Now less popular than going communist and Paris Hilton.
03/12/2011 • 9:49 pm 0
incivility
Willie Horton ads, Swiftboating, GOP convention-goers waving purple band-aids to mock a veteran’s war wounds, birtherism, Ann Coulter saying the “only choice was whether to impeach or assassinate” President Clinton, Coulter claiming 9/11 widows were “enjoying their husband’s deaths,” Rush Limbaugh mocking Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease, ads falsely claiming Barack Obama favored “comprehensive sex education for Kindergartners,” Rand Paul supporters trying to stomp the head of a protester, ads claiming Kay Hagen was “godless,” Michelle Bachmann calling for an investigation of ‘un-American views” among the Congress, “If ballots don’t work, maybe bullets will, etc., etc., etc….
Link.
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
16/04/2011 • 12:57 pm 0
ayn rand
What kind of person was Ayn Rand?
The newspapers were filled for months with stories about serial killer called William Hickman, who kidnapped a 12-year-old girl called Marion Parker from her junior high school, raped her, and dismembered her body, which he sent mockingly to the police in pieces. Rand wrote great stretches of praise for him, saying he represented “the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatsoever for all that a society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul. … Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should.” She called him “a brilliant, unusual, exceptional boy,” shimmering with “immense, explicit egotism.” Rand had only one regret: “A strong man can eventually trample society under its feet. That boy [Hickman] was not strong enough.”
And what kind of people worship someone with this ideology?
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
25/03/2011 • 1:47 am 0
hooray
It’s always worth celebrating when a new Fafblog! post is up. And one is!
Freedom! If there’s one thing America loves, it’s… well, war. But if there’s two things America loves, it’s war and torture. But if there’s three things America loves, it’s war, torture, and genocide. But if there are several dozen things America loves, they are war, torture, genocide, chattel slavery, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, assassination, poverty, institutionalized bribery, remote-controlled flying death robots and somewhere down the list, between prison labor and lagoons of toxic pig shit, there is almost certainly a special place in our national heart for freedom.
Yey!
04/03/2011 • 3:09 am 0
democracy never
09/01/2011 • 9:54 pm 0
how sarah palin talks about basketball games
To the teams that desire making it this far next year: Gear up! In the battle, set your sights on next season’s targets! From the shot across the bow – the first second’s tip-off – your leaders will be in the enemy’s crosshairs, so you must execute strong defensive tactics. You won’t win only playing defense, so get on offense! The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons – your Big Guns – to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win.
Focus on the goal and fight for it. If the gate is closed, go over the fence. If the fence is too high, pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, parachute in. If the other side tries to push back, your attitude should be “go for it.” Get in their faces and argue with them. (Sound familiar?!) Every possession is a battle; you’ll only win the war if you’ve picked your battles wisely. No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD!
-link
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
31/12/2010 • 5:23 pm 0
remember judith miller?
Judith “aluminium tubes” Miller was the so-called journalist for the NY Times who acted as a stenographer for the US government rather than as an actual reporter.
What ever happened to her?
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
30/12/2010 • 1:36 am 0
the stupidity of the national review summarized
The blizzard is definitely a force for conservatism, and not only because it has had the global-warming crowd scrambling for explanations.
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
07/12/2010 • 10:35 pm 0
propaganda
Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said the New York Times may have committed a crime by publishing classified documents provided by WikiLeaks and called for the Justice Department to investigate.
“To me, New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship. And whether they’ve committed a crime, I think that bears very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department,” Lieberman said when asked whether the Times could be charged for publishing the documents.
During the interview with Fox News, Lieberman also questioned why WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has not been charged with treason by the Justice Department.
-link
A judge could order an indictment of Assange sealed until such time as the US is able to apprehend him, or until he is in custody in a nation from which he is likely to be extradited. The purpose of such secrecy would be to keep the WikiLeaks chief from going even further underground.
At least one prominent US legal analyst thinks this is just the sort of thing that is going on.
“I would not be at all surprised if there was a sealed arrest warrant currently in existence against [Assange],” said CNN legal expert Jeffrey Toobin on Wednesday. “That question is whether the American authorities can find him and bring him back to the United States for trial.”
In recent days US military officials have been talking about the WikiLeaks matter as if more is going on, legally speaking, than may meet the eye. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said that the military has enlisted FBI agents in its investigation of the matter, which could mean that someone who is not a uniformed US military person is about to be charged, or has been.
-link
The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 – May 3 in Washington, D.C. UNESCO is the only UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom of the press.
The theme for next year’s commemoration will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.
-link
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
24/11/2010 • 9:30 pm 0
the second rule of holes
From Matt Taibbi’s hilarious take on Thomas Friedman’s writing:
Remember Friedman’s take on Bush’s Iraq policy? “It’s OK to throw out your steering wheel,” he wrote, “as long as you remember you’re driving without one.” Picture that for a minute. Or how about Friedman’s analysis of America’s foreign policy outlook last May:
The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging.When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.”
First of all, how can any single person be in three holes at once? Secondly, what the fuck is he talking about? If you’re supposed to stop digging when you’re in one hole, why should you dig more in three? How does that even begin to make sense? It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if the editors over at the New York Times editorial page spend their afternoons dropping acid or drinking rubbing alcohol. Sending a line like that into print is the journalism equivalent of a security guard at a nuke plant waving a pair of mullahs in explosive vests through the front gate. It should never, ever happen.
23/11/2010 • 5:04 pm 0
the truth about california
California’s a basket case? The state has one of the highest living standards in the country, yet over the past 10 years the economy has still grown much faster, per person, than the national average. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, it’s up 15% — compared to 8.9% for the U.S. overall.
It’s grown faster than low tax neighbors like Arizona, Utah or New Mexico. It’s grown three times faster than Texas.
15/08/2010 • 5:34 pm 0
priorities
Paul Krugman points out the silliness of the Social Security debate.
Spending on war goes from 3% of GDP in 2001 to 4.2% today.
No big deal.
Social Security is projected to go from 4.8% of GDP today to 6% of GDP in 2030.
It’s a major crisis!
Filed under: economy, politics, the stupid - it burns!
30/07/2010 • 12:53 am 0
communism with chinese characteristics
Is China’s growth due to adoption of capitalism?
Over at Slate, Christopher Beam lists the numerous ways in which China is still a highly centrally-planned state, and then claims that, “The irony is that the Communist leadership structure is geared toward capitalist ends. For example, regional leaders are evaluated every year based on economic growth in their domains”.
Matthew Yglesias claims that:
the approach of today’s CCP is arguably right in line with Lenin’s New Economic Policy or the ideas of Nikolai Bukharin and Mikhail Gorbachev all of whom certainly thought they were Communists. Indeed, if you ask me the status quo in China is pretty similar to the agenda outlined in the Communist Manifesto. Similarly, when Bean says “irony is that the Communist leadership structure is geared toward capitalist ends” he turns out to mean that it’s geared toward economic growth. Growth is something that the post-1960s far left is typically skeptical of, but Karl Marx and all the leaders of the USSR espoused the view that policy should be geared toward maximizing growth.
My knee-jerk assumption was always that China’s recent growth is due to adoption of Western-style capitalism. Then again since nothing left of Western-style capitalism is allowed into the realm of discourse in the West….
16/07/2010 • 1:33 am 0
imagine
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters–the black protesters–spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government. Would these protesters–these black protesters with guns–be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment
Filed under: politics
09/07/2010 • 3:27 am 0
lemonade stand communist menace
I thought this was a joke at first. Apparently not.
Last week, I was in a car with my brother and his fiancee, driving through their upscale neighborhood on a hot summer day. At the corner, we all noticed three little girls sitting at a homemade lemonade stand.
…
…my brother asked how much each item cost.“Oh, no,” they replied in unison, “they’re all free!”
…
That really set me off, as my regular readers can imagine.“No!” I exclaimed from the back seat. “That’s not the spirit of giving. You can only really give when you give something you own. They’re giving away their parents’ things — the lemonade, cups, candy. It’s not theirs to give.”
I pushed the button to roll down the window and stuck my head out to set them straight.
The author of this screed publishes a column that you can read for free on the internet. But the best part is that the author believes the children should sell the lemonade because it isn’t theirs to give away. You shouldn’t give away things that aren’t yours…you should charge money for things that aren’t yours!
American capitalism circa 2010 A.D.
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
05/07/2010 • 11:42 pm 0
what it means to be a moderate
The NPR building in downtown Washington is the closest thing there is to a liberal Death Star.
Whiskey tango foxtrot.
He watched a lot of movies in college. He gets liberals.
It’s like watching a train wreck.
If his even-handedness feels calculated, that’s because it is. Anytime he speaks with a Republican senator, he tries to talk to a Democrat next. If he reads National Review’s The Corner, he then visits the Huffington Post.
Noted without comment.
Matt Taibbi on True/Slant called Brooks, among other things, a “spineless Beltway geek” on a “pencil-pusher’s eternal quest for macho cred” who “looks like a professional groveler/ass-kisser” and is “the kind of person who even in his spare time would pay a Leona Helmsley look-alike a thousand dollars to take a shit on his back.”
Recreational preferences aside, Brooks says he agrees with some of the criticism. “Often you’ll read a commentary about the column and think, That’s actually correct,” he says.
Filed under: politics, the stupid - it burns!
19/06/2010 • 8:07 pm 3
the reagan revolution
It seems that you can look at a chart of almost anything and right around 1981 or soon after you’ll see the chart make a sharp change in direction, and probably not in a good way
