From Pine View Farm

June, 2012 archive

Climate Change Is a Librul Plot 0

When I grew up in these parts, we never heard speak of tornadoes. Not ever.

Tonight, as we watched our favorite Tivoed mystery shows, we were interrupted by three tornado warnings (not “alerts,” warnings, which mean tornadoes have actually been sighted, not that “conditions are right” for possible tornadoes).

So I have a question.

How the hell have those stinkin’ libruls managed to create actual tornadoes as part of their plot to convince the gullible public that the climate might actually be changing?

How?

Tell me how.

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“Tell One Lie, Make It Big, Make It Plausible, Keep It Simple” 3

That’s the short version of how to lie.

Otherwise, you can end up telling so many lies you cannot keep them straight.

Like this.

“For those that are here as the children of those who came here illegally, I want to make sure they have a permanent answer to what their status will be,” Romney said in the interview, “and I’ve indicated in my view that those who serve in the military and have advanced degrees would certainly qualify for that kind of permanent status.”

That would have represented a significant departure from Romney’s previous stance, reiterated as recently as last week in a major immigration speech to Latino group NALEO, that only military service should be considered as a valid path to permanent status. Romney has vocally opposed even allowing in-state tuition for college students who came to the country illegally. By contrast, Obama’s recent executive action waives deportations for young illegal immigrants who graduated from high school, earned a GED or served in the military.

More at the link.

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Copyright Math 2

Rob Reid enters the marvelous world of math as practiced by the MPAA and the RCIA and emerges with an $8,000,000,000 iPod piece of iJunk.

Via HPR.

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Snare the Wealth 2

August J. Pollak advances a theory about why so many folks oppose health care (and other) reforms so vehemently.

I’m not necessarily agreeing with it, but I think it’s worth considering.

It’s sort of an economic analogy of the classic definition of Puritanism as the bone-chilling fear that somewhere, someone is having fun.

A nugget (warning: mild language):

America has the most dysfunctional sense of reward ever. We idolize the rich, regardless of how they earned their riches and in many cases in spite of it. We’ll watch a TV show about useless idiots or a rich asshole firing people or a random person becoming a millionaire because they are good at spinning a wheel or remembering aspects of pop culture. But we’ll turn around and be furious that we might all have to start contributing to a system that betters another person’s ability to take care of themselves when they’re sick because that’s not “fair.”

The entire history of opposition to progressive change in America is based on thinking that someone who isn’t you is having their life improved. And I’m sure it goes without saying that the history of opposition to progressive change just happens to go hand in hand with said progressive change being related to improving the lives of people who aren’t white, aren’t male and aren’t rich, or at the very least in elite social circles.

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Lies and Lying Liars 0

Steve Benen is keeping score; so far Mitt the Flip has managed to cram 21 discreet lies into this week’s campaigning. Bob Cesca summarizes.

This won’t end until the “straight” news reports begin honestly, with

Mitt Romney told another lie today when he claimed . . . .

As long as the press big boys let this slip, Mitt will continue to let slip the lies of Bain.

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Gasbags 0

Republicans:  Gas prices up, Obama's fault.  Gas prices down, not news.

Via PoliticalProf.

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Blowing in the Wind 0

Mitt Romney Weather Vane--points in every direcgtion

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How To Annoy Visitors to Your Website 2

Install the Meebo bar.

It covers up content, displays nag screens, and generally irritates your visitors. And it’s automated!

Webmasters! Torment your visitors while tracking their internet use and convincing your employers that you are bleeding edge technology magicians.

Get the Meebo bar now!

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A Modest Proposal 0

Do your homework.

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QOTD 0

Samuel Eliot Morrison:

Any child knows that history can only be a reduced representation of reality, but it must be a true one, not distorted by queer lenses.

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One Track Minds 0

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley sums up Republican health care policy. From TPM:

The only health care mandate they can embrace are transvaginal probes for women.

More here.

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Facebook Frolics, Flack Attack Dept. 1

Antisocial media.

Right-wing Super Pacs, the partisan groups seeking to evict Barack Obama from the White House through a massive injection of private cash, have begun to invest in social media and internet-based advertising in the hope of further amplifying their impact.

With the presidential election four months away, the Super Pacs are begin to turn their attention towards newer digital technologies that allow political campaigns to tightly target their messages to key voters in the swing states.

Facebook, Twitter and Google are all now employing dedicated teams to work directly with the Super Pacs in an attempt to help them build internet presence.

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Fast and Spurious 0

The fact that there’s a black man serving as president just drives some Republicans gaga. Sadly, some of them are in a position to inflict their fantasies on the rest of us.

Thom Hartmann details the hypocrisy.

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It’s Celebration Time, You Know, All the News that Fits Dept. 0

GOP MIssion Accomplished Affordable Care Act Victory Party

Two Too good to pass up from Bob Cesca’s Awesome BLog.

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Nature Red in Tooth and Jaw 0

Japanese Beetle on Impatiens

See the original (scaled to 500 pixels wide) below the fold.

Read more »

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Epitaph for an Economy 1

The Philadelphia Inquirer pens a paean to the last Silverliner II commuter cars, self-propelled electric train cars designed for commuter service, which first entered revenue service nearly 50 years ago.

Indeed, when I lived in Narberth, Pa., I rode to work and play in Center City almost every day on Silverliner II trains. They weren’t particularly elegant and were about as streamlined as bricks, but they worked.

They worked for almost half a century.

The Budd factory and the Baldwin Engine Works, as well as most other heavy manufacturing in Philly, are long gone.

One little sentence about halfway through the story encapsulates the legacy of vulture capitalists and bubblicious banksters, an epitaph for an economy:

The once-thriving Budd plant on Red Lion Road that employed about 2,500 workers was demolished in the late 1990s, giving way to a golf course that is now closed.

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Mitt the Slips under the Radar 0

Dick Polman considers Mitt the Flip’s reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s Driving while Brown law.

The list of things that Romney won’t talk about is ever lengthening – he won’t say what tax loopholes he would close, what federal agencies he would eliminate, whether he would repeal Obama’s directive that halts the deportation of illegal immigrants’ children, whether he’d support fair pay for women, and much more – and now we have a new one. He refuses to say whether he supports the Arizona ruling.

Much more at the link.

Mitt the Flip: There’s no there, there.

Afterthought:

One who can believe in anything, believes in nothing.

One who can believe in nothing has no soul.

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Comment Rescue, Republican Beatitudes 1

From commenter Mary, commenting on this post. This is too marvelously done not to have wider exposure–at least as wide as my little backwater on the innerwebs can give it.

The Sermon on the Radio

Limbaugh. 5:3-13

3 Blessed are the physically wealthy,
for they shall rule the earth.

4 Blessed are those who are not Mexican,
for they will not be deported.

5 Blessed are the bankers,
for they will foreclose on the meek.

6 Blessed are those who cause others to hunger and thirst,
for they shall be called capitalists.

7 Blessed are the merciless,
for they will be called good businessmen.

8 Blessed are the corporations,
for they are people too.

9 Blessed are the war profiteers,
for they will be called good Americans.

10 Blessed are those who persecute because of self-righteousness,
for theirs is the pulpit and podium.

11 Blessed are you when you insult others, persecute others and falsely say all kinds of evil against others because of me.

12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward on earth, for in the same way persecuted the great conservatives who were before you.

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QOTD 0

Brooks Adams:

Politics, as a practice, whatever its profession, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

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The Fire Ant Next Time 2

Dick Destiny questions today’s meme that the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Care Act will somehow energize the right wing.

He seems to be in sort of a “for Pete’s sake get real” mood:

As extremists, they’re already as aggressive as possible.

Follow the link to find out what fire ants have to do with anything.

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