2011 archive
Both Sides Now Mitt 0
Mitt Romney probably has trouble keeping track of where he stands on any given day.
Swampwater, Overflowing the Dikes Dept. 0
From the blurb on YouTube:
Thom Hartmann talks with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, U.S. Congresswoman (D-IL, 9th District) about intimidation tacticts being used against her by Blackwater CEO Erik Prince.
Republicans Say the Darndest Things 0
At Psychology Today, Bella DePaulo reveals the lies that liars tell themselves to excuse their lies.
The article is essential to understanding Republican talking points.
QOTD 0
Robert Louis Stevenson, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.
Stray Question 0
I pay attention to current events, more or less.
I inherited the habit from my news junkie father.
So where was I when the punditry decided that Newt the Gingrinch has a rep for being an intellectual?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The right wing worship of weaponry is electrifying.
I wonder how long it will be before the first Taser-induced road rage heart attack.
Stray Thought 0
As I read this press release (pdf), which someone forwarded to me, it occurred to me that it is notable that so many of wingnut outfits explicitly describe themselves as “Patriot” in their names.
Perhaps it is because, if one considers what they advocate, one would never know . . .
QOTD 0
William Blake, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there’s more conversation.
The View from Abroad 0
Marc Pitzke of Der Spiegel looks at the Republican aspirants for the presidential nomination and is not amused.
No mainstream American pundit would dare be so frank.
A snippet:
Tough times demand tough and smart minds. But all these dopes have to offer are ramblings that insult the intelligence of all Americans — no matter if they are Democrats, Republicans or neither of the above. Yet just like any freakshow, this one would be unthinkable without a stage (in this case, the media, strangling itself with all its misunderstood “political correctness” and “objectivity”) and an audience (the party base, which this year seems to have suffered a political lobotomy).
And so the farce continues. The more mind-boggling its incarnations, the happier the US media are to cheer first one clown and then the next, elevating and then eliminating “frontrunners” in reliable news cycles of about 45 days.
Who needs anti-American propaganda (remember “anti-American propaganda”?) with these folks in the news?
Crossing the Borderline 0
Jeremy Sherman, blogging at Psychology Today, tries to understand Herman Cain:
Circular Firing Squad 0
Dick Polman considers the potshots that the aspirants for the Republican presidential keep aiming at each other, in violation of Reagan’s “Eleventh Commandment”: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.”
It’s a delicious collection of calumny.
A snippet:
Can’t Win for Losing Dept. 0
Offered without comment:
MPs from the ruling conservative party proposed the regulation, on the grounds that Budapest could not cope with the large number of people on the streets.
