Charlie Stross makes a compelling case that “liberal” and “conservative” as we have come to know them are temporary aberrations, distortions in the fabric of history caused by the mass of the Cold War. Now that it’s over, he argues, things are in some ways returning to their old conformation — or maybe it’s all a vast conspiracy.
Category Archives: Politics
The Preznit on Global Warming
For some reason, I was never a huge fan of Will Ferrell. His turn in MTV’s parody of “The Matrix Reloaded”, however, first made me think that I should consider changing my mind. His dead-on characterization of George W. Bush seals the deal.
Apropos the Commander-in-Chimp, last night I was stopped at a light behind a bumper sticker which read:
My child is an Honor Student
My President is a moron
Alas.
MAYDAY
OPERATIVE HAS LOST BEARINGS STOP
FINDS SELF AGREEING WITH CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER STOP
CONTINGENCY NOT COVERED BY ANY EXISTING OPERATIONAL PLAN STOP
TRANSMISSION OF UPDATED OP PLAN URGENTLY REQUESTED FULL STOP
Cheesy Song Lyrics —
Apres Moi, Le Deluge Edition
Via Ok Go, with apologies to Hellblazer
Having spent your entire life
Exactly where you are tonight
In the valley between intent and deed
You must have mastered this
The fragile art of a good excuse
The little things that get you to believe
That get you to believe
So listen, I’m not trying to prove
Anything at all here
But don’t you think that maybe,
This time, you were wrong?
You’ve spent your entire life
Quick-tongued and always right
Hasn’t being right just let you down
Right just let you down
So listen, I’m not trying to say
Anything at all here
There isn’t much left anyway
That hasn’t been said
But don’t you think that possibly,
This time, it’s different?
Don’t you think that maybe,
This time, you were wrong?
Whew
I was beginning to worry that my ability to feel outrage had simply been burned out by five long, soul-deadening years of the Bush administration. But then I learn that even those parts of Michael Brown’s resume that weren’t relevant to the business of disaster response are essentially a well-padded lie, and I find that this little breath of fact is all it takes to stir the coal of my anger to new life beneath its dusting of ashes.
To quote distinguished psychopath Klaus, from the film Die Hard, “I… WANT… BLOOD!“
Actually
…dipping the lot of them in bronze sounds like a very good start.
Olbermann 2008
Oh. My. God.
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann comes out spraying a delicious 50/50 mixture of napalm and bile over the complete and raging clusterfuck that was the federal government’s response to New Orleans. He pulls no punches — nor should he.
Dear Venezuela
We’re sorry.
Yes, he’s an asshole. Been that way for years.
No, there’s nothing we can do about him either. Trust us, we’d love to.
Rotten is as Rotten does
I am not a habitual a visitor to rotten.com, as just a handful of the images of human suffering resident there, viewed years ago, were enough to permanently scar my mind.
However, I’ve just discovered that the site also hosts a series of biographical articles. There are few guilty pleasures more guilty or pleasurable than reading a hatchet job done upon a richly deserving target; there are few targets more richly deserving than Karl Rove.
Quandary
- A reporter has been jailed for refusing to reveal her source — opting with no small measure of dignity to accept imprisonment rather than go back upon her word to someone whom she guaranteed anonymity.
Ordinarily, this would make her my hero, except that:
- The reporter in question is Judith Miller, formerly known as “a prominent member of the cheering section for the Iraq war”.
- The source she’s protecting is likely the one who peddled Valerie Plame’s name to the press as an act of petty vengeance — not that the Bush Administration knows any other kind — against her husband for daring to call “bullshit” on the Administration’s Nigerian Yellowcake claims. (That Miller should be caught in the political backwash from a war she was widely perceived as waving the pom-poms for is but one of the case’s little ironies.)
“As God is my witness, I haven’t the faintest idea what I should do.”
— Opus, Bloom County