They shall make cemeteries their cathedrals, and your cities, tombs.

Yes, I Do Love Obama, Even Though He's Destroying Our Nation

"I can't believe I'm
getting paid for this!"

Hello Real Americans!  As you know, I'm always quick to compliment anyone to the left of Dick Cheney in a nasty backhanded way.  Take our president.  It's great what Obama is trying to do and I really respect how he's trying so hard even though it's destroying America, and god forbid we should have any government nation-building or infrastructure repair like I support in the Middle East but we need that to keep Real Americans like me safe from brown people.  Okay, now I pass GO and collect my $200, baby needs a new pair of shoes. (Hard to see me actually 'making love' though, don't I seem more like someone who has a good wank while paying two Hispanic maids to pummel each other with copies of Das Kapital?).  Besides, the Brooklyn Bridge has always been there and always will be.  The last thing we need is to spend money on upkeep.  Not in our pioneering DNA, nosirree.


David Brooks

Hi, I'm Larry Mantle. You May Remember Me From Such Films As "Billionaires Are People Too", "The Bachelor And The Billionaire", and "The Bitter Tears Of Megan Von Wittmann"

Right-Leaning,
Senile Dickweeds CAN Work In
Public Radio

But today will be a bit different. Instead of my favorite topic, the inhumanity of humanity (to billionaires), I will instead discuss a completely new topic: Why are people so darn mean to overpaid administrators?  Take Bell, California, for example.  Well, hey now, that's a hard job to be the city manager of town nobody has even fucking heard of.  So why shouldn't he be paid 4 times what the President of the United States earns?  I mean, you have to work a lot of hours.  Poor people don't understand work, as they spend most of their time collecting unemployment/stealing/selling drugs, so people who are struggling to make ends meet and have to work 16 hour shifts managing a 7-11 and can't afford child care so they still have to pick up their kids from school and somehow go to work the rest of the week without enough sleep--those people will never understand hard work.

Seriously, I mean, managing a city--no one can do that. No one has ever done that.  I doubt that any one ever will.  So how could we expect city workers laid off during the Great Recession, to understand that they are expendable while the city manager needs a wage rise?  Well, they can't, of course.

But I'm sure that Jerry Brown will try to make this scandal into political hay--after all, his biggest supporters are high-level administrators, city council members, and county supervisors.  Or so I appear to believe.  But I also appear to believe that these people are independently wealthy, so go figure.

And please remember that just as Rush Limbaugh is a hate-spewing, homophobic reactionary racist, so Keith Olbermann (or Jon Stewart) must (by some inverse property of human nature I don't call what to know it is)--they must be hate-spewing leftists.  It's that simple, and simplicity works.

And remember, you can only get this quality radio--me babbling on like an old crank--at KPCC.  And don't even think of joining KCRW instead--that station is run by a load of pill-popping techno fans wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.  So send us money.  Thank you and goodnight.

Lezzed Off!

Ms. 45 Is Nun Crazy

Real Lesbians, Real IMDB Comments, Real Misandry

Girlfriends, USA, 1993, user rating = 2.8

Comment #2

"This film was created by a man, and and it shows. The two main characters in this movie, embody virtually every straight male fantasy/fear, that they have about lesbians, and women in general. 

Many if not most hetero men, think that women are dangerous, and that they should be very wary of them. And if a woman is also vulgar, foul-mouthed, sexually insatiable, and bisexual rather than exclusively lesbian, then she's every straight man's wet dream....Best to skip this turkey of a film, and see movies that have realistic, human, and likable lesbian characters instead."

[If I want to see realistic people of any sort I'll just look out my door.  If I want to see someone who looks like Penelope Cruz, I'll probably have to go to the cinema or maybe just find a high-class prostitute.  And could there be anything worse than a woman who wants sex as much as a man? Probably not.  I certainly hope I never meet one.]

Comment #1

"Generally I love lesbian films but this is an exception. The premise sounds like it could be interesting but the execution is hugely disappointing. The acting seems amateurish, there's no real plot, and - worst of all - we get no insight at all into why these women seem to be able to murder men with absolutely no compunction or feeling."

[How much should one feel when during a murder? Good question.]

Potentially the most interesting aspect of such a tale might be the exploration of why two women might be so angry at men that they make a career out of slaughtering them." 

[Not "why", of course, just why would you be sooo angry at men, that you would risk staining your favorite blouse from at-close-range blowback.]

I've always tried to keep an open mind about film makers working outside areas of their own experience but this movie is a really, really good argument for avoiding "lesbian" films made by men.

[Okay guys, please restrain yourselves the next time you want to make a quick buck with a cheap flick about homicide or lesbians or homicidal lesbians.  Perhaps restrict yourself to something you know, such as downloading porn.  I see a fascinating piece of indie cinema right there--a guy in front of a computer for 90 minutes.  And if you have a casting couch, by all means film that as well.  At any rate, let's just be grateful that lesbians, like men, can also be bigoted in an unintentionally hilarious fashion.]

New Study: Masturbatory Insanity Most Common Cause Of Death For Tolkien Fans

OPINION: What is the deal with...technology product reviews?

Random Jackass
Spouting Off About iPhone
Or Some Crap

I'm always surprised when I look at tech reviews and people rave on and on about something on an Apple product, like a fucking thumbwheel, or some stupid fucking 'app' for an iPhone like "weather.com".  Why do they care? What is wrong with them?  What do they all day? Does watching iTunes update their playlists from a computer to an ipPhone give them a boner? Is it the only way they can get sexually aroused? Do they need to have a macbook pro on the bedstand in order for them to be aroused to perform their connubial functions?

Harold Meyerson - The job machine grinds to a halt

Harold Meyerson - The job machine grinds to a halt: "The restoration of American prosperity, then, isn't likely to be driven by our corporate sector. Across-the-board business tax cuts make no sense when business is already sitting on oceans of cash. Targeted tax cuts and credits for strategic investment and hiring within the United States, on the other hand, make excellent sense. The Obama administration has proposed expanding the tax credit for the manufacture of green technology here at home, and congressional Democrats will soon unveil legislation creating further incentives for domestic manufacturing."

_____

Hi, I'm Larry Mantle! I Agree That Everyone's Point of View Is Valid. Unless I Disagree.

In My Opinion, Truth Is Dead

Wow, things are so crazy these days what with NPR listeners disappearing faster than salmon after mating season! And have you noticed many, many people have opinions which are not completely substantiated by empirical evidence?  But since I'm obviously the only objective person left in the media--I'm the perfect person to host this show!

First of all, the best way to do this is have two polar examples, just like they do in the cable network news I'm bitching about. Although Rachel Maddow doesn't do that, nor does Keith Olbermann. But the premise of this program is that one is the mirror of the other, and I'm not going to question that premise or respond to listeners who do question it. This program is about THEIR objectivity, NOT mine.

What's that you say? You say that conservatives are more prone to lying? Well, you do have a RIGHT to say that, but the conservatives also have a VALID counterargument: That "Death Panels" are REAL, and therefore, perfectly justified in using these emotional-button-pushing to elicit the desired reaction of fear and rage from their constituents.  Calling these liberal Panels of Death as 'a rational approach to medical care in a world of limited and non-finite resources', as Congress is did, is liberal propaganda. Did you know that there are some very good arguments as to why we should not abolish slavery? And besides, aren't diseases the Will of the Divine? Should we be interfering with His Divine Will by countermanding it with antibiotics?  And conservatives are completely justified in hating taxes while at the same time hating any limits placed on their U.S. Goverment-provided benefits.   Trying to provide some sort of rational basis for medical treatment simply introduces liberal-elitism and science and empirical evidence into an argument that is really about getting votes--and the last thing America wants or needs is facts.

Furthermore--how dare an atheist come on my show and talk about the separation of Church and State? This is America buddy, not the USSR.  I shall be forced to use my highest-pitched whine on such individuals.

I'm Larry Mantle and I've pretty much stopped making sense. Which is, after all, for liberal elitists who wish to defy His Majestic Providence in any case.

NPR
Larry Mantle
Airtalk

Could Not Have Said It Better Myself (Another reader's comment)

Yes, this guy. Again.

A comment from driftglass at: The Long Strategy - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com, re: "The Long Strategy", David Brooks, nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/opinion/27brooks.html

Except, of course, you are not a liberal or a Democrat. You are the carefully bland, studiedly tepid apologist for a depraved and failed ideology whose livelihood depends entirely on continuing to pretend that there is some reservoir of "reasonableness" remaining w/in the Conservative Movement with could be activated IF ONLY the Left would just keep compromising over and over and over and over again. This is a lie. It has been a lie for 30 years. You know it is a lie. Your colleagues know it is a lie. Everyone who pays attention to politics knows it is a lie. And yet week in, week out, you continue to get paid very handsomely to dress up in a costume, put on makeup and tell your paying customers things which both of you damn well know are not true.

Was there ever a more succinct definition of "whore" than that?

Quote of the Week

 "I await the day when [the] bozos at Exxon realize that, like the rest of humanity, they can't breathe CO2."    


And it's only Monday!

Stupid Pointless Violence Even More Stupid And Pointless Than Previously Thought

General Area of Pointless Violence
Fear And Death (above)

View Is Bleaker Than Official Portrayal of War in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com

Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "O'Connor only need remind herself that it was her vote in Bush v. Gore that ultimately helped undo (and sadly will contniue to) much of the good she may take credit for in her years on the court. And to be frank, based on that fateful decision of December 2000, this is in many respects the Scalia Court."

_____

Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "Chief Justice Roberts decides nearly every case based on authoritarian beliefs. If a corporation or authority figure is involved, his decision defends these parties. If a powerless individual such as a prisoner, child or ordinary citizen is involved, he always almost sides against.

It's just not that complicated."

_____

Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

I can't help but see a certain comeuppance for O'Connor--what really was she expecting when she retired with Shrubya at the wheel? That's like appointing Nick Nolte as the evening's designated driver. Then she accuses Americans of ignorance regarding "civics"?

The "Love Letters" Sketch (MST3K, Episode 0518, The Atomic Brain)

Science Neglecting The Transcendent Spiritual Life Of Infants, Insects

The look of a man in
a state of spiritual
transcendence.

Yes, Science can study the reactions of an infant and wonder if it is passing moral judgments on complex contextual stimuli,  or maybe just gassy.  They can ponder how intricate cooperative behaviors evolved, such as we see in the hive of bees, the farms of ants, or the cartels of drug lords.  But do these studies go too far? Do they not take us into the realm of collectivism, of  Bolshevism, and Liberal Elitism ("leetism")?  They are certainly not some beautiful brawling Real Americans, punching it in or out or up--all thanks to their wonderful pioneering American DNA which keeps them voting for increased Medicare benefits in a very pioneering and Real American way.  No, they are definitely not. 


These scientists emphasize group cohesion over individual dissent..  Although you may think it utterly hypocritical of me to espouse the virtues of group conformity on one day and the next day praising individualism (especially mine), when it's politically expedient to use that to attack my enemies in The Current Administration--well, I can tell you this:  It ain't.  Because if it were hypocritical, I wouldn't be writing this column today.  So there.  I think I've proved my point.


At this conference, they barely mentioned the yearning for transcendence and the sacred, which plays such a major role in every human society.  Deep down we instinctively know, after all, that when people donate money for a church, or a pyramid, or ziggurat, it has nothing to do with group conformity and self-identification or massive egocentricity.  And capitalism is much more about transcendence than it is about making a giant wad of cash.


Moreover, their implied description of the moral life is gentle, fair, and grounded--say, if Africanized bees were to fatally swarm an elderly person in a beautiful ballet of cooperation, fair play and toxic shock.   Nay, these scientists emphasize the cooperative virtues, like empathy, over the competitive virtues, like the thirst for recognition and superiority, such as when a potential queen ant bites the head off of her rival and devours her corpse in order to take over the colony--I'm sure that Science has completely ignored the idea of competition, and if they have not, well it's their job to inform me.  Not the other way around.  I'm a columnist, dammit, not some group-conforming technocrat living high on the hog and under the public dole like some freeloading climate scientist.


Besides, what would happen if people like me actually had to seriously entertain the notion the idea that there is really no evidence that the ideas of people like me are any better than any other ideas?  First of all, I'd be out of a job, and that wouldn't do much for my thirst for superiority, that's for damn sure.  Secondly, the individualistic Real Americans with their pioneering genes would have no one to tell them about their pioneering ways--even if they spent 50 years working for the telephone company and haven't gone without running water or electricity since, well, ever.  And we can't let that happen.


So far, it seems that Science will not address those who yearn for a morality that is "awesome, formidable, transcendent, or great," like when we individualistically cooperated to bomb the fuck-all out of Baghdad. Perhaps scientists just want to think about things that they can demonstrate instead of things that are unprovable, undemonstrable, unseeable, untouchable, or utterly implausible.  In other words, those things which can only be experienced through a very individual submission to an ultimate authority.  That's right, God.  Mr. Big.  The Bigshot Uptairs.  


Which is why we as individuals must choose to conform as a group to something which will tell us what to do.  Or else.

David Brooks

Experts Want To Choke Your Freedom To Death With Their Bare Hands by super sexy guest star David Brooks

Who Can You Trust--
Me, Or The So-Called
Experts?

You, the public, might think at some point I would realize that the mass of self-contradictions I refer to as my 'philosophy' would at some point cave in on themselves like a house built from subprime mortgage derivatives--but no, I'm still here spewing out the same crap I've been doing for god-only-knows-how-long.  I like to refer to myself as "God's Geyser" (it's a little joke David plays with David), though the world is filled with people who can't shut the hell up, so why are you looking at me?

Of course, first things first (this being the NY Times), I must toss a bone to the unwashed hippie liberal Ivy League elitists who run this country and subvert our good solid Midwestern values: Um, Bush did not do everything right.  Okay? So there, now I sound pretty rational, don't I?  Pretty much in the middle?  Okay. So Bush not doing things perfectly was the first half of this decade--apparently I can't add, subtract or divide simple whole numbers either.  The second half, and by 'half of a decade I mean one year of the Obama tyranny, Congress, against the will of Real America, created a  massive new bureaucracy. I won't come out and say how horrible this is, although it is truly horrible, I will only say that it is horrible because rational people hate centralized planning of any kind.

We should not place our faith in such things as modern statistics, the use of computers in management of people and resources, or indeed the use of mathematical models of any kind.  These things are only for businesses to make money.  They are not for our representational government to find ways to more efficiently allocate scarce resources.  Because scarcity is produced by the government, and not limited by anything in this alleged "natural" world that scientists always yap on about.  If I go to the doctor, I want him to test the hell out of me until I feel as though every orifice has been painfully violated again and again, and maybe in places where I don't even have an orifice.  So what if there's no evidence that Test A or Drug Z doesn't work? If Madison Avenue tells us we need it, we should have it--as long as we can pay.  And if I don't have any cash, I just want my worthless flesh tossed into a ditch and left to die--just like every other American.


So this is what Real America wants, Mr.Obama--to be probed and violated unnecessarily, or left out in a ditch to die.  And that, dear readers, is freedom.











David Brooks

Oprah's Shocking Secrets Revealed

She's a giant fat-ass who can't stop shoveling ice cream and fried chicken into her fat gob.

World's Business Leaders Come Together In "Responsibility For Others" Campaign

Important Business Leader Willing To Discuss What Is
Wrong With Everyone Else

Business leaders of from all over the world issued a joint statement today, declaring that they have reached mutual agreement on a number of issues, including global warming, pollution, malnutrition and obesity, too much health care or too little, water shortages across the globe and numerous other problems facing humanity.

"Dear Humanity, please buck up and take responsibility for yourselves.  If you don't like pollution, stop using electricity. Don't drive and don't burn fuel of any kind.  Got it? If you're worried about overfishing, stop eating.  It's not the fault of the wealthiest and most powerful to do anything but think of how to become more wealthy and powerful. And also enjoy being wealthy and powerful.  So please do not expect us to do anything except wait until you are not paying attention."

The Gospel According To Steve (Jobs)

Steve Jobs' Ego Watches Over Steve Jobs

Why should we care what happens to Steve Jobs when Steve Jobs is dead? The iPad is so much better than reality it's like not even funny.  If that in itself is not enough to assure immortality, I don't what the heck is.  


All iPad users will now be automatically enrolled in a lottery wherein each winner, with 999 other Jobs acolytes, will be entombed with Jobs for all Eternity.  Thereby they will be able to serve him in Heaven (for example, when he needs someone to scream at) where he will no doubt be a very very major demigod of some sort, with the ability to intercede on the behalf on iPhone users with dropped coverage, provided that the proper sacrifices and ritual offerings/oblations have been made to Him, The Great Steve.  

Are Atheist Priests Being Stigmatized In The Workplace?

If Bill O'Reilly Hates Something, It Must Be Good For You

The New Black Panther Party Is the New ACORN - Newsweek


For example, an Newsweek piece about how hard it is to infringe upon the votes of  people who don't exist.  Or they're invisible.  Such as the invisible white voters pictured here.

Deemed To Be Amusing

Anne Applebaum - A government of the people's every wish?: "Yet we not only demand ludicrous levels of personal and political safety, we also rant and rave against the vast bureaucracies we have created -- democratically, constitutionally, openly -- to deliver it."

Harvard Hates Real (White) Christians

It's clear to me now that the entire Ivy League--and by Ivy League, I mean America's elite (and by "elite" I mean "semite" (and by 'semite' I mean anyone who disagrees with me))--these elite elitists are looking down at us white rural Christians (and by 'Christian' I mean anyone who voted for George Bush twice).

New studies prove that their is discrimination against the children of rural white turnip farmers who idolize football stars, take the Bible literally except for the dress code, and love hunting (I'm talking about hunting where you actually kill an animal with a gun or preferably with your bare hands whenever possible).  They'd love to go to Harvard, live in Manhattan and work on Madison Avenue or Wall Street, but with all of the, um, let's call them "nonwhites", with all of them going to Harvard, that only leaves room for the upper-class white youths.  And you know they're not real Christians--they live in Manhattan for chrissakes.  What kind of Real Christian lives in that godforsaken city of sodomy?

Therefore, if there are a lack of lower-class, racially white, pious Proestant youths attending Ivy League schools, it's due to Liberal Elists who hate Christians.  (And if you hate Christians, you hate Christ and probably deserve to die horribly.  (Note: Conversion courses are held in the church annex every Wednesday 7-9 pm; all faiths welcome provided you're willing to change your faith.))  It's not because they didn't study hard enough, aren't smart enough, or driven enough, or confident enough, or because they couldn't even be bothered to take the SAT, or they wanted to attend a university which would confirm their  world-view.  Nope, it's not any of that.  It's the Liberal Elitists again, and yes, fellow Real Christians, you should be angry, paranoid, and fearful.  Any moment now Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan could break into your home, confiscate your property in the name of the Supreme Court, and shove you and your loved ones into a cattle car on your way to Canada to eke out the rest of what would be left of your-now wretched lives on a collective farm in Alberta.  And without so much as a Dr. Zhivago theme--how's that for a fine how-do-ya-do?  'Here's some federal stimulus money, oh, and by the way, we need to use your good pious daughters as Harvard sex slaves for minority students to redress the wrongs of slavery.'

Don't think it can't happen, they don't even have insurance co-pays there. (I went across the border once to by some duty-free Canadian vodka...not worth it.)  Today it's free heart surgery, tomorrow you're living like a serf in Siberia.  So yes, my friends, it is time to be very, very, very, very afraid.  Heil Obama!  You're next! You're next! You're next! You're next!

  

From The Department Of The Perfectly Obvious: Job Training Creates Jobs For Job Trainers And Not Much Else

The New Poor - Job Training Struggles to Keep Pace in an Economy in Flux - NYTimes.com: "Labor economists and work force development experts say the frustration that frequently results from job training reflects the dubious quality of many programs. Most last only a few months, providing general skills without conferring useful credentials in specialized fields. Programs rarely involve potential employers and are typically too modest to enable cast-off workers to begin new careers."

Earn Minimum Wage While Looking For Kiddie Porn!

Concern for Those Who Screen the Web for Barbarity - NYTimes.com

Women’s Role in Holocaust May Exceed Old Notions - NYTimes.com

Women’s Role in Holocaust May Exceed Old Notions - NYTimes.com

Dick Cheney's Vital Organs Might Be Suicidal

cheney

More Daft Shit From The Internet

Are Tea Parties Racist? Is Al Qaeda? - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "Organizations aren't racist, people are."

An NYT reader's comment: "Organizations aren't racist, people are." Armies don't kill, people kill people. Nothing like discussions of racism to bring out the *worst* in people.

"...All effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan."

(Adolf Hiter, in "Coming of the Third Reich, Evans RJ, 2003)

Tea & Socialism

Liberal Elitism Causes Mel Gibson Woman Face Bashing In Of

Estimated Size of Mel Gibson's Cortex

That's right, I said it: Mel Gibson is a classic case of Hollywood narcissism.  So in spite of his reactionary Catholicism, the number of souls he saved with Passion of the Christ, or the collective "What the deuce?" I will get from the more polite readers of the NY Times, I can say that this is yet another case of modern Hollywood leading to...well, not exactly tragic...not really all that interesting...okay, how about this? Corrupt modern society--in conjunction with Hollywood--creates smug narcissists, exemplified by Mel Gibson.  And by Mel Gibson I mean everyone in America who disagrees with me.

And I can definitely say these things, because my philosophy is one thing and that's definite.  How else could I pull for an endless war with neither tangible results nor rational reason other than to overthrow a megalomaniac in a cold balance-of-power maneuver and advertise it as 'establishing freedom and democracy in the Middle East'?

In fact my philosophy is so definite, I don't even need to learn anything about science or understand it.  All I need to do is take the results I like, even when the flaws are so obvious a 3rd grade science project runner-up could pick out the flaws.  For example, some 3rd graders might ask, "How widespread were measurements of narcissism in the past?"; or, "How can you possibly compare past eras of widespread poverty and illiteracy to the modern America?"  But who needs questions like these! Someone wrote in a book that there's more narcissism in the present than the past, and we all know that book publishers are above all concerned with reliable data.

Left: Example Of Published Book Chock-Full 
Of Reliable Data



So as I address corrupt modern society--by which I mean the corrupt bastards who read the NY Times, listen to NPR, or watch PBS (all of which I appear on or at regularly) who lead corrupt filthy immoral degenerate lives of greed and self-interest and narcissism--I ask them to remember, please watch me on PBS, listen to me on NPR, read my column at the NY Times (and please buy a copy, you freeloaders), and buy my book, You Corrupt Filthy Degenerate Liberal Bastards Are Ruining America.  America is counting on you.  To listen to me.

And remember--there's no humility like fake humility.  So the next time someone asks you how you're doing, choke down that self-love and say, "I deserve to die."




david brooks

Cheney's Heart Unable To Escape Cheney Despite 30 Years Of Trying

"You aint' goin' nowheres," growled Cheney.  "Back into the box for ya!"

Fox News: "Black People Still Really, Really Scary"

Here are some really scary black people that want to kill your family and have their way with a real white woman. Chad, can you loop that video of black people in berets? We'll just call them the um, The Black Cheetahs. Are cheetahs really all that scary though? How about 'Black Wombats'? Wombats must be scary.

Okay, then, The Black Wombats are coming to rob your home, kill your family and take your daughters' innocence.  At least that is the agenda implied by their berets.

When You Can't Think Of Anything Else To Say....Cut The Deficit by special guest star David Brooks

Op-Ed Columnist - An Economy of Grinds - NYTimes.com

That's right.  Now as you all can tell, I am a simple, humble sort of fellow who would never presume to know much of anything at all.  But I can definitely tell you one thing because it is so perfectly obvious: There are two kinds of people.  Unless there are three kinds of people.  But we all know that there are two kinds of people.  Because some people are different from other people. 


And that is why we need to cut the deficit.  Because hey, even if you're homeless and unemployed and you can't get a dime in unemployment from the insurance plan you've been paying into known as the "U.S. Government" while billions are funneled to corrupt genocidal maniacs across the world (and their subcontractors)....well hey, at least you're living in the greatest country in the world! Yay!


Seriously, look at me--I just wrote a column about how the world has both extroverts and introverts and I was paid in cold hard Yankee dollars. If I can write a column and get paid for it, it's plain as high noon in the Mojave desert in July that anyone can have a column and get paid for it.  So that's my advice to the unemployed: Get off of your asses and write a column for a major newspaper or magazine or maybe even get a gig on Fox News. If I can do it, anyone can.

Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Students, Meet Your New Teacher, Mr. Robot - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com: "Shouldn't they making robots that can drop bombs without getting expensive Veteran's benefits such as PTSD treatment? Or even better, travel backwards in time and terminate actual human beings?"

_____

The Medium Is The Modium by special guest columnist David Brooks

Yo, fellow Americans, Da Brooksmeister rappin’ at ya’ once more.  Turns out there was a great and very scientific study about education: When children are given books, their test scores rise.  Now I know what you’re going to say: “David, you wouldn’t know a mean from median if it was drilled into your skull with a carbon-steel bit.” 

Well that maybe true—but since I start from the premise that I’m pretty much right about anything (and always right about everything), I have no need to really worry too much about factoids and data and whatnot.  Because after all, this column is all about philosophy, and who the hell is going to waste their lives writing abstruse nonsense if they didn’t already know they had the answer? 

But just to prove a point to the Ivy-League-educated-liberal-elites-who-run-the-world (doesn’t that sound nicer than “Jew”?), I gave my copy of Wealth of Nations to my hamster, Frederick The Great, and I have to say that so far he appears to be very intrigued by it.  He’s constantly sniffing it, inspecting it, and tearing off bits for his bedding.  I predict his reading ability is going to go through the roof.

Another thing that Science tells us about the Internet is that it cripples children’s social skills  and attention span.  For those of us raised before the Internet, we can recall--quite readily I’m sure--how those kids who read the most and spent the most time home alone with nary a girl in sight were also the happiest children.  The more you read, the more friends you had and the more you were the envy of all the others.  And this became even more true in high school—I’m sure we can  all agree on that.  Then the Internet came and now anyone can call me a twat on his blog, and he doesn’t even have to print them on a ditto machine for someone to read it.  Well guess what asshole—I’m rich and you’re unemployed.  So if a kid hates to read,  just give him books to turn into mattress-bedding and he’ll become a great reader.  And please suck my fat one, you filthy dirty unwashed liberal elitist bloggers.  I have money, you don’t , and that must prove something.

Lincoln, McClellan, And Stimulus - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

Lincoln, McClellan, And Stimulus - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

"We create our own reality." Which is then repeated on Fox News, over and over and over and over....by this means, people can indulge in the satisfaction of never having to question their view of the world or themselves--which thereby negates their own responsibility to do anything for anyone but themselves, while assisting in the sabotage of the common good of society, the nation, and the world. Win and win.

Gail Collings- My Boyfriend’s Back - NYTimes

Op-Ed Columnist - My Boyfriend’s Back - NYTimes.com

Bristol Palin available to speak out against getting knocked up in the back of a GM pickup (for a mere $15,000 a pop). Now that's what I call CLASS, amigos.

Mexico? More Like Reagamexico!

US-Mexico trade supports Reaganomics

Elections highlight challenges facing drug-scarred Mexico - Washington Post

Reagonomics does work.  We've seen it work again and again in America, from minimum wage Wal-Mart slaves to alien hotel maids and janitors, and now we're seeing it south of the border in Old Mexico.  Small, medium, and large-sized businesses are prospering in Old Mexico.  A healthy, vigorous trade has grown across the border, in a lively exchange of goods and services.  Like some exquisite ballet, America's  junkies, although impoverished by U.S. standards, still have enough microfinancing power to capitalize significant portions of the Mexican economy.  

Just as the ancient river fertilized the Nile Valley, so this flow of cash fertilizes and continually regenerates Mexico's narcotics trade, which blooms in the brilliant sun like a beautiful garden.  And we all benefit: We in America access to the wonderful consumer-oriented products of this bounty, and all they want are guns and money.  Thusly the American economy is stimulated with the  purchase America's wonderful semi-automatic rifles. Win-win.  


Thank you for showing us the way, Mr. President. Thank you.

Mexico

iPad So Much Better Than Real Life Like You Wouldn't Believe

Feel me up, won't you?
It's okay, touch me,
I shan't tell a soul.

by Mr. Ipad
Have you seen a picture of a flower on an iPad? It's so fucking great you'll never want to see a real flower ever again. In fact you'll just want to fucking smash every flower you ever see because it'll be so fucking inferior.
And wait till you see iPad vaginas!
All subsequent vaginas will be agonizingly inferior!
You'll want to stomp those too! Yes, with the iPad, life will seem like a pale, dull, colorless sham.

So, um, buy an iPad and enjoy life. Because there is no life without an iPad.  So let's face it, you may as well be fucking dead.  Come on, just touch me, I want to be touched.

http://technorati.com/tag/ipad

Film Industry Introduces New "Keep Them Out Of The Theaters" Policy

New marketing strategy dares moviegoers to show up.

Latest Fox News Viewing While Doing Crunches At Gym

Example of some shithead
on Fox News for you to look at

Some shithead talking to some other shithead about what a crazy shithead Michael Steel is--evidently he had said something really insane, such as trying to instill democracy in Afghanistan was a waste of time and money.  "But what about National Security?  There are some angry Muslims. With rifles! We have to fight them there for some reason that doesn't really make any sense but what if some illiterate Afghan peasant hopped on a plane, got off at JFK airport and then took his AK and began shooting the place up?  And that's why we have to get rid of the Mexicans who mow my lawn.  For freedom or whatever crap we're pushing today."

Quote of the Week

"The machines themselves were being broken down and sold to China and India. He said he would have rather been a machinist and tool maker but he was resigned to being a lawyer."

Factory Jobs Return, but Employers Find Skills Shortage - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com

Employers Full Of It?

Factories Ready to Hire, but Skilled Workers Scarce - NYTimes.com

Apparently there is not now nor has ever been a labor surplus in the U.S. Every week for the past 25 years I'm sure there has been a news story somewhere about how Americans are illiterate, can't read or do arithmetic, or follow directions. Apparently what "employers" really want is to spend absolutely no money training employees, but rather prefer to talk about how horrible education is in America because they do not automatically get people with highly specialized and quickly obsolescent skills off of the education assembly line. Never mind that this presumption contradicts the never-ending argument that capitalism is always more efficient than the non-profit schools. And yet K-12 educators are supposed to have the resources to teach every skill necessary for every factory? What a load. What "employers" really want, it seems, is for the government (i.e. the taxpayers) to pay for this specialized training (or even better, the student, via non-dischargeable student loans) so that they can use their disposable workers to whom they have no loyalty whatsoever at a minimal cost--and dump them the moment there's a turn in the marketplace.