Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
The Very Near Future of Literacy in America



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 30, 2009 11:48 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Leap of Faith

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You gotta believe!



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 30, 2009 2:02 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Mud Men: Polanski & Le Miserable Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times

0r - The Not-So-Pretty Perversions of Patrick Goldstein and Friends

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Patrick Goldstein, Testing Pos for Perversion

The arrest of Roman Polanski for his repulsive crime has caused an eruption of foul-smelling gas bubbles in the media slime ponds where many of what passes for America’s public “intellectuals” wallow.

Foremost among these sources of stench is the chancrous Patrick Goldstein who, like many others who are “intellectually insane” sucks his pay-check out of the fetid swamp of the Los Angeles Times. Like many ill-educated and under-read third-rate scribblers, Goldstein thinks it’s the mark of a “writer” to throw a “lit’ry” reference into his prose slop from time to time. That he either has not read or comprehended the work he cites escapes his notice as he hopes it will escape his readers.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 29, 2009 11:28 AM | Comments (23)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Andrew Klavan: Are You A Racist? A Frank Conversation

For many years, there's been one group in the American melting pot that has consistently underperformed in terms of productivity, intelligence and moral behavior.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 28, 2009 11:58 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Brutally Simple: My Current Exit Strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan
Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 28, 2009 11:50 PM | Comments (17)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Mud

Yearning for the Mud @ AMERICAN DIGEST

The French have an idiomatic phrase nostalgie pour la boue which means, roughly, "yearning for the mud." "Yearning for the mud" in America is a compulsion that comes over people when they have, for complex reasons, a need to immerse themselves in self-degradation. It's usually a mix of drink, drugs, and weird sex until the soul is obliterated by the abused flesh. The obliteration of the soul and the abuse of the flesh is one of the central tenets in many of our post-modern, secular lifestyle religions.

Most people try this sort of thing a time in their youth, but soon grow out of it when time and experience get the upper hand. Others grow out of it via deep psychoanalysis and a few trips to the rehab clinic. Still others are simply killed by it, their lives bracketed by dates that are far too close together.

Many, however, never kick it and were, in the past, thought of as "perverts" but are now more kindly seen as "differently minded." They live in those urban cores of the soul we now esteem as "Alternative Lifestyles." Once there they busy themselves in making bad design, bad decisions, bad art and bad politics. We are rich and kindly as a culture so we generally let them be. Once comfortable in their redoubts they think it their duty to sally forth from time to time and infest the rest of the nation.

A minority of the last group make a career of nostalgie pour la boue and are generally known as "pundits," "media personalities, or "celebrities."

There's a lot of cross-over of all kinds between celebrity culture and media culture. Indeed, at a lot of levels, it is becoming hard to tell them apart. Both live, for the most part, in an insulated bubble that is impervious to personal moral, psychological, or political change and ruthlessly exacts the penalty of expulsion from the bubble in the event of such change.

I'd like to suggest that there's another kind nostalgie going around in this hybrid culture that glories in the mud:Nostalgie pour la defaite -- "yearning for defeat."

Nostalgie pour la d馭aite is that state of the soul when an American, who either came of age in the Vietnam era, or who was taught and mentored by many leftists or liberals of that vintage, yearns for the defeat of America, and acts accordingly in word and deed. This compulsion is not only required to keep their residency in their subcultures, but to keep their status as well. The more virulent their articulations of hate, the higher their regard by their peers. Neither children nor even infants are safe from their depravities.

It is a perverted form of "confirmation bias." In a way, joining this group is like joining a gang -- once you're in, getting out is not an option unless you seek social and political death. Once articulated, this state is then seen as confirmation that his or her world view and social milieu is the correct view and correct milieu. To operate otherwise would throw not only all the professional views and actions of the last thirty years into question, but the entire structure of the afflicted personality as well. It is life in the lie and Palin, as an example and a symbol, puts the lie to this lifestyle.

An America that is ascendant rather than retiring, an America whose policies are aggressive and not apologetic, is an America the People of the Lie are simply unequipped to inhabit or report on. They have, quite frankly, an empty tool box when it comes to this task and no raw materials with which to build. The only America they can support is one that supports them without question. They want one thing and one thing only -- a blank check for money, means, unceasing regard and opportunity.

Our current infestation of American media personalities and American celebrities with Nostalgie pour la defaite rises from decades of beliefs in an America that is best as a "pitiful, helpless Giant;" a kind of "Nostalgie pour la jeunesse perdue" -- nostalgia for lost youth. It is literally the only America they know and their entire professional and personal lives, from the New York Times to the Los Angeles Times, from the Hamptons to Beverly Hills are based on this grand assumption. They've had Presidents and Presidential candidates that, commuting to and from these locales, have confirmed it to them. Their coworkers in their jobs confirm it to them. Their significant others, drawn from the same ranks, confirm it to them. The parties they attend, the awards they give and receive, the places they vacation, the books they read and the films they make and see, all confirm it to them over and over again. It is not only the only America they know, it is the only America they can know.

Anything that confirms the Nostalgie pour la defaite is news they can use. Anything that confirms American exceptionalism is not, by definition, news at all. Anything that actually represents American exceptionalism -- as the candidacy of Sarah Palin does -- is bad news and must be crushed by any means necessary.

These afflicted Americans are raised and trained to desire that, in all things, America should always lose and become less of an important force in the world. The results of a weaker America do not concern them. It is only important that America become and remain weak and hamstrung. Only then will Europeans and others say nice things about them as they flit about the world.

If America is to become weak, what do they propose in its place? The short form for their vision of the future is "an empowered United Nations."

At which point they step from their Nostalgie pour la dfaite back into nostalgie pour la boue -- the yearning for the mud. In the final analysis, it isn't that big a step. It's where they feel most at home.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 28, 2009 6:54 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Manic Maniac Monday: Just When You Thought the World Was Safe from Tom DeLay

WARNING! That which is seen cannot be unseen.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 28, 2009 1:58 AM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Mechanical Turk: That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain....

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

If you're not creeped out, you haven't been paying attention.

Ladies and gentlemen, your President is a robot. Or a wax sculpture. Maybe a cardboard cutout. All I know is no human being has a photo smile this amazingly consistent. On Wednesday, the Obamas hosted a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, during which they stood for 130 photographs with visiting foreign dignitaries in town for the UN meeting. The President has exactly the same smile in every single shot. See for yourself — the pictures are up on the State Department’s flickr. And, of course, compressed into 20 seconds for your viewing pleasure.

Discussing this astounding series with a friend who noted the iron control that has to be maintained not only in expression but in body by people who are fakes, I was reminded of The Mechanical Turk

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 27, 2009 12:45 PM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Birther, the Truther, and the Frogger @ LGF: Charles Foster Kane Johnson Pwnd and Pied
Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 27, 2009 10:28 AM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
"It was a routine job, really." The Serial Unfolding at Sippican Cottage

enchantedplace2.jpgSomething wonderful is being posted in episodes at Sippican Cottage. Sippican, not only a star-class furniture maker, has also put in his time in contracting. The current series, part memory, part imagination, part reportage explores money, position, status and a host of other elements seldom seen. It's a kind of extended "This American Life" in prose.

I've arranged the episodes so far in a normal order so you don't have to. It's continuing on Monday. You'd best catch up now.

Some Enchanted Place "It was all you could do to keep yourself from tugging your forelock when you talked to the owners, if you ever even saw them....

So you'd walk like a shade through the byzantine halls, looking for the right door out of the hundreds, to fix something that would stay unfixed for a thousand years in a normal person's house."

Some Enchanted Place, Part Three "No house is an inanimate object....

They all have the same stuff, these people with a vapor trail of names and numerals appended to their names and phalanxes of zeroes marching to the horizon in their hidden bank accounts. They have gravel that must be gathered from a riverbank in Elysium. It doesn't even look like little stones."

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 27, 2009 9:36 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Inside Christian Fundamentalism

Graven Images: Racist Fundamentalist Churches of America @ AMERICAN DIGEST

I am a minister's daughter. I attended more than "my share" of church and church programs when my father pastored churches in KY, TN, and NC. All were open to people of all races and each congregation had members of different races.

I attended my denomination's church schools through my freshman year of college. Again, all were attended by children of all different races.

I knew about racism only as a subject touched upon in classes I took (such as history classes) and from what I heard on the news. But, it was not something I really experienced first hand.
I am White and cannot speak for any of the Asian, Black, or Hispanic people I have known through my church. But, as an overly-sensitive type, I do not recall witnessing anything of that nature.

This is what I know: there are so many myths about "fundies," about our intelligence, our academic achievements, and our private thoughts about people who are "different." The reality from inside is this: members of my denomination, compared to the general population, have a higher percentage of advanced degrees; our test scores in church school were higher than those of our public school counterparts (I personally scored a 1400 on the SAT); I see more marriages of couples of different races inside the church than outside the church (I think this is because our religion is a stronger identifying factor for us than our individual races).

I could ramble on and on forever but I guess my main points are this:
A. "They" (liberals? mainstream media?) have no clue about religious people or what drives them. B. It is possible for groups of people to find common ground that transcends their outward appearance (race) that binds them together in common purpose.
C. No one can force "B" on other people and make it stick. You can force them to behave in a certain way but it only works if they are converted.
D. To quote my father, "the ground is level at the cross." A truly Christian church is the truest democracy there is. There *can* be true love among its members because each member recognizes they are a sinner who deserving of hell but is saved through the sacrifice of a sinless Savior who took our punishment upon Himself. When Christianity is at its finest is when the members of a church body put aside judgment of each other and turn that onto themselves. It's the recognition of what Christ did for ME, knowing my own sins all too well, that we can overlook faults in others. We are human too and no church is perfect (meaning the members attending it) but at least we strive for something better than this evil world has to offer, strive to live holy lives pleasing to God. A church such as J. Wright's is of this world and not of God.

And, coming back to my point "A," I have concluded that this is why the media/liberals/whatever, will never have any true understanding of the mindset of Islamic fundamentalism. While I do not, obviously, agree with the religion of Islam itself, any religious person can probably at least understand the what it is to be a BELIEVER. That should not be passed over lightly - a true believer who is a Christian is instructed in the Bible that they may be persecuted to death. One must be willing to die for the sake of Jesus' name. No political talks in this world will change that mind. This is why I pray for conversion of individuals who adhere to the Islamic religion. That is the only lasting path to peace.

Posted by: Karen at September 24, 2009 11:27 AM



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 26, 2009 6:28 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
The Ducting Stool

Sometimes, very rarely, unpatriotic actions in the United States actually have, gasp, real consequences. Freedom's Lighthouse brings us this example of a 21st century "Ducting Stool." "Flag Burner" Duct Taped to Flag Pole as Punishment by VFW Commander

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 26, 2009 6:00 PM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Advanced Hot Dog / Bun Diplomacy

Why do we have that pants-suit load of a Secretary of State roaming about the world, when we could have people like John Hargrave on the case to bring nations, hot dogs, and buns together?



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 26, 2009 10:14 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
What's It All About, Barry?

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"He that has been refused

a reasonable, or unreasonable request, who thinks his merit underrated, and sees his influence declining, begins soon to talk of natural equality, the absurdity of "many made for one," the original compact, the foundation of authority, and the majesty of the people. As his political melancholy increases, he tells, and, perhaps, dreams, of the advances of the prerogative, and the dangers of arbitrary power; yet his design, in all his declamation, is not to benefit his country, but to gratify his malice." -- The Patriot, by Samuel Johnson

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Posted by Vanderleun Sep 25, 2009 10:45 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Suffer the Little Children -- Updated

File under: "I try to become more cynical every day, but lately I just can't keep up."

Remember is little gem the next time the teachers in your community say they need to be paid more money.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 24, 2009 9:57 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Obama's Man in Honduras? A Raving Lunatic

With Castro and Gaddafi rolling out the love for Obama at the UN, here's a third tin-pot dictator with a mental state that further enhances the reputation of the current president of the United States. Obama sure can pick 'em:

TEGUCIGALPA -- It's been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He's sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and "Israeli mercenaries'' are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.... Zelaya was deposed at gunpoint on June 28 and slipped back into his country on Monday, just two days before he was scheduled to speak before the United Nations. He sought refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya said he is being subjected to toxic gases and radiation that alter his physical and mental state. -- They're torturing me, Honduras' Zelaya claims - Honduras - MiamiHerald.com
"Torturing?" Can't have that. Send in the attorney general.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 24, 2009 9:42 AM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
How to Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy Steps

Remember this the next time somebody says, "The science is settled...."

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 24, 2009 8:39 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
London Calling: "Time is short, use it well."

ObamqRed2.jpg [Note: The following was written by FrankP of England in a comment on Quisling Time: I've said it before and I'll say it again, "The Road to a Democrat Led Defeat of America Goes Through Afghanistan" . I thought it perceptive enough to republish here.]

You simply cannot have a Marxist in the Oval Office and lead the world in a fight against a combination of covert communism and the rise of militant Islam - a very unholy and, to the uninformed, incredible alliance. Never before have the Left used such a powerful 'useful idiot' as militant Islam to further its cause, but it is doing it apparently without realizing that Islam may consume it also, eventually.

We in the UK have experienced the worst decline in our culture and standing in the world following a a similar event in 1997, when a cabal of Marxists led the Long March of Antonio Gramsci's game plan into No.10 Downing Street. Blair conned the British electorate; Obama has conned the American electorate. Both were Trojan horses. The triumph of the heirs and successors of Gramsci; the Frankfort School; Alinski; Ayers et al means that the Long March has now penetrated the very heart of Washington, giving impetus to the Marxist dictators around the world who see America on the backfoot.

You either get rid of your current POTUS and his political thugs soonest, by electoral demand, or all the blood and treasure spent during World War II and the various engagements to contain and defeat communism since then will have been in vain.

Britain is already down the pan. Its sovereignty has been severely dissipated by the EU and unelected bureaucrats in Brussels; its Capital has been dubbed Londonistan because of its infiltration by Islamic subversives. A predicted change of government from New Labour to 'New Conservative' (probably infiltrated by Gramscian disciples also) will make very little difference. Our currency is under threat and may soon fall to the Euro - a Mickey Mouse currency. The financial and fiscal system has already been destroyed from within. We are no longer a reliable ally of the US.

You have time to rescue your country from a similar disaster to the one that has befallen ours. For God's sake get moving. It needs more than Glen Beck, who has (with a little help from his friends) made a good start. It needs gravitas, analysis and public explanation. As the MSM is part of the problem it can only be done on the blogs. Fox TV is having some success as the only outlet in that medium that has exposed some of the truth about Obama and his roots and even they are holding back much of what could be exposed, presumably because Murdoch wants to keep a get out card just in case the wind blows against him.

I posted messages like this on blogs various during the Presidential campaign, particularly on Melanie Phillips blog who is a prolific writer on the subject and as an apostate of the leftist creed knows what she is taking about. But I have been blogging about the counter culture threat since 2003.

In fact I have been a close observer of Communism on the move since 1952 when as a radio intercept operator in the British Army (the "Y" Service - now known as GCHQ), I listened to the military, diplomatic and agitprop press propaganda spewed out by the USSR and its satellites. I later served in the London Metropolitan Police throughout the 1950s - 1980s and saw at very close quarters the organized subversion that took place through the counter-culture war that still thrives today.

The message must be sounded and writ large: Marxism is still on the move. It is Western Civilization that is crumbling through the death-watch beetle of covert communism and the death-wish spider of the jihad that is rampant throughout its pillars. When the Iron Curtain was torn down, it provided opportunities for Marxism that were undreamed of throughout the cold war.

The British experience must be regarded as a terrible warning, my American friends. Heed it or follow us into the abyss. You have many fine writers and researchers over there who have exposed the truth of the Leftist threat: heed their words and use your votes in the mid-term elections to start the fight back. Time is short, use it well.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 23, 2009 7:54 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Bill Presley and Adolph Dean

Proving that the ruling maxim of modern advertising is, "When in doubt, morph."

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For a chain of stores in South Africa. From Ads of the World



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 23, 2009 7:38 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Quisling Time: I've said it before and I'll say it again, "The Road to a Democrat Led Defeat of America Goes Through Afghanistan"

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Leslie Gelb is "lost" and thinks Americans are "confused" about the stalling policy of Obama on Afghanistan:

Nothing significant has changed to account for the shift from Mr. Obama's confident policy proclamations to his temporizing statements of recent days. The president certainly understood before last week that the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating. And he knew when he was inaugurated and when he first uttered his colorful "war of necessity" phrase that his party, and the public generally, were increasingly opposed to the war. == Leslie H. Gelb: Obama’s Befuddling Afghan Policy - WSJ.com

I'm not: The Road to a Democrat Led Defeat of America Goes Through Afghanistan @ AMERICAN DIGEST

Afghanistan deserves to be fought and won on its own terms, not as a stealthy way of retreating from the field altogether. Anybody who tells you the Iraq war is useless and Afghanistan is the "real" war is really telling you Afghanistan is just the long way home. Wagging our tails behind us.
In the Obama book still unpublished but being written day by day with the working title, Dreams of Myself, it's not enough to "transform" the American giant into a compliant second-rate nation, it must be gelded as well.

First published October 4, 2008.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 22, 2009 10:54 AM | Comments (16)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Destinations: Trip Out... Way Out

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The Stone Trees of Yakutsk

"Then from there the only way to go to this place is by a boat. Armed native individuals can offer you a "cheap" $500 trip on a small boat, so in three days you can be on spot. They can show you the fields of wild hemp flower around which, as some tourists say, often can be picked up by your guide while you are exploring the stone forest, and then boiled together with some milk to meet you when you are back in camp with some mind blowing mixture. And they are all armed there, those natives...."
More photos at Oddity Central

Where in the world is it?: Location via Google Maps



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 22, 2009 2:01 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Graven Images: Racist Fundamentalist Churches of America

COMMAND2A.jpg[Note: It's now clear that "racism" has somehow not been eliminated with the election of an African-American as president but exacerbated. It has now drenched our discourse with its stench. But from what dark wells is this poison water being drawn? Qui bono? Perhaps it's time we looked a little more closely at places where it still is to be found. And not just at "the usual suspects" which now seem to have been broadened to include all those who do not agree with the program being proliferated by the president. In that spirit I am republishing this essay from March of 2008.]

In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear.

-- William Blake

It seems to me that when visiting the left-leaning sites of the web one is forever bumping into a virulent fear and hate of Christianity. It sometimes is couched in an insecure, buffoon's atheism, but more often than not takes aim at the biggest boogyman the American Left can think of -- Christian Fundamentalism. These rants are not hard to find. They are legion.

We're told, over and over, that Christian Fundamentalism is the single greatest threat to the American way of life; that it is, among many other evils, a breeding ground for race hate. We are reminded of the virtual descendants of Simon Legree among the Baptist Republicans of the Caucasian persuasion. We are harangued without end about their ceaseless lust for power. Baptist Democrats, it would seem, possess a "Get Out of Racism Free" card. Not because of their religious belief, but because of their party affiliation. It is a strange religion where sanctity is determined by politics and not by faith, but that seems to be the case.

This afternoon on the lawn my gardener asked me if I have given myself up to God yet. He is a devout believer, a Christian Fundamentalist with a paperback bible in his back pocket. It's new this year because he gave his well-worn one last September. He is concerned for my soul. And he has reason to be. I confessed I had not but was still searching, as indeed I am.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 22, 2009 1:32 AM | Comments (32)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Brietbart NEA "Explosive New Audio": A Long Fuse on a Wet Firecracker

5713-man-shooting-a-dud-gun-with-a-bang-flag-clipart-illustration.jpgFirst impression of this new roll-out of corruption from Big Government? Compared to the shattering revelations of the ACORN tapes, this one is small beer on short legs.

Now I detest the NEA for a lot of reasons and have for a long time, but a story on Big Government » Blog Archive » How to Corrupt Artists in One Quick and Easy Telecon strikes me as one that only the elites on both sides give a tinker's damn about. The lead virtually says it with,

If you've ever wondered -- and worried -- about where government support of the arts leads, look no further than the full transcript of an August 10 telecon between an official at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and a group of "independent artists from around the country."

Well, okay, I have "wondered and worried" about the NEA, but I also know that most people in the country don't spend more than a minute a year at most wondering or worrying about the relationship of the NEA and "independent artists from around the country." The only thing they think about if they think about our current crop of "independent artists" is why there are so many of these parasites around and why most of what they "produce" is either disgusting, depressing, ugly or the usual combination of all three.

Add to that the fact that the evidence behind the story, damning as it is, is not exactly compelling. Not only that it's radio, not television. While nothing says "corruption" more clearly than a video of ACORN employees revealing their real agenda by abetting the establishment child sex salons, nothing numbs you more than having to listen to recorded phone calls from White House arts dweebs begging for another HOPE poster.

I salute what Breitbart did last week, but in the game that Obama's playing, last week is last year. It would have been better to release the NEA tapes last week as a warm-up and the ACORN videos this week. As it stands, this is a weak Act II.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 21, 2009 11:37 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Sneak Peak: Newsweek to Continue Ground Breaking Studies of Weird Sources of Racism

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Last Week in Newsweek and Next Week in Newsweek.

Racist Baby? authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman clairify the Baby bit in NurtureShock : How We Got Pulled Into a War Between Rush Limbaugh and Maureen Dowd

Third, we never meant to provide any fodder for the divide between Republicans and Democrats, or liberals and conservatives. The science suggests liberal white parents are just as guilty of speaking in code to their children about race as conservative white parents. This is a concern that ought to be owned up to equally, on both sides of the aisle.
Perhaps with their groundbreaking research on the President Racist? cover story they will fill us in on whether or not "liberal black parents are just as guilty of speaking in code to their children about race as conservative black parents."

A concerned Newsweek readership of 5 breathlessly awaits.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 20, 2009 12:08 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Old Rugged Cross

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Outside Penn Station, New York City
Click to enlarge

Inscription: "I want to be like Jesus. I want to live a long and healthy life but I will rather die on the cross like Jesus than to be any criminal. I want to be like Jesus."



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 20, 2009 12:00 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Kale FAIL: About Michelle Antoinette's Vegetable Garden

whitehousegarden.jpgMorgan notes a curious imbalance in the touted lifestyle of Potus and Flotus:

Not that I mean to insult vegetable gardeners, but it seems to me an imbalanced lifestyle has been embraced, one devoted to the lifestyle of a vegetable garden who possess vast holdings of land, but is obsessed only with that one damn garden. Pull the weeds, spray the weeds, fertilize the vegetables, plant the vegetables, harvest the vegetables…from the moment the gardener rises in the morning, until he puts his weary head down for the night. Just stay fixated on image, image, image the way the gardener remains fixated on the garden.

Elsewhere, there are bridges that need mending…and fences too. There are taxes to be paid on owning the land. There is a house to be painted with a roof that needs patching. Babies with dirty wet butts that need changing. Meals to be cooked, and after that’s done, dishes to be washed and ovens to be cleaned. And on the far corner of the property a pack of wild coyotes is making inroads, doing their scavenging and fornicating and pooping and yelling. As they get bolder, they’re going to start carrying off things like kittens and puppies, then work their way up the babies.
There’s shit to be taken care off. All over that spread.

But no. Nothing matters except the vegetable garden of public image. -- House of Eratosthenes

Hasn't he noticed that Miracles Grow in Mrs. Obama's Neighborhood: And All the Good Little Children Say "Yes"?



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 19, 2009 12:00 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink

The Conqueror Worm - Poe

THE CONQUEROR WORM.

    LO! 't is a gala night
        Within the lonesome latter years!
    An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
        In veils, and drowned in tears,
    Sit in a theatre, to see
        A play of hopes and fears,
    While the orchestra breathes fitfully
        The music of the spheres.

    Mimes, in the form of God on high,
        Mutter and mumble low,
    And hither and thither fly—
        Mere puppets they, who come and go
    At bidding of vast formless things
        That shift the scenery to and fro,
    Flapping from out their Condor wings
        Invisible Woe!

    That motley drama!—oh, be sure
        It shall not be forgot!
    With its Phantom chased for evermore,
        By a crowd that seize it not,
    Through a circle that ever returneth in
        To the self-same spot,
    And much of Madness, and more of Sin
        And Horror the soul of the plot.

    But see, amid the mimic rout,
        A crawling shape intrude!
    A blood-red thing that writhes from out
        The scenic solitude!
    It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs
        The mimes become its food,
    And the angels sob at vermin fangs
        In human gore imbued.

    Out—out are the lights—out all!
        And over each quivering form,
    The curtain, a funeral pall,
        Comes down with the rush of a storm,
    And the angels, all pallid and wan,
        Uprising, unveiling, affirm
    That the play is the tragedy "Man,"
        And its hero the Conqueror Worm.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 19, 2009 10:24 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Restored Footage: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1951) Trailer



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 19, 2009 12:37 AM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Charles Johnson 2.0: The Start-Up, the Roll-Out, the Plan and the Elevator Pitch


Posted by Vanderleun Sep 18, 2009 9:00 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Happy Birthday to We: Communist China's 60th Birthday Party

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Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) heavy tanks prepare to make their way on to the main east-west thoroughfare, the Avenue of Heavenly Peace, in Beijing on September 18, 2009, as the government rehearsed for a huge October 1st parade that will mark 60 years since the founding of Communist China. Security swarmed the Avenue of Heavenly Peace, shooing citizens away from what will be the parade's route through the heart of the city and past Tiananmen Square. Many more striking images @ China prepares for its 60th anniversary - The Big Picture - Boston.com



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 18, 2009 11:14 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Obamacare in One Page

Let's review:
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By Jim Treacher @ Jim Treacher's Blog That Is on the Internet. Suitable for printing out and distributing far and wide.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 17, 2009 10:54 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Yes. They. Do.

I don't know whether Scott at Powerline is being coy, obtuse, otiose or all three when he writes,

"To be charitable one might say that the Obama administration does not know how to help friends or to hurt enemies. Yet this seems to be the way they like it."
They do know, Scott. And they are, relentlessly, helping their friends and hurting their enemies.

And by the way, Powerline's on that list, just way-way-way-way down. It's a long list they've been making for years, but they've got plenty of time.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 17, 2009 3:08 PM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
If You Miss the Train She's On

Spare a moment for Mary Travers, 1936-2009. We shall not see her like again.

She could touch your heart...

and she could turn you on with a signature hair flip. (:32)....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 17, 2009 2:08 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink

YouTube - "'Charlie Rose' by Samuel Beckett"

Andrew Flippone observes: Something has happened to PBS favorite "Charlie Rose." The erudite conversations and sober intellectualism have been replaced by an absurd world where illogic, inane dialogues, and open hostility rule. The one-on-one interview between Charlie and his guest begins as usual but quickly goes awry, so much so that Charlie is warned that, somewhere, a man named "Steve" is "not happy." But who is "Steve" and why is he angry? And why does the mere mention of his name stop Charlie cold?



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 17, 2009 1:45 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Times Are Tough for Terrorists Too

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Via: Lady, That's My Skull: Local News



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 17, 2009 1:26 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
State Fair

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Midway | Puyallup, Washington | Saturday September 12, 2009 8:08: 30 PM

Updated....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 17, 2009 2:52 AM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
52 Race Cards in Every Deck Plus the Jokers

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Andrew Sullivan reacts to the unseemly demands of 67% of the American public

I say again, "A raaaaacist is anyone who's winning an argument with a liberal."

It pains me to have to take (mild) issue with other members of the Founding Bloggers, but it does seem to me that today's hope that the Race Card will be tossed out onto the waters of oblivion along with slavery, the Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Affirmative Action. Simply put: It. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

Why? Because when it comes to the defending the Obama administration's current dog's dinner of legislation, the race card is not just the strongest card in the left/liberal/progressive deck, it is the only card in that deck.

When all you have in the deck is the Race Card, the name of the game is "52-Pickup." The technique then is similar to a spastic Ricky Jay trying to decapitate a duck or penetrate a water melon. For example:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 16, 2009 5:29 PM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Cooking with Christopher Walken

Because it's so normal, it's weird.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 16, 2009 2:32 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Jenny Carter in (The Horror! The Horror!) "High-Def"

WARNING: SENSITIVES STRONGLY CAUTIONED. YOU CANNOT UNSEE THIS.

Presenting the unsung masterpiece Jenny Carter by solocosmo in "High Def!"

Don't you just love saying "High Def?" It's so modern and cutting edge, but it's also just fun to say. Sort of like the Seinfeld riff on "Sal-sa!"

GEORGE: Salsa is now the number one condiment in America.

JERRY: You know why? Because people like to say "salsa." "Excuse me, do
you have salsa?" "We need more salsa." "Where is the salsa? No salsa?"

Be that as it may, by popular demand, here's that Jenny Carter illo in "high def!" Click on the itsy-bitsy image at your peril. But save it for the next time we have that cracker raaaaacist Carter to kick around.

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Don't say I don't do nothin' to keep the level of Carter criticism as high as the ex-President deserves, because I just did.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 16, 2009 12:13 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Six-Point Plan

Christopher Merola : A Republic, if You Can Keep It - Townhall.com

This Thursday, September 17th, 2009, will be the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution. We have come a long way as a nation in that time, but have we gone the way our founding fathers intended us to go?



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 16, 2009 9:23 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
The Full Ginsberg: Monday's Obama-Letterman Show Wraps Up a TV Free Weekend for Most Americans

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Had enough? Oh yeah? Here's more. I'm proud that the Establishment Media, in cahoots with "the Most Media Savvy White House EVAH" is joining me in my quest to give America More Obama I Say. MORE O!-BA!-MA! Jake Tapper (surely in the Top 10 of the Current White House Enemies List) asks, Obama Over-Exposure?


This Sunday, President Obama will be interviewed on five shows -- ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” CNN’s “State of the Nation”, CBS’s “Face the Nation”, NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Univision’s “Al Punto with Jorge Ramos."

It's a rare feat called "the Full Ginsburg." In modern media lore, the first time someone pulled a five-show feat was 11 years ago, in 1998, when Monica Lewinsky’s attorney William Ginsburg made the rounds to defend his client. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, did a Full Ginsburg in 2007 after launching her presidential bid....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 16, 2009 8:00 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Andrew Breitbart - The American People Are The 4th Estate

Citizen and patriot Andrew Brietbart, the man behind Breitbart News, Breitbart.tv Big Hollywood, and now Big Government.

The Always Trenchant Jim Treacher commenting on the four-day-old Big Government: "I don't want to say Andrew Breitbart is a genius, but the last guy with a launch this successful was Neil Armstrong."

Andrew Breitbart: Hear him now and hear him later.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 16, 2009 7:06 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Little Lies at Little Green


Posted by Vanderleun Sep 15, 2009 1:58 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Roadside Attractions

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(JOHN F. KENNEDY) TYPED LETTER AS PRESIDENT

Here we see another example of the famous "Kennedy wit." It was real and it was genuine. Can anyone imagine a collection of the witty sayings of Barack Obama coming out unless it is ghost-written. I, for one, don't recall the current President as being particularly witty in unscripted situations. But I'm willing to take pointers.

  • Fascinating and illuminating: One year after Hurricane Ike - The Big Picture @ Boston.com Collected here are a series of before-and-after photographs - which (starting with the second one below) will fade between "before" and "after" when clicked.
  • Shannon Love on the Acorn child prostitution scandal. Three Times is Slavery and Treason
    "Acorn was promoting slavery. Sexual slavery. The sexual slavery of children. Is that overwrought? Well, it isn’t in my book but then I have a low tolerance for the sexual enslavement of children."
  • No jobs? Get used to it. Adviser: High unemployment for years “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”
  • The Mandate of Heaven "is a traditional Chinese philosophical concept. Tian would bless the authority of a just ruler, but would be displeased with a despotic ruler and would withdraw its mandate. The Mandate of Heaven would then transfer to those who would rule best.... The Mandate of Heaven had no time limitations, instead depending on the just and able performance of the ruler. The Mandate also does not require that a legitimate ruler be of noble birth...."
  • I don't want to know how they know: "[C]arrion appeals to those who hate waste and, as one prolific UK roadkill consumer puts it, out of 40 carcasses found here, 20 will be edible." -- davidthompson: Them’s Good Eats
  • Mercer Caverns | Murphys, California | Atlas Obscura "Visitors should wear clothes which they never expect to wear to a wedding afterward. A candle is to be carried in one hand and it is prudent to have a supply or matches in one's pocket."
  • Overcoming Bias: What Do Nature Lovers Love? "While nature shows and nature lovers often give lip service to the wonders of natural selection, in fact they mainly love the particular species alive now."


Posted by Vanderleun Sep 14, 2009 10:42 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Endless

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The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

-- Theodore Roethke | The Waking



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 13, 2009 2:06 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink

Cornyn: Obama model of bipartisanship on war, not healthcare - TheHill.com

Yet the Obama administration – which has struggled recently to shore up support for its work in Afghanistan – remains open to the idea of additional deployments. So too are congressional Republicans, Cornyn said Saturday – evidence that the two parties could still cooperate on key issues, he added.

“On Afghanistan, President Obama has shown the kind of leadership he promised during the campaign – he’s built consensus and earned bipartisan support,” Cornyn said.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 12, 2009 10:27 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Pity the Young: The Constrained Life Is Not Worth Living

The jacket with every small identity device containable within.

Small footprints and dinky jobs

The no future 70s punks in britain

The flash-millionaires and the lack of morality that attends them.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 11, 2009 10:56 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
One of the Things I Am Proud of Doing in My Professional Life

For well over a year after 911 I was able to provide funds and hosting for this site. I'm proud of that and prouder still that it still remains:

America Attacked 9 1 1

Visit this site and you will see why. It was a handmade flash site put together in the days immediately following 911. In a way, it's now somewhat of an anachronism but it remains because it has the terror and the hope of those days woven into its bones.

Yes, it takes awhile. But if I can take it so can you.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 10, 2009 11:59 PM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Headlining the Obama Speech in A Fair and Balanced Media

It slipped past editors at the Boston Globe in 1980.... but all over the country tonight copy editors on suicide watch to make sure it doesn't happen again:

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[Here's the history of this.]

Best reaction to the speech? There are so many it's hard to choose, but this one from the self-serving David Corn's obamallation speaks multitudes:

Obama's Speech: The Doctor Is In | Mother Jones

Submitted by Michele (not verified) on September 9, 2009 - 11:20pm.

As a child of hippies, I just posted this plea on Facebook: Whatever happened to question The Man? Which starts like this:

"Oh wild-haired, anti-establishment flower children, where have you gone? Too tired to question the man? Too busy waving your AARP cards, having put down your freak flags? Given up, have you? Eaten the establishment crap? Don’t question, don’t protest, don’t worry about the generations to come. Rush through policies that congress doesn’t even have time to read. Just believe, believe... Government's the new religion."

And gets progressively more pissed off about the swill Obama-bots have swallowed without question. Where, I've been wondering, are all the intelligent people who I remember who didn't trust govt.? And here you all are! As goofy Biden would say, "God love ya!"



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 10, 2009 1:11 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Coming Up Tonight: "I'm like a Roosevelt" and "We are a collective failure"

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Hector-in-Chief

Off-Mike Moments....

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... and tonight's most memorable on-mike moment:

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Wise men and women will mix the martinis and pack the bong full. Here we go again....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 9, 2009 3:19 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Fortunes of War: 1 NY Times Reporter Free. 1 British Soldier, 1 Translator, 1 Woman, 1 Child Dead

“I’m out! I’m free!” -- Farrell to Susan Chira, the foreign editor of The Times
....

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 9, 2009 9:08 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
More Obama I Say. MORE O!-BA!-MA!

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No SUCH thing as TOO MUCH!

Phil Plait at the charming "Bad Astronomy" page has hit the big time today with his eructation on The mainstreaming of crazy. Phil, like all card-carrying scientists in search of tenure, grants, continued employment, and more book contracts, has decided, as is his right, that all those opposed to the President's address to school children simply, scientifically speaking, crazy and evil:

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 8, 2009 7:01 PM | Comments (14)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Kids Today

pistolpants.jpgIs that a pistol down my pants or.... BLAM!

Where to begin with this newsquib? It exceeds the mind's capacity for bogglement.

So much for packing a, um, rod

A 15-year-old Brooklyn boy shot himself in the penis Sunday after fumbling with a gun that had slid from his waistband, authorities said yesterday.

Khamir Grant was then arrested for reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon ... law-enforcement sources said.

Grant told cops that he was walking home from Amersfort Park at East 39th Street and Avenue J in East Flatbush around 1:30 a.m., when the gun began to fall into his pants, sources said.

When Grant grabbed for it, he accidentally pulled the trigger, firing a bullet right through his penis.

Grant staggered home and told his mom what had happened, sources said.

They took a livery car to Kings County Hospital, where Grant was released after treatment and then arrested by police.

There's so much now normalized wrongness here that the only thing it underscores is "the banality of evil" in everyday life. But let's review anyway.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 8, 2009 1:13 PM | Comments (17)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Golden Age Government Comic Books: Social Security

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From the dawn of diversity in 1969.

Once upon a time in the United States, someone somewhere in the government for the greater good asked, "What better medium to get across the message of benevolent government programs is there than comic books?"

The SSA certainly knew this and, along with other government agencies, has a long history of "getting the message out." Here are some samples from the Social Security Administration's Special Collections - Public Information Materials where you are warned, "This is an archival or historical document and may not reflect current policies or procedures."

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 7, 2009 2:40 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Blogger's Head Explodes

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Aftermath: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

From AMERICAN DIGEST NEWS, October 26, 2004 September 7, 2009

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- Doctors are blaming a rare electrical imbalance in the brain for the bizarre death of a blogger whose head literally exploded in the final week of the election "health care" summer!

No one else was hurt in the fatal explosion but a small room at the blogger's residence was sprayed with blood and brain matter when Gerard Van der Leun's head suddenly blew apart. Experts say he suffered from a condition called Hyper-Cerebral Blogosis or HCB .

"He was deep in concentration with his eyes focused on the screen and his fingers frozen over the keyboard," said early responder, Miguel Wilsonista. "He seems to have hit 'Post' for what had to be the 3,456,856th item of inept political photoshopping this year when the blast occurred.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 7, 2009 12:05 PM | Comments (31)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Stop the [Health Care] Insanity!

aftermath2.jpgIf you, like me, are subject to spontaneous head detonations when you hear those doleful words "health care," you'll find A Goy and his Blog's "Tilting At Mass Hysteria" soothing. But you'll have to put in some time....

Excerpts:

Go get a soda and stop in the restroom on the way back. This is going to take a few minutes.

You know you live in a world where 2 2 = 5 when fact is ridiculed and fantasy is validated.

Welcome to America, 2009.

We have come to conflate health care and health care insurance so blindly that we can no longer conceive of getting health care without having insurance “coverage” for it.

This is part of the mass hysteria that must be cured if we’re ever to get health care costs back under control.

The irrational misconception that health care and insurance for it are one and the same is, ironically, the biggest part of the health care problem. Why? Because it derails every substantive discussion on the topic and sends it off into the weeds where it has nothing to do with getting health care costs back under control. In the health care “debate”, everyone’s arguing over “how to cover the rising costs” or the availability and unfathomable actuarial and economic complexities of “coverage”, when the goal here is something completely different and far simpler. The goal is to get back what we once had: a health care market that supports affordable routine health care.

Follow on HERE. And yes, there are the helpful graphs.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 7, 2009 11:47 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Kids. Remember to Kampaign Karefully: 2012 is the 200th Anniversary of 1812

It might be fun to take a victory lap over unseating a Green Munchkin, but there are plenty more where he came from and they've got money and men and material. As Napoleon forgot, remember that the road is long and the outcome uncertain -- especially when you invade Russia.

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Source: Edward Tufte: New ET Writings, Artworks & News

Update: More wise caution at Riehl World View: Be Careful Conservatives

As for what comes next, remember that it's the health care debate that must come first. It's also what matters more to us and all of America in the end. So, don't get lost in what one Fox personality is picking up on that's going to boost his ratings. And don't get so giddy over one in the win column that you take your eyes off the ball. I suspect Obama would appreciate nothing more right now. Hitting a home run in a losing game isn't cause for too much celebration, after all.



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 6, 2009 4:44 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Mother of Mercy! Is This the End of Downfall Parodies?



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 6, 2009 9:21 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
The Curious Current State of the Secretary of State

It's amazing the crap that Hillary Clinton seems willing to take these days. It makes me wonder if Obama is using the carrot of Veep in 2012 and the stick of "The Hillary File" to keep her in line. It certainly can't be because Hillary has suddenly discovered her inner toady, can it?

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 4, 2009 10:35 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Curious Clicks

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Believe it or not, there is a classic Iowahawk 1951 Mercury coupe owned by Jesse James in this picture.

  • Illegal Residents: Natural born and naturalized citizens of the United States who actively work to undo the nation while taking full advantage of the benefits.
  • 1-Sentence Review, Inglorious Bastards: If once every two generations a film features a Jew emptying a machine gun clip into Adolph Hitler's face, I can't say I see the harm in that. -- Solomonia
  • Baron Bodissey is updating Samuel Johnson: "The accusation of racism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
  • Please update your spell-checkers: There are five A's in 'raaaaacism'

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 4, 2009 10:29 PM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Tom Curley: Today's Slime Mold on the Surface of the MSM Pond

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Tom Curley: Head Muppet of the Associated Press

[UPDATE: Jules Crittenden today has an informed and balanced view on the entire issue at Jules Crittenden サ Professional Issues. I recommend it. ]

It was there only for a brief moment on Wikipedia before the editing gestapo got it, but the truth endures, for now, in the cache:Tom Curley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Curley, an executive battening off the rotting hulk of the Associated Press, had ignored common decency and a direct appeal from Defense Secretary Robert Gates to refrain from publishing photographs of a dying United States Marine. Gates said,

“I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family. Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.”
Decency? For the chancre ridden media scum that infest our nation,

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 4, 2009 1:39 PM | Comments (30)  | QuickLink: Permalink
That's the News and I Am Out of Here

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Duty calls. Back sooner or later.

Photo by Philip Greenspun



Posted by Vanderleun Sep 2, 2009 11:38 AM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Just Die. It's Your Duty: "The killing became automatic."

[Republished from September, 2008 before all this talk about rationing life became the stuff of our American dinner table conversations and nightmares. This was the habit of mind in Europe one year ago.]

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Together at last: The Baroness and Dr. Joseph Mengele

"They told them they would be given medication
that would help them. Oh, yes, they were given
medications, medications of poison that gripped
their heart and closed their eyelids still;
that is the sort of medication they were given."

-- Colonel Leon Jaworski, 1945 **

An evil woman touted as "the influential medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock" says it's time for some tough love and hard death among the demented of England. Call it "the culling the herd to save some money" ethic. Warnock says, "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives – your family's lives – and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service."

Or, as Orin Judd so succinctly puts it: "Ever notice how "medical ethics" is nothing more than justifying murder.

We do and we also note how this is a rising trend in the "ethical" thinking of Europe. Or perhaps we shouldn't say "trend" as much as a nostalgic yearning for the past century where an interest in eugenics amongst the "leaders" of that civilization was part of the biggest butcher's bill in history.

Where have we seen this sort of "cost crisis" medical thinking in Europe before? Oh yes, that would be the Hadamar Hospital AKA the Hadamar Euthanasia Center

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The Hadamar Nurses welcome you to their facility

Thus in 1906 the Korrigenden-Anstalt in Hadamar was converted to a mental institution. By 1930 the home contained 320 patients. As decreed by Nazi law, from 1934 nursing costs for mental patients were reduced. By 1936 the mental homes had become overcrowded, and conditions worsened as a result of the reduced quantity and quality of food supplies. The building had been designed to accommodate 250 patients, but by 1939 about 600 inmates were crowded into cramped quarters.

During late August 1939, following Hadamar's designation as a military hospital, patients were distributed to surrounding mental homes. However, between November 1940 and January 1941 the sickrooms were converted into quarters for the medical and administrative staff of the new T4 Hadamar euthanasia killing centre. The staff had been transferred from Grafeneck following the closure of that facility.

Rooms to receive arriving patients were located on the first floor. A gas chamber disguised as a shower room was installed in the basement of the building, together with a crematorium with two ovens which were attached to a chimney. Gas entered the chamber from an adjacent room through pipes with holes punched in them.

That was only the first phase of the killings at Hadamar. Sloppy and very unscientific. They got better in the next phase.
Killing at Hadamar recommenced in 1942 as part of the second phase of the euthanasia program, the so-called “wild euthanasia.” Now the victims were murdered by administering lethal doses of barbiturates or morphine-scopolamine injections. While initially there had been some pretence of medical deliberation before deciding on a patient’s fate, with the arrival of Polish and Russian workers in 1944, mostly diagnosed as “tubercular” despite a complete lack of medical examination until after their death, the killing became automatic.
"The killing became automatic." That's the phrase that pays these days, isn't it? If we can only get to the automatic killing phase of medicine, then everything will be copacetic... cool... "it's all good."

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Sep 2, 2009 4:50 AM | Comments (25)  | QuickLink: Permalink
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