2014 archive
Hackery 0
Charles Krauthammer clutches his pearls because President Obama “never had his heart in the Afghanistan War.”
Why the hell should he?
It was George the Worst’s War, and he blew it. In the process of not getting Osama bin Laden, he sent hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghanis to useless, pointless death (and put First Son in harm’s way).
Nevertheless, what Krauthammer and his fellows most want is for you to forget that George the Worst ever happened. Even more than that, they want you to forget that Krauthammer, Cal Thomas, David Brooks, and their like spent eight years trying to convince you that George the Worst was the greatest thinker since Socrates.
Why these folks have not been expelled from my local rag’s editorial pages escapes me. I guess that, once you whore yourself out for wingnut welfare, you are fixed for life.
Right-wing hacks: Always wrong, never penalized.
And, yes, I’m fed up. Fed up that intellectual incompetence seems to be a job requirement for “conservative” political columnists.
They are not nice people.
Why Do Deadly Sins Come in “Sevens”? 0
(That’s a rhetorical question.)
I was talking with my friend yesterday about how rapid-fire “reply-to-all” business emails can be dysfunctional, leading to confusion, crossed wires, and duplicated efforts.
Now comes Science 2 dot 0 with a list of the Seven Deadly Email Sins. Explanations at the link.
“Some Pigs Are More Equal Than Others” 0
Delaware Liberal explicates democracy, teabagger style.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to yourself.
They found one victim who had been shot. Police say the victim received a non-life threatening injury and was taken to a Grand Rapids hospital. It was later determined the injury was the result of an accidental self-inflicted shooting where the victim was struck in the leg.
And, in other news of the polite, . . . .
Stray Thought 0
I have always considered “Cornhole” to be a most unfortunate name for a game.
State Rape Update 0
State rape loses a round in court.
When Good Guys with Guns Go Bad Guy 0
A rarity.
Frederic Poag recounts how he lost his cool with a gun and nearly killed someone and how it changed his view on guns.
But I was almost Curtis Reeves. If we want to get serious about gun control that’s where our focus should be. Because when you stop respecting the power of firearms, when you forget that in a moment of anger after a tub of popcorn has been dumped on your head you just might reach for it because you’re a “good guy” and therefore have the authority to use it. That’s when your world ends with a bang.
Follow the link for the backstory. It’s powerful stuff.
Your Appliances Hate You 4
Very early in his career, before getting into movies, Woody Allen used to tell a joke about a man whose toaster mailfunctioned and burned his toast. He cussed the toaster up and down, then chucked it in the trash after it cooled.
Then he left for work. He stepped into his elevator, pushed the “G” button, and the elevator started down.
Halfway between two floors, the machine stopped, the music ceased, and a voice came out of the speakers: “Aren’t you the guy who was cruel to his toaster?”
Turns out it wasn’t just a joke, it was a prophecy (details at the link).
A major cause of this sort of stuff is that, in the rush to market, those who make all these “connected” devices think about sales, not security. And buyers don’t ask themselves, “Why does my refrigerator need to browse YouTube?”
Connecting something to the internet just because you can is likely a bad idea.
“Beggar Thy Neighbor” 2
Dan Simpson thinks that the “American Dream” is in danger of being sacrificed on the altar of Mammon. A nugget, which does not do justice to the whole:
The untenable-anyway argument that America’s poor are poor because they don’t want to work, preferring to live on unemployment benefits and food stamps, leaves out the children. Can anyone with a heart and in his right mind argue that more than 9 million of America’s children “deserve” to go to bed or school hungry, or be homeless with no fit place to do their homework?
The One Per Cent constructs fanciful Galtian theories (yclept “Libertarianism” and the “Laffable Curve“) and paranoid terrors to justify greed and cold-heartedness, but those who look beyond, who pay attention to what the One Per Cent and their sycophants do, rather than to what they say, recognize those as smokescreens to obfuscate thievery.
If I believed that “fair use” meant I could quote the entire column, I would do so, but it doesn’t and I will not. I have pondered for over a day now what bit to excerpt here. Whatever I excerpted, it would not have been enough.
Just read the rest.
Read more »
Chris-Crossed 0
Warning: More bad taste than usual.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another clean-living polite parent:
According to the story, “the gun somehow went off,” apparently of its own accord.
Wars and Mongers of War 0
Jon Stewart marvels at those who would snatch war from the jaws of peace.
The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook
Meanwhile, Chauncey Devega dissects the compulsion of old men to send young men and women to their deaths, using Bill Kristol, leading drum-beater for the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq, as an example. A nugget (do read the rest):
Jon Stewart via AMERICAblog.
Football’s Immaculate Deception 0
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive
He’s Looking at Doing Hard Cheese 0
Cop it, the cheese!
“indecent acts with dairy products.” The copy editor had fun krafting this one.
It’s a slice of reality.