Turkeys Flying Out of My Butt

Tags

Congress, economy, Egypt, GOP, Grover Norquist, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, OWS, Syria, teabaggers

The GOP can be proud of one thing. They have been successful in keeping government small in one major respect:

THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ONE THING TO HELP ME MAINTAIN MY SANITY!!!

Oh, I know. I said it yesterday. Did we actually expect the “Super Mario Dingbats” to come up with a deal?

Hell no.

Why?

Because although Democrats continue to offer real sacrifices when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid, Republicans will not consider raising any revenue. Now a few of them claim they want to, and no doubt some of them are sincere. Until.

Until John Boehner tells them that there is not a chance in HELL that he can push through even a 1 ¢ increase in taxes on the mega-rich puppeteers who control all of them. And the head puppeteer is the smarmy-grinning Grover Norquist who happily threatens anyone who dare withdraw from his “no tax pledge” that he will have them primaried.

And the beat goes on. Republicans who still retain some vestige of sanity (almost all of whom are not presently in elected positions) admit that revenue must be part of the package. They admit that Norquist, who hold no elected position has an insane amount of power and strangle-hold on the Party. A few brave souls have withdrawn from his “pledge” and will face his wrath.

It seems that the prudent thing to do, is for GOP politicos who face re-election in 2012, to do this:

• Schedule a 15-minute spot on their district or states local station.
• Lay out the reasons with expert opinions why they think it necessary to add taxes on the 1% to the mix to solve our problems.
• Invite constituents to write, phone, or e-mail their opinion.
• Indicate that you will publish the results after 60 days in the local newspapers.
• Promise to abide by the results.

In other words, actually do the will of your constituency. Norquist makes his threats based on an assumption that every voter voted on one issue only–the non-raising of taxes. I doubt seriously that this is true. And more importantly, I suspect they are thinking of their own taxes, not those of corporate America nor those of the filthy rich.

I’m tired of this nonsense.

♦

Meanwhile, . . .

While we are at it, I’m sick of Newt Gingrich and his stupidity. Now he wants to eliminate child labor laws, since “every really successful person he has ever know started working when they were 11 or 12.” Yeah. Let’s put them back in the mines Newt, you lousy excuse for a human being.

While we are at it, I’m sick of Mittens Romney. He has now lowered himself to the ranks of Sean Hannity. It’s cut and paste time for Mittens with his new ad, wherein he has Obama appear to say that “if we talk about the economy we are going to lose.” Actually what he said is “JOHN MCCAIN’S CAMPAIGN SAYS IF WE TALK ABOUT THE ECONOMY WE ARE GOING TO LOSE.” (From the 2008 campaign.)

Mittens must be feeling desperate.

♦

The majors and their police forces who have moved against the OWS folks, forcibly and with extreme measures in some cases, are likely to encourage more folks in the US to support the movement in my opinion. Some disagree, and think that people will be dissuaded from entering the movement out of fear of injury or arrest.

I think that when we see the results of unbridled police attacks against quiet, peaceful, sitting demonstrators, it actually encourages people to get involved to support them.

One has only to look at the Middle East. The more vicious the attacks on Syrians and now Egyptians, the stronger and larger the commitment to oppose brutal attacks.

How can Americans duck into their homes out of fear of pepper sprays and arrest, when people in other parts of the world are laying down their very lives to support freedom and equality within their governments?

Could we stand the shame?

Can we accept the only conclusion then that we may talk a fine game, but in the end, we have become soft and compliant in our own demise?

Can we stand the shame?

♦

Michele Bachmann suggests that if we allow marriage equality, the next thing that is sure to occur is that people will marry objects. Yeah know what? In the grand scheme of things, I don’t really care. I wish them all the happiness in the world. To grab a phrase that belongs to a certain Wasilla Mama, “that woman is an idiot.”

♦

Paul Krugman has this great line about Grifter Newt:

“he’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart man sounds like.”

h/t to Juanita Jean.

♦

One of the stunning oddities of the extreme right is their double take on the President of the United States. On the one hand, he is rather stupid, unable to formulate a sentence without a teleprompter in front of him. They also seriously question whether he ever attended either Columbia or Harvard, reminding you that “nobody remembers ever seeing him.”

On the other hand, they tell you that this stupid man, who doesn’t understand economics, foreign policy, or the American people, is at the apex of a decades-long conspiracy to destroy America and replace it with an Islamic state. And to make  it worse, things are so far along that Americans must act “immediately” lest we lose any more of our “freedoms” because  Barry, (as they call him) is about ready to suspend the Constitution and declare himself “dictator for life.”

Now both of these can’t be true.

Yet, true to the fundamentalist mind, it is true for them, since wildly in opposite conclusions are simply compartmentalized in different parts of the mind, and never allowed to confront each other.

And that’s the truth, so help me God.

♦

Got your bread drying out? Got the bird ready for a drink? Or are you feeding off a relative this Thursday?  Lucky you. Tomorrow will be brutal with a pie, dressing, a salad, and a side to get done. All for a meal that will last about 20 minutes. It is a crying shame to spend all this time! But I love it. 

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• “Thou Shalt Follow Me or Else!” – The Grover Norquist’s political hit list (reclaimamericafromthelunaticfringe.wordpress.com)
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Beck Criticizes Johnny Depp: Iowa Woman Declares War

Tags

Egypt, Glenn Beck, GOP, Johnny Depp, Muslim Brotherhood, teabaggers, Tim Pawlenty

It’s best not to get between a woman and her fantasy. If ya know what I mean.

Glenn Beck, perennial wackadoodle has gone and done it.

Glenn has been so god-awful crazy in the last few days with his Caliphate this and that, that, well, I thought to stop in for a small dose. Just to remind myself of just how SANE I am in comparison.

Well, he was frothing at the mouth, as you might expect–about the usual crap. And then he just up and says,

“We don’t need any Johnnnnny Depp telling us how we have to be here in America.” He babbled on about other “Hollywood” types. It was all fairly unintelligible, but he came back to it about three times. “No Johnny Depp and his ‘we need to be more like France’ bullshit–excuse my French.”

I have no idea what Beck was alluding to, but I’m sure that it had to do with some of the anal attitudes we cling to about social issues that leave the rest of the world wondering when we will ever grow up.

In any event, game on Beck. The only thing awaiting you is a full chapter in the next textbook on abnormal psychology, “disordered personalities.”

Enuf time wasted on the mentally unstable.

***

Well, Egypt finally did it. Got rid of Mubarak. I sure wish them well. I hope they get free elections and can institute the form of government that they wish.

***

Is anyone as nauseated with Tim Pawlenty as I am? He went from being a sort of nobody, to trying to be somebody by playing to the far right. He’s been palin’ around with Bryan Fischer, awful human being, and now he’s trying to “talk foreign policy” as if he knows anything about that!It seems his theory is much like Dubya’s, “might makes right.” How utterly Neanderthal. Another entry from MinneSOTA best left unheard.

***

Course, if you watch Foxy crap which I know you don’t or Glenn Beck (more than five minutes will cause ear cancer), you are probably really unaware of what the Muslim Brotherhood is all about. There is a lengthy, but very informative article at AlterNet that can set you straight.

***

Okay, it’s Saturday, the sun is not shining, but it’s 34° and so the snow, she’s a meltin’. What to do tomorrow with no football? Still a month from March  Madness. Watched “Despicable Me” last night. Was cute.

See ya.

Picking Over the Bones–No, We Haven’t Cooked the Dogs!

Tags

blogging, Egypt, GOP, John Kyl

Yet.

It doesn’t mean we haven’t been eyeing their tails as a possible soup though.

Actually it’s not quite as bad as all that. Even though we are still in our exile here, we are seeing the “end of the tunnel” or “what a difference a day makes” or ending the “winter of our discontent.” Pick one.

Today we are set to reach a whopping +13 degrees! But we are giddy with joy because tonight it is not going to the minus category at all and tomorrow it’s gonna be 25, and about 34 on Saturday. And maybe, just maybe, forty something by next week. Wasn’t there a show called that? 40-Something? or maybe it was 30-Something. I don’t remember.

The Bronco has a hospital appointment on Tuesday for her transplant. She’s gettin’ a dead Bronco’s alternator. We hope she doesn’t begin to channel anything too weird. So Wednesday, I shall, for the first time in six weeks, see the inside of a place called a grocery store. I am so excited, I just can’t tell ya.

If you get a news flash that some woman fell to her knees and kissed the floor in Wal-Mart–well just know it was me. So do pay attention to the TV on Wednesday.

Actually, I thought I’d give you a quick run down on the news now, before telling you of my new profession.

First of all, Mubarak is leaving! Ain’t that grand? The people have exercised their freedom to depose and well, we shall see what they do next. Good or bad, it’s their country and I do wish them well.

***

A disgusting idiot is leaving Congress. No, not the latest sex kitten wanna be, but John Kyl from Arizona. That gets rid of one of the idiots there, but there are so many. Kyl is retiring, hopefully to an underground cave somewhere to live with the lizards. The sex kitten texter, Chris Lee, Rethuglian (aren’t they all?) has resigned.  The minute we heard the first report, I said, “Oh please let it be a Republican!” And it was. It’s always a safe bet that it will be. Family values out of the yap while the hands are doing the nasty. It’s the Republican way.

***

I got a serious bone to pick with you guys. (Worked in the title a bit doncha know) Anyway, all you folks who have blogs at blogger? Well,  just leave and come over to WordPress please. It’s so much easier to leave comments on fellow WordPressian blogs. Blogger with its newer comment format is soooo hard for me. I cannot even get to it on Lisa’s, That’s Why nor Dusty’s either. Something they run in the sidebars I suspect.  When you hit Lisa’s at least mention that I read almost all her posts in my reader.  Sigh… So change. It’s a much better platform. I can tell you that from experience.

***

Oh I just can’t wait any longer. I have a new profession. I realized that I am really good at something and I figure to make some money. So send in your dough, preferably cash now. Be the first to get the benefit of my professional expertise. I am a very good predictor of the future. I’ll give you a couple of examples of things I’ve predicted that did in fact come true, so you’ll be able to trust that your money is well spent:

1. I correctly predicted last spring that the swelling of the branch tips of various trees would result in actual leafing. This occurred throughout Iowa and lasted until late in September when I then predicted that the discoloration of said leaves would bring shame upon them and cause them to leave the very trees they have erupted from. This too happened.
2. I correctly predicted that water in  bottles does not spontaneously turn into wine. I predicted that a box labeled wine, however, would contain wine, and that was true. I noted that water in plastic bottles will magically disappear given enough passage of months if left in a closet, with the door closed “most of the time.” I predicted this.
3. I predicted that the desire of six animals to relieve themselves outside is inversely proportional to how tired and snarky I am. I have found this to prove out time and time again. And I correctly predicted that the phrase “time and time again” is a mathematical oxymoron.
4. I have predicted that as a man ages, the more he returns to the age of about ten. I have also predicted that all men have arrested development when it comes to leaving the peanut butter jar all gooey, and the cap on askew on the counter. To be fair, a lot of other women report predicting this phenomenon.
5. I have predicted that pulling up any weed is a big mistake. The others feel so lonely that they call all their friends and relatives to fill in the void. Look around this summer and tell me it ain’t true.
6. I have predicted and so far the results confirm that every task takes longer, is harder, and ends less satisfactorily than I had anticipated. It’s become much easier to not do them.
7. Eating less leads to weight loss. I’ve predicted this a hundred times, but I still don’t believe it. I predict I’ll continue to test this hypothesis for a few more years.
8. I predict that watching TV rots your brain. I am also living proof that rotted brains seem to functionally work about as well as non-rotted ones. I can still define Glenn Beck as a horse’s ass, and that is proof enough.
9. I predict that everyone has one book in them. I predict, therefore, that eating books is not particularly harmful but it may not be the best way to digest the contents. *wink*
10. I predict that after reading this, hundreds, nay thousands of you, will be filling envelopes with cash and sending them to me with all your questions. The Greater Carnac is IN:

Karnak, Egypt

Analysizing Palinguage

Tags

Egypt, foreign policy, language, Sarah Palin

A reader, OKJimm,  asks:

“Did you come up with the phrase “word salad”?

Alas, no. Wish I had, but I took it directly from the link in yesterday’s story about the latest Palin slaughtering of coherent thought.

I had, to be sure, heard of the phrase before, but in a medical sense.

Word salad is simply the collection of random words, put into phrases that appear to have some meaning, when actually they have, upon examination, none.  In other words it’s what Palin does all the time.

There are a number of medical illnesses that can result in this, such as dementia and schizophrenia. The person believes they are making sense, but the words, taken together, make no logical sense.

Yesterday we referred to Palin’s statement about Egypt. It would be helpful to read her remarks at length

Now, reading it, leaves you dizzy, of course. The words meander around in circles, repeating themselves, and then abruptly end in a period, somewhere, because, oh I don’t know, it just looks like a good place for one.

Let’s examine what thought if any is behind the words.

“Remember, President Reagan lived that mantra trust but verify. We want to be able to trust those who are screaming for democracy there in Egypt, that it is a true sincere desire for freedoms and the challenge that we have though, is how do we verify what it is that we are being told, what it is that the American public are being fed via media, via the protestors, via the government there in Egypt in order for us to really have some sound information to make wise decisions on what our position is.  Trust but verify, and try to understand is what I would hope our leaders are engaged in right now.

Sarah here seems to be asking how can we know what is in the mind of all these people, the protesters, the media, and the government. For some reason what we get is via the media, who get their information from the protesters, who get their information from the government. That’s what all those vias mean. Surely she is mistaken here.

What Sarah seems to be concerned about is how we process the information. Although she has also claimed that since she has a journalism degree, she is ready to help the mainstream media understand how to do their job, she seems unable to understand the concepts of critical reading and critical thinking. That is how we “understand” if this is a true “screaming” for democracy.

And if they are not screaming for democracy in a way that you think is appropriate? I mean, I know you want to know, but it’s THEIR COUNTRY.

Who’s going to fill the void?  Mubarak, he’s gone, one way or the other you know, he is not going to be the leader of Egypt, that that’s a given, so now the information needs to be gathered and understood as to who it will be that fills now the void in the government.  Is it going to be the Muslim Brotherhood?  We should not stand for that, or with that or by that.  Any radical Islamists, no that is not who we should be supporting and standing by, so we need to find out who was behind all of the turmoil and the revolt and the protests so that good decisions can be made in terms of who we will stand by and support.”

Now Sarah wants to know how this will come out? Who will be the new leader? She assumes Mubarak will fail to retain office, apparently even in the short run, but shares no information as to why that is. She wants information gathered as to who will replace him. Does she have evidence that this is not occurring?

Shockingly of course, she throws out democratic principles of free choice by the electorate, claiming that we cannot tolerate a government run by radicals. Thus she announces the Palin Doctrine–we will not tolerate governments in the world that are not in our self-interest. Democracy apparently is only for Americans.

Again, she pleads for information.

“It’s a difficult situation, this is that 3am White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House it it seems that that call went right to um the answering machine. And nobody yet has, no body yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak. . .”

Sarah seems here to suggest that Obama has no information, that he was not asking questions or talking to either Egyptians in the government or from other foreign governments. Yet no facts are offered to support this otherwise snotty remark. She then suggests that she has a right to know whatever the WH knows, and she infers they know much more than they are telling. But of course, no facts to prove this inferred allegation are presented. Does she really think Obama knows who will replace Mubarak? How silly is that notion?

What she evinces is a shockingly childish understand of the world of diplomacy. Sarah seems to want to know everything we know about “them” even if it means telling what we know that they don’t know we know. But if we do that, then they might know how we know what they know that they don’t think we know, and that would be bad Sarah. Unless you are suggesting that we scrap the method of international communication in use for thousands of years, I think you should just hush here.

. . .and from DC in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And in these areas that are so volatile right now because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House.  We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with.  And we do not have all that information yet.”

Yes, we do need strength and sound mind. Yours would not be the one we would want. Again there is the inferred criticism that we don’t have that now, but nothing but innuendo is offered.

Inexplicably, she tells us that the WH? needs to explain “what it is that America stands for.” Well, yes, but I thought you were the queen of explaining the constitution and our freedoms and liberties? I thought you KNEW what America stands for? You tell everybody you do, and you tell all those who you don’t think understand. So I’m really confused now.

I thought the information about what we stand for is in our Declaration and in our Constitution? Am I wrong? Or are you hopelessly muddled once again dear girl?

Sarah, look, I know you love money and being in front of cameras. But pleeeeeeze, SHUT THE HELL UP! I mean good grief, I know the call that went to your answering service. . .the dictionary people asking for a recent photo to put next to the word–WORD SALAD.

Related Articles

• Word salads are a dish best served cold (washingtonmonthly.com)
• Sarah Palin™ Doesn’t Trust Egypt’s Protesters [Democracy] (gawker.com)
• Palin Not ‘Enthused’ by Obama’s Handling of the Crisis in Egypt (usnews.com)
• Palin on Egypt. To call her words gibberish is to offend gibbberish. (americablog.com)
• Some Words About Egypt and Obama Shot Out of Sarah Palin’s Face (balloon-juice.com)

Who’s Your SuperBowl Champs?

Tags

astronomy, Bill O'Reilly, Billy Kristol, cosmology, Egypt, Extreme right-wing, Glenn Beck, GOP, Green Bay Packers, Media, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, Superbowl, universe

Doin’ the happy dance, oh yeah, oh yeah.

Who’s your daddy?

Who’s goin’ to Disney World?

Who’s got a peaceful house? ME!

Who’s unfortunately watching a replay of the whole dang game at 10:00 a.m.? ME!

If ya didn’t know, there is an NFL channel. No sane person would know that, only insane ones. Insane—–>Contrarian.

***

Speaking about insanity, the political world seems just chock full of wackadoodles. And a surprise or two along the way.

Sarah “now channeling Reagan” Palin decided to open her big mouth and spew more idiotic rhetoric. She finally gave her “analysis” of the situation in Egypt. Which means, that she read a headline in the WSJ, her ADD preventing her from actually reading an article.

In any event, she orders the President to come clean on what he “knows about who the next president of Egypt will be.” Where she comes by this notion, is anybody’s guess. Probably in a dream that has been interpreted for her by Beck.

She also sternly warns that we “should not stand” for a government run by the Muslim Brotherhood. This from the same hairbrain whose every third sentence is about protecting and regaining our freedoms and liberties.

I guess Sarah doesn’t see that any other people on the planet have the right to their freedoms and liberties to determine their own form of government and those who will lead them.

While it may not be in our best interest to have Egypt run by the MB’s, it is not our call to make. If, in fact we actually believe in democracy.

In a shocking editorial, Billy Kristol, in the Weekly Standard, lambasted Glenn Beck and by implication (although his story appeared before Ms. Palin’s bullcrap) Sarah’s belligerent woofings.

Kristol had this to say about Beck’s crazy conspiracy theories regarding the Radical Left/Radical Islam joining hands to destroy the world:

[H]ysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society.

[. . .]

Nor is it a sign of health when other American conservatives are so fearful of a popular awakening that they side with the dictator against the democrats.

I fairly reel with surprise in having to say, “spot on!”

***

Outside The Beltway has a full transcript of her remarks and as Doug Mataconis points out, you can’t make sense of it. It’s the typical “word salad” that just seems to go on and on and never make any point, other than somehow she suspicions that Obama isn’t doing it right. She throws in plenty of her clichés here and there, and just runs in a stream of unconsciousness.

***

One has to laugh as Ms. Sarah. She likens herself to Ronnie Reagan. She claims they both refused to “sit down and shut up,” and both her and he were maligned and vilified by the media. Yeah, really. But one has to wonder at the near deification of Reagan by the uber Right. It seems they can find no one else in the Retootlican pantheon, at least in the recent past to hold up for idol worship. 

But the reality is that Reagan did many of the things that Obama is now doing. The extremists on the Right are prevented from seeing this because the red haze of hatred is so thick.  Politicususa strips away some of the mask. So I say, if Sarah wants to compare herself to Reagan, then by all means do, and after reading the post by Rmuse it will establish that this woman shouldn’t be elected dog catcher.

***

I don’t know if you heard about Billo the Clown’s silliness that God is proven because the “tides go in, the tides go out, never a miss communication.” When e-mails poured in explaining gravitational pull from the moon, Billo replied that they were “pinheads” and then went on to ask, “the moon, how did it get there? huh? how did it get there? tell me.” And then he went on to ask, “why do we have one? Why doesn’t Mars?”

Of course O’Reilly is dead wrong again. The moon came from a planetoid that hit the earth billions of years ago, broke up, and then gathered in part from the refuse, held in orbit by that darn gravity again. And Mars has two moons last time I checked.  I guess I’m a pinhead.

No matter, the NYTimes has a nice editorial on how many new planets have been located by the Kepler satellite. If projected across the heavens, Kepler should find upwards of 400,000 planets. This is good news for astronomers and those (exobiologists) who specialize in “life on other planets.” The more there are, the more chance that some support life.

Don’t  bother to tell Billo, it would only make his tiny brain explode.

***

Well, that seems enough for today.

What’s on the stove: Stir-fry, egg rolls.

 

Related Articles

• Kristol calls out Beck over ‘hysteria’ (washingtonmonthly.com)
• A Lack Of Confidence (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)