about who wrote the letter. It is about magickal thinking.
Wedgies 0
Bob Cesca on Republican discourse.
Rendering unto Seizure 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr. on Anne Rice’s deciding to forsake Christianity so as to cleave to Christ:
Yet somehow in the last 30 years, people of faith were hoodwinked into regarding the GOP platform as a lost gospel. Somehow, low taxes for the wealthy and deregulation of industry became the very message of Christ. Somehow, hostility to science, gays, Muslims, and immigrants became the very meaning of faith. And somehow Christianity came to seem a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.
Consider that, after the 2004 election, a church in North Carolina made news for kicking out nine congregants because they voted for Democrat John Kerry. Has atheism ever had better salesmen than Jerry Falwell, who blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on the ACLU, or Pat Robertson, who ascribed Haiti’s earthquake to an ancient curse?
Fools on Facebook 0
Facebook seems to reaching some kind of critical mass.
(snip)
Police got a tip call about Facebook pages showing photos and names of teens drinking beer at a party in the karaoke rooms on the second level of Lee’s shopping center.
Meanwhile, this report leaves it unclear who is living with whom for how long:
John married Lynn in 2005 in Italy and moved into a luxury home in Westlake.
He says when the couple later contemplated getting a divorce, his lawyers discovered no evidence that Italian authorities ever filed a marriage license.
“If you don’t have the right paperwork, you’re not married. If you buy a house and don’t have the right paperwork, you don’t have the property rights, if the title isn’t valid,” France told Fox 8 News.
Lynn France says she learned that her husband married Amanda Weisal in 2008 when she clicked on Amanda’s Facebook page and discovered pictures of the wedding at Disney World.
QOTD 0
Garrison Keillor, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
It’s important for survival that children have their own experiences, the kind they learn from. The kind their parents arrange for are not as useful. Good parents are the hardest to get rid of.
Light Bloggery 0
Taking the day off, at least most of it.
Dustbiters 0
One so far and, as it is getting late, possibly the only one. It is well after closing Pacific Time as I type this:
A Modest Proposal 0
Writing at the Guardian, Peter Wilby discusses Warren Buffet’s and Bill Gates’s efforts to persuade billionaires to give away the bulk of their fortunes upon demise. While applauding their efforts,* he suggests
Never happen.
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*The efforts are worthy of applause. Whatever you may think of how they got rich–and I have no love of Microsoft’s business practices, which can best be summarized as “copy, co-opt, and crush“–Buffet and Gates both seem determined to use their riches to accomplish something more than more riches.
Make TWUUG Your LUG 0
Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source.
What: The 4th Annual Super Summer Saturday TWUUG Meeting.
Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome to attend
Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk-Employee Cafeteria. See directions below. (Wireless and wired internet connection available.)
When: 12:00 PM till whenever (usually 3ish) on Sat Aug 7
Stuff: Lots of great door prizes from ThinkGeek and O’Reilly!!
Food: Free pizza! Free drinks! Free dessert!
Directions: Lake Taylor Hospital-1309, Kempsville Road, Norfolk, 23502 (Kempsville Rd. at Lowry Rd.) 461-5001