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July 31, 2008
Learn this well:"As much as legislators and founders of states ought to be honoured and respected among men, as much ought the founders of sects and factions to be detested and hated; because the influence of faction is directly contrary to that of laws. Factions subvert government, render laws impotent, and beget the fiercest animosities among men of the same nation, who ought to give mutual assistance and protection to each other." - David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, Part I, Essay VIII, OF PARTIES IN GENERAL
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:39 PM | Your Say (0)
John Edwards to high school hopefuls, "Screw you."Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is pulling the plug on a scholarship program he started at an Eastern North Carolina high school -- a program he once promised would be a model for the nation under an Edwards presidency. - newsobserver.com | Edwards ending college programNow we know he knows he's kaput. No use throwing good money after good.
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:25 PM | Your Say (1)
Clearly a case of the pot calling the kettle black:"Obama Launches LowRoadExpress.com" - Advertising Age - Campaign Trail
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:22 PM | Your Say (0)
Smashing through the boundries of the new paradigm beyond the dreams of previous blatherfests!Time managing editor Rich Stengel said he was proud of the Obama puff piece, and that he hoped it would help to redefine the boundaries of journalistic drivel. "When the American people cast their vote this November, this is the piece of fluff they're going to remember," Stengel said. "Not the ones by Newsweek, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Economist, Nightline, The Wall Street Journal, or even that story about lessons Obama learned from his first-grade teacher we ran a month ago." -'Time' Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:10 AM | Your Say (0)
Suburbia Yes!"I don't share the beautiful people's revulsion for suburbia. It's just decent people making a living for themselves, and maybe having a patch of grass to play touch football on. Many people do hate suburbia, the whole idea of it, and wish we were all living in concrete urban human dovecotes, where they can keep their eye on us." -Sippican Cottage: Gettin' Used To It
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:31 AM | Your Say (0)
When they came for the drinkers and smokers, I didn't care..."What we're looking at, essentially, is the beginning of food zoning. Liquor and cigarette sales are already zoned. You can't sell booze here; you can't sell smokes there. Each city makes its own rules, block by block. Proponents of the L.A. ordinance see it as the logical next step. Fast food is bad for you, just as drinking or smoking is, they argue. Community Coalition, a local activist group, promotes the moratorium as a sequel to its crackdown on alcohol merchants, scummy motels, and other "nuisance businesses." An L.A. councilman says the ordinance makes sense because it's "not too different to how we regulate liquor stores.... Supporters of the moratorium call this state of affairs "food apartheid." - Banning fast food in poor neighborhoods. - By William Saletan - Slate MagazineRich whites to poor blacks in South Central L.A. - "Shut up and eat your vegetables."
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (0)
To dream the impossible dream:"Not a few designers are pushing men to expose more of the bodies that they have spent so much time perfecting at the gym. "We have all these self-imposed restrictions" about our dress, said Ben Clawson, the sales director for the designer Michael Bastian. "As men's wear continues to evolve and becomes a little more casual without becoming grungy, it's not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.... "The idea of being threatened by the objectified male body has gone, the process is complete," explained Aaron Hicklin, the editor in chief of Out magazine. "Men are the same as women now."" - Shorts Crack the Code - NYTimes.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:46 AM | Your Say (4)
July 30, 2008
The Candidate Who Would Be King:"Come to think of it, maybe the best status for Obama would be that of monarch, of the type reigning in present-day England. After all, it's the ultimate symbolic position: no accomplishments necessary, no policy commitments involved, once you're in you're in for life, you get to go on all those fine world tours, the clothes are classic, and speeches are heavily featured." - neo-neocon - On acting Presidential (or kingly)
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:10 PM | Your Say (1)
Ronald Reagan Returns from Grave to Slam Republicans"Republicans have been in control of either Congress or the Presidency for eighteen of the twenty years since I left office, and yet in that short time you've managed to double the size of the federal budget, add hundreds of new federal agencies, and destroy the optimism of the American people," ranted Reagan. "Good going, geniuses."
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:40 PM | Your Say (0)
EARTH—Former vice president Al Gore -- who for the past three decades has unsuccessfully attempted to warn humanity of the coming destruction of our planet, only to be mocked and derided by the very people he has tried to save -- launched his infant son into space Monday in the faint hope that his only child would reach the safety of another world.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:41 PM | Your Say (0)
Question:"How many hours is Michelle Obama actually putting in at her $200,000 hospital administration job these days? Does she still work there? Or, let's not ask about "work" per se -- does she continue drawing a salary?" -AceAnswer: She's on Obamaternity leave!
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:18 PM | Your Say (0)
"Look out kids they keep it all hid..."One of the intrinsic problems in being a liberal is that you can never reveal your first principles, because if you explicitly articulate them, people will be repelled at what a contemptuous and supercilious asshat you are. Therefore, you must always couch them in terms of "compassion," or "helping the little guy," or "healing the planet," or "unity," or some other such blather. So in that regard, Obama is dealing with a more general problem that is intrinsic to liberalism, which is How to Fool the Idiots. One must be very cautious, because even the idiots are only so stupid. - One Cosmos: Evolutionary Creationism
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:23 AM | Your Say (0)
Collegiate theme parks:"Housing students by race seemed to me an odd approach to ending racial division. During my freshman year, I lived two floors below the African American Theme Program floor. Other such floors included the Asian Pacific American Theme Program, the latino-centered Casa Magdalena Mora, and the Unity House, a gay-themed housing unit that allows you to have a roommate of the opposite sex. From what I remember, black students were the only ones participating in the African American Theme Program. Though students of all races and ethnicities are allowed to live in any of the available themed housing units, rarely did I see students living in housing centered on a culture different from their own." - Am I Diverse Enough Now? (Originals)
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:19 AM | Your Say (0)
July 29, 2008
Global Warming Now Racist: House Majority Whip: Climate Change Hurts Blacks MoreOf course. After all, everything is racist. Right?Posted by Vanderleun at 11:49 AM | Your Say (0)
While Nancy Pelosi is "Saving the planet. Saving the Planet"..."The US Congress, which prevents the US , doubtless the greatest hydrocarbon province in the world, from producing much more oil, gas and coal than it does at present. The U.S. has the resource base, the capital, technology and management capability to increase oil, gas and coal production by 15% within 5 years and by 50% within 10 years. Such an increase would bring fossil energy and food prices down by a quarter to a third worldwide , greatly strengthen the dollar, create a boom in good jobs, generate a tidal wave of federal, state and local revenues, propel the stock market to new highs, more than restore housing prices, and substantially enhance national security. Congress is the friend of despots in Iran and Venezuela and the worst enemy of consumers, globally. It's not the fault of the speculators or the Saudis or the Chinese that Congress so likes to blame but of itself (i.e., Congress) and of course, We the People who vote Congress into power. Oil at $175 will not be imposed by some Other on us; it will be freely willed by us as a sovereign people. We are responsible for the consequences of our choices. We may not like them but we cannot evade them nor shift the onus on the Other." -Vinod K. Dar Oil Prices
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:32 AM | Your Say (0)
Fools of the West:"Carbon control is what the West talks about. Carbon consumption is what the Non-Western Nations seek. Electricity efficiency and avoided generation is what the West talks about. Electricity supply is what nations big and small outside the West seek. Transportation efficiency is what the West talks about. Increased, greatly increased, mechanized mobility is what the nations of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America seek. The West wants to orate about wind, solar, geothermal and wave energy. The rest of the world wants more oil and natural gas, coal and uranium. The West worries about carbon control. The rest of the world, especially Asia, worries greatly about energy and food control. - Vinod K. Dar Earth Cools
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:10 AM | Your Say (0)
The "Ideal" Energy:"As for renewable energy to meet electric needs, the preferred technology for Eucaliyork is always one that is not commercially ready and as soon as it is ripe, it is no longer favored. The ideal project is an invisible windmill transporting power via buried, non-existent, superconducting cables." - Coal and Nuclear
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:48 AM | Your Say (0)
A Tale of Two Worlds:"There are two parallel energy worlds today -- The world as seen from Eucaliyork (EU, California, New York) and RealWorld. Included in the former are New England, Eastern Canada and Japan while the latter embraces most of the U.S., India, China, much of the Pacific Rim, part of Eastern Europe, much of Latin America, Russia, Africa and the rest of Asia. About 600 million people live in the former world and about six billion in the latter. The RealWorld has 10 times as many people as Eucaliyork; it accounts for 100% of the world's population growth and, perhaps, 90 % of the world's economic growth; it has almost 100% of the world's reserves of conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas, coal and uranium, and much of the world's agricultural land." - Vinod K. Dar - Coal and Nuclear
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:36 AM | Your Say (0)
July 28, 2008
He shoots. He scores!"Conservative issues don't attract me as much as liberal idiocy repels me." - AVI: Postliberal
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:47 PM | Your Say (0)
Law prof and cop agree: never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to the cops about a crime, even if you're innocent.Posted by Vanderleun at 10:15 PM | Your Say (0)
US Military's New Policy to Preserve, Protect, and Defend Precious Gay Resources:Posted by Vanderleun at 6:57 PM | Your Say (0)
The N-Word in American Political Discourse:Here's the rule. Now you know.Pay attention. There will be a quiz.
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:32 PM | Your Say (0)
BREAKING! Obama and McCain Campaigns Agree on Location for First Joint Townhall Meeting.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:43 PM | Your Say (0)
Alaska praying for global warming now!Right now the so-called summer of '08 is on pace to produce the fewest days ever recorded in which the temperature in Anchorage managed to reach 65 degrees." - Gloomy summer headed toward infamy: Alaska Daily News
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:34 AM | Your Say (0)
Another dull day in a dull campaign rates a dull headline:McCain Says Obama Plays Politics on Iraq - washingtonpost.comIs McCain moving his efforts from dullness to duh?
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:35 AM | Your Say (0)
The Pride of New Jersey:"In New Jersey, the highest-paid public employee is Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano, who grossed nearly $1.8 million in 2007, including an $800,000 interest-free home loan that the university agreed to pay for, according to a February 2008 article in the local Courier-Post newspaper." -Ivory Tower Inc. -- In These TimesParents, keep those tuition checks coming in!
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:31 AM | Your Say (0)
Feeling overheated? Fly: Move your mouse and cruise over the winter landscape.Posted by Vanderleun at 6:36 AM | Your Say (0)
July 27, 2008
Liveblogging Netroots Nation: just reading this headline makes you a nerd - 236 10:00 a.m., Saturday: Al Gore's Magical Hummus MachineNancy Pelosi was speaking when suddenly Al Gore made a surprise appearance, which is not easy with the size of his head being what it is. Pelosi looked incredibly surprised, but I think her face might be stuck that way. All jokes aside, it was great to see two impressive Democratic leaders onstage together. Gore and Pelosi took turns telling various douchebags to shut up. One man asked why Gore doesn't often mention that the meat industry (specifically: cow farts) make up more of the global warming gases than car emissions. Gore, sounding very professorial, said it's because meat is delicious and cars are not. The crowd cheered.
Then Nancy Pelosi was asked why she won't impeach Bush seeing as Congress's approval rating is 9%. She said it's because they want to hang on to that 9% of America who loves them.
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:23 PM | Your Say (0)
July 26, 2008
How quickly they forget:Speaking about Obama in Germany "He's extremely charismatic -- I've never seen anybody like this,'' said Wolfgang Zuchowsky, a 73-year-old retired police officer from Berlin. - Bloomberg.73? That would make him born in Germany in, well, 1935.
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:19 PM | Your Say (0)
On "Easy:""It is easy to be loved when you look good, give a great speech and do nothing, and it's easy to be hated once you're actually engaged in making decisions and standing by them. A real leader has to - like a parent - be willing to be hated." -- The Prez & The Dude -- The Anchoress
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:41 AM | Your Say (0)
July 25, 2008
And now for something completely different....
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:30 PM | Your Say (0)
"There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past." - What Bush and Batman Have in Common - WSJ.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:27 AM | Your Say (0)
Shame doesn't enter into it:"Inhabitants of the left-wing blogosphere, have you no shame? Was your pacifism nothing more than a hipster pose? Bush is on the way out -- are your principles leaving with him? Have you stopped to wonder if BHO might not be your LBJ? - Ralph Peters - New York Post
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:23 AM | Your Say (0)
Thus sayeth the scripture:"And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow. When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: "Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?" - He ventured forth to bring light to the world | Gerard Baker - Times Online
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:55 AM | Your Say (0)
July 24, 2008
Bada-Bing!"I'm often amazed at what educated people don't know." - Sippican Cottage
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:35 PM | Your Say (0)
Obama Press Corp Danger Alert. This just in...."The press disciples following Obama around are in danger of dying from anal poisoning." -- Rush Limbaugh
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (0)
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, DOOM!"As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya. Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all." -- Obama sets the Germans straightOh, the Obamamanity!
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:31 AM | Your Say (0)
Compassion Fatigue - A journalist confesses:"The people of Ireland remained in ignorance of the reality of Africa because of cowardly journalists like me. When I went to Ethiopia just over 20 years ago, I saw many things I never reported -- such as the menacing effect of gangs of young men with Kalashnikovs everywhere, while women did all the work. In the very middle of starvation and death, men spent their time drinking the local hooch in the boonabate shebeens. Alongside the boonabates were shanty-brothels, to which drinkers would casually repair, to briefly relieve themselves in the scarred orifice of some wretched prostitute (whom God preserve and protect). I saw all this and did not report it, nor the anger of the Irish aid workers at the sexual incontinence and fecklessness of Ethiopian men. Why? Because I wanted to write much-acclaimed, tear-jerkingly purple prose about wide-eyed, fly-infested children -- not cold, unpopular and even "racist" accusations about African male culpability." -Writing what I should have written so many years ago -Kevin Myers
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:41 AM | Your Say (0)
Oy! Ye Olde Jewish Problem:Posted by Vanderleun at 9:33 AM | Your Say (0)
DOOMWATCH!AUSTRALIAN television advertising is producing as much as 57 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hour, and thirty second ad breaks are among the worst offenders, according to audit figures from pitch consultants TrinityP3. - TV ads cause carbon carnage | NEWS.com.au
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:58 AM | Your Say (0)
Change! Yes we.... Ah, er, what change?:At least Mr. McCain fesses up to and explains his changes. Sen. Obama has shifted recently on public financing, free trade, Nafta, welfare reform, the D.C. gun ban, whether the Iranian Quds Force is a terrorist group, immunity for telecom companies participating in the Terrorist Surveillance Program, the status of Jerusalem, flag lapel pins, and disavowing Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And not only does he refuse to explain these flip-flops, he acts as if they never occurred. - Karl Rove - A Tale of Two Flip-Floppers - WSJ.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:15 AM | Your Say (0)
July 23, 2008
Name that group:A presidential candidate may be "drafted" in response to "overwhelming popular demand," but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room. - Full text of PROPAGANDA, by Edward Bernays (1928)
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:49 PM | Your Say (0)
Cheer up. It could be worse if you lived in Wales: Flesh-Eating Slug Invades WalesPosted by Vanderleun at 1:45 PM | Your Say (0)
So long Suckers! Thanks for the fish!:The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced today that effective immediately they will cease all banking operations nationwide.... "The bottom line is that there is only so much money to go around, and unfortunately for us Congress has decided that this round of irresponsible, taxpayer-funded bailouts goes to Fannie and Freddie," said Bair. "What can you do?" - FDIC Folds—Federal Finances Foolishly Floundered | The Naked Loon
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:07 PM | Your Say (0)
"The difference between a politician and a statesman is the breadth of their horizons. But have we ever seen people with horizons as limited as our modern Congress? Of course their ratings are low -- we return their judgment of us. They think we have no sense of deferred gratification; they think we are children -- and not very bright, not very disciplined children at that. We return the compliment."
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:47 PM | Your Say (0)
Service Nation:
Not satisfied with taking 20-40% of our income to spend as they see fit, the government hopes also to be able to order around the labor of millions of young adults. I feel like I am reading some bizarre historical re-enactment of the Soviet or Chinese youth programs. This whole program, which I am tentatively going to label "happy face fascism," makes me so sick I can't even address it further tonight. - Coyote Blog: Massive Campaign to Bring Back Indentured Servitude
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:17 PM | Your Say (0)
Obamism: "You know, it's always a bad practice to say 'always' or 'never.'" -- Obama, speaking in Amman today.Posted by Vanderleun at 11:44 AM | Your Say (1)
Nothing says "character reference" like a teeming crowd of thousands of adoring Germans chanting your name. - Jim Geraghty"Barack erlaubt Ihnen nie, zu Ihren Leben zuruck wie ublich zu gehen, nicht mit einbezogen, nicht informiert." Translation: "Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed." - Michelle Obama
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:30 AM | Your Say (0)
On one of the 10 ugliest words in the English language:I hate the term: blog. It's ugly, and it's come to mean something even uglier than the sound of it. It's become the minor leagues of hate. I write personal essays here. Zuihitsu. It might not be noble, but a person has little to offer to others but knowledge of which they are sure. "I am an expert in the affairs of all men" is the banner of the professional politician and their toads. Not hardly. - Sippican Cottage: I'm From The Past And I'm Here To Help
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:40 AM | Your Say (0)
Ready for the Close-Up:Trust me on this: Bicycling makes you sweaty. Nobody wants to look at sweaty people, and climate change f.k.a. global warming is really all about what we want to look at. It is fashion. We want to see people babbling their platitudes about "we all must be ready to sacrifice," but we want to see those people immaculately made-up, with every hair in place... beautiful people. The way people look when they tumble out of an enormous SUV with the air conditioning cranked way up. - House of Eratosthenes
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:23 AM | Your Say (0)
July 22, 2008
Smells Like Obama Spirit:"Chris Matthews defended his infamous comment about his visceral reaction to a Barack Obama speech."You know, some journalists only report what a guy says and what they hear and what they see," Matthews told Leno. "I report all senses." -Media Blog on National Review OnlineMatthews: "Kneepads? Check. Lip gloss? Check. Funky white boy cowlick? Check. Going down!"
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:13 PM | Your Say (0)
The Plight of the Hungry American Poor: from a sob-story on NPR. Obviously this works better as radio.
"The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries -- $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles. - For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach : NPR
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:19 AM | Your Say (0)
The Hand of Man and Delusions of Grandeur:
"Modern man has developed an annoying characteristic; an over-bloated, self-aggrandized view of his capabilities. Educated people have come to believe that we now belong on those god-pedestals of old. The thrill of understanding a few principles behind the forces of nature has caused man to lose all perspective on his puniness."
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:34 AM | Your Say (0)
July 21, 2008
There's really no bottom:
'It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama's piece,' NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain's staff. 'I'm not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.... I'd be pleased, though, to look at another draft."
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:53 PM | Your Say (0)
July 20, 2008
Three Little Magic Words - The A-Bomb of Comment Wars:Posted by Vanderleun at 9:25 PM | Your Say (0)
for the low price of 4,000 dinar, or $3.50, will purchase a full meal at the recently established Kentucky Fried Chicken in the Hey Al Dubat area of the city.I love the smell of extra-crispy with two sides in the morning. It smells like "Victory."
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:43 PM | Your Say (0)
Presidential anointee Barack Obama on Face the Nation -"The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years." -Political Punch[Note to Obama staff now and for the next eight to ten years: Never, ever let this man speak off the cuff.]
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:26 PM | Your Say (0)
What an honest Democrat would say about their current energy policy: "Yeah, I know that $4 gas is painful. But do you know what? Gas prices are going to have to go a LOT higher for us to achieve the CO2 abatement targets I am proposing, so suck it up. Just to give you a sense of scale, the Europeans pay nearly twice as much as we do for gas, and even at those levels, they are orders of magnitude short of the CO2 abatement I have committed us to achieve. Since late 2006, gas prices in this country have doubled, and demand has fallen by perhaps 5%. That will probably improve over time as people buy new cars and change behaviors, but it may well require gasoline prices north of $20 a gallon before we meet the CO2 goal I have adopted. So get ready." - Climate Skeptic: In Search of Honesty
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:21 PM | Your Say (0)
Why is this woman laughing?
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:29 PM | Your Say (0)
The feckless fuckups of intellectual fashionplates:"It is fashionable among academic intellectuals to champion atheism on the grounds that religion is responsible for a majority of deaths throughout history. Of course those people know no history. Mao, Stalin, Hitler were all atheists and promoted atheist societies, and managed to rack up more casualties than all the religious wars in history. But then no one learns history. -- Jerry Pournelle
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:57 PM | Your Say (0)
Obama, yo mama!He's well-dressed. He eats arugula -- which he buys at Whole Foods. He mocks those who use guns. He is, as we mentioned, quite thin. He may only be half-black, but he's three-quarters gay." -How to make fun of Obama - Los Angeles TimesPosted by Vanderleun at 12:45 PM | Your Say (0)
Firefight in Afghanistan:"It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused. "Normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do that -- getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head ... It was a fistfight then, and those guys held 'em off." -Soldiers recount deadly attack on Afghanistan outpost | Stars and StripesPosted by Vanderleun at 9:33 AM | Your Say (0)
Are Facts Obsolete?:"Nowhere do facts matter less than in foreign policy issues. Nothing is more popular than the notion that you can deal with dangers from other nations by talking with their leaders. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain became enormously popular in the 1930s by sitting down and talking with Hitler, and announcing that their agreement had produced "peace in our time" -- just one year before the most catastrophic war in history began." - Thomas Sowell [HT: House of Eratosthenes]Posted by Vanderleun at 9:05 AM | Your Say (0)
Just when you thought it was safe to walk the streets in Boston's South End...."The mural, 13 feet high and nearly a block long, features multiple composite portraits of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, their faces melded together in a rainbow of colors. It is meant, the gallery said, to inspire dialogue." -Street artist inspires too much enthusiasm - The Boston GlobeMeanwhile, out on the other fringe of the propaganda wars:
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:39 AM | Your Say (0)
"The last temptation is the final treason,/ To do the right thing for the wrong reason."Law requires that we punish exceptionally evil behaviour, for the sake of defending our own autonomy, but when law is used to "compel the good," there can be no freedom. -David WarrenPosted by Vanderleun at 8:25 AM | Your Say (0)
July 18, 2008
Apocalypse Soon
"Propaganda, only propaganda is necessary. There is no end of stupid people." - Adolf HitlerIf the Arctic should doff its polar cap
in deference to excessive heat,
Mother Earth will be up to her crack
in more H2o than tantalised
the Ancient Mariner. Yet some forecast
drought, Saharas, parched disaster.Which fate awaits this spinning Ark:
death by drowning or dehydration?
There can only be one apocalypse.
For those who live by final warnings,
beware of hot air -
the true cause of global warming.Only fools and fanatics claim
-- Jim Greenhalf
to know the Creator's mind;
without the cloudiest doubt
occluding theirs, they proclaim
the end of the world is nigh. Doom
even makes athiests believers of a kind.Posted by Vanderleun at 12:21 PM | Your Say (0)
July 17, 2008
Sense of Events: Let's hear it for hypocrites!"It is deceit that makes hypocrisy what it is. The true hypocrite wants others to think better of him/her than is actually justified. Absent this deceit, there is no hypocrisy, just error or human frailty. That's what the hypocrisy-excuse people don't understand - or pretend not to understand - about church people. What may appear to be church people's hypocrisy is almost always just simple failure to meet the standards of our faith rather than deceit. Why? Because the standard is so high...."Posted by Vanderleun at 8:27 PM | Your Say (0)
Mocking Obama - that's the last taboo.
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:24 PM | Your Say (0)
Reckoning the cost:"The price of abandoning myth in order to travel where No Man Has Gone Before, via our home entertainment centers or Internet terminals , is that we have lost our place in our own story." - Belmont Club - Who wants to know?Posted by Vanderleun at 4:46 PM | Your Say (0)
Against Democracy:"Our democratic institutions today, though far more distributed and open than the systems of Goebbels or Vyshinsky, are basically designed to run on an information system that funnels truth down from the top of the mountain. This is a brittle design. If it breaks - if it starts distributing sewage along with the rosewater - it loses its credibility. If it loses its credibility, the government loses its legitimacy. When a government loses its legitimacy, you don't want to be standing under it." - Unqualified Reservations: OLXIV: rules for reactionariesPosted by Vanderleun at 3:36 PM | Your Say (0)
On the Sickness Unto Death by Tony Snow:"To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life,- and that the journey continues after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non-believing hearts… an intuition that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live fully, richly, exuberantly - no matter how their days may be numbered." - A Meditation on Life, from a Dying Man | The Doctor Is InPosted by Vanderleun at 1:56 PM | Your Say (0)
Critical hate shortage looms: Newspaper Runs Out Of Anti-Bush Headlines
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:06 PM | Your Say (0)
"Another day in the Land of Inversion,where the obvious is not an option. I heard more interviews with learned politicians informing me that "drilling for oil" will not affect anything, least of all the quantity of oil. We must apparently wait until 2015, when a magic engine that runs on unicorn flatulence is invented. I have to ask: why is anyone investing in unicorn flatulence today, when it won't make any difference for several years? The answer's simple: the engine will Appear at the chosen moment, borne from the clouds by starlings, but only if we have repented of our foul ways, and the last of the sinners has left the cul-de-sac to reside in a home located a sustainable distance from his or her place of employment. When the last suburban outlying development is empty, when the homes of whose size we disapprove has been abandoned, when the last citizen has been gathered unto the bosom of the urban center, where his profligate ways are sneered upon and the measure of his yard shall be no greater than the standard lot size decreed in 1902, then shall the magic engine appear. Until then, the wind and the sun will bear us onward." -LILEKS (James) the BleatPosted by Vanderleun at 11:43 AM | Your Say (0)
July 16, 2008
Who says there's no good news?NYT Co. stock took another nosedive today, dropping 2.73 percent to $12.85. That means in the last week, Times Company stock has fallen $2.21, or 15 percent. - The New York ObserverPosted by Vanderleun at 1:28 PM | Your Say (0)
Best foods: Obama's Nuts And Their Magical Properties Every Obama's nut is unique with various properties and characteristics and has the ability to induce hope, as well as store, receive, and transmit energy. Other legendary properties include the ability to attract compassion and understanding of the media, reveal the location of other people's money, ward off unwanted inquiries, and prevent drug overdose.Posted by Vanderleun at 9:11 AM | Your Say (0)
Monoculture:"When we championed trash culture we had no idea it would become the only culture." -Pauline Kael & trash cinemaPosted by Vanderleun at 8:21 AM | Your Say (0)
July 15, 2008
That windbag T. Boone Pickens:"There are no turbines on my ranch, because I think they are ugly." - T. Boone Pickens to NewsweekPosted by Vanderleun at 5:15 PM | Your Say (0)
Truth and consequences:"Bush Says Drill, Drill, Drill -- and Oil Drops $9! -KudlowPosted by Vanderleun at 5:09 PM | Your Say (0)
A tongue you can believe in:A nonscientific survey by the dating site Match.com found that 77 percent of respondents believe Obama would be a better kisser than the Arizona Republican. - Obama beats McCain in kissing contestPosted by Vanderleun at 1:36 PM | Your Say (0)
Green Terrorism - Just Say No: "Environmentalism is instinctively and relentlessly illiberal, and it is doing more to inculcate people with fear, self-loathing and a religious-style sense of meekness than any piece of anti-terror legislation ever could. If you believe in freedom, you must reject it." -Brendan O'Neill: Greens are the enemies of libertyPosted by Vanderleun at 12:27 PM | Your Say (0)
Humongous, steady, dense, doable, cheap - Alternate Energy Requirements in Brief:In order for "alternate energy" to become feasible, it has to satisfy all of the following criteria:1. It has to be huge (in terms of both energy and power)
2. It has to be reliable (not intermittent or unschedulable)
3. It has to be concentrated (not diffuse)
4. It has to be possible to utilize it efficiently
5. The capital investment and operating cost to utilize it has to be comparable to existing energy sources (per gigawatt, and per terajoule).
- Stephen Den BestePosted by Vanderleun at 10:12 AM | Your Say (0)
Allah Akbar! "Just a song at twilight at twlight...:""Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset." -- Obama: Man of the World - New York TimesPosted by Vanderleun at 9:48 AM | Your Say (0)
July 14, 2008
ALERT! Warming bullshit now approaching tsunami proportions:Global warming may raise kidney stone riskGlobal warming could do more than hurt polar bears: It could force a rise in kidney stones, scientists warned Monday. "We see a relationship between kidney stones and temperatures everywhere," says study co-author Margaret Pearle of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. "Even in places with air conditioning, warmer temperatures mean more stones."
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:58 PM | Your Say (0)
Iraq's a Win. But if a victory happens and nobody hears it...."But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won. I wish I could say the same for Afghanistan." -Michael Yon: Dispatches
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:59 PM | Your Say (0)
"The terrible 'ifs' accumulate..." Islam's forthcoming 'suicide by cop:'"The so-called strengths of Islamic terrorism: fanatical intent; lack of a centralized leadership; absence of a final authority and cellular structure guarantee uncontrollable escalation once the nuclear threshold is crossed. Therefore the 'rational' American response to the initiation of terrorist WMD attack would be all out retaliation from the outset.... It is supremely ironic that the survival of the Islamic world should hinge on an American victory in the War on Terror, the last chance to prevent that terrible day in which all the decisions will have already been made for us." - The 3 Conjectures @ Belmont Club
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:45 PM | Your Say (0)
With which to wash down that waffle:At the beginning of his remarks, Obama said, "I'm still looking for my mimosa," as many of the several hundred people in this ballroom were holding drinks. -Lynn Sweet: Obama, at fund-raiser in Newport Beach, Calif. takes one sip of a Mimosa.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:01 PM | Your Say (0)
Do you know how to strike with a sturdy stick? If you do, you know all you need to know..."Our Unbreakable Umbrella has no unusual parts, no more metal than an average umbrella, it does not arouse suspicion, can be carried legally everywhere where any weapons are prohibited, unlike a walking stick it does not cause strange looks if carried by an able-bodied person, and it does protect from rain. Anyone who can use a stick for defense can use this umbrella." -The Unbreakable Walking-Stick Umbrella
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:52 PM | Your Say (0)
"History" is what happens while you are dicking about with Hope and Change:"As well as the roads, Beijing has promised to repair 2,000 miles of largely defunct railways, build 32 hospitals and 145 health centres, install two electricity distribution networks, construct two hydropower dams and two new airports. In return, China has won the rights to five copper and cobalt mines in Congo's southern minerals belt which boasts some of the world's richest ore deposits. Victor Kasongo, Congo's deputy minister of mines, said: "To be honest, China was Plan B. We first approached the Europeans but they said they did not have the muscle to do what we needed. China has stepped into that opening, very quickly."" -China's 8 Billion drive to buy Africa's mineral wealth - Telegraph
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Paid for lies:"Climate change is a big scam, probably the biggest one ever successfully perpetrated. But California’s 'salary' is about to depend on the folks in charge never, ever figuring that out. Even though, in the hearts-of-hearts, they know it already." - House of Eratosthenes
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:22 AM | Your Say (0)
July 13, 2008
Newspaper demographics:"The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans." - Big Shot Bob in Texas
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:31 AM | Your Say (0)
Sole surviving reason to attend Beijing Olympics kaput:China Takes Dog off the Menu for Olympics
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:11 AM | Your Say (0)
Iran Threatens to Photoshop Israel from Map - ScrapplefacePosted by Vanderleun at 8:57 AM | Your Say (0)
Stop me if you've heard this one before...."Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians have never been as close to a peace deal than now." - CBS News
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:50 AM | Your Say (0)
July 12, 2008
iPhone3G - Will It Blend?Posted by Vanderleun at 9:25 AM | Your Say (0)
July 11, 2008
Food is shrinking in China:"I looked down at the loaf of bread and realized it is about two thirds the size it was last month. Then it clicked: All kinds of edible goods are shrinking in China these days. The rice crackers I like to nibble on at the office are in the same sized package as always, but the crackers themselves have shrunk dramatically." - McClatchy blog: China Rises
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:11 PM | Your Say (0)
July 10, 2008
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NozzleRage: Attack of the PumpPosted by Vanderleun at 9:58 AM | Your Say (0)
Change You Vill Believe In:"The signature performance of the modern revolution is the irregular military parade. Ie: cars or pickup trucks full of well-armed youths in their colorful native attire, driving up and down your street while (a) honking, (b) waving hand-lettered banners, (c) chanting catchy slogans, and (d) discharging their firearms in a vaguely vertical direction. Occasionally one of the vehicles will pull up in front of a house and discharge its occupants, who enter the building and emerge with an infidel, racist, Jew, spy, polluter, Nazi or other criminal. The offender is either restrained for transportation to an educational facility, or enlightened on the spot as an act of radical social justice. Yes, we can!" - Unqualified Reservations: OLXIII: tactics and structures of any prospective restoration
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:00 AM | Your Say (0)
July 9, 2008
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
-- Auden
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:07 PM | Your Say (0)
Ralph Peters, Summer 1997. Sound familiar?"... our most successful politicians--human beings who can recognize or create popular appetites, recreating themselves as necessary."
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:56 PM | Your Say (0)
An entire generation in need of immediate extermination:
YouTube - I'm Not Here to Make Friends! HT: Morgan (He whom nobody reads).
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:37 PM | Your Say (0)
Ralph Peters in 1994. Sound familiar? "Today's warriors have a tremendous advantage over their antique brethren in the struggle for survival, however: the West's pathetic, if endearing, concern for human life, even when that life belongs to a murderer of epic achievement." - PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Summer 1994
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:02 PM | Your Say (0)
"New Age God-candy" Obamaism explained in 1993:"In an age haunted by cataclysms real and imagined, in this era of disappointment and wracking international failure, men and women will prove increasingly vulnerable to anti-modern, anti-rational explanations for their misfortunes and their inextinguishable impulse to vanity. Even in the United States, many of those least able to keep material, intellectual, and spiritual pace with the demands of modernity turn to primitive or exotic religious forms, from revivalism to New Age God-candy. -- Vanity and the Bonfires of the "isms" by Ralph Peters PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Autumn 1993
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:50 PM | Your Say (0)
July 8, 2008
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:40 AM | Your Say (0)
Feeling nostalgic for Rhodesia yet?"A conservative estimate provided by Robertson Economic Information Services, a Southern African consultancy, says that prices are now three billion fold greater than seven years ago. That's right, billion. The exchange rate is currently an astronomical 90 billion Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S. dollar." -How Inflation May Topple Mugabe - WSJ.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:32 AM | Your Say (0)
Food at the Hunger Summit:"After discussing famine in Africa, the peckish politicians and five spouses took on four bite-sized amuse-bouche to tickle their palates. The price of staple foods may be soaring, but thankfully caviar and sea urchin are within the purchasing power of leaders and their taxpayers - the amuse-bouche featured corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin, hot onion tart and winter lily bulb." - Just two of the 19 dishes on the dinner menu at the G8 food shortages summit (The Guardian)
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:19 AM | Your Say (0)
July 7, 2008
The Triumph of Tim Robbins' WillPosted by Vanderleun at 4:56 PM | Your Say (0)
July 6, 2008
Things Morgan Knows #179."Children seem to be 'diagnosed' with lots of things lately. It has become customary for at least one of their parents to be somehow 'enthusiastic' about said diagnosis, sometimes even confessing to having requested or demanded the diagnosis. Said parent is invariably female. Said child is invariably male. The lopsided gender trend is curious, and so is the spectacle of parents ordering diagnoses for their children, like pizzas or textbooks." - House of Eratosthenes
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:31 PM | Your Say (0)
Heads Up! Tuesday is going to suck big time:Please study this evidence carefully. The saints of San Diego and surrounding areas in California NEED TO BE WARNED of the MAJOR JUDGMENT coming upon them that will be MUCH WORSE THAN 911. This evidence shows JULY 8, 2008 is hard coded in the Word of God as the next Major Judgment Date that will fulfill scripture just like the attack on the Twin Towers Sept 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina fulfilled scripture . It cannot be prayed away and It will not be delayed. -- !!! 2,492 DAYS !!!
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:50 AM | Your Say (0)
Obama: Living in the future or living in Fantasyland?"I'm surprised at how finely calibrated every single word was measured. I wasn't saying anything I hadn't said before, that I didn't say a year ago or when I was a United States senator," said Obama, who is still a senator from Illinois. -- Obama puzzled by Iraq comment frenzy
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:39 AM | Your Say (0)
July 5, 2008
Sisterhood is powerful: Anals of Feminism in Our TimeA woman fell into a tank of slurry as she tried to make "manure bombs" using her stockings, German police today said. The unfortunate woman stripped off her foul smelling clothes and fled the scene naked, along with a female accomplice wearing just her bra and pants, a police spokesman told Reuters. - Cow dung fate for 'manure bomber' | World news | guardian.co.uk
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:47 PM | Your Say (0)
July 4, 2008
Let the wild rumpus begin!"As Marie-Antoinette is said to have remarked about her starving subjects who were demanding bread, "Let then eat cake," our elected Democratic members of Congress are in effect saying of Americans, "Let them ride bikes." -- It's Time for Rage - HUMAN EVENTS
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:09 PM | Your Say (0)
July 3, 2008
Infinite Potential:"500 years ago, oil was not a resource. Neither was uranium. People around at the time didn't know how to use them. Things that weren't resources became resources. Our ability to use new resources made old resources obsolete. Now, no home in the UK needs to burn wood for heat, for example. Or, as Bjorn Lomborg has put it, the Stone Age didn't come to an end because we ran out of stones." - Climate Resistance: Infinite Regress
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July 2, 2008
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July 1, 2008
Posted by Vanderleun at 5:50 PM | Your Say (0)
How I am NOT spending my Summer vacation:"Seattle Police opened fire on a suspect in Downtown Seattle this morning who they say robbed a West Seattle bank wearing black shoe polish on his face and a wig." - Police shoot bank robbery suspect Seattle, Washington
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:23 PM | Your Say (0)