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December 31, 2010
Queer Studies
Frankly, if you do not find existence to be flamingly queer, then you are just not queer enough.You need your unconscious to come out of its repressive closet. In our view, a proper liberal education is already Queer Studies, as it should teach one to appreciate the strange reality behind banal appearances. O, there are more things in heaven and earth, my dear tenured ape, than are dreamt up in your feminist ovary towers and straitjacketed looniversity bins! You know the saying: The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. -- J.B.S. Haldane -- One Cʘsmos: Queer Theology and Flaming Fairy Tales
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:40 PM | Your Say (2)
Time for a Live Demo of Predator Capability as a Means of Border Security
Somewhere in the Nevada desert, an Air Force officer's thumb has gotta be getting twitchy:During an unannounced New Year's Eve visit to Afghanistan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to the country's mountainous border region near Pakistan to see first-hand her department's efforts in the war effort there. -- Napolitano Visit Aimed at Beefing Up Afghan Border Security, Customs - FoxNews.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:37 PM | Your Say (0)
Federal Rules for New Years Resolutions
John McCann has them @ RIGHTNETWORK2. Blame the Invisible
Can’t lose weight? Blame the invisible. Smoking too heavily? The invisible twisted your arm. Spent a trillion dollars and saw unemployment rise? Again, point a finger at the unseen. In 2011, lay your vices and woes upon the translucent who for years have forced you to eat two slices of cheese cake, smoke Winstons and follow the advice of John Maynard Keynes. Any person not actually present will do. George W. Bush or the Belgians are excellent starting points, but don’t neglect the example of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. If you’re hankering to accuse the Jews, though, please be careful to first label them “Zionists.” Otherwise you’re practicing bigotry.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:15 PM | Your Say (0)
“We have lost the first of the ebb”
Marlow ceased, and sat apart,
indistinct and silent, in the pose of a meditating Buddha. Nobody moved for a time. “We have lost the first of the ebb,” said the Director suddenly. I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness. -- Heart of Darkness
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:33 PM | Your Say (3)
"It’s amazing in the same way a dishwasher is amazing"
What exactly is new here?Not very much. Email is still mail. Online newspapers are still newspapers. YouTube videos are still videos. Virtual stores are still stores. MMORPGs are still variations on D&D. A user-built encyclopedia is still a reference book. Stealing mp3s is still theft. Cyber-porn is still porn. Internet poker is still gambling. In terms of content, the Internet gives us almost nothing that the much maligned “traditional media” did not. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the Internet is a post office, newsstand, video store, shopping mall, game arcade, reference room, record outlet, adult book shop and casino rolled into one. Let’s be honest: that’s amazing. But it’s amazing in the same way a dishwasher is amazing—it enables you to do something you have always done a little easier than before. -- The Internet Changes Nothing
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:12 PM | Your Say (3)
December 30, 2010
Magic Negroes and the Plastic Pap of the Unlamented Law & Order
It's clear that the writers present a calculated formulationof peoples and social phenomenon in order to motivate public opinion. Sure, they don't flash on screen, "Gay single mothers are awesome!", "This is Law and Order - skip the first 30 minutes because the detectives will go after common street thugs until we discover that the perpetrator is a conservative, upper class, white man preferably with blond hair", or "Captain Planet - don't have babies or you'll kill the Earth." The message, of course, isn't that explicit. Propaganda, especially that intended to subvert traditional norms, works surreptitiously. It presents radical ideas, such as a prep schooler whose father is a Harvard Law grad killing his friend in cold blood (actual Law and Order episode), as mundane, then lets the audience run with it. Liberal pop cultures pushes and prods, it hints, it gradually tells you what to think is normal and right. Think the Magic Negro as omniscient father figure in films like Bruce Almighty or the unbelievable movie 2012. -- OneSTDV: Liberal Hypocrisy on Popular Culture
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:37 PM | Your Say (4)
Ezra Klein's Ass on a Platter and Being Served Up by iowahawk
"According to Wikipedia1, the Constitution was discovered over 100 years ago, but is still going strong today. It was discovered by the "Founding Fathers" such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and so forth. Although we often call them the "Founding Fathers" there were many women who were also important in this process who have been far too overlooked. Although these people are now mostly passed away, we still remember them for their importance." -- iowahawk: The Constitution Is Very ImportantPosted by Vanderleun at 4:30 PM | Your Say (2)
December 29, 2010
Giant @ The Selvedge Yard
If you were looking for a giant of a post fit for your attention today it would be TEXAS’ OWN “GONE WITH THE WIND” | GEORGE STEVENS’ 1956 EPIC– “GIANT” @ The Selvedge Yard.
The Selvedge Yard is always fascinating and elegant, but in this post Jon Patrick outdoes himself with stills and quotes in a compilation that makes you want to see the film again and rethink the whole movie.
Above all its themes, "Giant" is about social change. Hollywood for the first time addressed anti-Hispanic racism. "Giant" broke ground in the way it celebrated the fusion of Anglo and Hispanic culture in Texas -- and anticipated the social gains that Mexican-Americans would make over the next generation. The movie is as much about race as it is about Texas.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:55 PM | Your Say (3)
"Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die "
Fast-forward to now:
Boba Fett’s helmet emblazoned on sleeveless T-shirts worn by gym douches hefting dumbbells. The Glee kids performing the songs from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And Toad the Wet Sprocket, a band that took its name from a Monty Python riff, joining the permanent soundtrack of a night out at Bennigan’s. Our below-the-topsoil passions have been rudely dug up and displayed in the noonday sun. The Lord of the Rings used to be ours and only ours simply because of the sheer goddamn thickness of the books. Twenty years later, the entire cast and crew would be trooping onstage at the Oscars to collect their statuettes, and replicas of the One Ring would be sold as bling. -- Wired
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:41 AM | Your Say (1)
December 28, 2010
2010 – where does it fit in the warmest year list?
So where do the 1934/1998/2010 warm years rank in the long-term list of warm years? Of the past 10,500 years, 9,100 were warmer than 1934/1998/2010. Thus, regardless of which year ( 1934, 1998, or 2010) turns out to be the warmest of the past century, that year will rank number 9,099 in the long-term list. -- | Watts Up With That?Posted by Vanderleun at 6:54 PM | Your Say (2)
Portrait of a Fully Colonized Mind
The Stupidity is Settled!"Johnson said that global warming would only be disproved if the seasons flipped without anything else on earth changing or if the East Coast were to experience 80 degree weather in winter. Johnson also said global warming could be called into question if New York City were to have below freezing temperatures for the entirety of 2011. -- The Daily Callert
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:47 PM | Your Say (0)
Texas: Looking Better All the Time
Texas creates jobs like a fiend, in part because businesses large and small have no worry of obstacles such as plaintiff-friendly courts, consumer-friendly regulators or oversight-friendly lawmakers. Pro-business isn’t just a mantra; they put it in the water.Oil and gas still play a huge role here, but are increasingly overshadowed by technology, medical and defense jobs. Texas has more Fortune 500 company headquarters than New York.
Not that it’s all barbecue brisket and bodacious blondes in Dallas. The state still has its issues. When you have no income tax, property and sales taxes have to make up the revenue gap, and they’re pretty steep. And try not to be poor down here because the Texas approach to a social safety net can be summed up as “Meh.” Texas spends less per capita on social services than virtually any state.
The income gap here makes Texas look more like Mexico in some ways than the rest of the country, though New York is no stranger to wealth excess contrasted with subsistence living. Texas has led the country in the percentage of people lacking health care, teenage pregnancy rates and drags the bottom on educational attainment. Political discourse here remains whether Democrats are socialists or simply traitors. -- Deep in the heart of taxes - NYPOST.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:40 PM | Your Say (4)
December 27, 2010
From A. R. Ammons's "Tape for the Turn of the Year"
we must keep the
tradition &
modify it
so we stay resilient to
change:
too traditional is a loss of
change: too changing is
loss of meaning & memory:
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:02 PM | Your Say (0)
December 26, 2010
3 Cents a Trance -- Best iTunes Music deal I Saw Today: 24 Hours of Classical Music for $9.99
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:35 PM | Your Say (1)
Be very qwiet, we're doing death panels
Published by the Times on Christmas Day, the ultimate news hole: Obama to Enact End-of-Life Planning for Medicare - NYTimes.com“The infamous Section 1233 is still alive and kicking,” Ms. Wickham said. “Patients will lose the ability to control treatments at the end of life.”Mr. Blumenauer, the author of the original end-of-life proposal, praised the rule as “a step in the right direction.”
“It will give people more control over the care they receive,” Mr. Blumenauer said in an interview. “It means that doctors and patients can have these conversations in the normal course of business, as part of our health care routine, not as something put off until we are forced to do it.”
After learning of the administration’s decision, Mr. Blumenauer’s office celebrated “a quiet victory,” but urged supporters not to crow about it.
“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.”
Moreover, the e-mail said: “We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists, even if they are ‘supporters’ — e-mails can too easily be forwarded.”
The e-mail continued: “Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it, but we will be keeping a close watch and may be calling on you if we need a rapid, targeted response. The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it.”
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:49 AM | Your Say (8)
December 24, 2010
So You Lost Your Election
Whether you're a recently displaced 23-term committee chairman or a formerly smug unemployed staffer with $180,000 of Georgetown student loans,it's important not to give in to despair. Psychological studies tell us a lost re-election campaign is the single most stressful event in the life of a congressional incumbent, even topping the indictment of a campaign contributor or an appearance at an unscripted town hall meeting. Also, a ballot box layoff is, next to death, the second-leading cause of leaving Congress. The good news is that there are positive, proactive steps you can take to reduce stress and smooth your transition to your new life in the great unknown outside I-95. -- iowahawk:
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:37 PM | Your Say (0)
Colonized Minds Are Always Frantic
Whatever you think about this or that Senate, or this or that issue,the notion that the United States needs the Senate to be constantly doing stuff strikes me as pathologically bizarre and disconnected from reality. As if our lives couldn't continue if the Senate stopped doing stuff! This bespeaks a mindset that seems a little too steeped in bureaucratic thinking. Like a middle manager who thinks their PowerPoints are so important, there's a class of politically-agitated folk which sees our DC masters as something akin to the engine or heartbeat of our county -- if they are 'paralyzed,' if they stop, we all stop. -- My Bias For Inaction « Rhymes With Cars & Girls
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:32 AM | Your Say (4)
A package found under the MOTUS tree
I snatched this from MOTUS over there and brought it over here. But you should go THERE anyway.Posted by Vanderleun at 9:49 AM | Your Say (1)
December 23, 2010
Sold
The story begins with the assassinations of four prominent and rapidly aging Viet Nam anti war protestors. One, Joan Flanders, a Jane Fonda knock off, is killed on the second page. -- Amazon.com: I, Sniper (Bob Lee Swagger Novels) (9781416565178): Stephen Hunter: BooksPosted by Vanderleun at 4:13 AM | Your Say (5)
Everything vile about Seattle in a single puffed up sentence
Seldom does one get so much pith as this single statement tossed out in the usual puerile list: "5. You will have a hard time finding urban Seattleites in organized church on Sunday mornings, as we are a godless people who worship at the altar of the New York Times and late brunches." -- Countdown to 2011: Alex's 11 Ways to Spot a Native Seattleite - Seattlest
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:17 AM | Your Say (1)
December 22, 2010
A Logo for the Ages
Hope and Depression Lines -- via Breaking: Obama Administration & Radical Environmentalists to Set Greenhouse Gas Standards For Industry | The Gateway Pundit HT: Oleg
Posted by Vanderleun at 5:35 PM | Your Say (0)
Five Minute Arguments from Around the Web
Lady M is resplendent in a fabulously bedazzled Marc Jacobs frock made specially for her… with expansion joints. -- Michelle Obama's Mirror: Is TheRe No Shame? EveR?
Report Your Neighbors With the ‘PatriotApp’ for Your Phone!
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:51 PM | Your Say (2)
December 21, 2010
Why the other line moves faster
Hint: It's not really because you're not in it Bill reveals how "queueing theory" - developed by engineers to route phone calls - can be used to find the most efficient arrangement of cashiers and check out lines. He reports on the work of Agner Erlang, a Danish engineer who, at the opening of the 20th century, helped the Copenhagen Telephone Company provide the best level of service at the lowest price.
Posted by Vanderleun at 5:37 PM | Your Say (1)
Neuterboys' Heaven
A prolonged childhood—permitted by industrial society’s current prosperity—redounds merely in a growing number of infantilized adults. -- Don Colacho’s Aphorisms: #2,453Posted by Vanderleun at 5:14 PM | Your Say (0)
December 20, 2010
Al Gore knows that if you liked his "science." you'll love his "religion."
Jared Olar: The weather gods demand a sacrificeThe Global Warmingists have covered all their bases. No matter what the weather is like, it always turns out to be exactly the kind of weather we should expect if human activity were causing global temperatures to rise.
The natural sciences have terms for that kind of hypothesis. “Unfalsifiable” is one of them. “Unscientific” is another. An idea may be true, but if it is incapable of being “falsified” or proven wrong, then whatever else that idea is, it certainly isn’t science.
Like the pagans of old thought they could appease the angry gods or win their favor through sacrificing the things most dear to them — their livestock, and if that didn’t work, human beings, even their own children — so it appears that Global Warmingism demands that we sacrifice. And it’s not really sacrifice because it’s moral or sensible or good for us, but sacrifice to appease the offended ecosphere.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:02 PM | Your Say (6)
Admit it, you saw this coming, right?
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:44 AM | Your Say (1)
December 19, 2010
The Tortured Soul of Julian Assange
Mr Assange has lied about aspects of his work.At a public meeting in London, he falsely claimed that the ‘Climategate’ emails from the University of East Anglia were first published by WikiLeaks. In fact, the emails were published by specialist climate websites in America and Canada – yet Mr Assange spent several minutes lamenting how he had found publishing them morally difficult because they boosted the arguments of global-warming sceptics. -- Wikileaks' Julian Assange's promiscuous lifestyle revealed: Jemima Khan look away now! | Mail OnlineOh those pesky "moral difficulties."
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (2)
December 18, 2010
Throwing the Dogs a Bone
Senate votes 65-31 to repeal ban on gays serving openly in the militaryPosted by Vanderleun at 3:58 PM | Your Say (8)
Let's Review: Student to Employee Ratios at UC
Monday's vote is the latest move to cut costs at the University of California, which has about 220,000 students and more than 170,000 employees at its 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national labs. -- UC raises retirement age for university employees - SignOnSanDiego.com Why are students paying more and more for less and less? It is to laugh.Posted by Vanderleun at 2:06 PM | Your Say (1)
Midnight in Mile High City
We pushed at 0020 hrs. and were airborne at 0025 hrs... Denver ATC stopped us briefly at 19,000 feet for inbound traffic, then cleared us to 39,000 feet. The Electric Jet ascended into the starry heavens with ease.>/pAhead of us, as far as these old eyes can see, are the small towns and villages of fly-over country. Incredibly beautiful... Little gatherings of humanity living underneath Orion the Hunter. -- Flight Level 390
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:10 PM | Your Say (1)
The Mickey is not what he seems
"EVERY POLITICIAN seeks to become Mickey Mouse: being so charming that people forgets he's a rat." Translation by Barcepundit (English edition)
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:00 AM | Your Say (0)
When bad hats happen to good chihuahuas
Just trying to make up for that last clip.Posted by Vanderleun at 9:36 AM | Your Say (2)
December 17, 2010
Worst Song in the History of the Known Universe
Even though this was, in many subtle ways, financed by the Stimulus, unemployment extensions, NEA grants and other sources of taxpayer money just hosed out onto the lame, halt, and mentally ill, you really, REALLY, do not want to view this clip at work or at home unless you have understanding coworkers and family. Even then, you DO NOT WANT to experience this. EVER.Posted by Vanderleun at 4:15 PM | Your Say (24)
December 16, 2010
Typo of the Month (Or Is It?)
"Regardless, Newt Gingrich tells HYMAN EVENTS that Republicans must filibuster the Omnibus bill and not allow it to move in the Senate." [Since fixed, dammit.] -- VIDEO: Newt Urges GOP To Filibuster Omnibus Bill - HUMAN EVENTSPosted by Vanderleun at 6:23 PM | Your Say (6)
December 15, 2010
Thieves Probably Not Irish
Copper thieves burn down City of Birmingham's Christmas tree The Grinch may have stolen Christmas, but in Birmingham it was copper thieves who torched a Christmas tree in downtown's Linn Park.Posted by Vanderleun at 3:11 PM | Your Say (1)
December 14, 2010
Ho, Ho, Ho!
`Strippermobile' delivers Christmas donations "Inside the large Plexiglas cubicle were a bearded St. Nick and eight female entertainers who wore long red dresses or Santa-style camisole dresses paired with leggings."
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:02 PM | Your Say (0)
The Non-Crime of the Century So Far
Stacy McCain brings the pith to this farce:The Swedes seem determined to deprive the LeakyWicker of further opportunities for semi-consensual condomless sex with socialist women.-- International Hero of World Peace Julian Assange Free to Rape Again? Not Yet : The Other McCain
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:56 PM | Your Say (0)
Melding Dumb and Dumber
One of the greatest ills that television ever foisted onto our cultureis the melding of two of the most laughable and looked down upon "professions" in human history, the actor and the newspaperman, into a single monstrous entity and then piping them into our living rooms 24/7 for decades until we have become brainwashed into thinking that being well turned out, or articulate in the sense of being able to repeat a practiced line, is the same thing as possessing intelligence. -- "... if you're a position of decision making..." @ Jaded Haven
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:29 PM | Your Say (1)
Liberals: Roadkill on the Highway of Life
Liberals can also choose to condemn human hunters as bloodthirsty killers-- a point of view in which I do not join. But their logic is strange, because human hunters ordinarily are no more bloodthirsty than animals who kill (the ones the liberal conveniently forget). They just have made the decision to hunt in order to supplement their meat-eating that way -- unless they are natives who only hunt or mostly hunt, in which case they get a pass. Liking the activity of hunting doesn't mean one is bloodthirsty, although it means that one doesn't shy away from the truth that should be acknowledged by all meat-eaters but can only be denied by those who never hunt -- which is that everyone who eats meat is eating an animal that was killed for that purpose (unless you're into eating roadkill; but that's topic I'll leave alone right now). -- neo-neocon -- Hunting and the heaven of animals
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:23 PM | Your Say (2)
Smashing the Left
James Lewis explains it all for you in American Thinker: The left sees history's fist coming. Again.Want to know why the Democrats in Congress are mumbling "f*** the president"? Want to know why the Cancun mobsters are demanding world power for yesterday's climate fascism?This is Dunkirk, folks. It's the Battles of Midway and Gettysburg rolled into one. This is the watershed moment in history.
This is where the Evil Empire gets its comeuppance.
The left is at the very peak of its power since the Evil Empire fell in 1991, with Obama occupying the White House today, surrounded by his commissars. The left is still pushing the climate scam because it's the biggest totalitarian power-grab in history, and they can't let go of it -- even if nobody believes Algore anymore. Trillions of dollars are teetering on the edge, like the Chicago Climate Exchange, and leftists are all rushing in to keep it from screaming down into the steep canyon. This is right out of a Road Runner cartoon.
But the biggest threat the left sees is Governor Sarah Palin. And it's not just the American left -- the Euro-lefties hate Governor Palin in the same way they still go foaming at the mouth over Maggie Thatcher. The U.N. corruptocrats fear her already. Right now, the worldwide left is feeling a lot more scared than we think.
[Read it all at the link]
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:56 PM | Your Say (4)
December 13, 2010
True Equality At Last
The most important aspect of God's new system is that everyone is treated equally.There is no longer fire for some and harp music for others. The afterlife is no longer defined by cots versus waterbeds, raw potatoes versus sushi, hot water versus champagne. Everyone is a brother to all, and for the first time an idea has been realized that never came to fruition on Earth: true equality.
The Communists are baffled and irritated, because they have finally achieved their perfect society, but only by the help of a God in whom they don’t want to believe. The meritocrats are abashed that they’re stuck for eternity in an incentiveless system with a bunch of pinkos. The conservatives have no penniless to disparage; the liberals have no downtrodden to promote.
So God sits on the edge of Her bed and weeps at night, because the only thing everyone can agree upon is that they’re all in Hell. -- Sum by David Eagleman - Trade Paperback - Random House - Read an Excerpt
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:59 PM | Your Say (4)
Don Colacho
Conservatism should not be a party but the normal attitude of every decent man. -- Aphorisms: #2,403Posted by Vanderleun at 11:50 AM | Your Say (3)
More true today than in 1892
"The newspaper man, indeed, is a dangerous person to fool with.He is extremely ingenious in his methods of retaliation. Here is another story in point. One Bennett was city editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer somewhere in the sixties. It was Bennett’s plan, if news were scarce, to make small children–offspring of the brain only–fall from the Newport ferry-boat into the Ohio River, where they would infallibly have been drowned but for the gallant rescue of some by-stander, usually a personal friend of Bennett’s. One of these friends, Kellum by name, grew very weary after he had figured several times as a savior of drowning innocents, and requested that Bennett should desist. So, in next day’s Enquirer, Kellum read that a beautiful little girl, child of a prominent citizen in Newport, had fallen into the river, and that Mr. Kellum, who was standing near and could have rescued her, refused to render the slightest assistance. A few minutes later the maddest man in Cincinnati arrived in the Enquirer office, threatening the direst vengeance on Bennett. But Bennett calmly pulled off his coat, and said, ‘See here, Kellum, you are a good enough fellow in your way, but I can’t stand any interference with my department. If I make any statement in the Enquirer you mustn’t come round here contradicting it. That isn’t journalism.’ – William Shepard Walsh, Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities, 1892 [ The Last Word | Futility Closet]
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:28 AM | Your Say (2)
December 12, 2010
Things are looking good for, er, Thursday morning here in Seattle
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:16 PM | Your Say (3)
The Borg
Angela Levin: "Why do we let this creepy company called Google spy on our emails?" Don Surber: For the same reason we let it hijack newspaper advertising. When you have to remind yourself not to do evil, you are: EVIL. -- Daily scoreboard « Don SurberPosted by Vanderleun at 5:51 PM | Your Say (2)
All in all he's just another prick from the wall...
Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, arrested in London student protestsPosted by Vanderleun at 1:09 PM | Your Say (7)
This Massive CPB Defunding Brought to You by the Letters F U
CPB has requested $608 million for its next funding cycle, which begins in 2013. So far, the current constellation of Republicans in the House and Senate do not seem inclined to grant that request.....
To compound the problem, when the leadership of PBS, NPR and the CPB trudge up the steps of congress to plead their case, they’ll find it’s not the same group of Republicans that cropped up the last time the party regained control. The band of moderates, who might be more willing to back public media as a necessary expenditure, has dwindled to near extinction.
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:01 PM | Your Say (9)
What was David Epstein thinking?
Where did this highly intelligent man buy his moral compass?Did he read the relevant Supreme Court decisions about sexual behavior and conclude that when it comes to consenting adults, anything goes? Did he believe that right and wrong are not moral absolutes but are social constructs? Did he simply believe that since sex was a healthy human activity, it should be indulged? Or did he imagine that if it felt good no one could possibly object? -- Had Enough Therapy?: Ivy League Incest
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:03 AM | Your Say (7)
December 11, 2010
TEOTWAWKI
From the Independent: "The swine flu virus that swept the world last year causing a global health emergency has returned to claim the lives of 10 adults in the UK in the past six weeks." At this rate, England will me wiped out by swine flu in 1.6 million years. -- Daily Scoreboard « Don SurberPosted by Vanderleun at 7:55 PM | Your Say (0)
High Water Marks in the History of Autofellatio
A car exploded at the busy shopping street Drottninggatan in central Stockholm. Then there was another explosion some distance away and one man died. According to news agency TT, a man had blown himself to death. == Suicide bomber in central Stockholm - Stockholm News Shouted usual Arabic gibberish. Gone off happy to Allah. Buh-bye.Posted by Vanderleun at 4:40 PM | Your Say (5)
Landing in a Storm
Over the marker with three green gear lights
shining brightly, flaps FULL, engines spooled up, and landing checklist complete. Fi-Fi's nav computers are in a heightened sense of self-awareness as the runway gets closer. My right hand is on the thrust levers, left hand on the stick as I monitor her behaviour. The landing lights are OFF because of the reflection from snow flakes.
At 1,000 feet radar altitude, nothing but darkness... 500 feet radar altitude, nada... 300 feet radar altitude, approach lights burning through the cold gloom... I get a hit of adrenaline from those beautiful lights. At 200 feet radar altitude the end of the runway is in sight, a bit crooked from the crosswind. I reach overhead and illuminate our world with candlepower. The instant sensation of velocity is incredible as the radiant snow flakes rush toward us at 140 knots. -- Flight Level 390: Sounding like Robert Stack
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:05 AM | Your Say (0)
December 10, 2010
Sand Castles of Cards
I don’t think the current political and economic order in the Western world is stable at all.On the contrary, I suspect we are fast approaching a serious historical discontinuity that will sweep aside today’s suicidal liberalism. It’s a house of cards that will collapse as soon as the geopolitical tectonic plates make a sudden shift, which they will. -- Gates of Vienna: Book Review: “The Perils of Diversity”
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:50 PM | Your Say (4)
The Drab Origins of Liberalism
In part, modern liberalism comes from Jeremy Bentham
—you still can see his mummy at the University of London, and his ideas walk among us still—his abstract principle of ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number,’ mathematically determined, and his emphasis upon Efficiency, and his contempt for everything old and complex, and his desire for a drab Utilitarian future. And, in part, modern liberalism is the child of Rousseau, with his romantic emancipation from old moral confines, his hatred of constituted authorities, and his exaltation of the common will to supremacy over every private and traditional right. In short, modern totalitarian democracy—what Tocqueville calls ‘democratic despotism’—is the consequence of these liberal ideas; and with the passage of time, the society which these notions create destroys the very liberties which originally was intended to bestow upon men.” -- The Imaginative Conservative: Russell Kirk's 1954 Speech: "Conservatism, Liberalism, and Fraternity"
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:48 PM | Your Say (0)
December 9, 2010
Hanging? He'd Enjoy It Too Much.
Zombie » The Real WikiLeaks Villian Is Not Julian AssangeIn this instance, Berkeley is voting to give Bradley Manning -- the traitorous ex-soldier who was the original source of all the Wikileaks documents -- an award for heroism.... Say what you want about Berkeley, but they got it right this time, in their own sick way: If you’re going to praise the America-hating traitor responsible for this incident, your award should go to Manning, who actually leaked the secret government files, rather than Assange, who merely put them on his Web site.
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:59 PM | Your Say (2)
The Lady Gaga of Leaking
Julian Assange’s EgoLeaks - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review OnlineJulian Assange has more or less ensured that WikiLeaks would be synonymous with Julian Assange and that he would be its man-of-the-year face on Time magazine. Like all narcissists, when reminded that his recklessness will lead to violence, mayhem, and deaths, he dismisses such dangers as insignificant in comparison to the benevolence that he bestows. Note how easily a computer hacker with a criminal record has established himself as judge, jury, and executioner on behalf of world truth. When he says, “I have become a lightning rod,” he means, “I am the Lady Gaga of leaking.”
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:33 AM | Your Say (1)
December 8, 2010
Into the air junior birdmen!
SpaceX, the Hawthorne-based rocket venture, has successfully reached orbit with its Dragon spacecraft, the company said. The company's massive Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Caneveral, Fla. on Wednesday at 7:43 a.m. Approximatley 10 minutes later, the Apollo-like Dragon space capsule appeared to reach low Earth orbit. -- SpaceX successfully reaches orbit with Dragon capsule | Technology | Los Angeles Times
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:45 AM | Your Say (3)
December 7, 2010
Soon to be a Lifetime Movie titled: "The Case of the Sabotaged Condom"
He's not popular with me, but this sort of thing is just pure bullshit from the smell to the packaging:According to one source, Jessica wanted to know if it was possible to force Assange to undergo an HIV test. Sarah, the seasoned feminist warrior, said she was there merely to support Jessica. But she also gave police an account of what had happened between herself and Assange a week before. The female interviewing officer, presumably because of allegations of a sabotaged condom in one case and a refusal to wear one in the ｭsecond, concluded that both women were victims: that ｭJessica had been raped, and Sarah subject to sexual molestation. -- Wikileaks: Julian Assange's 2 one-night stands spark a worldwide hunt | Mail Online
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:51 PM | Your Say (7)
9 strikes & you’re out!
“When I asked him to recite the alphabet from A to Z, he said, ‘I can’t do that.’ When I asked him why, he stated, ‘No one could do that. From A to Z? Come on. That’s crazy.’ ” -- BostonHerald.comPosted by Vanderleun at 7:46 PM | Your Say (1)
The PEER Axis of Evil
I call this infrastructure the PEER Axis,for the progressives, environmentalists, educators and reporters who collectively run California and influence the underpinnings of America. The PEER Axis remains powerful because politicians and political movements may come and go, but government bureaucrats and regulators, environmentalists and social justice activists, and their supporters in education and the media are pretty much forever. The structure of California ensures that appropriately indoctrinated college graduates will continue to fill the personnel pipelines that run from Berkeley, UCLA and other liberal universities straight into the progressive movement. -- Keep your eyes on California | The Daily Caller
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:25 AM | Your Say (0)
Gown Description of the Year
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:20 AM | Your Say (7)
December 6, 2010
"Schwarzenegger Proposes $9.9B In Cuts" Pundits divided over whether he'll get jack, shit, or both
Details of the weakling's impossible dream HERE. In other terminated governor news, the rumor that Schwarzenegger is having his skull reblocked for his upcoming role in The Return of Max Headroom is obviously true:
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:19 PM | Your Say (0)
The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't.'
Global warming has halted: That's what happened to 'warmest year on record'
Actually, with the exception of 1998 - a 'blip' year when temperatures spiked because of a strong 'El Nino' effect (the cyclical warming of the southern Pacific that affects weather around the world) - the data on the Met Office's and CRU's own websites show that global temperatures have been flat, not for ten, but for the past 15 years.... But little by little, the supposedly settled scientific ' consensus' that the temperature rise is unprecedented, that it is set to continue to disastrous levels, and that it is all the fault of human beings, is starting to fray.
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:28 AM | Your Say (5)
Getting to be that time of year again...
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:11 AM | Your Say (1)
December 5, 2010
But evidently a stupid society does....
A noble society does not wait for catastrophes to discipline it before it disciplines itself. -- Don Colacho’s Aphorisms: #2,360Posted by Vanderleun at 11:24 PM | Your Say (0)
Sarah, She Wolf of the GOP
Sarah Palin was dragged from obscurity into someone else's sexual fantasy.
She didn't intend to become the liberals' dominatrix: she was elevated to that position by submissives who finally found their perfect mistress. She was caught off-guard at first, angry and offended, but by now I think she understands, maybe even subconsciously, that she can use this role to her advantage. Liberals need someone to crack that whip? Crack! Do as Sarah says! -- zomblog
Posted by Vanderleun at 5:02 PM | Your Say (14)
Lowered Expectations
Change: Climate hoax marches in Britain allegedly attracted 30,000 in 2006, then 10,000 in 2007, then "thousands" in 2009, then "hundreds" in 2010 -- Tom Nelson
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:21 PM | Your Say (0)
Well, 27 actually.
"People talk about how knives are dangerous, and then they go in the kitchen and they have 50 of them." « QuotulatiousnessPosted by Vanderleun at 8:16 AM | Your Say (1)
Green Collapse
Seems like lots of folks are getting out of the wind/solar scam market: "On Friday, Spain slashed payouts for wind projects by 35% while denying support for solar thermal projects in their first year of operation. "Also Friday, France announced a four-month freeze on solar projects and a cap on the amount of solar that can be built, to nip a "veritable speculative bubble" by its rapacious renewables industry. "Earlier this week, the German government announced it may discontinue the solar industry's sweetheart tariffs in 2012. "Also in October, New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, slashed by two-thirds the revenue that homeowners who had installed solar panels would receive, "Also in October, the U.K. government announced that withering spending cuts were coming to renewable projects, many of which have already been withering, "With the market for wind shrinking, Denmark's Vestas, the world's largest wind-turbine company, recently announced it is closing five production facilities in Denmark and Sweden and laying off 3,000 workers "Next week: Eviscerating the renewables investor." -- Lawrence Solomon, Financial PostPosted by Vanderleun at 6:56 AM | Your Say (0)
YouTube: Where the insane comments are without limit
There are three theories: 1) the ice from the North is heading south due to global warming; 2) Parts of Europe are actually on the verge of sinking from tatonic plate shifts resulting from the earth's current position in the galaxy (we are lining up with the center) and; 3) yes, the oil in the Gulf has created havoc on the Gulf stream that has affected its ability to take the warm waters to Northern Europe. So much going on...likely all three are impacting.I'm kinda partial to the "death from the galaxy" concept myself. At least it's freshly minted madness.
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:32 AM | Your Say (5)
"Bite on this stick while I saw your leg off — you’re saving the planet."
Surgical anesthetic gases coming under fire for global warming potential – Only one problem: they haven’t been observed in the atmosphere | Watts Up With That?Posted by Vanderleun at 6:15 AM | Your Say (1)
December 4, 2010
Unsurprising "Surprising" News
WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen accord
Excuse me, but what is a person who believes in global warming doing inflating a hot-air balloon by burning natural gas?
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:56 AM | Your Say (2)
That's right Chuckie. Rich people are just going to let $300 billion pile up around in their homes in garbage bags. No investing. No buying. No nuttin'. Just change in the couch cushions.
Why is this man trusted with more than $25 weekly allowance?The Senate on Saturday also rejected an alternative proposal, championed by Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, to raise the threshold at which the tax breaks would expire to $1 million. Some Democrats said that the Republicans’ opposition to that plan showed them to be siding with “millionaires and billionaires” over the middle class.
“It seems to me that about the best way to reduce the deficit is not to give $300 billion of tax breaks to the 315,000 Americans whose income is over a million dollars,” Mr. Schumer said, adding: “It’s not that we want to punish wealthy people. We want to praise them. But they’re doing fine, and they’re not going to spend the money and stimulate the economy.” -- Senate Rejects Obama’s Plan on Extending Tax Cuts - NYTimes.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:50 AM | Your Say (3)
NOTICE
THE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATIONwill soon begin implementing full-body checks at the entrance to your car or other motor vehicle. Car bombs are the favorite weapon of foreign and domestic terrorists alike, and these new measures are essential for protecting the security of all Americans. Remember that you are responsible for the care and feeding of your own personally assigned TSA agent, but his tastes are simple and most days a hamburger or some Chinese takeout will satisfy him. Your full cooperation will help prevent unnecessary delays. -- Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine.
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:26 AM | Your Say (0)
December 3, 2010
Close the Washington Monument
Yes, it's true. Washington has no dick:"Securing the Washington Monument from terrorism has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult job. The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there's no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options, but I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears." -- Schneier on Security: Close the Washington MonumentHey, when the president has no balls, what good is an empty erection?
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:42 PM | Your Say (2)
"47" and other numbers
The biggest mystery about Wikileaks is where its money comes from. Running Wikileaks is not cheap. Reports indicate a staff of about 20, multiple servers in multiple countries, with fairly large bandwidth charges, plus frequent moves to different hosting providers in different nations. Itself expensive and requiring a well-paid staff. Wikileaks is not using bare-bones hosting and staff out of outsourcing India, for sure. Then there is travel. Julian Assange travels around the world, to avoid arrest, moving about every week to a new location. All told I've come up with a total yearly cost of $1.3 million, minimum, not including Assange's likely generous salary.Saw this coming: Julian Assange Fired From IT Job At Pentagon
ARLINGTON, VA—With officials describing his publication of sensitive U.S. State Department documents as "the last straw," Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was asked to resign from his position as the Pentagon's IT coordinator Monday.When it is all f**ked up in all fifty states, all across the fruited plain, from sea to shining sea…can we then proclaim that liberalism doesn’t work? Or no. Will it somehow be Bush’s fault. Victor Davis Hanson From Sacramento to Athens the world is reminded that obligations, despite in-vogue euphemisms like “stimulus” and “Keynesian,” really do have to be met. No surprises here: Andrew Kenny: A Year After Climategate, The Corruption Of Science Persists "The worst nonsense after the scandal was this: "Well, some climate scientists committed a few minor transgressions but the basic science is sound." In fact, the basic science is nonexistent." Unemployment nears 10%. Hey, let’s raise taxes!
“In a surprising setback, the nation’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.8 percent in November, a seven-month high, as hiring slowed across the economy,” the Associated Press reports. Another surprising setback! It’s almost enough to make you nostalgic for the summer of recovery. -- Daffy Ducks - WSJ.comNow that it has infested the White House it's only natural that Narcissism is Out Of The DSM-- And Into The Open -- The Last Psychiatrist.
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:29 PM | Your Say (0)
ART THOUGHTZ: Post-Structuralism
ART THOUGHTZ: Post-Structuralism from Hennessy Youngman on Vimeo.
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:05 PM | Your Say (0)
Palinize It!
Posted by Vanderleun at 5:18 PM | Your Say (0)
That "Curtis Got Slapped By A White Teacher" Letter
There seems to be about 200 or so copies, including copies sent to POTUS Obama and VP Biden. It is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. There's no real identifying information in there that could get me in trouble, I don't think. The letter writer herself only gives a P.O. box, and everyone else is a public official of one sort or another. It starts off simply enough, with just a hint of madness. Notice the copyright symbols after her son's name. -- - The Something Awful Forums
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:19 AM | Your Say (4)
December 2, 2010
It's a shame the noose has been retired, but if it came back where would we get enough rope?
Jeff Goldstein asks, Where is Jack Bauer when you need him? And adds,I don’t know precisely when it was when we stopped treating treason as treason, but it’s about time we reconsidered our softening on that stance. Perhaps if the threat of real consequences — other than, say, international celebrity, and perpetual darling/hero status on the left — obtained to such actions, we’d see fewer instances of the kind of behavior that has no other real function than to destabilize the security of sovereign nations, and put the lives of soldiers, diplomats, and covert operatives at risk.
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:44 PM | Your Say (7)
John Muir on Mt. Ritter
After scanning its face again and again,
I began to scale it, picking my holds
With intense caution. About half-way
To the top, I was suddenly brought to
A dead stop, with arms outspread
Clinging close to the face of the rock
Unable to move hand or foot
Either up or down. My doom
Appeared fixed. I MUST fall.
There would be a moment of
Bewilderment, and then,
A lifeless rumble down the cliff
To the glacier below.
My mind seemed to fill with a
Stifling smoke. This terrible eclipse
Lasted only a moment, when life blazed
Forth again with preternatural clearness.
I seemed suddenly to become possessed
Of a new sense. My trembling muscles
Became firm again, every rift and flaw in
The rock was seen as through a microscope,
My limbs moved with a positiveness and precision
With which I seemed to have
Nothing at all to do.
- Gary Snyder
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:32 PM | Your Say (3)
Great Satan Lauds Assange as Infidel of the Year
As reported by iowahawk-- The aging Jimmy Olsen of the sphere:WASHINGTON DC - Elusive Wikileaks founder Julian Assange made a rare public appearance today at the White House to accept his award as Great Satan Infidel of the Year for 2010. The annual prize, bestowed by the Zionist Crusader Club of Washington, honors "exemplary individual achievement in the humiliation of Islam and its holy prophet."
Award presenter Israel U.S. Americastein cited Assange for his "tireless efforts in creating and distributing over 15,000 blasphemous cartoon images of Mohammed, as well as single-handedly writing the Stuxnet virus that crippled Iran's nuclear program - all while defiling over 50 Muslim virgins."...
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:56 PM | Your Say (0)
The most beautiful-sounding English word?
The word that was suggested as most beautiful-sounding with the greatest frequency was “serendipity.”Unlike “cellar door,” ”serendipity” has the advantage of positive associations. Meaning “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident,” it derives from an old name for what is now Sri Lanka, as well as a Persian folktale where the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity.”
A sampling of other user suggestions, in no particular order: soliloquy, epiphany, Elysium and elysian, scissors, vivacious, fudge, telephony, nycthemeron, cinnamon, woodthrush, phosphorescence, lithe, and languorous. -- The Hot Word
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:34 AM | Your Say (5)
December 1, 2010
Bang! Zoom! To the Moon, Alice. The Moon!
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:21 PM | Your Say (12)
Air Security: Not even past step one
There are three stages to coping with a threat. First you have to recognize the threat. Second, you have to formulate a plan for dealing with the threat. Third, you have to implement the plan.So far we haven't even made to the first stage. We haven't recognized the threat. At the airline security level, we insist that the threat is completely random. Anyone at all could be a terrorist. There's no specific ideology or countries that are sources of terrorism. Instead terrorism is like some sort of disease. Anyone at all could be a carrier. And so we have to watch out for everyone. All the time. And like those hunters, we're either on alert all the time or we're completely apathetic. We're either security manic or security depressive. We go from letting everyone pass to strip searching everybody. There's no rational approach to danger, because we don't have a rational plan. We just go from 0 to 60 every time there's a new threat. -- Sultan Knish a blog by Daniel Greenfield
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:09 PM | Your Say (2)
"Above the fold: bravery in the face of utter danger, below the fold: fear in the face remote danger."
Home of the Brave?With the confluence of the Medal of Honor award to the first living recipient since the Vietnam War and the TSA âpat downâ fiasco, Americans were presented with an odd, but telling juxtaposition of stories on the front pages of their local newspapers. Above the fold, the story of Sgt. Salvatore Giunta â the Hiawatha, Iowa native who, on a night-darkened ridgeline in Afghanistan in 2007 single-handedly took on a Taliban ambush, saving the lives of several fellow soldiers. Below the fold, American travelers complaining of the ignominies suffered at the hands of the TSA, while the agencyâs chief â the properly named, John Pistole â defends the new airport security procedures as necessary in order to respond to the âever-evolving nature of the terrorist threat.â
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:09 AM | Your Say (0)
Assange's Old Blog: "Krill to the baleen of the feminine"
From the archive of Julian Assange's blog IQ.ORG comes this strange and disturbing wad of blather.
Thu 29 Jun 2006 : Krill to the baleen of the feminine
"I've always found women caught in a thunderstorm appealing. Perhaps it is a male universal, for without advertising this proclivity a lovely girl I knew, but not well, on discovering within herself lascivious thoughts about me and noticing raindrops outside her windows, stood for a moment fully clothed in her shower before letting the wind and rain buffet her body as she made her tremulous approach to my door and of course I could not turn her away.
"But then, just when one might suspect that men are krill to the baleen of female romantic manipulation, I found myself loving a girl who was a coffee addict. I would make a watery paste of finely ground coffee and surreptitiously smear this around my neck and shoulders before seducing her so she would associate my body with her dopaminergic cravings. But every association relates two objects both ways. She started drinking more and more coffee. Sometimes I looked at her cups of liquid arabicia with envious eyes for if there were four cups then somehow, I was one of them, or a quarter of everyone one of them..."
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:23 AM | Your Say (5)
The Work at Hand
Earth will never be a paradise, but it could perhaps be prevented from coming closer and closer to being a vulgar imitation of hell. -- Don Colacho’s Aphorisms: #2,331Posted by Vanderleun at 3:58 AM | Your Say (3)
Wikicoward: The Summing Up
Next, enter one Julian Assange -- himself on the lam, avoiding a little sexy horseplay that the uptight Swedish authorities for some reason deemed thus far sexual battery and molestation.Jason is also angry at "them" the Western world that does horrific things like guarantees enough affluence and security for those like Julian to jet about at will without any visible means of support. In the tradition of sixties nihilism, Julian, of course, tries to gussy up his destructive egotistical angst into some sort of cosmic humane call for more transparency and nice behavior on the part of the U.S. State Department and military.
In more earthly terms that means he is supposed to be something more than a two-bit computer punk that he is, one who would be terrified to extend his online liberationist creed to Iranian mullahs, Chinese communists, Hezbollah terrorists, or Russian gang lords. The latter do far more to trample the human spirit than does any Western nation, but they also at times tend to decapitate, blow up, or jail permanently any would-be Julian who dares to cross them. -- Victor Hanson: Works and Days » The Age of Adolescence
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:19 AM | Your Say (0)