Categorical Aperitif

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 7:42 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:02 AM 0 comments

There's ironic juxtaposition, and then there's ironic juxtaposition that jams a cattle prod right into your brain. Ow!

That is definitely one of the most magnificently hard-hitting political cartoons I have ever seen. It's being a good week for hard-hitting cartoons, actually; see also "Health Care Reformageddon!"

(I think it would be even better, though, with the "decades of abusive priests" removed; just clericalize the garb a bit more, and I can't believe anyone would miss the reference. That label makes the point needlessly obvious, I think, especially for the gifted Toles. And the qualifier "decades" doesn't really help to make the cartoon a little less controversial, if that was the intention, at least judging by the comments: shame, shame, the liberal media attacks the Church at Easter, it's a sign of Marxism, etc. etc. Bah.)

Labels: editorial cartoons

// posted by nash @ 7:50 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 9:28 PM 0 comments

Should I be more happy that CNN actually talked to Amy Goodman? Or should I be more sad that they paired her with vile wingnut apologist Erick Erickson—whom they allowed to run out the clock with the lame "Democrats playing victim" canard?

Hmm. I'll just go with the mildly optimistic hope that some viewers will be inspired to google up Democracy Now!, will realize what they've been missing—and will never go back to CNN again.

// posted by nash @ 3:23 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

Alas, Alan Grayson's district is northwest of mine; otherwise, I could take great joy in voting for a Democrat who could give the rest of his party lessons in how to talk back to wingnuts. Check out this four-sentence dismissal of his 2010 Tea Party opponent:

“I read Dunmire’s announcement,” said Grayson. “I then forwarded it to the Guinness Book of World Records, for consideration under the category ‘Most Consecutive Cliches.’ This kind of right-wing drivel gave America $4-a-gallon gas and two endless wars, and drove us all to the brink of national bankruptcy. Was she living in a cave for eight years?”

// posted by nash @ 3:06 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

My friend jules will appreciate Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for today:

shibboleth \SHIB-uh-luth\ noun
1 : catchword, slogan
*2 : a widely held belief or truism
3 : a custom or usage regarded as distinctive of a particular group

Example sentence:
"Taxpayers beware: Don't buy into the shibboleth that more money automatically translates into better schools." (Press Journal [Vero Beach, FL], July 27, 2003)

Did you know?
The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said "no," he was asked to say "shibboleth" (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephramites said "sibboleth." Anyone who left out the initial "sh" was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed "shibboleth," they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired additional meanings since that time.

// posted by nash @ 8:59 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:40 AM 0 comments

Telling a Congressman to "bleed out your ass, get cancer and die."

Using racist epithets and sending pictures of nooses.

Cutting the propane line to someone's house—someone whose address someone else posted online, obviously to encourage acts of intimidation. Oh, and shrugging off the news that it was actually the intended target's brother's family's house with "Oh, well, collateral damage."

Running away from reporters when questioned about one's violent rhetoric.

Blaming the violence and threats on Obama and the Democrats: By not doing what we want, they're forcing us to threaten them. Or something. (Honestly, there are eight-year-olds who would be embarrassed to be caught using such an excuse.)

Oh, and suggesting that Democrats are just "trying to score political points by talking about the threats in public." Apparently, when Democrats are threatened, they're supposed to take it and like it.

Can't you feel the reverence for life and freedom? It's a good thing that America has people so devoted to these things that they'll wish miserable deaths on people, hurl racist invective at them, cut the propane lines to their houses, etc. and then blame it all on somebody else, huh? Surely we must be grateful to have such paragons of moral and intellectual leadership scattered throughout our land.

I'd like to call this behavior childish, but I fear that would be an insult to children.

// posted by nash @ 8:24 AM 1 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 10:25 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:43 AM 0 comments

I've heard of social contract theory and divine right theory and whatnot, but an awful lot of people on today's right seem to have embraced the "either gratify my desires or you're EVIL, EVIL!!?!" theory of government. Digby takes off from Mitt Romney's bizarre denunciation of the healthcare bill as an "abuse of power," a "usurpation," etc. (because no Republicans voted for it, see), but his petulant whining is merely an example of a growing genre that I fear we're going to see a lot of for the next three years:

I can't help but recall hearing a whole lot of patronizing advice from these same people a few years back when anyone breathed that President Bush might not have legitimately taken office since he lost the popular vote, his brother manipulated the system in Florida and he was was installed by a partisan supreme court decision. Back then it was all "get over it," and "I've got political capital and I'm gonna spend it!" Now, these same people are all screaming that it's a usurpation if the Democrats win the majority and then pass legislation that they don't like.

It's fairly clear that Republicans don't understand how democracy works. You campaign, people vote, you win elections, you get a majority, you pass legislation. They seem to think Democracy means that that elections are irrelevant, majorities are meaningless and that all legislation is contingent upon the permission of the Republican Party.

I'm sorry these people are so unhappy. I know how they feel. I used to hate it when the Republicans passed some disgusting initiative that went against everything I believe in. But I don't recall having a mental breakdown at the notion that they could do it even though I didn't want them to. The idea that they were obligated to do my bidding didn't actually cross my mind.

As they used to say repeatedly, "elections have consequences." If the people don't like this bill, they have every right to turn the Democrats out of office and repeal it. But screaming hysterically that it's cheating to pass legislation with a majority just proves that these folks' great reverence for the constitution is based more on their love of wearing funny hats than anything that's written in it.

A less charitable explanation is that many of them are nuts— they suffer from some emotional disorder that makes otherwise grown adults throw tantrums when their will is thwarted. (Hey, many of us have anger issues, but we generally try not to act them out in front of cameras.) The contributions of Fox News, talk radio, etc. to this derangement may not be minor, of course. (Their frequent denunciations of greater access to health care as "tyranny" and "the death of freedom" certain suggests some level of dislocation from observable reality.)

The least charitable explanation, I suppose, is that some of them are just shameless: they'll do whatever it takes to further their long-term project of making America more like a Third-World oligarchy (while disguising this behind a loudly proclaimed reverence for "freedom"), and if that means throwing public tantrums, spreading bizarre lies, throwing around racist and homophobic epithets, turning "social justice" into an evil concept, vandalizing lawmakers' offices and threatening their children, etc., they're game.

I'm not sure what precise of ignorance, insanity, and/or mendacity is behind this madness, but I sure wish these people would learn to take disappointment more gracefully. As Eric Boehlert says, "It's the kind of childish and hysterical reaction I didn't think we'd ever witness from a major political movement."

// posted by nash @ 8:37 AM 0 comments

Let's do another threefer for today.

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

James "The Amazing" Randi has come out of the closet at age 81. Awesome!

I know it makes not a whit of difference re. the value of his lifetime of work encouraging critical thinking and fighting pseudoscience and chicanery.

It's just good to know that he felt free enough to do it after all these years. In fact, it feels great.

He's done an audio interview that I haven't had a chance to listen to yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

(h/t to my good friend jules, who is probably engaged in the horrid process of moving as I type; at the risk of sounding pseudoscientific, let's all send good vibes her way)

// posted by nash @ 10:48 AM 1 comments

A threefer for today:

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

I confess, I was busy as heck yesterday and did not follow the last-minute drama as the healthcare reform bill neared a vote; I did not find out it had passed until I awoke this morning to find this from the Times in my inbox:

House Approves Landmark Bill to Extend Health Care to Millions

Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation's health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama.

By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the bill after a day of tumultuous debate that echoed the epic struggle of the last year. The action sent the bill to President Obama, whose crusade for such legislation has been a hallmark of his presidency.

Democrats hailed the votes as historic, comparable to the establishment of Medicare and Social Security and a long overdue step forward in social justice.

I can't feel triumphant about a bill that

• does not make healthcare access universal,
• does not create a public option to compete with private insurers, and
• does not represent a departure from the oligarchic consensus that the job of government is to ensure that public policy serves corporate interests,

But here's the thing. Community hasn't succeeded very often in American politics, but when it has, it's tended to work better than advertised. Social Security and Medicare (universal coverage for senior citizens) are very popular. Once changes like these are made, well, it takes a while, but most people tend to like them. And maybe that's the real reason Republicans are so unhinged right now.

// posted by nash @ 10:13 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 2:46 PM 1 comments

Dean Baker goes after an NYT story on the Icelandic populace's hostility to a deal requiring them to pay off (to the tune of $65,000 per household) foreign debts incurred by freewheeling financial speculators during a very un-Scandinavian bout of Randian deregulitis:

The issue here is whether private banks can effectively create enormous obligations (the money at stake would be equivalent to $6 trillion in the United States) for taxpayers. There was obviously an enormous regulatory failure on the part of the Icelandic bank regulators. International agencies like the IMF also played a role in failing to call attention to what were obviously very speculative investments. (Frederick Mishkin, a former Federal Reserve Board governor, did his part to promote the Iceland catastrophe, touting the great strength of its economy in a 2006 report. He does not appear to have faced any consequences as a result.)

It is also likely that some of the banks' actions involved fraudulent accounting practices if they concealed the extent of their true liabilities. The question then is whether the taxpayers or the depositors should bear the risk from fraudulent actions by banks. Arguments could be made in both directions, but this issue is never mentioned in the article.

It should also point out how the Iceland makes a mockery of anyone who claims to support leaving financial activities to the market. In almost all cases, actors in financial markets assume that governments will stand behind banks at the end of the day. Therefore when they say want the government to leave things to the market they are lying. They just want to be able to take risks with taxpayers money, without being fettered by regulations limiting the extent of these risks. In short, the finance boys want a free lunch, not a free market.

// posted by nash @ 2:43 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

Hey, I almost missed the seventh anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

No, I don't feel like celebrating, either.

// posted by nash @ 7:25 PM 1 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 7:23 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:56 AM 2 comments

Not much time for anything else this crappy week.

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

I hope today began better for you than yesterday did for me.

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

Romeo was one of my sister's dogs—a very intelligent, friendly, people-savvy little Pomeranian. We put him to sleep early this morning. He had a tumor near his heart and was having increasing trouble breathing as well as long, painful coughing fits that were getting more and more frequent. I can honestly say that he had a very good life as dog lives go; he lived with my sister, a truly excellent animal person, from the time he was a puppy, and he was well loved and well cared for. I was with him as he died. He died in the same place, in the same room, on the same table, as did the delightful Gypsy a year and a half ago. I am starting to hate that place.

No Daily Random Flickr Blogging today. Beware the Ides of March—and don't forget to stop and roll around in the grass every once in a while.

// posted by nash @ 9:11 AM 2 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 3:11 PM 0 comments

Apropos of the upcoming deaths of Now and Bill Moyers Journal: I'd almost forgotten that a while back, FAIR also noted that PBS had already snagged James (Dow 36,000) Glassman to host a show on "Ideas in Action" produced by "the George W. Bush Institute" (h/t ProRev).

For the punditocracy, there are no penalties for being wrong--only for being wrong in the wrong way. Be wrong in the right way—e.g., make howlingly wrong assertions about the stock market, about the justifications for a war, etc.—and even "public broadcasting" will beat a path to your door.

How long before PBS replaces Nova with a show hosted by Rick Warren? Bets?

// posted by nash @ 3:07 PM 0 comments

I didn't like the rushed version I posted last night, sorry.

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 9:14 PM 0 comments

I'm entering this in the Obscure Joke of the Year contest.

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:03 PM 1 comments

So PBS is looking to replace Now and Bill Moyers Journal with a show co-hosted by lame conventional-wisdom spouter Jon Meacham. Given PBS's programming proclivities, I can't say I'm surprised. A Meacham-led show would be to journalism what Celtic Softcore Woman is to music. Once they replace Nova with Deepak Chopra, their devolution will be complete.

// posted by nash @ 7:59 PM 0 comments

Sometimes, when you're pressed for time, you've just gotta go with the first thing that pops into your head when you see an image.

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 12:51 PM 0 comments

When she was around 90, she walked all the way across America—10 miles a day. Man, there are otherwise healthy people half her age in this country who don't walk 10 miles a month. Unless maybe you count the aisles at Wal-Mart.

Rest in peace.

// posted by nash @ 12:47 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

That's what it's all about, ennit?

// posted by nash @ 4:51 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

I'm busy as heck this week but will try to post some DRFBs at least; meanwhile, let me use a time-honored blogosphere copout and just say What Digby Said about the what-took-them-so-long recent media attention to the growth of tasering:

It's all part of the great normalizing of torture in our country, a slow but steady erosion of the moral consensus that people in authority cannot force others to submit to their will using physical pain. Police brutality wasn't fought only because it caused lasting injury. Many people, after all, survived the beatings they took by police. It was determined that it was illegal for police to use pain ("excessive force") to get people to comply. Shooting people with electricity is inflicting excruciating pain and should, therefore, by definition be called excessive force. Instead, in true Orwellian fashion it's touted as a alternative to excessive force and praised for the fact that it can be used on anyone with few ill effects. Huzzah, a torture instrument that everyone loves.

If you think that's unthinkable, then read Naomi Klein. It's pretty clearly been thought every other place people working (supposedly) for the USA have schooled people in pain.

// posted by nash @ 10:23 AM 1 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 9:57 AM 0 comments

They serve no useful purpose so far as I can see; they're just ways for people with piles of money to pile up new piles of money while while doing or creating nothing of value.

Dang Randroids oughta be looking here for leeches.

// posted by nash @ 9:52 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:49 PM 1 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

Diane Ravitch on today's Democracy Now! (emphasis added):

I believed always in a strong curriculum. That was considered very conservative. If you believed that children should study history and geography and real things, you’re conservative in the academic world, because you’re not supposed to believe in a real curriculum. I believe that it’s not conservative; it’s actually very liberal and empowering to have real knowledge. So this has always been my shtick, is kids of all backgrounds should have lots of knowledge. If you want to empower people, you give them access to the knowledge of the world.

// posted by nash @ 8:22 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:10 PM 1 comments

You have to wonder whether Fox executives consciously think thoughts like "Our audience of angry white males won't care if an anchor has little intellectual acumen, basic honesty, or journalistic integrity as long as she makes them tingly down there."

Yeah, that "hard news" portion of the Fox broadcasting day is just a festival of fairness and balance, I tell you what.

// posted by nash @ 8:04 PM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 2 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 8:35 AM 0 comments

It's like the word was invented for "journalists" like Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas, who are dutifully filling their Newsweek role of trying to get Americans to blame everything but their corporate-government overlords for their corporate government's problems: it's your own fault! you're greedy! you refuse to sacrifice! you feel entitled to things like health care and social security paid for with your tax dollars! but then how will we fund the wars and the bank bailouts? tsk tsk tsk. It's time to take one for the team, America. etc.

I struggle not to feel hatred for these people. For the most part I manage to hold at a level of simmering contempt, but I'm not sure how much longer that can last, I swear. Grrrrrr.

// posted by nash @ 8:31 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

FAIR takes a look at George Will's conveniently relativistic attitude toward Senate filibusters:

1993, with Republicans in the minority: the filibuster embodies the sacred constitutional right of a minority to obstruct legislative action!

2003, with Republicans in the majority: the filibuster is a coup against the Constitution!

2010, with Republicans in the minority: the filibuster embodies the sacred constitutional right of a minority to obstruct legislative action!

I just had a flashback to when I was a kid and actually thought I should respect people who had syndicated opinion columns. After all, only individuals of great knowledge, thoughtfulness, and character could possibly merit such positions of cultural and political influence, right?

Then I grew up, went to college, and learned the meaning of the word sophist.

// posted by nash @ 9:25 AM 0 comments

Labels: Daily Random Flickr Blogging

// posted by nash @ 9:22 AM 1 comments