The Gods Must Be Sleeping

Lunatic Also Happens To Be Michigan State "Assistant" Attorney General

Never Let Facts Get In The Way Of A Good Myth

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/opinion/30collins.html

In fact, a study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that only 17 percent did a better job than the comparable local public school, while more than a third did “significantly worse.” 

I’m still haunted by a debate I stumbled across in the Texas Legislature a decade ago in which conservatives repelled any attempt to impose accountability standards on the state’s charter schools, even after only 37 percent of the charter students passed state academic achievement tests, compared with 80 percent of the public schoolchildren. There’s something about an unfettered school that lifts the hearts of the Born Free crowd. 

Suck it, Lighter-Than-Air-Haters!

C.I.A. Steps Up Drone Attacks on Taliban in Pakistan - NYTimes.com: "In particular, he said, the military has expanded its fleet of reconnaissance blimps that can hover over hide-outs thought to belong to the Taliban in eastern and southern Afghanistan."

Announcement from the editor of Hypothermia Girls

Greetings, as all of the world is probably aware by now, our site, "Hypothermia Girls", promised 'Cold Girls In Hot Hypothermic Action.'  Sadly, the families of the most hypothermia victims were surprisingly un-cool with our unauthorized use of medical case file information or photos of victims taken without consent.  Furthermore, it has been nearly impossible to find willing models within our current budgetary restraints, and therefore it is with very, very heavy hearts that we must announce an end to our venture.

*note: please stay tuned for news on our upcoming site, Comatose Girls.

Well There You Have It

William Edward Hickman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Ayn Rand's The Little Street

In 1928, the writer Ayn Rand began planning a novel called The Little Street, whose hero was to be based on 'what Hickman suggested to [her].' The novel was never finished, but Rand wrote notes for it which were published after her death in the book Journals of Ayn Rand. Rand wanted the hero of her novel to be 'A Hickman with a purpose. And without the degeneracy. It is more exact to say that the model is not Hickman, but what Hickman suggested to me.'[3] Rand scholars Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Jennifer Burns both interpret Rand's interest in Hickman as a sign of her early admiration of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche.[4][5] Rand also wrote, 'The first thing that impresses me about the case is the ferocious rage of a whole society against one man. No matter what the man did, there is always something loathsome in the 'virtuous' indignation and mass-hatred of the 'majority.'... It is repulsive to see all these beings with worse sins and crimes in their own lives, virtuously condemning a criminal...'"

In other words, Ayn Rand is the kind of woman who would have written love letters to Ted Bundy.

So Ya Wanna Be A Pundit?

Washington Post Is Looking For America's Next Top Pundit Again

"Looks Like We All Have Something New To Be Afraid Of"

Anne Applebaum - China's quiet power grab

Man, this is good news. I am so bored of being afraid of Islam--it's just not frightening me anymore. The fire's gone out of my belly.  

Rantie McRant

From what I remember of War & Peace (I probably slept through most of the book), they mostly end up living relatively bland lives, except for the crazy guy who wants to live like a peasant or something--I assume this was based on Tolstoy himself.  Personally I can't imagine too many conservative commentators feel any need to pick lettuce for a season to broaden their horizons, or pack tomatoes. It makes me want to say, " If farming is so great, why don't you buy one, you stupid hypocritical fuckwits?  If physical labor is so wonderful, why are you sitting on your flabby ass writing about it? No one is stopping you from giving up your elitist existence of criticizing elitists--if you want to be knee deep in pig shit, go ahead--it's a free country."  I suspect manual labor is to most conservatives pundits as their war service is: A great honor and privilege which they feel no need nor desire to experience. Shitheads.

Op-Ed Columnist - Structure of Excuses - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Structure of Excuses - NYTimes.com: "Oh, and where are these firms that “can’t find appropriate workers”? The National Federation of Independent Business has been surveying small businesses for many years, asking them to name their most important problem; the percentage citing problems with labor quality is now at an all-time low, reflecting the reality that these days even highly skilled workers are desperate for employment."

_____

Managed Risk Plus Enrichment On U.S. Dollars

Rule of the Gun - NYTimes.com

Scary Comments HERE (Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan - ProPublica)

This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan - ProPublica

The Teachings Of The Popes, Then And Now

"SEND MONEY"

"SEND MONEY"

Liberals vs. Populists: It's a Long Story - NYTimes.com

Liberals vs. Populists: It's a Long Story - NYTimes.com: "Bad news for all of us homeless liberals. I guess we'll have to rethink our strategy."

Slouching Toward Washington - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Slouching Toward Washington - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

While I find some solace in knowing that Sharron Angle will not procreate, and am a bit tickled by Christine O'Donnell's stupidity, their views are alarming. They wouldn't be so alarming were they not in striking distance from being sworn into the U.S. Senate, but alas they are.

Which calls attention to the bigger takeaway from Bill Maher's show on Friday night: his dead-on analysis of the current situation by noting that Democrats "couldn't sell a rum and Coke to Lindsey Lohan."

How do you manage to let Republicans run on a platform of holding middle class tax cuts hostage to tax cuts for the rich who snagged the lion's share of the income gains over the past decade at the expense of everyone else?

How do you let Republicans convince the public that the healthcare reform bill was a bad idea ("Obamacare!") and needs to be repealed? Is there no one in the Democratic brain trust that realizes that all it takes is to round up a few kids with spina bifida who'd reached the lifetime cap on their insurance policies and don't want to return to "Boehnercare"? You know, where they're expected to just fend for themselves while their families go to the poorhouse trying to save them and then go die quietly in the corner?

And like Bill Maher pointed out, what's keeping Democrats from putting an injured gay vet on the floor of the Senate and daring Republicans to vote against his/her right to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces?

The highly fractious, overly cautious, intensely nuanced, clutch-the-pearls-and-head-for-the-fainting-couch Democrats need to get a grip and find a message fast. Like the one that they keep swatting away from their eyes like a gnat. The one where they highlight and embrace what they've done so far and contrast it with what the Republicans did in their eight years in power: enrich the rich and bankrupt this country while telling us peons to wave the flag and pray.

Slouching Toward Washington - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Slouching Toward Washington - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

While I find some solace in knowing that Sharron Angle will not procreate, and am a bit tickled by Christine O'Donnell's stupidity, their views are alarming. They wouldn't be so alarming were they not in striking distance from being sworn into the U.S. Senate, but alas they are.

Which calls attention to the bigger takeaway from Bill Maher's show on Friday night: his dead-on analysis of the current situation by noting that Democrats "couldn't sell a rum and Coke to Lindsey Lohan."

How do you manage to let Republicans run on a platform of holding middle class tax cuts hostage to tax cuts for the rich who snagged the lion's share of the income gains over the past decade at the expense of everyone else?

How do you let Republicans convince the public that the healthcare reform bill was a bad idea ("Obamacare!") and needs to be repealed? Is there no one in the Democratic brain trust that realizes that all it takes is to round up a few kids with spina bifida who'd reached the lifetime cap on their insurance policies and don't want to return to "Boehnercare"? You know, where they're expected to just fend for themselves while their families go to the poorhouse trying to save them and then go die quietly in the corner?

And like Bill Maher pointed out, what's keeping Democrats from putting an injured gay vet on the floor of the Senate and daring Republicans to vote against his/her right to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces?

The highly fractious, overly cautious, intensely nuanced, clutch-the-pearls-and-head-for-the-fainting-couch Democrats need to get a grip and find a message fast. Like the one that they keep swatting away from their eyes like a gnat. The one where they highlight and embrace what they've done so far and contrast it with what the Republicans did in their eight years in power: enrich the rich and bankrupt this country while telling us peons to wave the flag and pray.

Op-Ed Columnist - Their Moon Shot and Ours - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Their Moon Shot and Ours - NYTimes.com:

China is building a network of ultramodern airports, high-speed trains, and the largest electric auto industry as well as the largest stem cell/genetic engineering institute in the world.

"Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan."

HEADLINES: Malicious Software Insulting To Industry

Hippies Did It (Again)

"And then Mr. Bush
grabbed me right here
and chuckled."

Prior to 1959, everything was going swell.  Then came the hippies.  Where did they come from? We can't be sure.  (Although documentary evidence indicates that alien seed pods from outer space was the most likely culprit.)

What we can be sure of is this: Hippies did it.

For when they came they brought with them all sorts of rules, laws, and regulations that made life complicated.  No one wanted these so-called "rules", but somehow we were fooled into thinking we needed them.

For example: In 1959, a doctor could show up for surgery after a night of whiskey sodas and cavorting with whores, sever an artery, kill his patient, and the family would still thank him for it.

However, in our present moral decline and general abdication of personal responsibility, the family could file a lawsuit.  In fact, the doctor could go to prison--even if the patient was a black man  Surely something has gone wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

Maybe when we have the courage to pay teachers to beat students, return doctors to their former demi-god status, allow municipalities be run like fiefdoms, and let toxic waste be dumped whereever--maybe then, we'll see some responsibility.


David Brooks

METALSTORM":THE DESTRUCTION OF JARED-SYN

Rather cheesy, if also rather lifeless slice of 80's crap-cheese.  Kind of enjoyable
for some reason though not as bad as TROLL 2.  Still, pretty bad.

For starters, "The Destruction Of Jared-Syn".  It implies a great deal of
destruction, but the action looks a lot more like the golf cart from SPACE
MUTINY.

http://youtu.be/6J2hZr6O3bw

And "Jared-Syn" isn't a city or something, it's an actor or stuntman
dressed up to look like a human cyborg.

Also, a lot of stuff is tossed at the camera, as this was a low-budget
attempt to cash in on the brief 3D wave of that era.

To quickly sum up: You've been warned, enter at your own risk, etc.

Texas: World History Should Not Include History Of World

Texas Board of Ed: Textbooks Are Anti-Christian - CBS News

Mental Purity Decontamination Act Passed By Texas Legislature:
Texas' historians have determined that "nothing of any interest has ever happened outside of Texas", and "if something of interest has happened outside of Texas, we certainly do not need to know about it, nor do should our children be exposed to these alleged 'events' which may or may not have happened.  Therefore, all extraneous elements of world history, such as Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica, and Jurassic Park, shall be removed from any future history texts used in Texas classrooms in order to prevent further contamination of the minds of young Texans."

Texas

It's Times Like These I Wish I Could Still Feel My Testicles

Charles Krauthammer - Visigoths at the gate?

Hi, Chuck Deathhammer rappin' at ya. If I could just feel my nads again my joy would be complete.  Just loving what I consider to be the maple-syrupy-breakfast-poptart-irony of the Democratic Party being afraid of a Tea Party Takeover of my beloved GOP. Nothing could be more silly.





The fact is, we've been advocating, for ages, the same kind of ignorant hate of which the Tea Party feeds.  We've built the trough and filled it for ages, and now that they're hungrier than ever, why wouldn't they come to us? We've fought against every variety of social progress, civil rights, tolerance, and economic equality for so many years we can't even remember if there was a time we would have been for any such thing. 

After all: There's never been an innocent babe I wouldn't mind seeing blown to into faceless bits of blood and gore, or a village burned, or a city leveled to rubble--as long as it's done with bombs purchased from American manufacturers.  I'm not stupid.

So don't be surprised if I'm enjoying this poisonous atmosphere of hatred, and ignorance. It's what I've always stood for. (Metaphorically speaking.)

Republicans Unveil "Pledge To What We'll Do To America"

pledge-to-america

Downhill With the G.O.P. - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Downhill With the G.O.P. - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "And this is what destroys the Republican facade: despite swathing themselves in their Christianity, they know nothing of Christ, of compassion, of tolerance. They only know the wrath of the Old Testament God, and are ever so eager to worship the very false idols they are warned of every Sunday morning. That these bottom feeders have the opportunity to take power again signals something every reasonable American should be terrified of."

So, Just To Restate What The Perfectly Obvious Which Everyone Already Knows...

Op-Ed Columnist - Downhill With the G.O.P. - NYTimes.com:
"So the clear and present danger isn’t that the G.O.P. will be able to achieve its long-run goals. It is, rather, that Republicans will gain just enough power to make the country ungovernable, unable to address its fiscal problems or anything else in a serious way. As I said, banana republic, here we come."

In other words, as goes California, so goes America.

Krugman

TIDBITS

Don’t Ask, Don’t Debate - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

I am Vietnam Vet, college educated, GI Bill MBA, now retired and grandfather of 4. I am an ex Republican turned Democrat when Bush, led by his ethically lobotomized mentor Rove, unleashed his lesbian innuendo against Texas Governor Ann Richards. My decision to bolt the Republican hate machine was further confirmed when Bush, Rove and the Republicans later destroyed Max Cleland and even later trashed CBS’s 60 Minutes when they tried to expose the bald faced truth about Bush avoiding Vietnam through then CIA Daddy's political influence.
Now the Republicans are going really viral. If Bush can start a war based on lies and doctored intelligence, I shudder to think of what this current crop of well financed, ignorant, religious zealots can do if they win a majority in both Houses of Congress.


Specifically, with regard to DADT I find it incredulous that no one of influence in the media or otherwise seems to want to point out that the majority of the other nations which prevent gay citizens from serving in their armed services are the very countries we generally disagree with regarding human rights. In many cases they are considered to be hostile to us and our democracy. These countries are: Cuba, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Jamaica, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen.
Maybe we are more like them tha we care to admit.

Compare that to the list of those which permit gays to serve, including our closest military allies, and those currently serving side by side with us in Afghanistan. They are: Albania, Argentina, Australia Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Bermuda, Uruguay.

I don’t know about others, but to me this is a no brainer.

To me it shows we are truly becoming a jingoistic, hypocritical nation of fearful, overly religious, dumbed down citizens who have no clue what our Constitution really means or what it takes to govern in accordance with its principals. DADT is just one indicator of our current failure to adapt to the ever changing reality of our own people and the rest of the world we must live in.

Democrats have their shortcomings, but right now, at this point in our history, I blame the current Republican Party and its wealthy elitist financed Tea Party movement and associated hate and fear tactics for our deterioration.

I fought for this nation because I believed in it. In return it enabled me to earn an education under the GI Bill. Since then I have lived overseas but mostly in Texas. However, my job took me to Europe, Asia, Australia and Russia on business while living in Texas. Until very recently, I thought there was no comparison anywhere with what America had to offer its citizens if you work at being a success and play by the rules and vote as if your future depended on it.

That has all changed. The ultra rich have a strangle hold on our wealth and have bought Congress. The religious right is subverting our religious and moral freedoms and racism and bigotry are becoming subtly more pervasive than in recent decades. I fear for the future of my 2 grandchildren who live in America. Sadly, personal observation makes me more optimistic that my 2 grandchildren living overseas, in a “third world” country have a better shot at what was once considered the American Dream.

Now I am thinking it may be time to look around as there are other possibly more civilized alternatives to the current America. They have real social services, strong middle classes and equal or higher standards of living. I may be old in body but it is never too late to make the effort to avoid disaster if it becomes a real threat. November may become that tipping point. I suspect I may not be alone.

Bruce Olson, Houston

TIDBITS

Don’t Ask, Don’t Debate - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

I served with John McCain. John McCain is no John McCain - he who carries the sobriquet of "Weathervane McCain."

hypothermiagirls

hypothermiagirls: "Welcome!
Hi, welcome to Hypothermia Girls, the place for gentlemen to meet women who cater to their special needs: Women in the moderate to severe stages of hypothermia.

Don't forget to bookmark this site as we shall soon be adding a number of services for the upscale man about town.

Note: Previous subscribers to 'nudehypothermiagirls' cannot, unfortunately be reimbursed, as a former partner absconded with all company funds which as some of you may be aware, was dissolved in a Chapter 13. �However, we are proud to say that this is very, very unlikely to happen again--we have put a lock on the desk drawer. �And a special thanks to those returning who got screwed the first time.
Posted by deadrodentyping at 9:32 AM 0 comments Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Google Buzz"

Will Obama Surrender Our American Moon Colonies To Kenya?

by NEWT GINGRICH


Greetings, America.  Before us is the greatest threat to America since the Chairman Mao tried to put radiator fluid in our apple pie: Obama wants to give our moon colonies to the Kenyans. 




Thousands of Americans have died on our Moon, mining in the Moon Mines, farming the Moon Farms, filming the Moon Porn, and…so on.  Now the so-called “President”, as he likes to refer to himself, wishes to give these away to free to the U.N., Kenya, the African Union, whomever wants them—as long as they’re—um, you know, African or something.
 

Ladies and Gentleman, I kid you not; this is a crisis of French-Algerian proportions.  And you all remember what that was like, right? Remember? Algeria was a colony of France? Remember? And then it wasn’t? Okay, well moving on then…the point is, the moon is American.  We have a flag there and all.

Furthermore, we now have positive evidence of the infiltration of the our government by illegal aliens: “Mayor Sukhee Kang was first elected to the Irvine City Council in 2004 and was successfully re-elected in 2006.”  I did some research on “Mayor” Kang and found a photo of him at what appears to be a fund-raising event:


 

I don’t want to sound racist but he definitely appears to be more than a tad Kenyan. 

So that’s where it stands, America: We either fight for our imaginary colonies or lose them.  Along with our self-respect.

Technorati Tags: Newt Gingrich,newtgingrich,Colonies,Anti-colonial,Obama,Kenya

Horrible, Horrible Freedom

By DAVID BROOKS

Interesting thing happened.  I read a book.  Usually I'm too busy dissecting the world to bother with how it actually works, but I happened to have some free time while having my smugness polished.

In Johnathan Franzen's Freedom, we find that American culture is overobsessed with personal freedom.

(Sure, I could have just said ‘overly obsessed’, but somehow I’m just feeling  a bit overfree today--oh dear I am a caution of late.  Toot toot! Watch out, here comes the crazy train!.)

However there's a downside to personal freedom--people are unhappy and spiritually stunted.  (Most likely from failing to read my books or take my advice.)

But I digress.  This is about America and it’s failings—not about me and my failings—which after all are insignificant compared to yours, America.   For you see, I know that I’m nasty, vicious, fallen animal filth, repugnant to the eyes of God.  But you, America, have forgotten. 

Yes, you still have your precious pioneering DNA and your beautiful free-enterprising DNA (at least white people who think like me still have them).  But that doesn’t change the very, very, very significant fact that you have fallen from the grace of knowing you have fallen and are without grace.  And that is precisely why you need me, America. 

(If I weren’t, would I be writing this column?  Hell no! I’d be fornicating in the mud and shooting smack and perhaps even listening to the rock and the roll or whatever the heathens listen to these days.) 


This is significantly different from the postwar era in American history, wherein everyone was basically on a quest for spiritual truth, as documented in Death of a Salesman, Man With The Grey Flannel Suit, and Dial M for Murder.

It awakened me to the likelihood that some people, these days, are shallow and preoccupied with trivial concerns.  Unlike, say in Tolstoy’s time, when people could grapple in meaningful ways with profound questions.  Admittedly these questions were typically punctuated with or even ended by polio, malaria, tooth decay, and beriberi.  But these are gifts from God.  Noow people just want to own an iPad.  That is a gift from Jobs—totally different.

Thus we have gone from when capitalism was about important things (building aeroplanes to bomb Tokyo and Moscow) to trivial things (putting vast collections of art, music, and literature on an portable computer--what a waste).

Tolstoy’s characters are spiritually ambitious seeking some universal truth that can withstand the tough scrutiny of their own intelligence.  Do they find it? Hell no! But that’s the point of spiritual enlightenment, isn’t it?  It’s cheap and it’s something to do.  This is how I know how people lived and thought in times I did not live—choosing a single literary classic I’ve already read,  and compare it to a single book from our modern era.  Yes, I could choose random books and compare them, and even choose a large sample of such books, but since I’ve already proved my point, why do I need evidence? That’s science, and quite frankly I make way too much money to lower myself.

And this is why we live in a morally degenerate, spiritually bankrupt era: We refuse to live like the characters in War and Peace.  My advice? A war with Germany.  Hard to go wrong with that one.  And I’m definitely not projecting the sense of the triviality of my own petty existence on everyone else who refuses to live as I do.  After all, I write opinions.  And what could be more lofty, ennobling, and spiritually ambitious than shouting on about what’s wrong with everyone else for a living?  And that, America, is my spiritual truth.  You'll have to buy your own.

Technorati Tags: Freedom,New York Times,David Brooks,David-Brooks,davidbrooks

Do Not Feed The Humans

by GENERAL A. GORILLA
Many have noticed an apparent increase in humans near their homes.  Remember that humans, although at time maybe considered “cute”, are not—repeat not—domesticated.  Therefore please exercise due caution to prevent aggressive ape-human interactions by following these simple rules:

1. Do NOT feed the humans under any circumstances.  They will learn to expect food regularly and then become angry if they do not receive their “lunch” or “dinner”.  They can then become aggressive and vicious, potentially throwing rocks or Molotovs.
2. Do NOT leave food waste outside your house.  Either use the garbage disposal or invest in a human-proof garbage canister.  The more humans see you as a food source, the more likely aggressive human-ape interactions are to happen. 
3. Do NOT go near human cubs.  While they may seem harmless, the mother could be nearby and perceive you as a threat.  Many people have been injured by having soccer equipment and cell phones launched at them from an angry ‘mama’ human.  Others have received angry emails questioning the recipients’ sexual proclivities with unseemly and snide remarks.
4. Do NOT go near adult females.  Often they appear to be small, docile, and harmless, but often they have one or more adult males lurking nearby.  These are frequently drunk, angry, or armed with sharpened stick and often all of the above.  These can be extremely dangerous, although most of the time they simply engage in normal threat behavior, asking you if ‘you starin’ at my lady?’  Simply ignore them and they will generally go away.
5. DO keep your yard neat and tidy.  Our scientists have learned from observation that humans love garbage and also love to make more of it. 
6. DO exercise caution when outdoors.  Avoid places humans are drawn to, such as garbage dumps, places that sell highly processed food, and any where there is loud music. 

In my next column I will discuss how to handle the most dreaded situation of all—a human attack.  In the meantime, remember to keep our humans wild, and treat them with distance and respect, as with all wild creatures.

SOMETHING SOMETHING: Sewer Lines Destroyed After Glenn Beck Claims They Run With Rivers Of Gold

A hysteric wave of sewer line breaks broke out across America today after Glenn Beck announced that they were being used to conceal Obama's "rivers of gold" from taxpayers.  In other news, 911 emergency centers have been inundated by callers asking if "U.S. moonbases have been given to Kenya or the U.N.?"

In business today, shares of Glenn Beck's Hardware And Prospecting Supplies Corporation  has seen an 700% increase in share price since this morning.
Glenn Beck

I Win – Again!

Geoge F. Will

George F. Will - Cuba's Castro learns what most of us already knew


An earthshaking, history-altering announcement was made by Cuba’s Castro recently, in which he inasmuch admitted the failure of his economic plan.

Who would have thought that a politically isolated island shithole which has only two exports—sugar cane and refugees—would end up as an economic failure?

Today the average Cuban earns only $20 per day, whereas in capitalist nations such as India, one can earn on average $1.3 dollars per day, or Kenya (88 cents) or Mexico ($7) or Haiti ($2).  Clearly free enterprise works—as I should know, I’ve been writing books about how great it is for years.

Yes, at one time many indulged in the belief that history would invariably lead us to some Eden wherein we could all live lives without extreme want, poverty or disease.  Thank god this has been proven wrong, and I am delighted to say that life is just as miserable now as it has been throughout history. 

Now that He has provided me with yet another victory that virtually no one outside of Cuba and some aging bitter men who still grind axes over old grudges could give a pile of dead weevils about, I feel entitled to indulge in a bit of gloating about the future: I foresee the total economic collapse of the U.S. as a result of Obama’s policies.  Ah, I look forward to that day—to see American citizens once again returned to complete and utter economic inequality, the likes which we will not have seen since the founding of this great nation.  My heart glows with the thought that this will indeed come to pass, and I can watch millions parade in front of the cameras in extreme want, poverty, and disease.  What joy!

Salutations and keep the faith alive.
-George F. Will

Technorati Tags: Cuba,Castro

Technorati Tags: George F. Will,georgewill,george-f-will,washington-post

Myth and Madness - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Myth and Madness - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "America sounds like the woman who's husband isn't exciting enough so she starts corresponding with death-row inmates."

_____

Myth and Madness - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Myth and Madness - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "Can't you write one column on these wing-nuts without dragging in President Obama and lame-bashing him too? Lack of passion? You sound like you're mad because he's not your personal Romeo. He has passion alright, it's just that it's real and doesn't hold a candle to Beck's phoney tears, Limbaugh's pseudo anger raves, Palin's 'you betcha's', and the all too real hate mongerers who show up with their ignorant signs at tea party rallies claiming he's a socialist, communist, a Nazi - 'names' and political ideology that they can't even begin to define or explain."

_____

Myth and Madness - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Myth and Madness - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "So where is this perfect president everyone seems to think is out there? President Obama hasnt lied us into a trillion dollar invasion of the wrong country. He is not having liaisons with interns in the oval office. He hasnt bugged the Watergate, hasnt abandoned Americans in the mangrove swamps around the Bay of Pigs.

Where is this ideal president? The pretty barracuda who attended 5 colleges and eventually got a diploma. (Have we seen her diploma?)

and what does anyone have against Obama? The stimulus didnt work. Well, yes it did. The country is in debt. If the Republicans had bothered to try a little surge in Afghanistan in 2002, maybe President Obama wouldnt have inherited two bungled wars and a decimated economy.
Maureen and her sister are mad, as are many millionaires, that President Obama is finally asking the people who have benefitted during this recession to make a small sacrifice.
Sean Hannity just signed a 100 million dollar contract.
The 4% increase in his taxes will help pay for the soldiers who were injured in the war he so eagerly promoted."

_____

Pardon Me Whilst I Gloat

by DAVID BROOKS
Hi.  How ya doin?  Me, just trying to pretend I’m not on a gloating spree.  Suck my fat one, liberals!

But seriously—has the Tea Party hurt the GOP’s standing with indie voters?  Of course not.  If you don’t care how many bombs are dropped on innocent bystanders in a pointless war that’s cost us a trillion dollars and the goodwill of lord knows how many people, are you really even paying attention? Can you believe it? A trillion dollars to depose Saddam and still the mess is not cleaned up? Ah, good times…)  Or maybe, as I recently wrote, “Nothing, it seems, is more scary than one-party Democratic control.”

Wow, not even I can say that one with a straight face.  Hell, we could put a dog up for election right now and as long as it promised a tax cut it would win the election. 

You know what, let’s do that—let’s put an aggressive, angry, D.C.-outsider, tax-cutting, wasteful-government-slashing, welfare-and-food-stamp-hating, unemployment-loathing, stimulus-hating and war-loving Rottweiler on the ticket. 

Because that’s what Americans hate the most—other Americans.  And that is why they’re going vote GOP in November. 

Technorati Tags: Midterm-Election,David-Brooks,New York Times,Tea-Party

New childrens' history book: Greatest American Weirdos

Rough Sketch - Christine O'Donnell on human mice, lying to Nazis, and the women of Middle Earth

_____

Really Thick Woman Not Quite Thick Enough

Va. gov: No clemency for Teresa Lewis - UPI.com

teresa-lewisdeath-penalty

Holy Crap!

Jesus

Trifle With The Government? Just Ask Prudence Goodwyfe.

By George F. Will 

Thursday, September 16, 2010; A25
JERSEY CITY
The scene of the crime: New Jersey, 1971.  Prudence Goodwyfe (AKA “Venus De Hotbuns”) increases the price of 15 minutes of healthy, normal sexual intercourse from $20.00 to $19.75. Not only does this frustrate her business competitors—who fear that an inflation will reduce customers--but furthermore she stands in violation of President Nixon’s Phase One price controls.
Prudence was merely a working mom trying to provide for her family, but the Nixon Brain Trust had decided in all of its wisdom that the price of 900 seconds of oral pleasure was exactly 20 Yankee dollars.Hence the Nixon Administration had now decided that the Prudence was a ‘criminal,’ and actually jailed her after one such act.
Amity Shlaes, in "The Forgotten Man," her history of the New Deal, reports that the NRA "generated more paper than the entire legislative output of the federal government since 1789."  (Although to be fair, so have my books about baseball.)
Her book documents a shocking case, in which the Stalinist Roosevelt regime, in attempting to deal with the worst economic crisis in modern history, attempted to control prices.
Prudence was an immigrant from Poland, which in the Cold War would become familiar with the concept of "economic crimes" and the use of criminal law for the "re-education" of deviationists.  (Obviously the future Stalinist occupation of Poland worked backwards in time somehow in a way.  And let’s not forget that 1945-Roosevelt had his picture taken with Stalin, no doubt further influencing in a backwards-time-causal manner the actions of 1934-Roosevelt.  Moreover, 1941-Roosevelt sided with Stalin in a war against the free-enterprise loving folk of Germany. The specter of the backwards-causal-collective was no doubt at work.)
Maged not only spent three days in jail, but was also judged by a judge.  As anyone who has ever been in a courtroom knows, this is incredibly unusual.  Forced to conform, dragged through the mud, his soul doubtless dead and buried, Maged did the only thing a man in his position could do: Go back to work.  Oppressed, unfree, work in which he was no doubt part of The Collective, he continued to iron slacks until his untimely death from cancer.  His spirit, however, once soaring free as an eagle as he wielded steam press with a pride that only the poor and desperate can know (Oh! How I envy them!), had now become like a soggy damp shirt which refused to be neatly pressed and was now sadly limp, wrinkled and unstarched.  Just to add a sad note to this story, he died a broken man at the young age of 54 from cancer. (Possibly also due to the increasing use of tetrachloroethylene in dry cleaning, which just happens to cause a bit of cancer now and then, but let’s not confuse a good story with facts, ifs, ands or buts.)
The point is is that my outrage is stems from the fact that this hard-working, impoverished immigrant was just like me: A college-deferment-Vietnam-draft-avoiding opinionated trombenik who’s spent his life in front of a typewriter.  And there’s never a bad time to stir the fear of Bolshevism, even if I’m the only one left who remembers what it means.

Technorati Tags: George-F-Will,georgewill

Pope To Britain: “You’re All Going To Hell. You’re Welcome.”

Technorati Tags: Pope,Pope Benedict

"Oh I love you guys, what a crowd!
London audiences are the greatest
audiences in the world!"

Gitmo Prisoners Get Ready For Big "Constitution Day" Celebration

Constitution Day

When Will America’s Drug Addicts Take Responsibility?

Mr. Smith Goes to Anchorage - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Mr. Smith Goes to Anchorage - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "To this ex-pat Alaskan, born and raised in a young state once renowned for its tolerance and progressivism, the contemporary Republican party appears to have sold out virtually everything remarkable and noble about the Last Frontier: social equality, deep respect for individual liberty, and, often forgotten, an almost unrivaled equal distribution of wealth. All have faded terribly. So many minds of contemporary Alaskans seem poisoned, made ugly with the malicious logic of selfishness, the Great Land made small by the idolatry of oil, by absurd class aspirations, by an egotism alien to a harsh climate where survival depends ultimately on the goodness of other people."

_____

Ruth Marcus - The little engine that can't: The myth about small businesses and jobs

Ruth Marcus - The little engine that can't: The myth about small businesses and jobs: "Small businesses are job creators; they are also job destroyers, as firms fail."

_____

Department Of Too Good To Be True But It Is.

Newt Gingrich Speaking in Forbes

"What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?" Gingrich asked. "That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."


"This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president," Gingrich added.


"I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating -- none of which was true," Gingrich continues. "In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve. ... He was authentically dishonest."

Effete Nation

Or: How To Succeed In Punditing Without Really Trying                

by David Brooks

I long ago discovered a very simple truth: The way to succeed is to barely lift a finger.  A carefully reasoned argument is about as useful to your typical bipedal primate with trigger fingers as a pillow-case full of canned Diet Coke is to a Siberian Tiger: Useless.  Neither one would know what to do with it, and frankly neither would I. 

What I learned to do is pretty straightforward—toss out a theory that makes a mild amount of sense as long as you know nothing about history or science.  In other words, most of the country.

So here’s this week’s idea Which Explains It All: Nothing of historical merit happened till 1800.

So…10,000 BC...nothing happens…invention of agriculture…nothing happens…ancient Greece…still nothing…Roman Empire…still nothing…Islamic Caliphate, Mayan Empire, The Incas…still nothing…Renaissance…still nothing…nothing happening…printing press…still nothing…then boom! Eighteen-fucking-hundred!

Some of you are probably going to say, “better nutrition”,  “fossil fuels”, or “the steam engine,” or perhaps even “copper tubing” or “academic journals”.  Wrong wrong wrong!

No, it was--wait for it--culture.  (You did not see that coming, did you?)  Because culture is not just in the out there, in museums and prancing ballerinas in tights, but also in the mind--in your mind, and even more terrifying, in your mind.  Quick! Look! There it runs into a corner!  And as any normal person would know (well, any normal person who lived in, say, ancient Babylonia), it is thererfore logical to assume that it is not only in the mind  but in the head as well (because when we sleep at night, that is where the mind hides out until we wake up).

Otherwise, the culture demons might get it.  As if that weren't obvious enough.

(Some say that the mind is in the brain but I do not feel that at this time the preponderance of evidence is, is that it's too early to tell.)

But I digress.  It was around this time of the year 1800 that technicians applied technical knowledge—now known as ‘technicalities’—and before you can say, “Yes, Minister,” England is ruling the world.  (Yes there were some wars that were fought on and off for a few centuries but let's not complicate a good hypothesis with "facts".)

Technicians could now make stuff.  This is very important to remember.  Then they made more stuff,  and then in turn more more stuff.  And that’s how we got the transistor, the sword cane, the self-unfolding umbrella, thalidomide and radioactive waste and the foreboding possibility of Mutually Assured Destruction that could wipe out all life on the planet.

However, this story has a downside: As the scholar Correllis Mandolin chronicled, the great-great-grandchildren of the empire builders withdrew from commerce.  Like Icarus, they  tried to rise above practical knowledge and became effete bastards gadding about like a load of silly fops.

Hence, the British race died out and is now utterly extinct (although a small remnant is believed to be living on in a remote isle known as Hobbiton).  The rest are gone now, leaving us with the agonizing question, “What is ‘Marmite’?”  I suppose we shall never know.  However, it now seems evident that the change was again inside of the head.  Not outside the head.  This is crucial.
 

Sadly, Americans these days too have given in to an unholy impulse to exchange hammers for computers, power quills for ink quills, mining fossilized carbon for creativity—in short, to become soft, lazy, undisciplined, independent and disobedient.  Like the British.

Like Icarus these heretics are poking God in the eyeball and just asking for to have their wings melted or worse.  Is it any wonder my sinuses are acting up this year? Surely His wrath is the cause of our unusually noxious allergy season.

Do as our founders like Madison and Franklin did: Don’t read a book—burn one. Don’t buy a dog—buy a slave. (Or become one!)  Don’t listen to the rock or the roll—Yankee Doodle Dandy is in the public domain!  

These things are sadly, poorly understood by most people, but as noted before, America is fortunate to have me to inform you.  Certainly, things may seem bad, the clouds may have darkened the sky…but I am here to write this and let you know that by not imitating me, you can make things better.

And please remember that no one ever helped anyone by trying to help people—only by trying to make more stuff.  And the way to make more stuff is to spend money on educating more of them to make more stuff.  Just because American companies need skilled laborers does not mean that they should have to spend a single pfennig of their profits in training—not their job.  Nor is their job to raise taxes.  Their job is lower their expenses by asking for more specialized credentials that private colleges can offer at inflated rates such that desperate people will go incur massive debts in the vain hope that they can keep their family afloat and perhaps get ahead until their job is shipped overseas anyway and they have a student loan that they will never be able to pay off ever.

Finally, there’s the lower class (and I definitely do not mean black people) (but mostly they're black people).
The problem here is social breakdown. Something like a quarter to a third of American children are living with one or no parents.  Sometimes the children are their own parents.  Other times the parents are being raised by their own children.  It's getting confusing out there!

And as these people are no longer willing to work as slaves, we have to import them from other nations. And do they leave when they’re no longer wanted? No!  Not realizing that the party is over and it’s time to leave is just rude. Come on, people.

Up and down society, forwards and backwards, people are moving away from commercial, productive activities and toward pleasant, enlightened but less productive ones—sometimes even sinking so low as to cobble together opinion pieces for the New York Times.

The real issue, therefore, is not the stimulus (no matter how pleasant it may be).  The real issue is this: Will American society wake up, slap itself in the face, pour a bucket of ice-cold water over it’s head, have 2 slices of toast and some black coffee and go back to work, hammer and tongs? Or will it sink into some deep, dark, dank hole of effete-elitism (the worst kind), sipping on over-priced foreign beverages, and tapping unpleasant comments at the nytimes.com?  Or worse, take my job—and then who would listen to me?

Technorati Tags: David-Brooks,New York Times

Blair'n'Bush: Much Todo About Something Something

Or: On Being Half-Misedumacated
by Mark Mckinnon

Everyday we learn more and more about our President. (No, Obama is not our president, as he is not an American Citizen.  This means that Bush is still the president till we have a new election.)

"George had arrived bang on time for this first discussion and had not fully said hello to all the participants. He didn’t know or recognize Guy, whose advice he listened to with considerable astonishment.

He turned to me and whispered, “Who is this guy?”

“He’s the prime minister of Belgium,” I said.

“Belgium?” George said, clearly aghast at the possible full extent of his stupidity. “Belgium’s not part of the G8.”

“No,” I said, “but he is the president of Europe.”

'You got Belgians running Europe?' He shook his head, now aghast.

"Arf!" I replied, wagging my tail at his witticism.  He was like an American Oscar Wilde!

“Blairino, is it 'you have' or 'you got'? I don't want the press laughing at me again--especially Stretch.  He's worse than Big Stretch or Little Stretch or Little Big Stretch or even Blindie.”

"It's whichever one you think is  best, Mr. President!"

"Good boy," replied Mr. Bush.  "Here's a biscuit--I'll save you a nice piece of juicy steak unless they give !

“Good boy! Here's a biscuit!”

“Arf arf!.”

And that was the greatest day of my life.  -Tony Blair

“Good boy! Here you think "Good boy," replied Mr. Bus
h.  "Here's a biscuit--I'll save y

The point is, Belgians are stupid fat bastards and should all die.
Yours in Christ,
Mark McKinnon

George Bush
Tony Blair
Mark McKinnon

Fucking Hell

Study Shows How the Innocent Confess to Crimes - NYTimes.com: "After his initial confession, he said, the interrogators went over the crime with him in detail — asking how he did it, but correcting him when he got the facts wrong. How did he get in? “I said, ‘I kicked in the front door.’” But the rapist had used the back door, so he admitted to having gone around to the back. “They fed me the answers,” he recalled."

Please Do Not Keep Humans In Your Home

--By A. Gorilla

There have been many sad cases where sharing a home with a human that they loved but then turned into deadly--but all too predictable--tragedy.  Please remember that humans are extremely dangerous. While young, humans are cute and adorable.  However, they can appear calm and docile for years and then without warning attack! They are known to be very clever and able to open locks, use simple tools and even firearms. Humans also possess sophisticated communication and planning skills, enabling them to act as a frenzied group.  Frequently, when one human becomes violent, many others will imitate or should I say ape (sorry, a little primate humor there) that human, and they will carry senseless destructive acts en masse.  In brief, humans are dangerous creatures and one should never allow them to move about freely in your home.  If you see a human, please notify the proper authorities and let them handle it as they are trained to do so.  Under no circumstances should you ever feed a human; remember, they can turn on you at  any time and cannot be trusted under any circumstances.

Op-Ed Columnist - China, Japan, America and the Renminbi - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - China, Japan, America and the Renminbi - NYTimes.com: "Similar intimidation has surely helped discourage action on the currency front. So this is a good time to remember that what’s good for multinational companies is often bad for America, especially its workers."

Afghanistan Security Maps - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

Afghanistan Security Maps - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds Business: vanityfair.com

Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds Business: vanityfair.com

Thousands upon thousands of government employees take to the streets to protest the bill. Here is Greece’s version of the Tea Party: tax collectors on the take, public-school teachers who don’t really teach, well-paid employees of bankrupt state railroads whose trains never run on time, state hospital workers bribed to buy overpriced supplies. Here they are, and here we are: a nation of people looking for anyone to blame but themselves.

My Prediction

Did federal government policy create the Great Divergence? (1) - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine

Did federal government policy create the Great Divergence? (1) - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine

_____

Hmmm...Skateboarding? Shirley Jackson?

Peggy, I'm a genius! Get Weintraub on the phone!

Another Comment That Explains Everything Better Than The Pundits

When Peggy Left Barry - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "But, Ms. Dowd's piece has been very illuminating. I'm always reading about starry-eyed Obama supporters who are now disappointed that he can't walk on water. I've always been puzzled by this because most of the hard-core Obama supporters (myself included) never viewed him as a superman. But I now see that the starry-eyed Obama supporters were actually 'easy answer' independents who flit from one easy answer: 'Tax cuts are the answer to everything and deficits don't matter', to the next: 'Put the intelligent, articulate guy in charge, he'll fix things', to the next: 'Tax cuts are the answer to everything and deficits matter a lot.' Of course, each set of easy answers ultimately leads to disillusionment because, gosh darn it, not everything works out exactly like we'd like. Sadly, these are the independent voters, the swing voters; and I guess we're all just stuck swinging along with them."

_____

Jeepers! Voting? Again?

Golly gee whillickers! ‎Well, I'm not going to vote FOR Hitler, but I'm not going to VOTE against Hitler either. Voting is such a pain anyway, it makes me tired and golly I have enough to do.


WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY? ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING IDIOTS?

U.S. Armed Forces Lure Teen Girls With Deceptive Practices

Office used as by military to lure young women.

News reports indicate that branches of the Armed Forces have used deceptive practices in encouraging teen girls to enlist in the nation’s armed forces, offering bribes of money, promises to pay for college tuition, and free medical and dental care.

Highly Glamorized Depiction
of Women in the
Armed Forces

Admitted an anonymous source who confessed to working as a what is known as a ‘recruiter’ for such these organizations, “We not only promise them a stable income and more, but also play on their guilt and feelings of patriotism by suggesting that they can ‘serve their country’.

Woman in Armed Forces
Indoctrination 'Camp'

After agreeing to be ‘recruited’, these young, helpless women are then sent to “Indoctrination Camps”, where instead of light typing and data entry, they are forced to wear uniforms, stripped of their identities, not allowed to have contact with the outside world, and are taught unquestioning obedience to their “superiors”.  Then they are trained in the use of small arms, and finally, to efficiently kill other human beings designated as “enemies”.  Subsequently, they are frequently assigned unpleasant duties such as those pictured above, which can range from cleaning latrines to picking up severed limbs.

When asked for comment, the only response was an email from the U.S. Department of Defense which stated: “We are very proud of the young men and women who volunteer to serve their country and defend the Constitution of the United States. Please refer to the attached photo of one our many satisfied employees.  Hi-Keeba!"

[author's note: photo included below]

Actual Duties Performed by Women
in the Armed Forces

Technorati Tags: 911,9/11,teen-girls,war-on-terror

NOW YOU'RE TALKING CRAZY TALK

Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let's stop playing into bin Laden's hands

911
bin-laden

Local Weirdo Announces Plan To Crap on Rig Veda

A local weirdo and all around hateful bastard stunned the world with his plans to defecate on a paperback, English translation of the ancient religious manuscript known as the Rig Veda.  We now go live to the scene, somewhere in the American South where such people seem to thrive in the warm, damp conditions, often huddling in darkened corners. 

Thank you Steve. Known to a few as ‘Reverend’, to a some as “that freak down the street,” and to most as “who?” and/or “why?”, this man has single-handedly shaken the fruit tree of global politics with a single message: “I am completely out of my fucking mind and will do anything to have people look at me.”

Passions are now ablaze all across the world as this man, of whom no one has ever heard before but now speaks for not only America but all of Christendom—mainly because the news media have nothing better to do than point a camera at the most noxious imbeciles that inhabit the biosphere—as the entire world seems to watch this man because nothing else is on till the next episode of Madmen.

Hark! He speaks! Let us all listen:

“I am going to shit on your god Indra for destroying the New York City with a lightning bolt.  No one screws with America and gets away with it—no one! Not even the King of the Gods!”

Well there you have it.  The world may or may not be destroyed by the rage of the Indra, King of the Gods.  We can only wait and see and take pictures of this loon.  Back to you in the studio.


Thank you Steve for that report. Up next--the man who loves dancing with cats.

Technorati Tags: 9/11,911,Koran,Burn,mosque,ground zero moque,Gainsville,quran,quran-burn

A Broader Media Problem - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

A Broader Media Problem - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

An excellent commentary and one that I hope many people read. The continual idiocy of the modern media--that there are two polar and diametrically opposite opinions--is a plague upon our time. Even scientific evidence is either left-wing (global warming) or right-wing (say, intelligent design). The evidence or the need for empirical observation has been lost. Anything that contradicts the far-right talking points (i.e, daily propaganda list) of the Murdoch & Friends is automatically attacked as a product of 'socialist' 'elitists' who are 'out of touch', when their actual goal is the promotion of hysteria and fear as tools to continue the promotion of social inequality.

Dead Rodent Typing

And Now I Shall Subtly Mock People I Despise (But With A Patina Of Rational Discourse)

by George F. Will

The collapsing crusade for legislation to combat climate change raises a question: Has ever a political movement made so little of so many advantages?

How did this happen? Climatologists are the world’s wealthiest, most powerful men—and they were so close to taking ultimate power—control of the United Nations. (Yes, my mind is shuddering even as I write.)

Some fools will point to the massive wealth of the energy sector in an industry that produces more than 70 million barrels of oil per day. Would they use their money to combat an idea which would threaten their profits? Highly unlikely.  Anyway, I’m a political scientist, not an economist (no thank you) so I know that numbers really aren’t as important as ideas.  It’s much more important to think that you’re winning a war than that you’re actually winning it.

But back to the insufferable eco-nuts. It’s counterintuitively plain & clear why Team Global Warming is now Team Losing: Bambi became Godzilla. 

That is, a small band of merry skeptics became the unmerry dogmatists. (Are you buying this crap yet?)  Because that is how science works.  Much like the pope or the Ayatollah or Louis XIV, living in their palaces with their concubines and opium and guarded by a host of eunuchs (pretty much your typical climate scientist, from what I’ve been told).  In other words, they lost touch with their roots in the mad, desperate and above all selfish attempt to save the planet on which we happen to live (for reasons I think I learned in college and have now forgotten so probably are not terribly important).

So what exactly are their roots? It’s really quite amazing.  Turns out that they’re really akin to economic libertarians (not the same as your garden-variety libertarians, it seems), in that they opposed (in their merry band of rebels past) Big Science, Big Government, and Experts. And this makes perfect sense to me: After all, I have a Ph.D. and not even I seem to know a goddam thing.

And because government action has unintended consequences, it’s generally much better to do nothing.  Such as when I support the invasion of Iraq—I realized that closest thing to doing nothing would be to support President Bush, as he seemed more determined to do as little as possible than any other president in history.


Big Science, after all, tried to cure polio—and we all know how that turned out (completely wrecked the iron lung industry).  And a bit of lead in your paint, or your food, or your brain—did that really ever hurt anyone?  Please.

In the middle of the 20th century, Americans, impressed by the government's mobilization of society for victory in World War II, were "intoxicated with social and environmental engineering of all kinds."  Back then, environmentalism was skepticism. (Still not buying this crap? Keep reading.)

It was much like those who questioned the so-called experts who told us that we could win the Vietnam War. Never mind that many experts said that we couldn’t, and that this has nothing to do with climate science or really science at all.  The point is that self-appointed experts have been wrong in the past. Except for me, because even when I’m wrong--I’m still right.

Yes, Iraq has been a mess—and yes, I did think it was a good idea--but just think how bad things would have been if had we not invaded.  The mind shudders.

(So you see I was right after all, in case you didn't get that point that I just made about me being right as pretty much always.)

So you see, ‘experts’ are really just fallible human beings who should not be trusted.  Now I don’t really know anything about physics or chemistry or the weather or sunspots of any of that—but I do know that I would never be so foolish as to be spouting off about things of which I know absolutely nothing.  Why do you think I’ve been writing this column for 30 years?  Because I think I’m expert? Of course not! Because I know I’m right.  (Please don’t complicate things.)

As another example, a so-called ‘expert’ once thought that certain food might be unhealthy.  However, current research suggests that people still die—so if a scientist was wrong once, how can we trust them now?  For all we know, some people have stopped dying and we simply haven’t heard about it because the ‘experts’ want to concentrate all of the immortality power in Washington…perhaps even forming a Department of Immortality! Blast it all, where is my immortality formula? (Again, the mind shudders—they will stop at nothing!?)


At any rate, and as any fool knows, people are a load of greedy selfish bastards who will never give up their coal-and-oil--and-uranium-powered Tivos; so trying to stop global warming is simply a giant waste of time.  World leaders should be concentrating on more important things than saving mankind from world-wide havoc.  Such as reading one of my books about baseball.

Technorati Tags: george-will global-warming