Whiskey Fire

Extraordinary Naivety and Arrogance

The Guardian has shown "extraordinary naivety and arrogance" over the publication of articles based on NSA documents leaked by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former foreign secretary Jack Straw has said.

I'm not suggesting for a moment anybody in the Guardian gratuitously wants to risk anybody's life. But what I do think is that their sense of power of having these secrets and excitement – almost adolescent excitement – about these secrets has gone to their head.

"They're blinding themselves about the consequence and also showing an extraordinary naivety and arrogance in implying that they are in a position to judge whether or not particular secrets which they have published are not likely to damage the national interest, and they're not in any position at all to do that.

Extraordinary naivety and arrogance? You don't say, Jack.


P.S. For no particular reason, here's Lindsey and Miley.


Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Song of the Day, Orbs

Thank M.B. for the youtuber.



How about a Nuthatch and a Chickadee?

P.S. More fun with walnuts here.

Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Wrinkled Ghosts; Or, Matlack Puts Young People Where They Belong -- BEHIND BARS

The Conservative Movement has discovered exciting new ways to destroy the country, sure. But it's still nice to see Jurassic Farts like Dennis Prager trotting out the Old Reliables....

Why the Left Hates the Old

I shit thee not...

The latest left-wing tactic to discredit conservative views is to dismiss the age and race of conservatives. "Old white males" and "old white people" are the left's latest favored negative epithets for those holding conservative views.

Oh God.

Yeah.

It gets worse. Or better!

Just about everyone who is not on the cultural left knows that all the great masters were incomparably superior to Jackson Pollock and other 20th-centuries artists who produced meaningless and talentless art. And because there are so few artists at any time who measure up to the old standards (standards that are synonymous with standards of excellence), the old standards have simply been abandoned.

This applies equally to morality. The left doesn't want to be bound or answerable to a higher moral authority. Rather, one's heart and reason are the best moral guides. Here, too, the old codes, especially as embodied in traditional religion, must be overthrown.

Prior to the ascendance of the left, it was assumed that the old had more wisdom than the young. Indeed, even every leftist I have asked, "Are you wiser today than 20 years ago?" has answered in the affirmative.

Nevertheless the left has transformed "old" -- a title that commanded respect in every civilization prior to the pre-1960s West -- into a pejorative.

As a result we live in the age of new music, new art, new families, new morality, new education, and now new marriage. If you think all these are good, then "old white males," like almost everything else old, do indeed constitute a threat. If you think the left's belief in "new" and "change" hurts society, "old" sounds good.

Fucking Jackson Pollack.

Anyway, this is all an excellent argument for the right-wing attack on Social Security and Medicare. Tell those ol' fossils they are all down with Jackson Pollock, and you'll rake in the something!

The Left has made life better for older Americans. The Right wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. Also there is bullshit about Shakespeare.

Whatever.

Today in "Why We Don't Need Feminism Anymore" News, Or, Mansplain This!

At the very least, somebody needs to be kicked out of school.

Officials at Georgia Institute of Technology are investigating an e-mail sent by a Phi Kappa Tau member to his fraternity brothers on "luring your rapebait," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. "The institute does not condone this type of behavior and continues to provide resources and education designed to create a supportive campus environment for all students, even those who exercise extremely poor judgment," said the statement. The e-mail, which appeared on several websites Monday, outlines strategies for getting women drunk and having sex with them.

More here and here, if your day has not yet included sufficient nausea.

 

Ritz Crackers Are Delicious

Curses. That crafty Ben Shapiro has outfoxed us again.

A nonprofit group that bills itself as a right-wing version of Media Matters for America launched Monday with calls for boycotts against companies that advertise on PoliticsNation With Al Sharpton, a show on Comcast-owned MSNBC.

The group is called TruthRevolt, and the first advertiser it is targeting is Ritz Crackers, which a petition that was quickly signed by more than 1,000 people Monday morning says is footing "the bill for vile racial demagoguery" with its sponsorship of the Rev. Al Sharpton's show.....

Radio talk show host Ben Shapiro, who is also editor-at-large of Breitbart News and author of the book Primetime Propaganda, created the concept of TruthRevolt and runs it. He said Ritz Crackers earned the designation of becoming the first company to be targeted with a boycott because of its claim, made to TruthRevolt, that it only sponsors "tasteful, believable television programming."

Well, to be fair, nobody ever said the Breitbart twits would never go after crackers.

Not Not Working for You

One might have supposed that for your humble snark-blogger this shut-down would be good for business.

Ochone, alas, alackaday, no such luck. The entire leadership of a major American political party talks like Jim Hoft's comments section.

Or, to put this even more brutally -- and I say this not to alarm you, but so that you may face Our Harsh Reality most properly fortified -- it is like Jonah Goldberg writes all the Internets.

Honestly.

What is there even to mock? How does one single out that one turd in the shitstorm?

Well, at least there's Goldberg, who never disappoints. Progressives are Evil.

When the public was on their side the progressives relied on the public. That’s why we have the direct election of senators. That’s why women got the franchise. Etc.

Gosh.

I HOPE YOU FUCKERS FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES FOR THAT GETTING WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE SHIT BY THE SHIFTY MEANS OF WINNING AN ELECTION YOU FUCKERS.

?

Fucking mystifying, these people.

Annnnyway.

Here is, as best I can make out, the Logic of the GOP Purists.

1. Those GOP Representatives are Heroes of World-Historical Significance.

2. It's all overblown; the Shut-Down affects nothing, hahahaha, government is dumb.

3. The suffering? It's all Obama's fault for not negotiating.

Certain folk-stories involving kettles come to mind...

Friday!

Twitter CAN be fun!

 

MAS.

 

 

A Plethora of Walnuts

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 263 is Multiples

What if you had multiple walnuts?


Fall is arriving in Berkeley Springs.



To cast a caterpillar spell, you need a caterpillar wand.





Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Obama Beats up Octogenarian WWII Veterans for Obvious Political Gain

This will shock you, but the Daily Caller has published some transparently idiotic bullshit.

Obama admin. knew about WWII veterans’ request and rejected it.

Golly I am fighting mad already.

The White House and the Department of the Interior rejected a request from Rep. Steven Palazzo’s office to have World War II veterans visit the World War II memorial in Washington, the Mississippi Republican told the Daily Caller Tuesday.

The veterans were visiting the memorial as part of Honor Flight, a non-profit that provides veterans free transport to the nation’s capital to visit the memorials to the wars they fought in.

“We got the heads up that they will be barricaded and specifically asked for an exception for these heroes,” Palazzo told TheDC. “We were denied and told, ‘It’s a government shutdown, what do you expect?’ when we contacted the liaison for the White House.”

Palazzo’s office was in touch with the heads of the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and the Capitol Police. He says all these officials rejected his request to allow the veterans, many of whom are octogenarians and some of whom are in poor health to attend.

Palazzo, a Gulf War Marine veteran who has participated in all five of the Honor Flights, blames the White House for making it harder on veterans and playing politics. “At first I thought it was a huge bureaucratic oversight,” Palazzo told The Daily Caller, “but having talked with the officials I can’t help but think this was politically motivated. Honor Flights, which bring WWII veterans to the nation’s memorials, are planned a year in advance and cost anywhere between $80,000 to $100,000. How low can you get with playing politics over our nation’s veterans?”

I suppose it IS possible to be stupid enough to think that "the White House" deliberately directed police officers to beat up disabled octogenarian World War Two veterans in order to further the cause of Red Socialism.

Because this is now officially A Thing that is Wingnut Gospel.

And no, you are NOT allowed to wonder how the Conspiracy is even supposed to work. ("Fuck the old veterans over! We need a PR win, boys! It's duck soup!") It's SOCIALISM!

MAS. Cue the Wild Rumpus. Please to enjoy the the special wonders of Right Wing Sourcing, brought to you by Colonel Mustard:

Ace has the story, Obama Adminstration Specifically Denied Exception to Permit Veterans to Attend WWII Memorial...

And then:

The Daily Caller has further details on how the WWII Vets were ambushed by the Obama administration...

Ace, of course, "has the story" in that he links to the Daily Caller story, which means that the idea that the Daily Caller story provides "further details" is fantastic and obvious bullshit.

And the whole "source" for the Daily Caller story is a single batshit congresswanker. The "journalist" who reported the story is this one guy who printed what the congresswanker said verbatim.

And the hungry fiend

Sreams the apocalypse of spooge

Through evey corner of this land.

MAS. And while they're playing these games, kids don't get cancer treatment. Via Spokane moderate in comments.

I Blame Myself

Back in ought-six, I confess, tearfully, that... that... I made fun of the Hot Soup web-site.

In retrospect, that was the last, best hope for our great nation to avert the harsh partisan rancor that has led us to tonight's sorry pass.

Sorry kids, guess I fucked up.

My dreams shall be haunted forever by David Broder's shade, casting upon me his sad, reproving, rheumy gaze. Also he'll only be wearing a hot pink Speedo. So, like, the government shutdown is all my fault, but bitter, and gross, is my fate eternal.

Who's Your Facebook Now, Lieberals!

So much for Facebook. JESUS SMASH!

Facebook Promotes Vulgar Hate of Religion and Hetero-Normalcy

Gosh.

One has to wonder how a publicly-traded company can do business with a business model staked on organized hateful harassment of Christians and the vast majority of normal, everyday, heterosexual Americans.

Here is the shocking reality. I returned from the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference last weekend to find that a Facebook group with a filthy (NSFW) name insulting Jesus and the Virgin Mary had “Liked” just about every article posted on our Center for Marriage Policy Facebook page (presently NSFW).

There is nothing more disgusting than seeing a photo of myself with Rick Santorum that is dirtied by “Likes” containing hateful, harassing, bullying expletives.

Yeah, that's even grosser than buttsex, even.

We are looking into a lawsuit against Facebook. Facebook has a duty to provide software so that we can protect our corporate image. Where that software does not exist, they have an imperative duty to remove harassers and haters promptly.

We are doing everything we can to put pressure on Facebook, but the real power is in your hands:

Investors: sell your stock now. Facebook is going the way of Reddit. Nobody will pay $30 to promote posts that bring on hordes of filthy attackers.

Users: when Facebook asks you for more personal information, do not give it to them. They will sell it to Democrats to use against you later.

I'm no lawyer, but I kind of doubt that the "We got liked by 'Jesus Fucking Christ, Slut Mary's Bastard' Facebook group" lawsuit is going anywhere....

Bad, Broken

Where oh where will a nation now discover an ongoing drama about entitled well-off white guys whose deep-seated resentments and cancerous megalomania cause them to embark on a self-destructive power trip that causes carnage and misery, mostly to innocent bystanders?

Beats me.

Meanwhile, entertaining Assrocket tantrum entertains:

The Associated Press Goes to Bat For the Democratic Party

While there are some good reporters at the AP, the overwhelming majority function, as to issues that are politically controversial, as advocates for the Democratic Party.

Haw. Buttmissile's so butthurt he forgot the chucklepatch style guide says it's "Democrat Party."

Poor l'il fucker.

Our Stupid Country

The original is at The American Thinker. I made the poster and added the captions.

Injured the Kid

Talked to a student today during office time to go over some work. In saying "see you next class" I notice the student has an Ace bandage tightly wrapped around the forearm, wrist, and hand. I ask what happened, are you OK, and so forth.

The student explains that while working as a cook in a local chain restaurant, another worker said, boss says we need to move this fryer. In the process the fryer is dropped on the student's arm, causing intense pain. The next day the student goes to the doctor. I don't know the student's insurance situation, but I'd bet in college, working parents covers it.

Anyway, the student tells me, "I had to make the doctor not give me an x-ray, because I can't afford to miss any work -- if I show up in a cast I'll lose my job. And I need my job to keep going to school."

Crap.

I kindly advised the kid to get back to the doctor and get the x-ray as Number One, because an untreated bone break is a Bad Thing. I also remarked that many people who are hurt through no fault of their own at work may be entitled to compensation.

I  believe the kid is telling the truth; the kid did the assigned work for my course, and I typically only get lied to for the purposes of excuses for not doing the assigned work.

What a mess. The kid is so terrified about losing a horrible low-paying job that the kid refuses basic medical treatment, risking making a simple injury into a possible lifelong disaster. For a fry cook gig.

This is a kid who comes from the middle class. This is a kid whose kids will not be middle class, because that's not a thing anymore.

Why do I say that?

Because we're fucked if we live in a land where if you're even relatively priviliged enough to be able to go to a doctor at all, you'll refuse treatment because you're scared that an obviously negligent minimum-wage employer will fire you.

I teach at a community college. My students are all terrified. They are not dumb.

(This is a true story; details of course changed to protect student anonymity.)

Try Some More Vodka, Maybe?

You know, I was just sitting around, wondering if some bright young daffodil-brained dingaling might pop on by to explain geopolitics like she'd analyze a My Little Pony episode with Hugh Hewitt-class airhead vindictiveness.

Oh hello, you!

I presume you have some wisdom for us?

For the first time in five years, the conventional media prefers Russian President Vladimir Putin over U.S. President Barack Obama. Has Vladimir sent American journalists cases of Russian vodka? Or are they fed up with Barack?

Oh rilly?

Oh, beg pardon. Indeed, rilly.

It’s amusing to imagine Putin shipping cases of Russian vodka to American journalists with a note

Omigosh, are you about to tell a joke?

Squeee! You are going to imitate Putin!

Dearest American Journalists:

Please put me on the cover of your influential news magazines, such as TIME Magazine, and also please publish my op-ed in one of your most distinguished newspapers, The New York Times. I will be truly grateful. My public image has never been stellar. Americans know that I have imprisoned innocent businessmen like Mikhail Khodorkovsky and that my own countrymen frequently mock me for my failure to lead and my obsession with posing, tracking Polar Bears or exposing my abs. My public image needs help and since you don’t care for Obama’s performance on Syria, this would be a great time to help me out. Thanks in advance!

Russian President Vladimir Putin

So you wrote that imagining it in a comedy Russian accent, I'm betting....

Thought so....

Question. So, as of now, with Syria, there is no war, there is some deal with the chemical weapons, and the cost to the US taxpayer is nothing. Your issue is ...?

As I wrote last week, our President and his Secretary of State John Kerry were pressuring us to go to war with Syria to cover for Obama’s red-line ultimatum. They assured us not to worry, this would not be “war in the classic sense.” At the time, we did not have definitive evidence that Assad had used chemical weapons against his own people. Our president was asking us to go into a war that could escalate into WWIII when our defense budget was cut, our troops were suffering from PTSD and needed a break from fighting in the Middle East—all to protect his ego. You don’t go to war over ego.

The defense budget hasn't been cut, the president has at least done more to wind down the wars he inherited -- the (mainly) GOP wars that gave soldiers the PTSD in the first place -- than either McCain or (hah!) Romney, and World War III? Are you shitting me... I mean, I have my criticisms of Obama's foreign policy to be sure but are you really that stupid --

Oh forget it.

Thermal Idiocy Plants

I rarely examine the oeuvre of William Teach -- out of charity, because I so deeply respect his legacy as a giant of women's tennis throughout the 1970s.

But this particular post is something very special.

This takes a bit of set up. Bear with us.

Teach styles himself a "climate realist blogger," which may be read as "cretin." In furtherance of his mission he links this Guardian piece about how "climate scientists," which may be read as "people who know what they are talking about as opposed to dimwit 'climate realist bloggers,'" say flat out that climate change is real and will have remarkably unpleasant consequences.

He then observes that climate scientists are fascists bent on world domination, and the people who listen to them are hypocrites because they fly to meetings in airplanes.

Which is entertaining, but not the good bit. This is the good bit.

If you follow Teach's link to the Guardian, you find that their article is adorned with this picture:

And Teach gets all HA HA I HAVE FACT CHECKED YOUR ASS snotty in the best rightblogger tradition.

Everyone should enjoy this photo of what the Guardian terms a thermal power plant with its massive amount of evil carbon pollution….what? A thermal power-plant turns water into steam, and that’s all steam, ie, water vapor? Hmph

Jesus Christ what a maroon.

Listen, you goddamn idiot:

Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric, and waste incineration plants, as well as many natural gas power plants are thermal.

And:

Globally, fossil fueled thermal power plants produce a large part of man-made CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, and efforts to reduce these are varied and widespread.

It's a picture of smog.

It's always kind of alarming, even after all these years, to reflect on the fact that yes, they really are that stupid.

Submarine Teams

I don't imagine this will in and of itself change anything, but a certain amount of class consciousness is always a tonic.

In a gesture that organizers hope turns into an athlete-driven national movement, players from Georgia Tech, Georgia and Northwestern took the field Saturday with gear they had marked up to protest the NCAA's treatment of athletes on issues ranging from concussions to compensation.

Good luck to them.

 

BREAKING! Republican Senator Demands Filibuster Reform

Not really, but you just kind of have to stand up and cheer on this astonishing class of sheer batshit ballsiness.

Setup:

With Speaker John Boehner embracing the push to defund Obamacare in the House bill to fund the government, the battle will soon be moving to the Senate, which is controlled by Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.

It’s hostile territory for the effort, and since the initial calls to push for defunding Obamacare came from Senate Republicans, there’s added pressure on the strategy’s architects to make it a major fight.

Aaaaaand punchline!

Senator Mike Lee is organizing a messaging push to pressure Reid to hold an “up or down” vote.

Wow.

You can contemplate this from Senator Lee. Or else you can contemplate this dancing leprechaun. You will arrive at the same destination, in the heel of the hunt.

Vespa Crab, Bro

Safe European Hornet, Vespa crabro

Carmi's Thematic Photographic 261 is Strangers In Our Midst. These hornets are not native to North America (of course, neither are most of us). By the way, even hornets have fans!




Here are some locals:







Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Yeah Now That's a Drag

The usually high-strung and squawky Charles C. W. Cooke over at NRO says something that approaches reasonable. Lawks.

The call for a muscular governmental response each and every time that something bad happens in America is an unsavory reminder of what can best be described as our dumb first instinct — a hard-coded human reaction that is closely and dishonorably related to the same primeval impulse that leads frightened children to respond to disasters, abominations, and tragedies with a touching, but useless refrain, “make it better, Mommy.” This itch, which our 24/7 media and expansive government only make worse, should be steadfastly and reflexively resisted by those who value reason and liberty, and resisted especially vehemently when the proposed reaction would likely violate rights explicitly protected in the Constitution.

Golly.

One can only salute Mr Cooke for launching this blistering critique on conservative positions regarding capital punishment, the drug war, state sponsored torture, GOP foreign policy in general... it's truly impressive that he's so willing to confront right-wing paranoia and fearmongering -- wait... beg pardon?

Today’s shooting at the Naval Yard in Washington, D.C., is no exception to this rule.

Never mind.

There's a lot of comical gibberish to follow. Universal background checks have always been remarkably popular, and thus didn't fail in Congress because most Americans dislike such measures; there's a silly correlation-not-causation reference to declining overall crime rates and gun nuts remaining nuts about guns.

But most impressive is this:

This is key. Leaving to one side for a moment the constitutionality of gun control, it should be remembered that America is a nation with around 300-million-plus privately owned guns and a much-cherished constitutional amendment protecting the right of the people to keep and to bear arms. It is, in other words, like neither Britain nor Australia, both of which are favorite examples of the (admittedly rare) hard-liners who shy away neither from using the word “ban” nor from arguing that the country would be better off if an outright ban were imposed. In Britain, the 1997 gun ban prompted around 2,000 people to protest; in Australia, critics were a little louder, but they still allowed themselves to be disarmed without much of a fight. In the United States, conversely, it is neither hyperbolic nor unreasonable to predict that any attempt at either confiscation or prohibition of common weapons would start a second civil war.

Ha.

Australia has been happily free of American-style mass shootings since their 1990s mass shooting nightmare.

Thus, America's gun nuts see several gruesome mass murders a year as an acceptable price for them to indulge in adolescent playtime fantasies about Fightin' the Gummint by fetishizing totally unnecessary deadly weapons.

Ahem. Wolverines.