constructive destruction

duck... and cover

2012-02-09T17:16:00.001-08:00

hay y'all doan lissena them treehuggin hippehs...

2012-02-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

...this heah's The Sow-th & we aint havin no Foo Koo Sheenaweena or whutever them chinks call that place.

*********

also: clean, green power

hey goatie, here's your leash!

2012-02-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

1) Irony at full sprint around the bases even though it's over the center-left field wall:

Essay at The Atlantic - When Journalists Write Like Flacks, Author - Jeffrey Goldberg.

2) Chomsky-esque goat-roping, using the technique of shrinking the acceptable limits of debate:

By fighting terrorism with covert CIA actions, President Obama deprives us of the ability to meaningfully evaluate American foreign policy.

Instead of judging (a) whether the CIA should do anything at all; (b) whether the CIA's mission should include things outside information-gathering and cataloging -- like fomenting discord in foreign cultures, for example; (c) whether any of the CIA's activity should be secret; (d) whether the USA should be involved in the affairs of any foreign nation; (e) whether anything we're told by Uncle Sam's minions is true, ever; or (f) any other issue/question you might imagine on the subject of Mother's Brother Samuel's "foreign policy" ambitions and activities and its legitimacy and/or the legitimacy of any of its constituent parts...

...instead of any of that...

...we get Yuppie Self-Proclaimed Expert on Foreign Policy, Conor Friedensdorf, writing such pap as

The War in Iraq is mostly over. We're drawing down forces in Afghanistan. Barring an unexpected terrorist attack or another Libya-style troop deployment, Election 2012 will proceed in a world where the War on Terrorism is being waged by intelligence agencies making drone strikes in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and one in which we may be taking covert action inside Iran too.

In others words, much of American foreign policy will be a state secret.

Think about what that means for democracy.

The war in Iraq is over? No, it's not. We're still the invading force, even though MoBroSam pitches the whole gig as though we were asked to step in, establish a permanent presence, and take control over Iraq's oil and related infrastructure. There's assumed fact number one from our man Conor.

We're drawing down forces in Afghanistan? What, "drawing down" but staying there? Isn't this just the proclamation that Barrio Bama made quite a few years back, that we're "drawing down" in Afghanistan? Isn't the reality opposite that, unless we assume we never ever had a presence there? If we're there in ANY context, we only "draw down" to give an appearance of leaving. Right? There's assumed fact number two from Conor the Bravely Expert and Generously Sagacious Foreign Policy Scholar-in-training.

Barring an unexpected terrorist attack? What? Hey, My Man Conor... have you noticed that Barrio Bama has said that he can declare anyone, anywhere to be a "terrorist" and thereby entitle himself, on behalf of Terrorist-Hating Americans, to detain indefinitely, injure, torture, dissappear and/or kill such a "terrorist"? Aren't you assuming that there's some honest brand-recognition veracity with the term "terrorist" and that it's always applied judiciously, fairly, and with the highest sense of detached objectivity in the naming? Sheesh. That's assumed fact numero tres, Senor Friedensdorf.

The entire essay is one which repeatedly reinforces the Official Story As Rendered By Barrio Bama And His Merry Band of Highly Competent Junior Executives... and reinforces the Nobility and Supremely Humane Purpose of MoBroSam's Foreign Policy -- if we just get the CIA to admit it shouldn't do such wicked things now and then!

3) WhiffFN of his 7-iron tee shot on the 143-yard par 3 -- you're now hitting 3, rather than 1, reminds the caddy.

PCR, talking about war on Iran:

Also on February 2, Gareth Porter reported that General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed the Israeli government that the US would not join Israel’s aggression against Iran unless Washington had given prior approval for the attack.

Porter interprets Dempsey’s warning as a strong move by President Obama to deter an attack that would involve Washington in a regional conflagration with Iran. A different way to read Dempsey’s warning is that Obama wants to hold off on attacking Iran until polls show him losing the presidential election.

What?

More like, what MoBroSam wants to achieve, he can easily achieve indirectly. Redheaded stepchild Land of King David can be the lunch-hour bully and demand Iran's milk money or else, while MoBroSam sits back and issues stern qualifications on whether he will turn a blind eye to the bully's bullying when it becomes less verbal and more physical. This makes MoBroSam look wise, calm and detached. And in comparison, Davidland looks hotheaded, angry and bellicose.

During the course of the initial flare-up, Trash-Bin Net&Yahoo will again lecture Barrio Bama on the Hitler-like threat posed by Ahmadinejad: they want to wipe us off the map! Alan Deresciewicz, stage name Dershowitz, will leap up and down, spittle flying all around him, screaming about the anti-Semites in America who won't allow MoBroSam to go to Davidland's aid to stop The Satanic Hitler of the 21st Century. Martin Amis will remind us of the horrible threats posed by Middle Eastern Nations Not Run By Followers of Judaism.

Obama doesn't need to worry about re-election. PCR misses the boat here. Pwogs and other smug eedjits will forgive Obama anything, as long as they can gain moral playground cred and politically correct street rep for again electing Our First Black President. Post-racism as The Preferred Image of America is more powerful than the stench of rotting flesh in Iran or anything else someone might lay at Barrio Bama's doorstep.

Which would take us back to the sprinting irony of (1), wouldn't it?

____________________

FN- Actually a water hole and the ball went swimming; technically a water hazard penalty stroke; functionally in missing the green or surrounding fairway/fringe, a whiff.

ndaa... hey... get yer sopa off my pipa!

2012-02-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

Peoples Universal Rainbow Republic (PURR)

February 4, 2012

Karl Franz Ochstradt
Internet Asshole
c/o "constructive destruction"
http://pezcandy.blogspot.com

Dear Asshole:

We at PURR are entirely without empathy for your racist and bigoted Cracker hysteria. You think it's your prerogative to dictate what women do with their wombs! This cannot stand. You mock honorable intellectual professional progressives, which undercuts The Movement. You show dangerous disrespect to the most noble man in our nation, who just happens to be our First Black President, Barack Hussein Obama. And you have repeatedly insulted Our National Treasure and Living Legend, the Eidetically Superior Professor-for-Eternity, Noam Chomsky.

Consequently, in view of the threat to National Security posed by you and your website, we have reported you to The Honorable Janet Napolitano, Administrator of Homeland Security, and to Michael Chertoff, MOSSAD/Shin Bet liaison to the Hon. Madame Administrator Napolitano.

It is our sincere hope that your redneck Christer Pig Rethuglican Apologist agenda dies and/or disappears with you.

Fuck you very truly,

(signature redacted for PURR Security)

Guccibag Kittypu Ringandrun, Esq.
PURR Attorney-in-Fact
and Notable Media Critic
frillyblouse@brigadiersofpropriety.com

************************************

/message transcript intercepted by DHS liaison Chertoff/

/to: frillyblouse@brigadiersofpropriety.com/

/from: KFOEsq@oill.com/

/content beginning/

Hey GK, long time no scathe. Glad to see all remains the same at your end.

1) Kindly tell your pal Mikey that he can go pound his tough-guy skeletor fists into a bin of broken glass shards. (you get that, Mikey?)

2) Your mind's lack of any concept of comedy remains ironically enlightening and useful as fodder for certain writers.

3) Have you noticed how naturally you assume the Totalitarian Mantle?

Later pal.

/content end/

/DHS triggers: Mikey, skeletor, Totalitarian/

/message sent 05 February 2012 07:57 Eastern Standard Time/

peelohs & spyns

2012-02-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

doody nau

2012-02-04T06:43:00.001-08:00

...for the future!

the vacuum's in need of more...

2012-02-03T20:13:00.000-08:00

...dust?

Beyond the ken of the PowerNoggin stand The Monks, whose efforts defied Parchment Power, ignored Meritorious Accomplishments Tallied in a CV, shirked the Professional Obligation to Use Polysyllabics, and cared not a whit for the partisan pukings of Enlightened Pwog vs Rethug Christer...

I'm pretty sure they didn't give a flying fuck about Glossy Karl or "labor organizing" or any other triangulation tactic favored by "leftists"

pwoggie theme song

2012-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

we must control everyone who is not just like Pwogwessive Us!

I know many PowerNoggin Pwogs whose solution to Evil Rethuglicans is take 'em out. Not surprisingly, often these Pwogs are fans of King David's Murderous Country, where the operative solution to all problems is take 'em out.

I love people who use a perspective that was suitable to the simians in the opening scene of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey... especially when they call themselves "progressive"!

sorry nonny

2012-02-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have to wade back in for a moment.

"Doctor" Michael Hudson, bean-counting psy-op warrior working for Circus Clown/Supermax Punk Dennis Kucinich, throws a big steaming pile of Hudsonfeces in his conversation with Max Keiser. Fast forward to 10:50 here:

Ron Paul has not said that he wants centralized planning by bankers. Ron Paul has not excused the thievery that's been ongoing in the "bailouts." How does Hudson get this perspective? By LYING, that's how!

Using typical 2012 PowerNoggin goat-roping, Hudson's comments re Ron Paul prior to the 10:50 timepoint are honest. He credits Paul with being the only GOP candidate who is anti-war, anti-imperialism, and anti-militarism.

But then, Hudson says that "the guy I work for" (Kucinich) is holding a similar view on the Dembot side of things.

This is a lie.

Kucinich already has proved his anti-imperialist fraudulence by cowing repeatedly whenever "pressured" by SuperMandingo.

To say Kucinich is as anti-imperialist as Ron Paul is laughable -- if you know the facts.

But if you're a PowerNoggin who knows facticity instead of facts, you look for reasons to love Kucinich and hate Paul, based merely on partisan alliance. So you'll believe Hudson's facticity despite the actual facts being contrary.

As to Austrian economics, they do not summarize simply to "centralized planning by bankers who can do whatever they like."

This would assume that a reformatting of the US Economy would leave existing bankers and banking structure in place.

What Hudson is whining about, indirectly, is this: he believes in big government and big regulatory schemes. And he knows PowerNoggins feel likewise, and fear almost more than anything the shrinking of government and the dissolution of regulatory schemes -- even where the regulatory frames show no real positive for anyone but the regulated entities!

Hudson's playing on the same themes that Bettybitch Warren played on: good "professional" people TRUST their government because they BELIEVE their government REGULATES the "bad guys" (...and by "REGULATES" it is assumed the regulatory activity limits or eliminates destructive behavior within the regulated community).

Even if Hudson correctly has identified a partisan fear of "professionals" and "progressives" and other PowerNoggins, and even if he's wisely tapping into Stepford Wife Warren's arguments, Ron Paul's position hasn't been what Hudson says. It hasn't been that ANYWHERE at ANY TIME.

And I'd defy "Doctor" Michael Hudson to offer his proofs regarding Paul's supposed position.

But I won't hold my breath.

...and now, I return to the land of FUCK YOU, POWERNOGGINS!

***********

related:

American Exceptionalism; or, It’s Not State Capitalism When America Does It

The Corporate State: A House Divided Against Itself

End War by Ending the State

The Lost Generation’s Call To Action

fuck google

2012-01-31T06:56:00.000-08:00

lewdies & skints, I'm leaving the Toobz. it's been a riot.

scratch your favorite dog behind the ears, bro. catch you on the flipper.

***********

PS: Fuck Chomsky. Fuck Marx. Fuck Marxists. Fuck PowerNoggin pretentious fucksticks. Fuck "feminists." Fuck every single fucker among you out there who thinks the problem is SOMEONE ELSE and not yourself.

"old" is a perspective

2012-01-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

from SkiRacing.com --

Cuche nips Guay for Garmisch win, Bode punished

The record for oldest man to win a World Cup race got another week added on when Didier Cuche outperformed the field in a fog shortened “sprint” at Garmisch Saturday (Jan 28) for his second straight downhill win, his third win of the season and 20th of his career.

The finish, with Erik Guay second, reversed the order of last season's World Championship race on an adjoining course. Historically Garmisch has been good to Canadian Guay and that trend held, getting his first podium of the season. Austria again missed the top spot but had Hannes Reichelt in third.

All three had to wait until the 46th skier came down to get comfortable as Bode Miller was dropped back from start 16 to that start position as punishment for being late for the public bib draw. The race start was moved to the super G start due to fog blanketing the top of the course, a move anticipated by weather forecasts and mentioned as a possibility at the Team Captain's meeting the previous night.

It was a tight line and the usual impeccable execution that brought Cuche, 37 years-five months, his first win at Garmisch since 2004. While others tried to attack the Kandahar 2 course, missing the line made for a bumpier, more difficult track. Cuche took over the lead of the downhill standings from teammate Beat Feuz, the 23rd finisher on the day. * * *

Bode's iconoclastic approach does him harm sometimes.

Meanwhile, Cuche shows that age is a relative thing. But maybe his success has something to do with his training:

his neck matched his pink tutu

2012-01-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

...and was the result of a scant 90 seconds outside, the first long-term stay out-of-doors since he waited for a school bus on the last day of 12th grade, and even then it was in the shadows so no neck-pinking could occur, for he cherished a ghostly white look because he felt like a corpse most of the time, mostly because he hated The Godz for making him gay. "It's all your fault. All of you!" he would imagine himself screaming, if he were as big a drama queen as his idol Carrie in Stephen King's novel.

When he stumbled upon Charles Murray's latest, he found it necessary to "prove," with indirect implication-laden rhetorical puffery in big fluffy cumulus clouds of pretty adjectives and adverbs, just how elevated he was in comparison to Murray. He blathered on for paragraphs, congratulating himself with every keystroke, proud to be putting Murray in his place.

For any half-awake person with a passable level of processing power in his grey-matter CPU, this would be a dull horse-corpse-thumping exercise -- Murray's idiocy being well established long ago in the form of racist pandering; Murray's complete lack of present gravitas means Murray needs no vituperative vivisection right now.

But this bothered pink-neck well beyond the scope of what Murray's "rep" would have warranted. It was personal for pink-neck.

The other members of the High School Zombies crowd, "goths" and "witches" and the like themselves when in HS, lined up to help pink-neck throw nerf-bombs at Murray.

And as I stood on the sidelines, watching them get their long-festering revenge that had been brewing since puberty, I laughed.

What really bothered them, more than anything, was that Murray was correct this time. Murray pinged them dead-center-bullseye with his bubble accusation.

In their eyes, there were only two classes -- the brilliant, exalted class they occupied themselves, and the gaggle of reactionary Christers, Crackers and Rednecks whom they feared more than everything but the truth about American Class.

*******************

The self-congratulatory Frilly Blouse Brigadiers are a fine subset of PowerNoggin, and it's funny when they try awfully hard to distinguish themselves from cookie-cutter liberals and progressives, imagining themselves brighter, more self-aware, more elevated culturally or socially.

not a speck of mud

2012-01-27T13:55:00.001-08:00

the unclean

2012-01-27T12:54:00.001-08:00

I could tell you...

2012-01-27T12:37:00.001-08:00

blow away windbag!

2012-01-26T17:18:00.001-08:00

M'aiq gets better with every iteration. I wish I could say the same for MondoWeiss, or the recent installment there from Bruce Wolman - The antiwar movement must rise again. Now

Wolman suggests that a genuine Anti-War candidate is within the "progressives" in the Democratic Party right now. I find this laughable, since the only candidate who dares question Mother's Brother Samuel's Plans for Eternal Empire is a nominal Republican named Ron Paul. And Ron Paul isn't "progressive," according to most Democrats, liberals, "progressives" and "leftists" that I know.

If the Democrats or their supposedly real subset known as the "progressives" have such a candidate, where is he? Or she?

The nearest thing they've had in my lifetime was Cynthia McKinney and they chased her out of the party! First they ran someone against her because she was too outspoken against MoBroSammy, and then they ignored her completely, causing her to quit the Donkey Brigade.

Has Wolman been pulling hash hits off the hookah?

Nobody anwhere on the landscape of 2012 POTUS candidates comes close to Ron Paul where anti-war and anti-imperialism are concerned. I don't know how those Donklebots persuade themselves that there is anyone else.

I don't mean to say that making Ron Paul our POTUS in Jan 2013 by virtue of rigged counts made in Nov 2012 is what will solve our imperial, bloodthirsty and destructive ambitions.

But if you believe in casting a vote for POTUS for whatever reason, why not choose Ron Paul? What are your best reasons for not choosing him?

I'll give you mine: voting doesn't matter; they don't care what I think; even the most noble POTUS (har har har) couldn't make headway against a Congress and SCOTUS dead set in opposition -- even with the Unified Executive nonsense that we have now (which is as much accession as it is legalized gameplaying) a solitary noble heroic POTUS won't fix things.

But if those points don't affect your view on the value of voting, how about you explain why you won't vote for Ron Paul?

And try to do a better job than M'aiq, eh?

Otherwise, I just wanted to have a few good laughs at Wolman's list of Influential and Important People. These are the people that Wolman thinks are in charge of Anti-War sentiment in America. It's a pretty laughable list.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that publishers, pundits and bloggers such as Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, Katha Pollitt, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Matt Stoller, Cenk Uygur, folks at this site, and whoever else you want to name, put aside their differences and call a meeting to initiate the organization of a single-focused "No More Middle East War" movement. Sirota can negotiate to bring along the Ron Paul people. If organized and positioned correctly, it should be again able to gain broad public support. Even significant support from our soldiers and their families should be possible. We need an American Spring.

What does David Sirota know about people who intend to vote for Ron Paul? How could he possibly know anything about them?

The other listed names are classic goat-roping lib/pwoggies and in Sully's case, Creators of Scandalous Gossip.

Well now that you're all rounded up, little goats, how about we get behind someone like Dennis Kucinich so we can watch him be The Punk of SuperMax again, like he was on Health Care Reform.

Hell yeah. That sounds productive and professional!

phrenology re. MoBroSam

2012-01-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

A leading phrenologist shaved Mother's Brother Samuel's noggin and proceeded to divine MoBroSam's future based upon the lumps, cranial sutures, etc palpated by the esteemed phrenologist. These were his findings.

1) A national emergency will be declared.

2) As terms of the status requiring such declaration, Enemies of the State will be explicitly identified. Current Vegas odds show the following as running favorites with very low odds:

* Muslims
* people who have criticized the US federal government, Israel or Zionism in any spoken conversation, presentation, speech, lecture or harangue
* people who have criticized the US federal government, Israel or Zionism in an email, text message, or internet communication (forum comment, blog post, blog comment, etc)

3) Persons identified as Enemies of the State under (2) either overtly (willingly; including self-description) or procedurally by declaration of MoBroSam through one of his many emissaries working through Fusion Centers or as Terrorism Tipsters will be rounded up for transportation to HomSec holding centers with no due process and in some cases without any notice to loved ones, employer(s), etc.FN

4) Persons held at such detention camps will receive no better treatment than Bradley Manning, who --it must be remembered-- was a member of MoBroSam's uniformed employees of the type who generally receive preferential treatment from good ol' Uncle.

5) Persons who have made blog, e-forum, etc. commentary of a satiric, comic, or in-character literary exercise variety will not be able to avoid culpability by pointing to their intent. Words will be taken at face value and the witch hunts of Joe McCarthy looking for "communisssss" among the nation's writers will pale in comparison.

6) Bloggers who have appeared to be champions of civil rights like Glenn Greenwald or David Michael Green or "digby" or Jane Hamsher or Duncan Black will be seen as the toadies of the State that they really are, at their cores. They will not be arrested, or if such arrests occur they will be brief "lessons" equivalent to the kinds of warnings po-po give to pretty women after they run 3 red lights and travel at 35mph over the limit. They will be calling for people to hew closer to safety by watching their words, etc. The corruption will be worse than the MoveOn/HowieDean/Kossie Zuniga fiasco. We'll find out how money has bought pseudo-critical journalism's keyboards.

7) Your friends will fracture, fragment, and fizzle. Some will behave strangely. Those with whom you already seem to be at crossed paths sociopolitically might just turn you in to HomSec. Or they might ask you for certain "favors" that end up causing you to need reporting to HomSec. The range of responses will vary. Some will just hand you right to the lynchman; others will do it through steps that hide responsibility. MoBroSam will enable the latter group, natch.

8) As a token gesture, either (A) the SCOTUS will reverse Citizens United v. F.E.C.; or (B) the Congress will pass a law that essentially nullifies that decision. In either case, legions of "liberals" and "progressives" will claim that there has been a real Sea Change in Governmental response to citizen protest. But the fact that Buckley v Valeo remains valid law will be lost on those who believe real changes were made.

9) If pressures regarding anti-"corporate" rhetoric should continue, Congress will pass legislation to create Public Financing of US House of Representatives and US Senate seats. However, the next following election will prove that this formal change did nothing of substance because the winning candidates still receive assorted anonymous "gifts" from un-named sources, and the "public" financing gives nearly as much as the most expensive campaign spending for a US Senate seat in 2010.

10) Erik Prince's Academi employees take to the streets of America, murdering hundreds of Americans on suspicion of being Islamic or sympathetic to Islamists. A big public blowup occurs, Congress empanels a Blue Ribbon Coalition of Its Most Powerful Noggins, who conclude that Academi did no wrong, but for PR purposes it should reform under a new name and uniform, etc.

11) Lady Gaga becomes Barack Hussein Obama's White House Chief of Staff for the 2013-2017 term, but some time during 2015 is replaced by a pixelated character from Avatar 2: Green Sky Mining.

12) Two justices of the SCOTUS vacate seats on that hallowed bench. To fill the seats, Second Term Obama appoints the gay asian man who played ~~Seth~~FN2 Jeremy Piven's secretary on Entourage, and ani di franco. Within a month the SCOTUS overturns Roe v Wade and approves gay marriage over the complaints of those arguing 10th A federalism and states rights. Gays, lesbians and feminists who are neither gay nor lesbian, millions in total, jump off the Dissatisfaction trip and claim All is Well.FN3

13) Obama creates a Department of Green Technology and Commerce and taps the CEO of Monsanto to be its Secretary. By the hundred millions, "environmentalists" jump on board the All is Well train.

14) Obama attaches a signing statement onto a Congressional bill approving a 50% pay raise for all Congresscritters. The statement requires a $1.75 kick upward in the Federal Minimum Wage. "Labor activists" by the hundred-thousands climb aboard the All is Well train.

______________________________

FN - No notice of duration of detention will be given and, under present Federal law, none is required. So at least that won't be unConstitutional, or anything!

FN2 - The "Seth" error was a short-circuit due to Seth Tiven from Dumptruck and Tiven/Piven.

FN3 - In a surprise Twofer, the group Friends of Abortion comes out in favor of HomSec's treatment as "domestic terrorists" of a group of "pro-life" advocates who are picketing FoA's headquarters in the Adams-Morgan section of DC. The picketers are TASERed, cuffed, sedated, and carried off to HomSec detention centers across the nation, keeping the picketers as separated as possible. Feminists of all genders, sexual identities and stripes gather on the Ellipse 9 months later to give birth to A New Movement Keeping Laws Off Women's Bodies.

frazier vs ali

2012-01-25T13:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Krawling Fraud O'archingandstrident,

Your blog sickens me. I have never encountered such an egomaniacal intellectual tyrant as yourself! The very fact that your blog exists is a testament to the vileness of the Internet and why we need SOPA and PIPA to protect us from undesirable and unwanted influences. You also appear to despise women, which is a definite black mark against you in my social register. Forget about being invited to any of the Cool Kids functions in 2012. You're off the list, you troglodyte!

Sincerely,

Guccibag Kittypu Ringandrun, Esq.
Notable Media Critic and Attorney-in-Fact
Peoples Universal Rainbow Republic (PURR)

Dear GK Ringandrun, Esq,

I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy professional day to humble me. Every man needs a humbler in his life to keep him honest. Hopefully some day I can return the favor. Meanwhile, please go see your optometrist, I believe he has news for you. Etc., and whatever else applies here.

Ignorantly,

Karl Franz Ochstradt
Internet Savant and Provocateur
The Great Nothingness of Dystopia

fyoo shin

2012-01-25T12:32:00.000-08:00

...is not a long-lost Chinese dynasty.

It's one of HomSec's most hallowed features!

Here's some stuff you may find interesting:

US Department of Homeland Security - National Network of Fusion Centers

ACLU - What's Wrong with Fusion Centers?

US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs - Fusion Centers and Intelligence Sharing

Electronic Privacy Information Center - Information Fusion Centers and Privacy

TIME Magazine - Fusion Centers: Giving Cops Too Much Information?

Council on Foreign Relations - Fusion Centers

National Lawyers Guild - Canaries in the Data Mines – Civil libertarians raise alarm over America’s national surveillance network

one of the rare occasions that Dave Lindorff hit his target... National Lawyers Guild Files FOIA Requests Seeking Evidence of Federal Role in Occupy Crackdown

okay, now that you've got some context, how about this?

******************

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

LA Military Exercises

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Joint military training exercises will be held evenings in downtown Los Angeles through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said.

Training sites ``have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routine,'' a department official said.

The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites, police said.

Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved.

The exercises are closed to the public, police said.

The exercises are designed to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.

Posted by David Perez, KFI News

******************

or this:

Helicopters Buzzing Downtown Part of Joint Military Exercises Supported by LAPD

By Dennis Romero Tue., Jan. 24 2012 at 12:56 PM

As if the downtown area isn't already alive with the sound of ghetto birds, the LAPD announced this week that it will be conducting exercises with U.S. Armed Forces.

And those nighttime exercises will include buzzing, ominous helicopters.

So don't trip out, crackhead at Fourth and Hill streets:

This is only a test.

The "joint military training exercises" being supported by our fine po-pos are being staged, in part, "to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments," according to an LAPD statement.

They're happening tonight through Thursday.

And, just in case you planned to reach out and grab one of those Apaches, the LAPD warns:

... Safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and the military personnel involved. As such, this training is not open to the public.

Darn.

******************

Well, the whole thing surely reeks of this:

...and I think there's quite a few people who would like to see such a thing happen, because they're already being told to fear everyone who's not exactly like them.

And of course the po-po are being told to hate any suspected Muslim, hate to the point of aggressively defending one's self against the mere presence of suspected Islamic affiliation.

fucking memes

2012-01-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

"trust horizons" and "trust spaces"?

from Kunstlerville:

Your formulation makes sense, but it's not true that we've 'never before experienced' a world of low vertical and high horizontal trust. This was exactly the formulation of the socialist movements, which emphasized international solidarity even as they sought either to overthrow or transform national governments.

Where socialist movements stayed on the path of low vertical trust, the result was totalitarian Communism. On the other hand, where they sought to restore high vertical trust, the result was the welfare state on either the European or New Deal models, and the familiar middle-class world of widely-shared prosperity which is now unfortunately beginning to crumble. The lesson is that trying to smash the state works out worse for everyone than working to fashion it into something that is worth trusting.

Dude,

dressing up your arrogant notions of Ultimate Truth with new "memes" about trust horizons doesn't make your pseudo-Truth any less mendacious.

You're still arguing change from within, change of a system that has long past proving utility to, or reshaping by, the vast majority who are not its beneficiaries.

Sure, you're frightened by the prospect of wiping the slate clean. Who will remove your 55gal can of weekly trash? Where will you get energy to power your iPad, iPod, iPhone, Kindle?

You can't fathom being responsible for yourself FIRST, can you?

You can't imagine how being so responsible is the only way to build a solid, quasi-interdependent society of meaningful and practical size-scope-scale, can you?

Did you raise or are you raising children? You didn't have a roadmap for child-rearing. Yet you did it, didn't you?

Do you remember your first big exam in school, one that comprised a good portion of your mark in that grading period? Did you whinge and keen and wail like a banshee about the inequity of so much responsibility for your own grade? Or did you buckle down and do what was required?

Did you ever have a flat tire on your gasoline-powered vehicle? How did you manage that one?

Are you really so incompatible with self-sufficiency that you will require others to suffer, so that you may be coddled?

Seriously?

I'm gonna suggest you go drink some hemlock, bro.

useless labels

2012-01-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

(in over-achiever 110% effort free-association mode here)

By virtue of repeated existential dilemmas I became interested in human psychology and the field of "medicine" which calls itself "psychiatry." I took this curiosity down several paths. I spent time reading theories of Freud and Jung and Horney and Adler and many others. I read Skinner, Kierkegaard, Castaneda, Pearce, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and learned about existentialism, stoicism, mysticism, determinism, holism, essentialism, dislocation, disembodiment, fugue states. I read The Varieities of Religious Experience and tried out a Presbyterian church for two years which led me to Lewis, Kreeft, Niebuhr, St Augustine. The religion didn't take but it gave a nice corrective lens through which to see certain human impulses (tribalism, exclusion/-ivity, secret handshakes, re-ordered "reality", resignation to "fate" or "God's will," original sin, chosen-ness). I got into Walker Percy's modern existentialist/moralist novels -- really into them, in fact! Percy sometimes seemed like he was writing from my own thoughts.

The digging was much deeper and broader than just said. I can't remember everything I did; I don't take notes when reading for curiosity (rather than academic obligation); I take books from libraries and never add them to my collection, and I don't always keep my books after reading them. I've gone through several poverty waves where I've sold books and sometimes books I'd rather were kept. Also as an introspective person who really prefers his own mind's company to the company of actual fellow humans, I spent a lot of time thinking and interrelating all those things I read. My natural tendency is to find connections between the various points I've gathered in my cranial infovault. I don't read in order to memorize passages that I can eidetically recite in a cocktail party or e-forum to sound impressive. That idea seems childish, way too much "look at ME!" going on there. I'd rather make use of the information, cross-breed it like Gregor Mendel and his pea plants, find some new perspective that nobody else is sharing. Or, conversely, notice that some Hero or other is actually a stooge but worshiped by many regardless, out of naivete or confidence racket patsy status.

In the fields of human psychology proper, what I gathered was that each major "scholar" or "expert" or recognized "thinker" generally was conveying how he/she experienced the world, and not really writing laws that will predict human behavior. But most of the fellow students I had in HS and collegiate psychology classes (and their analogues in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, historyFN) seemed to misunderstand those fields' experts as trying to establish Ultimate Truths.

This is a common problem among Americans. They are tribalist by nature, most of them (I'd say probably 95% of them), and their tendency is to see things in reductionist binary (us vs them, our truths vs their truths). We see it in religious wars. Jews and Christians believe that their variants are superior to the Islamic variant or that of any other major world religion. Loyal Democrats think their world-view is far superior to that of their adversaries the Republicans. And these tribal preferences extend into "ultimate truths."

Freud's emphasis on ego/superego/id, on sex drive primacy, and on shit-piss obsessions reflected his experiences as a self-observant human child growing into adulthood, and his observations as a parent raising children. They didn't establish a core essentialism about humans. They portrayed the world seen by Freud, and derivatively by those who saw as he did, or experienced what he experienced, or pondered on those sights and experiences as he did. Or by those who read him and were convinced that they, too, saw things that way.

Just because someone rings a few truth-bells for you doesn't mean an Ultimate Truth has been established, however. Lots of humans on the planet; lots of varieties of human experiences, in the presence of parents and guardians and nannies and babysitters and school teachers whose own views and experiences are widely varied.

That's a pretty expansive set of influences we each have. From this we can divine Ultimate Truths that apply to everyone as predictors of human behavior?

Sounds pretty wobbly to me.

I know people who insist that stockpiling money is the surest way to existential security. They have told themselves this, and they try to emphasize its "truth" when observing my polar opposite view. They think it "naive" or "childish" or "irresponsible" to de-emphasize The Dollar or to allow one's exalted Credit Rating to be anything less than stellar. These people will take a degraded quality of life -- more traffic, more anxiety on the roads/streets, more danger to pedestrians, playing children, pets, more smog, more pavement, more lights-at-night, more competition in absurd settings like grocery store parking lots -- in exchange for Improved Housing Values, because they want to make Big Bucks on their house purchase.

Their "truth" surely doesn't apply to me. I'd prefer to only break even on a house at sale point, in exchange for none of those obnoxious indicia of "growth". I might even be willing to take a loss on a house, if the community gave me back other qualities that maybe weren't paid in The Dollar. Shouldn't one's decision to buy a house be a decision that relates to a desire to join a community of people, to put down roots in that community because it has a certain set of qualities you seek and want to reinforce jointly?

What explains the "house flipping" craze that has been going on during my adult lifetime?

What explains people who move to an uncrowded state to "slow down" but bring their citified attitudes of HURRY HURRY ALWAYS HURRY IT'S YOU AGAINST ME PAL AND I AIN'T GONNA LOSE! with them to the new place? How in hell do they expect to "slow down" when behaving that way? It always seems that such people don't really want to "slow down." What they want, really, is to be the Big Fish in the Small Pond, to be able to say "here's how we city folk do things, we're sophisticated and we do things the RIGHT WAY and you stupid hicks and rednecks do things the WRONG WAY and so we're going to "progress" your backward ways with more asphalt more streetlights more sidewalks more people driving 15+ mph over the limit more people texting while driving more people cocooning themselves with iPhone iPod iPad despite pretending to be out with others in their "community" more demands for urban lifestyle accessories and entitlements more fancy facilities for paddleboard input more extrawide oversimple trails for MTBs more easy for the weekend warrior because the dirtbags don't count don't rate don't earn because the moneymen run the town you STUPID REDNECK!"

You live through this shit for 3 cycles in 3 locales in your life and you start to wonder just why your fellow humans are so god-damned stupid and arrogant. And you wonder why they adhere to "progressive" and "liberal" causes within a party framework that delivers NOTHING of what they seem to think it intends to bring to the people of America. This hollow entity is supposed to be the "opposition" to the batshit insane neocons of the GOP!

Tribalism.

Is it any wonder that I blast holes in the armor of the pwogs, libbies, and Donkeys?

to maybe be continued... or maybe not.

______________________________

FN - I'd include "economics" here but I never took any classes in that bogus field, preferring to spend my money in other places. I didn't need to read much in that field independently to understand that its only academic sincerity is in being sociology from the perspective of money's importance (and to a lesser extent, the importance of "stuff" as Carlin would have called it) in the human realm.

that's what I've seen too

2012-01-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

All of this, I mean. That's what I've seen too.

At points in the past I've written essays and comments about the shift that runs:

peace officer ---> constable on patrol ---> policeman ---> law enforcement officer

and how those terms reflected the role at that point in American history. The implications of each label are pretty different -- obvious to me, though I don't know whether anyone else sees them or cares to.

There's also the addition of S.W.A.T. teams, which got a nice kick from Hollywood with this prime-time drama, which itself followed on the heels of a prime time drama hero-izing firemen and EMTs. They're definitely an aggressive form of "law enforcement" -- and definitely not indicative of people who aim to keep the peace. People who aim to keep the peace don't treat every situation as needing a military, materiel-heavy response.

But of course the Vietnam protests sure got MoBroSam worried, worried enough that Kent State was a conscious response to citizen dissatisfaction, even more worried that Kent State didn't slow things down.

With a plan to ready for crackdowns of a SWAT-team nature, it was only prudent business that the proper PR be done up front, to hero-ize the thuggish just-got-back-from-'Nam goons that went into SWAT positions, who were in a mindset of them hippies prolonged our mission and made us lose... I saw a buddy cut in half thanks to them fuckin hippies protesting back home and weakening morale and strengthening the enemy.

Dig?

We jump forward 30 years and here's our Uncle Sam's pal Erik Prince ready to show what whole platoons of uber-SWAT mercs can do for profit and pleasure. When the ugliness of their games becomes public, they rename themselves and gain new Ks from MoBroSam under a new disguise. They can repeat this cycle endlessly, it seems.

With all this happening, are you seriously going to take issue with Pete Kofod's essay just because you don't like the taint of Lew Rockwell or Ron Paul?

Yes, some of you are. You've got to hold onto your PowerNoggin status, eh? Besides, they just might be there to protect you from those Christers, Crackers and Rednecks you're absolutely certain intend to do you violence. It wouldn't be the refined, Ivy League alum, nice-suit-and-tie-wearing Top Businessmen and Captains of Industry, nor could it possibly be related to those 2d gen SiliVal entrepreneurs' agendas. No way selling more iStuff depends on Piggy control of a frightened, intimidated, cowed populace. No way, bro!

bullshit

2012-01-23T18:27:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court came to a landmark decision Monday morning, voting unanimously that police agencies must obtain search warrants before they can install GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of suspects.

Had the justices voted otherwise, local law enforcement agencies would have been legally protected to affix small devices on the cars of suspects, without their knowing, in order to monitor their every move on public roads.

Reality Times, Jan 23 2012

There's nothing "landmark" about this decision. Nothing at all.

Reality Times would have us believe that the police cannot and do not track people in ways other than bugging them or planting trackers on them.

Every cell phone sold now has GPS location. No warrant is required to use this "feature" against the cell phone holder/owner/user.

Police can follow any driver. Police can put radio transmitters on vehicles, but not GPS devices. If the driver or a passenger has a cell phone, why duplicate the GPS tracking?

The police have always sought ways to track "criminals" and have always excused their violations of any supposed "civil right" by claiming exigency, threat of flight, or similar "justifications" for their chicanery.

The police have always been thugs who protect the moneyed. If ever you suffer the foolish assumption that the police are here to protect you and serve you, you should try pushing your luck on whatever chosen "civil right" you think is most important, and see how The PoPo treat you in that luck-pushing.

eedjit o'crazy

2012-01-23T16:55:00.001-08:00

hah hah ho ho heh heh ...retch!

2012-01-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

from Lew Rockwell:

worth its own

2012-01-21T16:15:00.000-08:00

though I just linked to it by mental leap from Randal's comment here.

if there wasn't snow

2012-01-19T18:24:00.001-08:00

Fullscreen is mandatory.

broken record

2012-01-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I stumbled across a vein of Chomsky worship just a few minutes ago and here's what happened:

Corporatist Shills at Prison Planet Deride Keystone Pipeline Rejection in Support of Big Government Eminent Domain Seizures of Private Property caught my eye because of the "corporatist" accusation and the ground(s) for making it (suggesting soft fascism in Prison Planet's blatherings).

I read the entry and wasn't moved either way on the question of whether Alex Jones and Prison Planet are "corporatist." Whatever that means. I once had a corporation of my own, for the purpose of selling bicycle frames. Did that make me a "corporatist"? Does it now? I spent many years serving big corporations and small ones, mostly financial services entities. Did that make me a "corporatist" then? Does it now? Can it really be reduced to a single point in a person's working life? Can a person work for a corporation and not be a "corporatist"?

Ultimately it's a quarrel over the accuracy of a label or, more honestly, over the utility of that label.

I was also curious about the eminent domain tag.

Down in the discussion thread a person named "Greenmon" posted this:

Those guys don’t give a damn about freedom or justice. The only thing they care about is their damn property and ability to have a “free market” aka an excuse to make as much money as possible and exploit other people

Everyone, speaking of shills, please check out this unfettered bullshit from Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/story/153766/how_the_drug_war_spread_across_the_entire_world/?page=entire

Normally, I kinda like Alternet, but this is just pure revisionist history and a disservice to the people of Colombia (and the neighboring countries). It also highlights more of the establishment’s and their apologists’ hypocrisy: regardless of how ruthless rebels are, they are only bad when globalists say they are.

I hope I’m not overreacting, this just REALLY pissed me off…

and this:

Oh, and here is a great rebuttal:
http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/200310–02.pdf

Which prompted me to post this:

Citing Chomsky as a “rebuttal” of factual points is hilarious. He’s a master of cherry-picking and then restating rhetorically with a politically correct spin that protects Empire.

Don’t expect Chomsky’s self-description of “anti-Imperialist” to be accurate. Of all the places he could have chosen for a pulpit from which to issue his screeds, why did he choose MIT, the world’s largest weapons technology research university? MIT’s mission is to serve Empire.

Which would explain why he’s a multi-millionaire.

His eidetic memory gulls a lot of people. His facticity impresses those who can’t rattle off irrelevant facts themselves. His dry Talmudic scholar presentation lends false gravitas.

Yet many people who consider themselves intelligent fall for these various rhetorical and image-related tricks Chomsky plays on them.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

and this:

Despite what I said just above — I would agree with Greenmon’s assessment of AlterNet, which is a “progressive” goat-roping outlet. They rope Judas Goat “progressives” into a soft imperialist, apologist perspective by focusing mainly on the Evil Rethuglicans and playing on partisan urges and alignments held by Democrats — especially “progressives”.

Chomsky would be good compared to anyone I’ve read at AlterNet, but Chomsky pulls back the reins on a lot of relevant discussion, by distracting with rhetorical tricks –soft-pedaling mainly, while remaining critical of obvious flaws/errors etc in fed govt policy. Where he is critical is just enough to keep “progressives” and other “leftists” impressed with his acumen.

But he doesn’t go very far on many relevant global and domestic issues, and he does this by minimizing their relative importance. Usually he does this by conceding there are other issues or approaches to fixing issues, but then he minimizes them. In this regard, damning with faint praise is a regular trick of Chomsky’s.

and this:

When you read Greenmon’s linked ‘rebuttal’ — observe these points:

1) it’s an indirect appeal to Chomsky’s authority made by Doug Stokes

2) it assumes “international policy scholars” are the wisest people to consult when you think about any point of international policy

3) which suggests you, reader, are too stupid or ill-informed to hold a “serious” or “legitimate” position opinion of your own, and ought to be deferring to “IP scholars” instead

4) and because Doug Stokes implies Chomsky’s a genius and thanks him personally in his first footnote, we should assume Chomsky’s discussion of the issue(s) is all we need to consider

5) but what other points of view are legitimate? if they part from Chomsky in any way, are they automatically ILlegitimate? that’s what Stokes is suggesting!

Here's an easy way to think about the role Chomsky serves.

If I were in a position of federal governmental profiteering and employed politicians as my puppets and wanted to do a package of things, I would expect the political public spectacle to yield some criticism of the various things I wanted to do. I would factor this into the menu of things I wanted to achieve, and I would treat my goals as bargainable within certain limits.

I could treat it like buying a new motor vehicle with a small spending range in mind. I would set up my dream vehicle at my max price, and then bargain away various add-ons or options. Instead of getting a GPS system installed by the manufacturer for $1,875 as an option (which isn't that much on a 60-month note nut) I could maybe buy one as an aftermarket and install it myself saving $1,500 in the process. I could skip power door locks and power windows and power sunroof. I could skip the in-dash DVD player.

The dealer doesn't mind if I do this, not really. He makes a nice chunk on the base vehicle as it is. Don't let anyone tell you differently -- especially not the salesman who's pitching the vehicle, nor his "manager" or whatever they call the upstream upseller.

Wow, it's getting confusing now isn't it? Who's bargaining things away here? Who's losing what?

See, your head's spinning with all the facticity I threw at you, confusing you with pseudo-analysis.

This is the way people like Chomsky operate. Let's look at a paragraph from Doug Stokes' Chomsky-worship "scholarly article" and see if we can figure out what they're arguing about in this deeply important Policy Debate:

In this article, I seek to test both the prevailing discontinuity thesis within IR and Chomsky’s alternative continuity thesis on post-Cold War US foreign policy using a case study of contemporary US foreign policy in Colombia. Colombia is the third largest recipient of US military aid. This aid is said to be for a war on drugs and, after 11 September, for a war on terror. Concomitantly, these orientations purport to demonstrate a major discontinuity from the US’s Cold War concerns of anticommunist counter-insurgency warfare in Colombia. The levels of US military aid, combined with the stated justiﬁcations for this aid, thus represent a good test for the competing discontinuity and continuity positions. Also, the continued abuse of human rights in Colombia and the role that US policy has played in either stemming or exacerbating these abuses also allows a testing of the allegedly benign or malign images of US foreign policy that sit at the heart of the two competing positions. If the discontinuity thesis is correct, we can expect to see US policy aimed at the primary narco-trafﬁckers and terrorists in Colombia. US policy should also be helping to strengthen democracy and human rights. Conversely, if Chomsky’s continuity thesis is correct we can expect to see a continued counter-insurgency war against groups and sectors of Colombian society that threaten the interests of US capital. In my empirical examination of US policy in Colombia, I use primary source documentation from US government agencies, human rights reports, and declassiﬁed information. I conclude that US policy is indeed characterised by continuities with its earlier Cold War concerns. This then raises the question of why such continuity exists. I explain this in terms of the signiﬁcant US oil interests in the South American region, combined with the desire to support a pro-US government. Moreover, US policy in Colombia continues to lead to signiﬁcant and widespread human rights abuses. US objectives and policy in contemporary Colombia thus demonstrate signiﬁcant continuity with the US’s Cold War preoccupations, conﬁrming Chomsky’s continuity thesis.

Dude, are you serious?

Why the fuck are we even TALKING ABOUT Colombia? We shouldn't even have a position on that country. It shouldn't even be up for debate. It's THEIR country. The only sound point is full withdrawal of all activity in Colombia, full cessation of all discussion of Colombia-related "policy" or "programs" in every single corner of the Federal government. It should not be on our agenda ANYWHERE.

It isn't, as Chomsky likes to suggest, "a question of degree" or whatever his chosen obfuscatory phrase might be for distracting by analyzing what is essentially a moot point.

lahkatoomah

2012-01-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

One of my past blogs was called cancer logic as a jape on the pro-growth, and I'm scared when it's not crowded mindset I find common among Americans. For as long as I've been aware of my own thinking and pondering on my position relative to the communities or societies in which I've lived, I've really hated crowds. I hated them in school ("assemblies", "field trips," sports events in gymnasiums or stadiums, etc), hated them in other settings as well. I've always wanted to be out in wide-open, unpopulated places.

This morning my ski hill reported 6" new at the base, 11" new at the top. In the decade I've been skiing there I've watched a trend develop over the past 5 years, maybe 6, regarding crowds on a weekday.

If the new snow reported is 6" or more, it gets crowded. And by crowded I mean 45 minute lift lines.

45 minutes.

That's longer than the longest holiday weekend lift line I waited in at any of the hyper-crowded ski hills I frequented as a kid or teenager back on the East Coast. And I used to hate skiing on those crowded weekends or holidays -- would intentionally avoid them after tasting the 20 minute regular wait for a chair ride up the hill.

This morning I reported to my station at 9:00 AM. Chairs start loading at 9:30 AM. Already at 9:00 AM there were at least 50 people waiting to load onto the chairs. By the 9:30 opening, the number had swelled to probably 100 or more. I skipped trying to make a run in hopes a walk-in lesson request would arrive and I truly hoped it would be a beginner so I could use the rope tow and avoid that stupid clusterfuck of gapers who take a sick day to ski "pow" (as gapers call it) badly, sloppily and exhaustingly.

As recently as 7 years ago a big lift line on a 12" new snow day would be 35 people, 10 minutes of waiting max. Usually the people gathered were regulars, familiar faces, not competing with each other for FIRST CHAIR! bragging rights on Facebook or Twitter. But nowadays it's a flock of dipshit gapers, stress-junkie Type A fucktards who are anxious and pushy. And of course they're decked out in $2000 worth of clothing and another $2000 worth of boutique ski gear, and they drove up the hill in a $60,000 vehicle that they can't really handle very well.

The whole scene makes me grumpy.

After dealing with this shit all day long I'm forced to reckon with the fancyboy gapers driving their expensive SUVs haplessly down the road at 5mph because they heard on the news that this is THE BIGGEST SNOWSTORM EVER! and they're used to driving on perfect asphalt everywhere. I'm not really sure why people whose recreation revolves around sliding on snow can't manage to drive well on a snow-covered road -- my only conclusion is that they are scenesters, rather than serious skiers or snowboarders.

Tomorrow is likely to have another huge dump of new snow at the start of the day. I have the day off -- I could free-ski the entire day. But I'll probably stay home because GaperFest will be ON! if there's more than 6" new reported, and I'm sure there will be.

Yeah, growth is great.

***********

By serendipity -- the same Baby Jesus whose Dandruff has been falling at a high rate for the past 36 hours must have smiled on me personally while I waited in lodgistan near the ski school desk, because an Irish girl who's at Griz U on exchange this year came in for a 1-hour lesson. She had one yesterday too (but not with me -- I was busy with school PE program groups in the AM and PM yesterday), today was her 2d day on skis. I got her turning smoothly and navigating a mini-GS course of cones in the snow. I taught her a little reach move that causes acceleration in the belly of the turn, so that she'd be ready for moving beyond the rope tow to the steeper terrain for which our hill is famous. She had good athleticism and when I saw her use the reach move in the first turn and saw it cause her to miss the 2d cone I wondered how she'd react. When I met her at the bottom of the slope she was smiling and said the reach move's acceleration was a welcome challenge. I got her to practice the cone course a few times and then our time was up. I quickly shot down to lodgistan and got my helmet and regular gloves for a quick run on the lower chair terrain before my 1pm school PE group lesson. When I got back from the run, I got waved over to the ski school desk where I was handed a $20 bill as tip for the lesson. Now that's good karma.

It's too bad the end of the day was riddled with charlie foxtrots on the roads between the hill and my house. But it's not too bad that I was able to get home and put it behind me, shovel my front walk and front stoop, and walk the dog with a good mood brewing.

a rebound

2012-01-16T16:37:00.000-08:00

Chris Hedges bounces nicely back from his media stunt with Cornel West related to Occupy: Wall Street, filing a lawsuit against SuperBarry Post-Racist Miracle POTUS Obama.

I think I just might be slightly impressed.

It's definitely high time for someone with such a national or international profile, familial wealth and connections, and a stable personal financial picture to actually do something.

Because FSM knows, people such as yours truly -- totally broke, constantly on the verge of bankruptcy, and without a high media profile and familial connections to carry one's intellectual water beyond a blog page -- aren't going to be making any inroads on The American Clusterfuck.

We sure as hell can't count on such fraudulent disinformation specialist fucktards as The Noam to do it. After all, he's got Israel to protect and millions of dollars to hoard.

Bonus observation: I like the fact that it wasn't Greenwald making this move, which further proves Greenwald to be an empty suit (pun intended).

the anti-PowerNoggin

2012-01-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

Instead of debating variants of Glossy Karlism, or pretending at deep knowledge of electoral politics in an essay that references Imhotep and Assyrian apocrypha -- which are the most obnoxious types of showoff bullshit I encounter, utterly useless and done merely to project one's ego into the ether -- I'd like to see some PowerNoggin try one or two of these exercises. I'm sure it would be good for many laughs. I'd expect to see someone's drink blown through their nostrils, or a person falling off a chair with a side-stitch from too much explosive chuckling. That sort of thing. I'm positive I'd be howling with laughter as Poindexter PowerNoggin asked "is there an iPhone app that will let me do it in simulation?"

treading water

2012-01-12T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hopefully Google/Blogger will reach the same conclusion that WordPress reached. But given Google's heavy investment in partnership with Mother's Brother Samuel, I'm wagering the two large blog hosting entities will be splitting on this issue.

If that happens I'll be off Blogger.

otto

2012-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

"means eight," said Kevin Kline.

Intrepid followers who have weathered scraped knees and elbows while climbing up the glass mountainFN in search of what resides atop are going to be either pleased or pissed at the next bit of gnus.

After some 18 years of playing on the Toobz with the voice of ruminating misanthropy and barely conscious socio-not-quite-pathy most often in 5th gear flat out, I see a sharp hairpin curve ahead, the kind that requires a big punchy braking effort, a downshift to 2d with a big pedal flood to ready the engine for the bark-back of the rear wheels (it's an old school car, let's make it a 911 with a swap-happy manner), and a quick snap of the wheel to initiate the turn.

Not sure which direction the turn goes. Right or left isn't clear. Not exactly a control-freak's race track, this one. I just know it bends sharply and heads back mostly in the direction of origin. So maybe right or left isn't important. I know it isn't to me. It shouldn't be to you.

That's the message of this track: if you're like a noob who can only turn right or left in the same radius every time, you're not really much of a driver!

I had a girlfriend when I last lived in The Garden State, she was a true City Girl, Upper East Side of Madhatter, prep school in Suisse. Her little brother wanted to be a race car driver. We had discussions about the relative driving skill of F1 vs NASCAR drivers -- same turn every time, versus a wide variety of turn types and directions. Which do you think would make for a better driver? GF said her little bro said "NASCAR gets a bad rap" and I said "that's because it's as high as he expects to go and he's aiming low to achieve easily."

(I didn't allege that I'd mastered tact in all situations, because I dislike hypocrisy.)

I would never aim for NASCAR if I wanted to race cars. What's the fun in door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper herd driving on the same oval with 2 identical turns linking 2 identical straightaways? It just ain't there.

You could follow my life's path and see that point shown obviously. My younger bro would be like old GF MP's little bro, seeking familiarity and perfecting the routine over 40 years... maybe 50. Me, I like a new routine much more frequently, new challenges, new ideas to wrassle with, new skills to learn, new "experts" to debunk and dethrone, new myths to explode.

Pull on the Nomex and buckle up your 5-point harness, bro. We're about to pull some high g-forces.

_________________________

FN - Note that's not a very accurate translation of Barthelme's story -- in fact it's really not much like the story at all. It's so far off the story that I'd say it's fraudulent to suggest accuracy in translation. The point here, intrepid follower, is that a story told is only as good as the teller's sense of the story itself, and that many things are very well lost -- lost, gone forever -- in translation. Or, maybe, that there's no point at all, other than human absurdity, a pretense at seriousness being lost among incompetence, ineptness, and folly.

up go the grains

2012-01-10T22:59:00.000-08:00

...from the bottom of the hourglass to the top, to the best era for guitar rock in my adult lifetime (thus far at least) and to Laurel with Sheila O'B and DC with Lisa W and Bmore with Sally C and working at CP REI and MWCOG and a shitty bakery in pwogtown TakkyPak and casual clothes every day at the office and getting in trouble for my letters to the editor and opinion essays published in the Post and Moonie Times and local pols wailing and keening like banshees about the perversion of the process and me laughing at them and Top Boss Even Topper Eedjit Stuie Frigidtown (dopes dolts always working for clowns and morons) but at least the lutes were loud and Conan impossibly babyfaced still too young to be ridiculously Crimsonsmug (how exactly did that work?):

polly's best band, fuck you highbrow critics who thought highly of that nembutal louse point and sominex to bring:

fuzzy and sneering and fall-aping and in my head on my MTB in Robt E Lee Park:

ever wonder...

2012-01-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

...why a guy would refuse the Career Track PLUS Family PLUS Country Club Lifestyle in the hallowed region surrounding Our Nation's Capital?

...why a guy would sprint quickly away from that town as well as every other town or city where Yupsters dominate the landscape of social interaction, work interaction, and that rarest of the rare, recreational interaction?

Stop wondering.

The answer is found in the comments here.

don't taze me bro

2012-01-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

...I'm just a really bad satirist.

promoting my misogyny

2012-01-09T16:58:00.000-08:00

Don't remember how I was nudged toward Geek the Girl but was glad to have been directed that way, I got the CD the year it came out and listened to it quite a bit. Gave me the chills, though. Calling it spooky doesn't really do it justice.

I've always been puzzled by diFranco's self-effacing remarks and lyrics about her non-beauty. They seem about opposite how she really is -- I think she's well beyond magnetic.

before black boxes and baader-meinhof

2012-01-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

the judge speaks

2012-01-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

Andrew Napolitano was a well-respected judge when I was a litigator in Gnu Joizey.

He's far better to listen to or read than Ego-Boy Greenwald.

weimar, weimar, weimar

2012-01-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

Political Psychology 101:

When an American political body or politician talks about a "problem" you can rest assured the "problem" actually is with the governmental body itself or political clown him/herself, rather than the thing being scapegoated.

This has been a pattern for a good while in America. And I've talked about it before, citing such things as "No Child Left Behind" being a scheme to make public education utterly worthless; "Healthy Forests Initiative" being a scheme to clear-cut forests and leave them very ecologically UNhealthy; "Transportation Security Administration" being a scheme to make transportation less secure and more akin to another bit of police-state citizen oppression machinery.

You get the drift?

So when Dan Benjamin goes up to his podium and tells the fawning Mainstream Imperial Apologist Press that the US State Department is creating a Bureau of Counterterrorism, I'm left wondering why, again, we are expected to believe that the "terrorists" who need to be countered are people or entities other than Mother's Brother Samuel and his officers, contractors and bag-men.

un-

2012-01-05T22:55:00.000-08:00

knocked down a few pegs, or a few dozen...

grits for dinner

2012-01-05T21:23:00.001-08:00

then step lively:

and pour me a sour mash:

this is so SWEEEEET!

2012-01-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

...said Jon Corzine... "clearly, you fuckers have no clue, and obviously, you can't touch me."

Added Chief Justice John Roberts, "I'm just like MC Hammer!"

However, when reached for his comment, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas said, "it's a shame there are some low-down hound dog members of the US Congress who use esteemed members of the SCOTUS as partisan fire hydrants."

But noted Donkeyville Society Page columnist and dog training paper publisher Arianna Huffington quickly responded to Mr Justice Thomas's criticisms. "We'll do what we can to convince our readers that this is not a bipartisan criminal gang in control, but instead, the wrongdoings of our Federal Government are strictly Republican in nature and party. The Democrats are saintly, noble and above all, ethically pristine."

...but call me!

2012-01-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

nobody made you. go elsewhere.

2012-01-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

Douchey McDouchebag complains that a Black Diamond/Most Difficult run at my home ski hill is "too dangerous" for him and others, and beefs it at the mgt.

Mgt listens to Douchey, decides Douchey is being disruptive, denies him a Season Pass.

Douchey takes it up a notch, contacts US Forest Service (which gives a leasehold to the ski hill for seasonal use as a ski area) to try to force ski hill to issue season pass.

When this doesn't succeed, Douchey contacts the liability insurer for the ski hill and complains about the "unsafe conditions" in an additional blackmail attempt.

Now, I'm employed by the ski hill this season after 10 years as merely a skier with a season pass. But I wouldn't have sought employment if I had any beefs with the hill operation. So what I'm about to say isn't colored by my employee status. It is colored solely by my skiing at the hill, and my lifetime on skis.

************

Skiing is an inherently dangerous sport. Just ask the friends and families of Sonny Bono or Michael Kennedy.

I have lost two acquaintances to avalanche deaths skiing in the backcountry.

I have torn my right ACL while skiing, cracked a tooth, and popped open my chin too.

I know others who have been injured while skiing.

It's inherently risky.

A big part of the risk is the combination of terrain type, and snow coverage. The snow conditions can render very mild terrain as dangerous. I've skied on slopes that in normal conditions I can do on auto-pilot, but after a warm day & overnight re-freeze they became what some of us call "coral reef" -- nasty, irregular frozen white concrete that will literally take your skis and direct them where IT wants them, rather than where you are trying to go.

These are inherent risks.

*************

The run in question that Mr Sylvester is complaining about is well-known as one of the scariest, sketchiest, hairiest, most heinous parts of the hill's terrain. People in the bar at the end of the day will talk about how it was that day. Many are intimidated by it.

Anyone who's skied there at least once, and traversed that run, knows that it's a place to take care, to be in the present, paying attention, on your game.

Someone who's been skiing there 31 years as a season pass holder surely knows this.

If the run scares you enough, there are other ways to the bottom. It's not the only way down.

************

I skied 45 days up there last year. I didn't go as long as 2 weeks without skiing, so I'm sure I skied there during the 2 weeks that caused Sylvester to be such a puckering poodle of a pissing puppydog. Sylvester didn't have to ski that run -- then, or ever. Nor did anyone else. If it initimdates you badly enough, you can remove your skis and walk down. You can hike back up, traverse right or left, and take a different route down. Or you could sit down, shit in your drawers, whine and bitch, and call for Ski Patrol to give you a toboggan ride down, so that you may change your soiled undies.

Motherfucker, if you can't ski the condition, it's down to YOU. So cowboy up, hoss, and admit that it's nobody's fault but yours that you got bucked physically or psychologically, and either quit riding the horse, or get back on 'er.

we must pwaise pwogwess fow it is pwogwess that wiww sayv uss!

2012-01-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

The knitting machines which provoked the first Luddite disturbances had been putting people out of work for well over two centuries. Everybody saw this happening -- it became part of daily life. They also saw the machines coming more and more to be the property of men who did not work, only owned and hired. It took no German philosopher, then or later, to point out what this did, had been doing, to wages and jobs.

* * *

The word "Luddite" continues to be applied with contempt to anyone with doubts about technology, especially the nuclear kind. Luddites today are no longer faced with human factory owners and vulnerable machines. As well-known President and unintentional Luddite D.D. Eisenhower prophesied when he left office, there is now a permanent power establishment of admirals, generals and corporate CEO's, up against whom us average poor bastards are completely outclassed, although Ike didn't put it quite that way. We are all supposed to keep tranquil and allow it to go on, even though, because of the data revolution, it becomes every day less possible to fool any of the people any of the time.

Pynchon, Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?

a nation of cretins

2012-01-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

I have to hand it to Rahm Emanuel and the sellers of Brand Obama. They did such a bang-up job creating an image out of nothing, and making sure the image was as fully bogus as that of Dubya Bush being a Texan, that you simply cannot escape the Obamabot Legions no matter how heinous an act is committed by The Noblest Mandingo Ever.

Witness the thread at Tubby the Mendicant's Employer, ThinkProgress, covering SuperBarry's signing of the NADA America Is A Battlefield legislation, where we find statements such as the following:

"Dallas Gard" says:

I detested signing statements when President Bush used them and I detest that President Obama is now doing this, though on a much, much smaller scale. I also detest a Congress that is so dysfunctional that it can't serve the American people, only the corporate interests that fund their election. Only a public financing option on all federal elections can stop this outright madness so let's get started.

To which we have the ever-noble "Wally O'Brien" responding:

Bush averaged about 20/year. 160 total over 8 years. Obama has been averaging about 5.
I don't think I'd worry a lot.

As easy as that! Bush did it more frequently according to "Wally," therefore there's nothing to worry about at all from SuperBarry! It's just about total numbers, and not at all about the legislation itself!

Not far down the thread we have "Evelyn McHugh" observing:

Reservations aside, he still signed it and made it law. As much as he claims to detest it, at some point in the future, someone is going to use it against American citizens to destroy the rights we all had under the Constitution - rights that were so important they were often used as ample justification to cede from England. When the future leadership decides to detain citizens because of their political leanings or party affiliation, or because some big corporate donors don't like them, it will be too late. He has done the damage and done it on a day deliberately chosen to get the least media coverage to contain the backlash against it. If you find this repellent, spread the word that he has signed his into law. And sold out each and every one of us.

But fear not, Obamanation! Your Hero will be defended! "John Burger" quickly responds with:

He didn't write the law, remember?

Holy clusterfucking idiocy! So SuperBarry is in the clear because even though he signed this obnoxious Treblinka Act, he "didn't write it"?

How exactly does this exoneration work?

Is that like me murdering someone with a handgun, but being let off without guilt because I didn't make the handgun nor the bullets it shot?

Of course this legislation takes us another step closer to the Third Reich, but don't worry O-bots! Someone will excuse the legislation by saying any comparison to the Third Reich is merely Godwin's Law proving the comparison inapplicable! Here's "Noah Kilian" --

Ha ha ha ha! If you actually think the Barack Obama is a Fascist Totalitarian dictator who's going to order the army to suppress the people, then my hat is off to your stupid rambling conspiracy ability.

Well, I guess this leaves no question as to how the Third Reich got away with its tactics. We have plenty of Good Germans here in America.

What a bunch of unbelievably ignorant, naive, clusterfuckingly over-optimstic head-in-sand ostriches.

The really sad thing is, I'm pretty sure those O-bots aren't CIA/NSA stooges and plants. Why do I say this? Because I know a lot of people who say the same shit. They simply cannot believe Obama would do such a thing, even if they'd be shitting their tighty-whities if Bush had done this.

how to prove bigotry

2011-12-30T16:25:00.000-08:00

If someone wanted to prove that I'm a bigot, the easiest way to do that would be to have evidence of me doing something bigoted, or saying something unequivocally bigoted.

And by "unequivocally bigoted," I am referring to context, tone, content, and most of all -- INTENT.

I've used the example of Norman Lear --> All in the Family --> Archie Bunker before, and I'll use it again here to suggest what would be "unequivocally bigoted" or not.

Lear wrote Bunker as a closed-minded, shallow and mean-spirited bigot. Thus Lear employed Bunker and did so approvingly -- that much is obvious from the central role Bunker played in the show's various episodes. Lear approved of the role Bunker could play in telling the stories Lear wanted to tell.

Did Lear approve of the bigoted positions Bunker took? Did Bunker's utterances, gestures, facial features show Lear to be unequivocally bigoted? Did they show Carroll O'Connor to be an unqualified racist?

Or was Bunker a point of reference, providing context for the various stories Lear wanted to tell in that show?

***************

Guilt-by-association is one of the weapons used by people who have little to no evidence of personal guilt on the part of the accused. Without evidence of the accused's malicious or otherwise wrongful acts or intent, the accuser is left with character assassination in service of the proof burden.

Those of us who have been through Ancient Papyrus School and entered the world of litigation know that you can't use character assassination in court, at least not overtly. Trial lawyers will occasionally use innuendo or clever word-traps to imply guilt-by-association, but these tactics are subject to procedural objection. We've all seen TV and Hollywood movie "legal" dramas where an indignant attorney jumps up and says "OBJECTION!" and the audience waits with held breath to hear the judge say "overruled" or "sustained", but I'm pretty sure most non-litigator viewers don't really understand the meaning of those terms of judicial declaration. They may guess that the literal meaning holds --that the objection is validated or ignored-- but they may not know what such validation or ignoring actually means to the course of the trial, or to the persuasive power wielded by the witness who is being examined.

A credible witness who has gained the jury's listening ear and perhaps even the jury's empathy is pretty hard to undercut. Think of it as if you were trying to tell your friend Steve that someone you know mutually --let's call her Katie-- is a real jerk, unworthy of friendship. If Steve's already disposed to be friends with Katie, your attempts at undercutting the friendship probably won't be too successful. The friendship will turn mainly on the interplay between Steve and Katie, and not so much on outside voices trying to disparage one in the eyes of the other.

In other words, the real issue of trustworthiness between Steve and Katie depends more on the interplay between them, and not as much on the external voices of (for example) Steve's friend Andy, who seeks to degrade Katie's friendship value in Steve's view.

**************

If I wanted to prove Ron Paul is a bigot, I'd work hard at finding a person who could testify honestly to the bigoted ways in which Ron Paul treated him or her.

And if I was unable to find such a person, then I would have two choices.

I could conclude that Ron Paul isn't a bigot.

Or I could hold fast to my prejudice against Ron Paul, and look for ways to assassinate his character by such devices as guilt-by-association.

*************

A person who plays in the political sandbox at the level of the US Congress tends to have a fairly elaborate framework of employees, advisors, helpers, et cetera for the running of the political machinery that undergirds one's function as a Congresscritter. For example: Legislative aides help the Critter review pending bills for the Critter's position-taking (the volume of legislation often means the Critter usually can't read them all cover-to-cover on his/her own) and help the Critter draft legislation that he hopes to offer solo or as co-sponsor or co-signatory. That's a pretty big task in itself, the purely legislative role.

At the grassroots level the Critter needs assistance talking to existing and potential constituents. And here by "existing" I mean those who support the Critter already, whereas "potential" means those who are either opposed or on the fence.FN

In a modern Congressional seat, the volume of constituents is pretty large, and maintaining communication with them can be a daunting task if the Critter takes communication seriously enough to not simply consider himself a rank proxy who need not check his constituents for approval. Critters get snail mail and email and calls from constituents, and they have staffers to handle such constituent communication. It's rare indeed for a Critter to personally respond to each letter, call or email -- though you might get the impression that the Critter is doing that when his name is signed to a boilerplate email response or snail mail letter. But in truth they're usually ghost-written form responses with a stamp or e-signature affixed to them to give the impression the Critter is personally handling every single bit of communication.

In most cases, he's not. Or she's not.

***************

Constituents are not robotic thinkalikes who agree on every single issue, even if in bulk the group of them support the Critter. They'll disagree on the whys of political positions, the whats, the hows, and the whens. And if the Critter wants to keep working at the Congressional level he needs to keep somewhat in touch with those various supporters. To do so he'll often assign canvassers or similar people to do "outreach" or whatever you'd like to call it. He'll probably have a staffer doing the vetting of such "outreach" people because he's busy working on the treetops level --policy-- and not day-to-day machinery of operating a Congresscritter's office duties.

In this context it's quite possible to have a Critter engage someone who may use stinky tactics that offend Politically Correct liberals and progressives. Not every constituent is Politically Correct and some people (I'd even say most people) view the world through a skewed lens of personal prejudice. Imagine trying to reach everyone in your constituency with the methods of communication necessary to speak in terms those various constituents prefer or understand at a personal level! I found it very hard to do with a mere jury of 12, and I'd be intimidated at the idea of trying to communicate at a personal level with a hundred, let alone a thousand, let alone a hundred thousand or more people! I'd want help from people who speak the language of those who don't talk or think exactly like me.

It's an exercise in human psychology and, if I'm feeling sinister, I'd say it's also an exercise in human manipulation.FN2

Thus it should come as no surprise that Critters employ people who may use underhanded and distasteful approaches to dealing with various constituents or groups thereof. We don't live in a perfect world where everyone holds identical values.

(Okay, that sounds a bit like Rumsfeld's "you don't go to war with the army you wish you had" nonsense, but hopefully you understand the context and meaning here.)

****************

All of the foregoing is a very long way around to this point: the tactics used by a canvasser or "outreach" person on behalf of any Congresscritter are not conclusive evidence that the Critter clearly endorses the tactics or language used.

At most they are evidence that the Critter hired and used a person who employs such tactics or language.

And I don't think anyone who's run a business, or has held a supervisory role in an organization, would rush to agree that every employee or underling is without exception a mere conduit of the business owner or supervisor.

I'll break that down more simply:

In a team sport such as American Soccer (elsewhere on Earth = "football"), when a player fouls an opponent and earns a yellow card, is it fair to assume that player's coach instructed the foul, ordered its occurrence, mandated its execution?

Or is it more fair to recognize independent agency on the foul-committing player's part?

Think about that one before you go assuming Ron Paul is a "bigot" or "racist" by dint of what an outreach person did.

______________________________

FN - "Potential" also would refer to the whole flock of possible constituents for a new proto-Critter making his first run at the Congress, but that's irrelevant where Ron Paul is concerned.

FN2 - The extent to which it moves toward manipulation would obviously depend both on the Critter and the individual constituent or group of constituents -- the Critter's tendency to manipulate rather than communicate, and the constituent's ability to talk honestly versus needing to be led by the nose toward a position.

toe the rubber, balko

2011-12-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

Jeezus, dude. What do you do, Google your name every 5 minutes?

Narcissus, meet reflection. Reflection, meet Narcissus. Bask in each other's company!

fake pitch

2011-12-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

I think it's more than serendipity that the word balk is almost the whole of Radley Balko's last name.

Balko holds a stature similar to that of a lesser OCL in many people's eyes. But I've rarely read anything from him that shows he really understands much --if anything-- about civil rights and how those in power trample such rights. What Balko resembles more than anything is a smug little pimplefaced geek who is really impressed with his high marks in trigonometry and calculus, and believes those "impressive grades" equate to expertise in all matters.

His recent attacks on Ron Paul pretty much sum up the whole of Balko's smug irrelevance.

*************

If a person thinks voting is essential and the POTUS is the wielder of the political Skeleton Key, she's gonna have a hard time showing who among the current POTUS candidates improves on Ron Paul where most of the country's most damaging problems are concerned.

Shitheels like Radley Balk-master are making a huge deal about some newsletters that were written by people employed in some capacity by Ron Paul's political managers.

They're claiming that Paul has ultimate authority over such newsletters and therefore the bigotry inherent in these troublesome newsletters automatically is Ron Paul's fault.

Do you really think that's accurate?

Let's see.

I have worked for very large organizations in my adult lifetime. Some of my positions have been pretty high up in the organizational hierarchy, and I had underlings working under my charge.

I also had people who were my bosses or overseers.

If someone working under my charge ("Person X") issued an incorrect position statement after I'd given him free rein to work on such statements and issue them, would it really be my fault that the incorrect position was stated?

Or would it be the fault of Person X, who issued the statement?

The hierarchical authority would be mine, but I would not be the wrong statement's author. Isn't that clear?

My authority would be limited to my assignment of the duty to write and issue position statements. So the worst someone could pin on me is a bad choice to allow Person X the freedom to write and issue such statements.

Oh but Ochstradt, someone's head must roll here! So we're going to pick on the person whose rolling head would delight the largest number of whining critics!

No doubt you'd see it that way if you were authoritarian and a PowerNoggin to boot!

*************

Is the Speaker of the House responsible for the utterances of the lowliest Congresscritter's staffer?

Let's say Representative Pete Powernoggin from Oregon (representing the most "progressive" populace within the "progressive" valhalla called "Portland, Oregon") employs 15 staffers in his Capitol Hill office.

One of those staffers is responsible for reading and issuing boilerplate responses to constituent emails. And in the course of such response-writing, Lowly Staffer wrongly words something and includes a gratuitous statement about an Evil Rethuglican Senator P. Woggy Nemesis who has been thwarting the legislative do-gooder efforts of Rep. Powernoggin.

Is that the very same thing as Rep. Powernoggin saying critical things about Evil Rethuglican Senator Nemesis?

protect and serve!

2011-12-30T08:32:00.001-08:00

An off-duty police officer has been charged with executing a man in a sports bar - after an argument over a game of darts.

Riverside County sheriff's deputy Dayle Long, 42, allegedly shot Samuel Vanettes, 36, three times, leaving him to die on the floor of the bar in Murrieta, California.

I'm sure that's precisely what Riverside County, CA expects from its piggies!

more here.

George Blanda's revenge

2011-12-30T07:16:00.000-08:00

nyctaper's series of YLT's Hanukkah shows at Maxwell's this year is great, Dec 26 show is up today and original members Dave Rick and Dave Schramm joined them that night

I downloaded the Dec 22 show a couple days ago and have listened to it several times now, Lee Ranaldo and Alan Licht joined them that night. it reminds me of seeing them live 20 years ago.

**********

elsewhere in America, yesterday I finished a 3-day kids lesson with a group of 5 kids. one of the kids' parents booked me for a private 2-hour on Monday. apparently those who think my e-scribblings define my personality as mean, hateful and sociopathic are missing something essential in their appraisals! could it be that someone's adopted e-persona is entirely different from his core self?

naaah. a PowerNoggin has accused me, therefore the accusation must stand!

For Christmas, let's destroy Marxism.

2011-12-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

Are you tired of PowerNoggins who offer "analysis" of various domestic or global events, but use the "analysis" to brag on their warehouse of trivial facts that don't relate in any meaningful way to the events being "analyzed"?

When someone writes about current events but uses pretentious, never-heard-in-conversation words it's safe to assume the writer isn't trying to help you understand the events being "analyzed," but instead is trying to impress you with his/her vocabulary. Sadly, in many corners of American society, this gambit works a treat. People will assume a writer or speaker is "intelligent" and "educated" if she uses words that must be looked up in a dictionary.

Communication isn't about impressing the audience with words that must be researched. If you send your audience to the dictionary, you're not communicating.

A good communicator knows how to talk simply about complex things.

A good analyst knows how to break down complex things, to make them understandable in simple words.

However, among PowerNoggins, talking simply is considered "redneck" or "reactionary" or the like. PowerNoggins have their little secret handshakes with words like "reactionary" and often you'll find, if you dig around, that the secret handshakes originate in Marxist dogma.

There aren't many systems of belief that are more closed and self-impressed than Marxism. The writings of Glossy Karl are some of the best examples in modern publication of PowerNoggin thinking and expression. They are so dense, so over-complex, so absurdly loaded with insider jargon that they function as a Secret Password for entry into the PowerNoggin Clubhouse.

Whenever you find a writer or "analyst" using Marxist jargon or code-phrases that originate in Marxist jargon, you know you are in the company of someone who seeks to exclude others, rather than include them, in the communication.

Of course, PowerNoggins are impressed with Glossy Karl. They find it impressive to say that they have read and understand the works of someone who required multiple books to say a simple thing --

Capitalism is destructive because it depends on humankind's most destructive impulses.

Look at this sentence and think about it. Does it require four or five books to explain?

If a system of commerce relies on greed, rather than fair exchange, how will it benefit the society where the commerce happens?

Greed is a selfish drive. It requires the greedy human to ignore all fairness impulses and set aside any notion of sharing the resources of his society.

Greed is about taking as much as possible, as quickly as possible, to exclude others.

It requires a person to destroy all sense of commonality and community, so that the self can be enriched.

A society that works on greed will end up as a society of individuals who view all others (other than themselves) as enemies, as competitors, as people who must be destroyed, weakened, subdued -- or else I can't take it all for myself!

Why would someone need 4 or 5 books to explain this?

I'll tell you why.

To create a cult. A cult of closed thinking, secret handshakes, cryptic passwords.

An exclusionary cult.

This simple point is why you shouldn't ever trust nor give deference to any PowerNoggin "analyst."

***************************

On an unrelated note, the above comment is post number 1,000 at this particular blog.

Whenever some protector of PowerNogginism comes by here to drop her flaming Gucci bag full of kitty poo on my front stoop, I'm always wondering: how many of those 1,000 posts have you read, Miss PowerNoggin? Are you seriously trying to pretend you understand why I post here based on the single post that made you angry and defensive? Do you really think sampling 1/1000th of this blog's content is a great indicator of what this blog is about? And have you made allowances for my fictional creativity, which I use to inform the various perspectives from which I post?

If you're a PowerNoggin, you probably do. PowerNoggins like to think they can understand the full context of another human's outlook based on one statement. A PowerNoggin will tell you that someone's act of belonging to the Republican Party automatically makes him worthy of disregard, deserving of venomous spite. A PowerNoggin will suggest that a Marxist is a more elevated human than someone who mocks Glossy Karl. A PowerNoggin will tell you that being opposed to fetal murder means you are a thuggish reactionary who thinks it is his right to "control women."

It's amusing, this game played by PowerNoggins. They pretend they are masters of subtle intellect, but in nearly all cases they are as beholden to false dichotomies and absurd rule-based decision-making as the most obnoxious Pharisee.

degrees of difficulty

2011-12-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

Teaching an eager-but-only-three 3 year old or a reluctant-and-wants-to-be-elsewhere 7 year old to ski is almost tougher than passing a bar exam, and about as tough as getting an A in Constitutional Law.

it's one of those days

2011-12-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

...when I have the microscopic hint of regret for leaving Gnu Joizey.

The regret never lasts long. While I still enjoy music, my love of music-listening (live or recorded, I feel the same about either and am not really a foaming-mouth rabid fan of live music like some of my friends) can't in any way trump my desire to be in the mountains and away from asphalt canyons with concrete skyscraper walls.

I'm not sure why people like living in completely artificial environments, because I've never liked it. But clearly many humans do, since most of our populace lives in cities, or suburbia. And suburbia is just like a city, just with more structures sprawled farther outward, in squattier heights. Suburbia adds the soul-killing lack of centralized creative energies that one finds in cities -- no places to see/hear live music, or if you're into the visual arts, no museums where you can stand around and pretentiously act as if you know exactly what the artist was thinking when he or she made that paint-splattered canvas or manipulated bunch of earth or metal or whatever medium.

I'm pretty glad I never became that sort of pretentious pompo, the artsy hipster. Missoula has an "art walk" on the first Friday of every month, and it's the surest place to see the massive changes that have happened in our human landscape. Hoity-toities stroll around in their $1,000 "technical outerwear" jackets that are used only to strut around town. They think that donning the costume of "an outdoor lifestyle" is the essence of what being in Missoula means. They think it's about image. So they dump lots of money into the artifice, and practice it daily.

Up on the ski hill you'll see them in a completely different $1,000 "technical outerwear" jacket, this time it's one with a Recco beacon integrated into the shell, because they are afraid of the ski hill's near total lack of grooming. They're lately getting into real poseurdom with AT gear, which only a tiny sliver of them ever use to walk up the hill and ski back down. Most of them just use it at the ski hill on the lifts, to give the appearance (once again) of "an outdoor lifestyle".

I'm aware that these people are hollow, and trying to feel more integrated into a culture they don't understand. I'm aware that it's uncomfortable to not "fit in" for these people.

But I swear I wish it were a lot more viscerally painful for them to be such phonies.

cue up the Peggy Lee

2011-12-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

When I was just a little boy...

I was rockin' the house with sleeveless acid-wash and full-on MULLETUDE!

It didn't take long before I got hooked on the Hard Stuff:

After gaining a parchment or three, I entered the trade of Corporate Galley Slave:

Naturally, the pressure of pulling oars all day and night in the galley led to a need for recreation. So I got me a jetboat and started doing a lot of hold my beer and watch this:

Of course you can't beat The Christ, but I gave it my best. For Him, though, the fun was just starting. Some of his Acolytes couldn't help themselves.

The signals were everywhere: it was time to quit the church before Rape Culture took over. So I took up hunting, which led to drinking:

*********************

Reference to Peggy Lee explained.

we're upping the wattage here, edison

2011-12-19T19:58:00.000-08:00

Lemme tell you something, fuckface.

NOBODY should have to tell you what I'm about to tell you. You should know it because this is what happens when people assume military action is the solution to any problem. And it fucking pisses me off that there's one or two (hundred million) of you out there who still DO NOT GET THIS SHIT.

Fuckface, this is what happens in war:

Formerly innocent Iraqi male treated to
the gift of Enduring Freedom

Not to fret, mon frere. We have liberated you
from Saddam Hussein and modernized your
oil infrastructure for the benefit of Everyone.

Stop it, Karl! Those pictures are heinous!, you say.

I say, fuck off. Those pictures are REALITY.

Those pictures are what you are allowing to continue because you, fuckface, are busy justifying your complacency and complicity, because you'd rather work hard to earn a nice income to send your fucking son or daughter to a Prestigious College, or because you'd rather argue absurd keep your laws off my body feminismFN about whether we need to murder another 65 fetuses this week in order to Promote Vaginal Freedom for the careless sluts who don't bother thinking about contraception in their Fully Sexually Liberated Lifestyles.

You stupid fucking PowerNoggins and your pompous triangulations of reality.

But Karl! If we didn't support Obama, we'd have President McCain which would turn into President Palin which would turn into ChristerCrackerRedneckPigWorld.

You and your fucking childish symbolism, your pathetic pseudo-intellectualism... you can't stand to see the real world impacts of your "lifestyle" of yuppie privilege or PowerNoggin pontification-without-action, can you?

You'd rather sit back and write an essay with references to Macedonian culture and dead languages and the semiotic fulcrum of lingual variables, proving your supposed intellectual calibre. You know what, PowerNoggin fuckface?

WE DO NOT CARE about your fucking Stanford-Binet score.

Your masturbatory essay stroking your glorious fucking IQ score isn't helping that Iraqi with the defenestrated skull in the pictures above, is it?

No.

Didn't think so.

And while you pretend to deconstruct things with ever-more-removed references to dead cultures and events of millennia ago, you're not really doing anything more than bragging, long-form.

*******************

Fuckface, do you realize what this all means, what with the recent legislative advancements of the current POTUS admin and the MICFiC-servient Legislature?Innocent Americans, whose only supposed "crime" is wondering why other Americans tolerate and, like good Germans, quietly allow such barbarism, will be treated as was the young Iraqi in the two photos above.

That's what it means.

Do you still think you should be devoting all your energies to making a fat salary so that your Precious Child can go to Harvard or Haverford or Humboldt State?

Do you still think that your masturbatory essays bragging on your eidetic memory by referencing Macedonia and Sumerian symbols and customs are the best way to prevent such things happening domestically?

You probably do.You're just a selfish fuckface, selfish and self-impressed.

Nice work.

When you've finished dislocating your dominant arm's shoulder joint by that continual patting of your own back, try clicking on this link and reading the entry. Read what Our Glorious Defenders and Promoters of Freedom did to innocent Iraqis, just 'cuz they could.

And ask yourself: what is to stop them from doing that here, to people like... Karl.

Hell, you might even cheer! A few of you fuckfaces probably have already called in my URL to Homeland Security.
_______________________________

FN - Nice triangulation there, too. If it were really about "laws" impacting "a woman's body" then NO law would be valid, ever, because every law restricts the use of one's body in some way or another. That's what laws do, fuckface. If women were free to keep "laws off their bodies" then they would be free to murder their newborn babies, or their toddlers, or their young children -- hell, they could even murder YOU -- and it would be "legal" in your feminist valhalla, fuckface.

casa verde

2011-12-19T10:02:00.001-08:00

It's always late Spring in the eyes of Nuke Kooks.

lateralus

2011-12-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

I are We are Me!

I have to say I'm impressed with certain blogs where there's the pretense of multiple "writers" and various "personalities" commenting, yet the whole fuckin' thing is written by one person.

An exercise in MPD seems the best ticket for someone who thinks himself one of our nation's most powerful noggins.

I can be this guy, then I can be that guy, and after that I can be the freakazoid way over there! Everyone will think I have lots of blog traffic with interesting visitors, when actually NOBODY is visiting me at all! And NOBODY is commenting! It's all just me!

Occasionally I'll drop a bit of wisdom like suggesting I'm above those who adopt false personae as "journalists."

****************

1500 brownie points to whomever identifies what blog I have in mind with the above commentary.

stepford wives

2011-12-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

On the Donkey side we have Elizabeth Warren, noble protector of middle class America's lifelong fantasy of moving into the upper middle or upper class, savage economic penalizer of the poor, sanctifier of the consumerist dullard.

On the Elephant side we have staunch protectors of the Entrepreneurial Spirit that Made America a Republican Paradise, people like Marsha Blackburn.

*************

Sadly, from my travels as an adult, I have watched many female friends mold themselves after these Stepford Wives -- grasping, striving and hungry for fame & power, but behind the mask of "professionalism".

What made Sarah Palin take off in the minds of some people was that she is decidedly Anti-Stepford-Wife. She doesn't resemble the "I belong to the finest country club in the region" attitude that you'd find familiar to people like Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, Jane Harman, Nancy Pelosi, or Phyllis Schlafly (zing! memory lane beckons!).

The reason Sarah Palin was an overnight phenomenon was because she gave hope to the poor and tacky (as someone like Swillary would call them), people who are far enough down on the food chain that they harbor no fantasies of the type that Bettybitch Warren feeds on.

*************

I predict the InterWebToobz will be heavily censored if not shut down within the next 5 years. Sammy and his chambermaids like Warren, Blackburn, Clinton, Harman, Pelosi will eagerly do that. The Stepford Wife cadre will probably carve an exemption for smartphones, which will be sold in new formats. They'll be multi-tasking devices that carry make-up of some type so that the Stepford Wife can apply make-up and talk on the phone and text while driving.

Put on the war paint before going into socio-cultural battle!

oh really?

2011-12-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

...and here I thought it was only "christers" and "crackers" and "pigs" who did this shit.

David's kids have their sexual way with youngsters, claiming the King of Jews made them do it.

Wonder how many little ones Binny fucked. I hear Tzipi was there trying to teach little girls how to eat pussy, by forcing herself on them and ragging their poor bodies with her strap-on.

Certain PowerNoggins probably praise this shit because it's breaking sexual taboos, or whatever.

wilkommen

2011-12-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

...to Spookistan.

as I said, it's just water

2011-12-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

...so let's take it for granted.

1) tacit admissions by the Top Of The Food Chain people... we realize oil is peaked out, what's the next resource we should try to control so that when demand spikes, we control the access?

2) apathy -- dangerous, humanity-hating apathy -- about geological impacts of fracking. I read a story last night about an Ohio town whose fracking efforts nearby found the town experiencing unprecedented quakes from the plate shifts caused by the water pumping and the aquifer being depleted... I guess water buffers spaces between plates?

**********

If you ever have lived in a place where it's "developed" but surrounded by "undeveloped" land, you may have witnessed how people flush with cash and blessed (heh heh, they'd thank Jesus for it at their annual Prayer Breakfast) with longer-term views than the majority of the populace will busy themselves buying open space at low prices, so that when the town expands further, the land that would be used for "development" is controlled and therefore the price asked for "development" is hostage to the landowner's whimsy.FN

Maybe I don't need to tell you this but from the looks of the American landscape apparently I do -- one of the best ways to make money as an investor is to get a position early when the subject of the investment is dirt-cheap and nobody seems to be interested in it, but you can see where things will be in 10 years.Real estate magnates control "development" this way. They look at a town's outskirts and who owns the surrounding lands, and they go far enough out, radius-wise from town center, that landowners feel something like "nobody wants this land."

Prices of acquisition are much cheaper than, for example, buying a parcel within the town limits where it's already "developed."The real estate magnate and his "developer" friends then angle to push "development" at a faster pace, so that the formerly "worthless" land now looks primo for the Upscale Yupsters who see the pinnacle of home ownership as "in the country, but close to town". (See, e.g., the pattern of "development" that happened in Montgomery County MD and Fairfax County VA... farmlands turned into manifold McMansions.)

Typically investors do this for generational wealth. If you go far enough out from the town's essential populace, farmers and landholders see themselves as distant from town, not part of town, and therefore not accustomed to the town's price structures for land etc. You can buy land now, so that when your children reach the Age of Majority the land is worth many multiples more -- especially if during your children's youth you are pressing for "development" outward toward that land. You push the "development" outward so that "the market" forces the prices on your formerly dirt-cheap (heh heh) land into the stratosphere. What you bought for $1.25/acre now is worth $10,000/acre.

Tidy profit.

You can do the same with water if you are high enough up on the food chain (Carlyle Group).

Imagine the power you'd hold over the populace if you owned the drinking water supply and the town in question is booming with population growth. Eventually the "development" pressure will cause the population's water... uh... needs to outpace the town's water supply.

At that point you have the residents at your mercy and you can charge whatever you like.It can help speed things along if your "developments" emulate golf courses and require severe watering of lawns and landscapes in the town's arid climate. Lots of water use by towns in arid climates goes to watering, rather than drinking or personal hygiene.

Can you see how "developers" and their upchain neighbors in the financial sector can manipulate resource access to maximize their own profits while putting the resident populace further and further under the thumb of those who own the resources?

________________________________

FN - So you may say, "well when the farmer/rancher wants to sell the land, the buyer is "hostage" to him too." Well think again, Smart-Alexei. At this stage in most situations, the farmer/rancher is looking to get out because in most cases he can see that farming/ranching is a dead enterprise and besides the town is pushing further outward, crowding him and making him want to be elsewhere.

can I fix your pots and pans, ma'am?

2011-12-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

I'm just a humble tinker going from village to village looking for little, even tiny, things to do.

for the 3d time

2011-12-16T08:09:00.001-08:00

looks like the rabbit's gonna die

2011-12-15T21:56:00.000-08:00

Sammy said he would pull out on time, but he went back for more and the seed got spilled.

When accosted while on his way to the corner store to buy post-coital cigarettes, Sammy said

"well sure, World... we planned to pull out, but it just felt so good screwing that Persian wench."

we dehydrated the solution and were left with salts

2011-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

My hero, Briney-O'-the-Sea:

It's good to see that Karl continues to relive the 8th grade.

Have to admit that his kind of smug, reactionary "Humungus" style small group power gaming is one reason "anarchism" is distrusted by many. If I saw a gang of (as self defined) Karls running towards me down the alley, I might be glad that 911 is not a joke for a white boy like me. Even iof that makes me less "manly" to the likes of Karl.

Of course, Karl was probably the swirlee, not the swirler, but that's the value of the intertubes for TOUGH GUYS like Karl.

Poor Briney. He thinks my whole persona is wrapped in being "tough."

I do wonder, what is it like to go through life as an Eternal Victim? To deny one's self the power of efficacy, of finding meaning in something other than poor, poor me... someone help me... I can't help myself.

I'd remind Briney that it's Crackhead Blowjob who has the history of bullying others. How in Hades could Briney confuse me and Crackie Blowbar? I didn't spend my youth "kicking in faces" because someone "mocked my poverty."

What kind of psychosis causes one to be so insecure and so maddeningly frustrated to the point of projecting his worst childhood experiences onto someone he's never met and therefore has no ground from which to assess that someone's personality, tendencies, etc?

I'll tell you what kind.

Feminism, as practiced by men who wish they were women.

Briney -- you're a man. Deal with it. Identifying with victimized women isn't making you honorable. It's just pathetic.

Maybe you and Crackie and Stan "murder for hire" Goff can have a troika of Man-Hating Feminist Men!

Let's destroy maleness forever! It will solve all problems!

Yes, Briney. I'm part of the Patriarchy.

************

for context: Briney gets it wrong and so does Nonny.

rocky road

2011-12-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Rocky Anderson got some positive press when he criticized Bush-Cheney.

He's thrown his hat into the 2012 POTUS ring.

People assume that electing him will bring a big difference from Obama-Biden.

I guess if you believe in the SuperHero myth, the deus ex machina, you can assume that if we saw Rocky Anderson as POTUS in Jan 2013, all our problems would resolve, or at least be somewhat mitigated.

Such a view assumes that the problems we see now are solely the fault of SuperBarry, and not the fault of the whole Fed Govt's way of doing things.

Reminder: none of what's happening now on any nefarious front (warmongering, lost civil rights, economic collapse, bailout bullshit, police state legislation) is solely due to the POTUS. I'm pretty sure there are two other branches of government working in concert with the Executive these days.

It's nice to see an alternative, but I'm not sure a "progressive" (what Anderson is, no matter how he's labelling himself) is the solution. "Progressives" are PowerNoggins -- they are haughty and they want to use government to reshape society.

They don't want to do what's needed -- the opposite, really: use society to determine what kind of government should exist.

I don't dislike Rocky Anderson as a man. Hell I don't know the guy. But I've read the things that made him somewhat prominent during Bush-Cheney and they seem awfully GooGoo to me.

GooGoo is not our path out of this mire.

Stated differently, when the patient presents with a sucking chest wound, you won't help him heal by merely putting a band-aid on his left foot.

broken crowbar

2011-12-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

Preventing the murder of a human fetus is not "regulating the uterus."

It's preventing murder.

Some PowerNoggins want the freedom to murder human babies because their household income depends on such murder.

Nice to see fucktard PowerNoggins putting money before human life, while at the same time complaining of such when others do it.

it ain't camping!

2011-12-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

...and therefore it's finally doing something!

Of course there have been multiple arrests! That's how Power wields itself!

"Respect the rights of the 99% who are trying to work today"?

FUCK YOU, spokes-midget! "Working today" is the problem, you moron!

faithful servant of the moneyed

2011-12-14T09:49:00.001-08:00

it's only water

2011-12-14T09:31:00.001-08:00

Fatboy Falstaff sucks Carlyle's cock, swallows, and asks when Carlyle will be ready to come again.

**********

This is what I said about the above to a friend in an email this AM:

Engen's view of what Missoula should be is nothing like mine! His deal is this: he identifies with whatever or whomever he sees as having power. He wants to serve them, and in the process enrich himself. He's a toady for the Lambros family locally. On the national stage there are bigger more powerful players and Carlyle is a HUGE player, financially speaking. So he'd focus on serving them, and not really on the bigger, longer-term issue of water rights being pivotal.

It's really ironic because Engen (and those who love him) want to over-develop Missoula, which will put a strain on water supplies here. Which will further empower Carlyle and further disempower Missoula's residents.

But Engen doesn't mind -- he'll be serving Carlyle, which is an entity he sees as powerful. It might even give him a leapfrog to a new job with Carlyle.

I wish Engen would have some sort of experience or comeuppance or whatever that made him quit his post. But he won't.

He's just following what Kadas did, he saw how Kadas changed Missoula into Yuppieville and he's determined, like Kadas, to Aspen-ize Missoula.

He's got a lot of Missoula residents backing him on that. A lot of people want it to happen because they want to be "in on the ground level" when the Aspenization happens -- they want their house value to increase. And they really don't think of much else other than $$ and "prestige". They want the "prestige" of being able to brag that they live here, and that they are raising their kids in "the next Aspen" or whatever.

They want other people to envy them for being here. It's not really that different from GoPro!**

To them, "quality of life" means Yuppie Paradise.

If I were to feel generous and sensitive toward them, I'd say it's because they want to ignore what's happening in the USA and around the world, economically and socially, and pretend they can build a little Safety Bubble here.

____________________________

**"GoPro" is shorthand between me and this particular friend for the new Ego Projection aspect of American society, where everyone uses such things as Twitter or facebook to supposedly impress others with their doings. What GoPro literally refers to is the video camera used by people to "document" their outdoor exploits, to supposedly impress others with their whateverness.

Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Auschwitz

2011-12-13T16:09:00.001-08:00

Yep, there's nothing but tinfoil hat conspiracy nonsense in that paranoid worry about FEMA camps.

For your protection

Now is the time we see the benefits reaped by those dipshit propagandists who would jump down the throat of anyone who dares to draw comparisons to Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, the Weimar Republic, the Night of the Long Knives, the SS, the Totenkopf, the speeches of Joey Gerbils.

Cuntfaces who invoke Godwin's Law should come have a chat with me. In person. Please leave your PowerNoggin Holier-than-Thou-ness at the gate.

Go on... be a good German and utter "meh... not worried" at this development. Clearly they will only arrest and imprison real criminals, and nobody who's innocent could possibly be held-punished-disappeared.

Clearly.

Save us from rank naivete!

2011-12-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

A poorly thought-out reference to AIG.

Reality:

How Jeff St Clair, "investigative journalist," shows he has no chops where AIG is concerned.

your father's still perfecting ways of making sealing wax

2011-12-10T08:58:00.001-08:00

Bernie Sanders (Fake Independent-Fake Nirvana) introduces legislation to reverse Citizens United v FEC's effects via Constitutional amendment.

Well.

Can't say I saw that one coming.

******************

Here's Bernito Gasolini from the above-linked story:

"Make no mistake, the Citizens United ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy, further tilting the balance of power toward the rich and the powerful at a time when already the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good," Sanders said."In my view, history will record that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision is one of the worst decisions ever made by a Supreme Court in the history of our country."

Sorry to say I disagree, Senator, and find your ignorance of constitutional law pretty pathetic.

NEWS! BRAND NEWS!

2011-12-09T10:59:00.001-08:00

Pitbull Pat Buchanan is offering some criticism of FDR and Pearl Harbor here.

Pat's a little late to the game, probably because he's an ideological puritan and jingoistic to boot.

Of course Pearl Harbor was no surprise. The plan was to instigate Japan's ire. The plan worked a treat.As I said at ICH:

Building a base on Hawaiian land = provoking the Japanese

Throwing American money around in Hawaii = provoking the Japanese

Trying to take over Hawaiian agriculture for the benefit of American businesses to the exclusion of the Japanese = provoking the Japanese

The plan all along was to have a fight with Japan over Hawaii.

Imagine this:

You move in next to Joe Smith. 2d month, you build a fence that is 5 feet into Joe's property, while he's away at work. When he comes home from work, you ask him, "Like my new fence, Joe? It's a beauty!" and refuse to move it to reflect real property lines.

Joe's house has an apple tree and a pear tree, and you regularly steal his apples and pears. Your wife takes an apple pie over to Joe's and presents it, saying "look at this fresh apple pie I just baked, Joe! Thanks for growing those apples for me!"

When Joe goes away one weekend, you hotwire his car and assume control over his car. He returns to find the car in YOUR driveway. You tell him, "finders keepers losers weepers!" and pretend not to hear his complaints.

How do you think Joe will respond? Do you think he'll be happy?

organizer?

2011-12-09T09:25:00.001-08:00

My favorite dipshit perspective offered in connection with the Occupy:__________ game is that of the person who offers opinions involving experience as an "organizer" and suggests the "movement" needs more "professional" people who know "organizing."

Look, Mister Organ Eyes 'er, the fact that you once coached a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds in tee ball doesn't mean you are qualified to play professional baseball.

Dig?

***********************

As a former player of the game lacrosse I think I can offer a better analogy.

Lacrosse has its roots in a challenge between tribes known as bagattaway. The original contests didn't use marked-off fields with managed play. It was simply one tribe against another, with cooperation among fellow tribesmen being spontaneous and situational.

This, of course, bothered the people who decided to Anglicize the game and so the Murderous Palefaces imposed their own rules to the play. They limited the playing space (field) and created zones within that space for certain legal and illegal behavior. They imposed referees. Out of this grew the "team spirit" well known in America culture, the learning of kowtowing to a coach's demands, not too unlike military hierarchy.

The "organizers" who want to "organize" Occupy:________ are like the palefaces who wanted to bastardize bagattaway to make it more comprehensible to their orderly, structured hierarchical preferences and natures.

They can't stand to see people playing at something they enjoy, playing freely. They must impose order! Rules! Legal and illegal zones!

How is that different from the government in question telling Occupy:______ where, when and how they can "protest"?

stupid fuckin' pwoggies

2011-12-08T10:12:00.001-08:00

HalterNut suggests "corporate personhood" is the fault of Lewis Powell.

Wrong.

The very existence of the corporate form of doing business implies separate legal personhood, and the corporate form pre-dates Lewie Powell by many decades.

The source of troubles on corporate personhood would be the original notion of creating a corporate form, rather than a partnership.

In partnerships, the persons gathered for a business purpose share the liabilities and benefits of operating the business.

In corporate entities, the liabilities remain the entitlement, obligation, property (or whatever) of the corporate entity, which stands apart from the people operating the business.The fault lays with the notion that people should not be responsible for their own behavior.

*********************

The idea that "entrepreneurs" feel more free to be inventive, creative, notional, whatever in the absence of personal liability is a clever ruse that has gulled millions. To this day you can hear Americans repeat the mantra "it frees up capital" and by saying that they're talking about both money and "human capital" -- and if you don't believe me on that, try discussing the benefits of the corporate form with a zealot on corporate personhood.

These notions existed well before Lewis Powell got hold of them.

*********************

HalterNut is just trying to lay more blame at the feet of Evil Rethuglicans because HalterNut is a Dembot Stooge Outlet.

deeeessss? dees ees faaaaaaaahhhhkt aaaaahhhhhp!

2011-12-07T17:21:00.001-08:00

Many many moons ago, about 22-23 years worth, I did a little scrivening for one of Empire's adjudicating officers. One of the three projects that saw me researching, scribbling and composing was the notion of trade dress infringement.

Trade dress is, loosely stated, the packaging of an item, the way it is sold indirectly through its presentation. Trademark is different and is more formal. We all see trademarks daily; those of us old enough can recall the little signifier (TM) after words or phrases, the signifier indicating the registered trademark status.

The things that are relevant to trade dress infringement have to do with whether a buyer of the product in issue would be confused by the competitor's trade dress. An example of what might give rise to actionable trade dress infringement from my Toobz travels memory banks is this one here.

You know the logo of AMD, the computer processor maker?

That's the current one.

The older one was a bit different. It looked a lot like this one used for several years by Precision Cycling for its adjustable seatpost. Just change the P to a D and delete the 3 words All Mountain Post and you have AMD's old logo. The fonts were even so similar as to leave me (a graphic arts layman) thinking they were identical:

The thing that saved Precision Cycling from any trade dress infringement beefs was the fact that while the logos were so identical as to be a clear ripoff by Precision Cycling, the area of commerce was completely unrelated. Advanced Micro Devices doesn't make bicycle seatposts, nor any other bicycle component. And Precision Cycling wasn't making computer CPUs.

What made me think of trade dress infringement?

This entry by Joe... which leads to this story by the Blue Dork Crimes.

Muller-Moore is not even remotely infringing on Cooked but Formerly Tortured Birds for Lunch and Dinner's trade -- no aspect of it.

He's not operating a franchise selling cooked chicken.

He's not operating any food chain with a name that resembles Chick-Fil-A in any way.

He's not doing anything remotely like what Chick-Fil-A does. Nobody's going to confuse Muller-Moore for Chick-Fil-A, and conversely nobody's going to go to Chick-Fil-A thinking they're getting a t-shirt about kale ingestion from Muller-Moore.

Now, some smart-Alexei is likely to say this is just "corporate" and therefore if we just got rid of "corporate" the whole field of IP related litigation would stand idle, rather than brimming with bullshit threats and actually begun litigation concerning nonsensical allegations arising from a complete lack of IP infringement.

It's not because of "corporate."

It's because in America, money is power. It's because we use money to value too many things and because we reduce too many things to their mere accounting entry relatives.

It's because we are a Bottom Line country and culture, where even human beings are mere "resources" to the employer -- corporate and non-corporate alike, "human resources" treats human workers like shit, because it treats them as ledger entry data sources, and little more.

I don't know why anyone would eat at a place called Chick-Fil-A, but if you have a habit of eating there I'd suggest you stop buying their dead bird preparations.

You can make better chicken at home anyway. Shit, if I can cook a chicken breast to tasty satisfactory result, anyone can.

tinker, tailor...

2011-12-07T17:15:00.001-08:00

Once again something I read has me thinking of battle victim triage.

-What do we have here, Corporal?

-Well his left leg is gone below the knee, it looks like shrapnel in his right eye and right nostril, a few bullet holes in his chest with a strong gurgling in the lungs, his right hand looks burned by something, and his right foot is... well... shattered I guess.

-Fine then. Take his temperature and pulse, give him an aspirin and a small cup of orange juice. Next?

not a louse in sight

2011-12-07T16:19:00.001-08:00

our son is brilliant, willful, and assertive

2011-12-07T08:22:00.001-08:00

Interesting thoughts by Cuneyt here.

Monarchy does have its appeal, but I think if imposed on America it would not yield any significant difference.

I think the problem is merely that the USA and Israel -- the two global bullies -- are, respectively, over-excited adolescent and newly-walking toddler in human analogy. Both are doing destructive things because they are male children.

The USA is like a very spoiled 16 year old named Chad Wicznewski-Bledding whose parents went to exclusive trustafarian-specialist colleges like Bard and Reed as first-generation achievers in their respective working class families. Nouveau-riche in every way, they are -- monetarily, culturally, and maturity-wise. Very entitled, and they've passed that onto the precocious, brilliant, boy genius Chad. For his 16th they gave Chad a powerful new Audi, and he's gone out drinking and driving. He's weaving, bumper-car-ing his way down a crowded highway at rush hour, hitting other cars, knocking some off the road, killing other drivers and pedestrians, but everyone's afraid to stop him because he's behind the wheel and lethally driving.

The other kid --David-- is also very spoiled and has grown up in a house chock-full of weapons and instruments of torture (his father was a tyrant's kill-and-torture specialist, now retired but the blood still courses) and now that he's walking he's discovering daddy's tools. Mommy and daddy are so proud that he's walking and "discovering" that the idea of Junior picking up the tools and dangerously using them is off the radar.

I've known kids like each.

Each kid needs to make some dangerous mistakes, possibly nearly lethal toward himself, before we can hope that he gets a clue as to his behavior's undesirability among those with whom he shares the world.

Older cultures are more like adults of various middle and older ages. They've made their stupid youthful mistakes, destructive ones that hurt the self, corrosive ones that hurt the immediate environment, and purely misanthropic ones that hurt everyone involved. If you're around for a thousand years you're going to develop a collective memory of these things, whether you make it an academic history or not.

That collective memory is what prevents the re-occurrence.

In most cases, I think. Though Germany's a very old culture and look what they did in the middle of the 20th century after a few millennia. So maybe my analogy isn't well founded.

But I think it is.

It's the main reason why I hope to leave this country. For the same reason, I don't like being outside near roadways on New Year's Eve or St Patrick's Day, when the amateurs are out in their cups and behind the wheel.

I wanna know

2011-12-06T19:11:00.001-08:00

the Keel saga

2011-12-06T13:41:00.001-08:00

Keel has reached Level 41 and achieved mastery (100 out of 100 skill points available) in sneak. He has cleared numerous tombs of their semi-dead guardians within, looting those tombs of their valuables. Many of the valuables have been pawned in order to do these things:

* buy improved weapons
* buy improved armor
* buy raw materials for further improvement of weapons and armor via smithing and enchanting
* pay skills teachers for lessons
* buy food, potions and poisons
* buy various arrows

It's a lot like life in America, at least for me. Maybe a PowerNoggin would spend less money on everything except lessons. A PowerNoggin would increase skills via lessons alone, amassing lots of theory about how to do things. Hey, look at me! 100/100 in archery! Wait... how do I adjust for wind effects and the curvature of flight? How come I can't kill anyone with one shot even though I have 100/100? I'm a master!

By contrast, Keel's mastery of sneak involved probably a total of 20/100 skill points spent on lessons. His current archery rating is similar -- I think it's 71/100 and probably 10/100 of those points are lessons rather than practice.FN

What has Keel paid for? Alchemy training. Smithing training. Training in various magical skills. As fits a mostly theoretical knowledge, Keel doesn't use these skills very often. He has others that he has not developed at all. What are they?

* two-handed weapon
* medium armor
* heavy armor
* conjuration magic

...are the ones I can think of immediately, based on accumulated game time spent and what I haven't spent any time doing.

Keel joined the Thieves Guild during yesterday's activity. His initiation was this: he had to intimidate 3 merchants to pay some debts --tribute, he suspects, but it wasn't specified what type of "debt", only that the collection was required-- and he achieved this without violence in each of the 3 cases. Two he did with mere verbal intimidation; the 3d required him to steal a debtor's beloved statue and threaten to destroy it. He returned the statue upon payment of the debt.

Keel has his eye on a position with the Dark Brotherhood, the league of assassins working in Skyrim (and elsewhere in the Elder Scrolls series of games), but wants to finish some work for the Thieves Guild first.

On the socially benevolent side of things, Keel also has:

* enrolled at the Bard's College and has halfway completed his requirements toward graduation
* worked his way up to leader of the Companions
* enrolled at the College of Mages and has finished half of his requirements there
* completed his Thu'un training with The Greybeards
* foiled a pair of sinister plots hatched by and ongoing with the Thalmor
* saved two towns from dragon attack
* killed many necromancers, other dark mages, vampires, thieves, bandits, thugs, trolls, sabre cats, bears, and, with no offense toward Craig Stadler intended, a few horkers
* earned a favorable reputation with every Jarl in Skyrim

Obviously he's a 21st century American with all that over-achievement. Still, it might be a good idea to ask how many hours were required to reach this level of resume/CV saturation. Smart bets are on it taking a long time. Pundits suggest it may be due to Keel's reliance on mere cleverness, rather than true intellectual brilliance of a type which basically slows down time because the noggin is so much more powerful than that of the average Homer Sapienza.

____________________________________

FN - It's possible to completely artificially advance your skills via practice alone. Go here and scroll down to Leveling Tips and see the different ways people "gain experience" by locking their player in a static move that, by tricking the game, enables an artificial skill improvement. There are other ways that are "halfway house" cheats, like the one where it suggests you just sneak behind a barmaid for an hour non-stop. That's not real practice -- it's really more a full cheat. Real practice is limited to sneaking around live adversaries who will try to kill you if they detect you. That's how you learn to sneak. But I've known people who were high mark achievers all throughout my schooling, who tried to game the system and get more for less. Cheating is as American as plastic tits and show-off cars/trucks/SUVs/whatevers.

Occupy: Myself

2011-12-06T09:27:00.001-08:00

I have a few lifelong bad habits that don't just piss me off -- they alienate others too.

I think I have the best route for repairing these habits.

I'm just going to hang out at my house -- long-term loiter, if you will -- and hope that by my presence, I force myself to fix those bad habits.

It's a long shot, sure -- but it feels like doing something!

up the hill

2011-12-04T16:03:00.001-08:00

The Congress' eagerness to impose full lockdown (the broadband domestic-terrorism-is-our-biggest-threat assumption inherent in this pending legislation) and Saintly, Noble Barack the Magnanimous and Imperial solidifying his stance that it's his prerogative to kill any American he finds problematic suggests that the Occupy:___________ idea isn't enough and a lot of uphill slogging is standing before Americans who would like to see the current socio-political-economic system reformed in any meaningful way.

up the hill!

Por ejemplo - Notwithstanding the optimism in Naomi Wolf's communication from the Occupy: Wall Street personnel, reversing Citizens United v FEC will not be a meaningful reform, just as Obamacare is not meaningful reform of the health care problem, bank bailouts have not meaningfully repaired economic money-access and money-movement problems, large entity bailouts haven't positively affected employment/economic problems, and more significantly on the larger scale, just as the "service economy" idea hasn't bailed us out of the post-WW2 economic dumpage. Dot.com blew up, health care is blown up (it's just on artificial life support thanks to Obamacare), and "real estate development" is kaput.

If our government's competence were in issue, I'd say their competence is not the problem -- rather, their problem is that their goals are entirely different from mine. I think they are quite competent at keeping their own power, expanding the bureaucratic scope (which, of course, expands their power), and using the government (Fed, State or local -- doesn't matter) as their private cash cow (again, obviously expanding their power).

What they are not aiming to do is level the playing field.

I think most Americans suffer the sadly wrong assumption that politicians mean well, that bureaucrats are meritful and honorable but often thwarted by Evil Rethuglicans Trying to Deregulate, and that we just need a bit of tinkering.

Many seem to think we're in need of New Deal 2 -- and in so thinking they mistakenly assume the New Deal was about helping the powerless gain a stake in the game. Naively, they think we can reinvest the powerless with an enhanced stakeholding by implementing some new New Deal-ish sort of thing.

If you are looking only 1 year down the road that probably sounds good. If one year is too far down the line for you to see, a New Deal 2 probably sounds like some sort of gift from the Godz.

But if you look back at WW2 and then forward, you can see that Uncle Sammy's Spending is not the way to fix things.

You are pretty well forced to see that Uncle Sammy himself, he's the problem.

And if you can't see that?

You're not looking.

*******************

I tend to like what I read from William Blum. But after reading his recent entry at Sibel Edmonds' site, I wonder how he got to his big conclusion in that essay.

For example, he's wise in observing this:

Yet, the 1960s and 70s were also a marvelous movement adventure — for me as much as for anyone — but nothing actually changed in US foreign policy as a result of our endless protests, many of which were also innovative. American imperialism has continued to add to its brutal record right up to this very moment. We can’t even claim Vietnam as a victory. Most people believe that the US lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, by poisoning the earth, the water, the air, and the gene pool for generations, Washington in fact achieved its primary purpose: preventing the rise of what might have been a good development option for Asia, an alternative to the capitalist model.

Now that sure looks like he's suggesting something other than a capitalist system. Right?

Look again here, from his opening paragraph:

When the Vietnam War became history, and the protest signs and the bullhorns were put away, so too was the serious side of most protestors’ alienation and hostility toward the government. They returned, with minimal resistance, to the restless pursuit of success, and the belief that the choice facing the world was either “capitalist democracy” or “communist dictatorship”.

...which suggests there are yet other alternatives beyond those two, correct?

So why does he conclude in this way? --

...more and more people can learn more and more about these matters, and get more and more angry, but have nowhere to turn to, to effectuate meaningful change. Money must be removed from the political process. Completely. It is my favorite Latin expression: sine qua non — “without which, nothing”.

He isn't suggesting that Citizens United v FEC is the linchpin, is he?

I sure hope not. As I said earlier... that leaves Buckley v Valeo, which permits money's role in political process.Money's always going to be there, unless we do away entirely with money as a culture. Even if we eliminated PACs and private campaign finance, politicians would be bankrolled in some way or another by those who want certain interests advanced.

That's how a capitalist system works. Money is the thing.

But it's also what happened in a planned socialist economy (USSR). Money became the thing, although more covertly because the State owned production. But what is the State other than those who operate it daily from the positions of decisive power? If the State owns production, then those emissaries of the State who run the production are analogous to the executives who run private production in a capitalist society.

No real difference... except maybe it's harder to fire the guy in the planned socialist economy, some might say.

But I don't recall the last time in a large American business's shareholders meeting the peons ejected a sitting executive for malfeasance -- so maybe it's more theoretical.

From where I sit, neither is an advantage to me as the citizen/pauper/peon.

**************

My attitude toward and relationship with money is a bit different than most everyone I know, so while I'd enjoy a freewheeling barter/trade/whatever economy, I'm not sure many Americans would. Americans are some greedy fucks, pal. They need their gadgets, they need to regularly upgrade their gadgets. And for a surprising number of Americans "gadgets" includes the motor vehicle driven, the house lived in, and other big ticket items. Americans love to spend their money -- and most of all they love spending money that's not yet earned. They love credit!

With people holding low income positions in the American economy, you'd expect the upgrade-itis to be a rare disease. But no sir! Nay, madam! Everyone spends! It's how you show your value as a human being in America -- your swanky new cell phone, for example! Put it on the table when you meet friends for a drink -- how cool is that?! Hold the cell phone 3 feet from your face and talk via the speakerphone function -- how cool are you now? Just like an "executive"!!

Such people baffle me. I wonder... do they sit alone and ponder whether the Congress and Obama really need to be able to detain, punish or kill any American at whim, and then halt that thought and say, "but shit, look at this badass cell phone and all the shit I can do with it!"...?

Do they actually feel safer when Obama promises he'll kill any American who spits sideways?

it's not paranoia if they're really watching you

2011-12-01T20:08:00.001-08:00

Revealed: The 'secret' app installed on millions of mobile phones that records your keystrokes, your browsing and reads your messages

go on, occupy your local town square

2011-11-30T15:58:00.001-08:00

As much as I love seeing people get spunky, feisty, and peppy, I have to say that this Occupy:__________ game leaves me pretty unimpressed. Thus far it looks like a bunch of naive fools who think "corporate" is the problem -- a classic Pwoggie construct, blaming "corporate" and imagining that getting rid of "corporate" will make it better.

The whole idea reminds me of how vegans will browbeat you with their superior ingestion habits, saying things like "it's the only way to eat that doesn't support Corporate" or the like.

The trick to life isn't finding the Best Team to Support or the Worst Enemy to Demonize.

The trick to life isn't about finding a single scapegoat ("corporate") and blaming that for everything in some bizarre hyper-extrapolation of culpability where it's not even marginally implied.

************

How, exactly, does the demonizing of "corporate" explain THIS BULLSHIT...?

The US Senate has voted to keep a controversial provision which lets the military to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely without civilian trials, even if they are American citizens.

Or, how does blaming "corporate" address this clusterfuckingly ridiculous Totalitarian gambit...?

************

Also, please let me remind you that while this is ongoing, OCL and Amy "Donkeys and Stars of David Forever!" Goodman are busy analyzing "neocons" and talking about events of the Bush-Cheney Administration's tenure.Way to go, Glennie! Point fingers backward at the Evil Rethuglicans! Help those Donkeys for the 2012 "elections"!

you smell those coffee beans?

2011-11-29T21:00:00.001-08:00

You!

You self-impressed hater of Crackers, Christers, Rednecks and Evil Rethuglicans!

You!

You who blame Republican Pressure Gambits and Intimidation Tactics for Obama's behavior!

You!

I want you to read this Republican (paleoconservative; libertarian; pro-business) talking about Republicans giving Obama exactly what he wants, while they also are pretending to despise Obama and everything he stands for.

You smell that coffee?

It's time to wake up. The Republicans are not making Obama do jack shit.

It's time to wake up. There is no animosity between the Mighty Donkeys and their supposed hated, vicious and vile adversaries the Evil Rethuglican Elephants.

It's time to wake up.

This is how the world works.

This is how America works.

This is what you tolerate.

This is what you endorse.

This is what you advance.

Own up to it, you pompous and stupid motherfucker.

las ricas y los pobrecitos

2011-11-29T19:12:00.001-08:00

The Onion - High Integrity, Moral Decency Has Cost Idiot Man Millions

randall and mark return with amber

2011-11-29T18:46:00.000-08:00

Amber and Randall discuss health care reform
by: CharlieFO

Amber interviews Boy Genius, Mark Zuckerberg of facebook
by: CharlieFO

your parchment is flash paper, PowerNoggin

2011-11-29T17:54:00.001-08:00

Whether your parchment is formal, hand-lettered and signed by Cathedral Stewards, or is merely the legend of all the books you've read auto-didactically, it's still just paper. It's just words. Some of them you may have committed to memory! Maybe most, if you're a Sorcerer of the Eidetic Realm!

Still, they're just words.

It's understandable you'd cling to them as totemic, ideal and powerful. In America circa 2011 the parchment stands in for intellectual prowess. Rather than having the ability to understand, contextualize, parse and synthesize -- you have amassed grades which aimed toward the parchment. The game is this: you and the Cathedral jointly pretend that the grades resemble, in some significant way, the true intellectual talents only a small percentage of humans actually have.

You pay them a tidy sum for this game's maintenance. They provide the "proof" of your PowerNoggin status -- a fine parchment.

And hey, that's a really nice job the framing shop did, putting that parchment inside that frame, behind glass. Someone could spit on your parchment and you could wipe it clean! Someone could lay the framed document on the ground, piss and shit on it -- and yet, it would remain unsullied if the framer was careful with the silicon gel caulk!

A precious document in a powerful fortress!

If your document came from certain cathedrals, it carries almost as much power as a Grand Wizard's Doomstaff of Thunderbolts. You won't be able to lean on it in your old age like the Wizard leans on his staff, but hopefully by then you've earned enough coin to buy yourself a fancier walking stick. However, you can use it to lay waste to others laying in your path. In job competitions, it functions bimetaphorically, also acting like Moses parting the Red Sea of applicants, giving you a high-and-dry path to the job in question.

No wonder it's mistaken for some kind of "proof" of your intellect.

I mean, it couldn't be a rigged game -- could it?

It's not like it benefits these various Cathedrals to build enduring myths about the noggin power of their products.

It's not like they want a share of the PowerNoggin Parchment market, or anything like that.

It's not like it's a cushy job, "teaching" at the university level -- working 15 hours a week, taking expensive trips for "research" which cost you nothing, having graduate assistants do all the actual work for you.

Nobody would want to hang onto such a job when others want it as much as you, if not more. I'm sure "tenure" is pain, not smooth sailing.

Most of all, though, I'm sure the "tenured" professor never has to present his or her material in a way that pleases the Cathedral Stewards. The role of money in university decision making is well overstated by anti-intellectuals who want to teach Jesus in elementary school. You know. Rednecks. Crackers.

the endless mire and muddle

2011-11-29T09:32:00.001-08:00

If you really think we're going to have a meaningful revolution in America, then I have some precautionary prefatory things for you to read.

Starting here --

The Ultimate Cage Fight between two super-heroic pro wrestlers. In the lower left corner is the 26" wheel format, and in the upper right corner is the 29" wheel format.

As of right now, 409 comments weigh in on this momentous issue, and a read of the 409 posted thoughts shows immense ignorance of how logic and rationale proceed to make a reasoned argument toward a sensible conclusion.

OCL vs... you!

2011-11-29T09:00:00.001-08:00

Even though Wee Glennie bills himself as a "constitutional litigator," he knows very little about the document he's supposedly covered in litigation repeatedly enough to be a "specialist" in that field.

Please never mind the fact that NO lawyer has enough "constitutional" issues to do them full time.

Please.

Meanwhile, take this quiz from the learned scholar site Buck v Bell, and see how you fare compared to Our Constitutional Lawyer, who can't even answer 2 of these questions!

***********************

1) What portion of the US Constitution is the source of authority for a branch of the Federal Government to be concerned with "national security"?

2) Which branch of the federal government is given Constitutional authority for oversight on "domestic terrorism"?

3) What part of the Constitution empowers or allows the Federal Government to hire outside contractors to perform military and "security" work on the Government's behalf?

4) Where in the Constitution can we find (a) the authority to create FISA courts, (b) the scope of those courts' jurisdiction, and (c) the rights and duties regarding persons falling with the FISA courts' jurisdiction?

5) What section in the Constitution contains the authority for the POTUS to unilaterally declare war, or conduct warring activity, without the consent of either the judicial or legislative branch?

6) What provision within the US Constitution requires or allows any or all of the legislative, judicial and executive branches (including the branches' respective constituent entities and their individual actors) to give special priority to the affairs, concerns, interests and hopes of the nation of Israel when compared to the affairs, etc., of the other nations on this planet?

7) Under what section of the Constitution are lobbyists authorized and empowered to outweigh the interests of individual citizens?

8) What language within the Constitution creates the authority for business entities to have greater input into the nation's operation than the individual private personal citizens who comprise the nation's populace?

9) When the US Congress is faced with an economic question regarding a select few businesses and their request for a federal subsidy, what section of the Constitution should guide the Congress's behavior in weighing the interests of those subsidy-seeking businesses against the interests of the taxpaying public?

10) What provision of the US Constitution allows the creation of the Department of Homeland Security?

11) Where in the Constitution can we find authority for the Director of Homeland Security holding dual citizenship in the USA and another nation?

12) When foreign citizens commit a military assault against American governmental entities and American private businesses on American soil, what section of the Constitution authorizes the destruction of evidence pertaining to (a) the mechanism of the attack(s), (b) the identity(ies) of the attacker(s), or (c) the physical impact (structural damages) of the attack(s)? EXTRA CREDIT: Please describe the relevant Constitutional authority for a "national security" argument defending such evidence destruction.

supposedly, overheard at yoga class

2011-11-28T20:07:00.001-08:00

I don't know about you but I have a job and a career and a wife and kids and kids college educations and first car and two daughters that means two weddings and a mortgage and 3 car loans and a boat loan and a second mortgage on the ski house and a third mortgage on the lake house where I sail on the weekends in the summer and...and...it really doesn't matter that I never use the boat or the ski house besides they're for the kids to use when they get older my parents never had a cool ski house when I was a kid so I want to give that to my kids because having a ski house is way more important than having a good sense of human social justice I mean what's human social justice anyway we're all just rats in a maze I'm just trying to make my way to the end and get home and get some food and some time in front of the TV before I start the maze all over again tomorrow...

besides...

...no, seriously, I want you to think about this seriously...

...who said any of us had any time to think about this political stuff anyway? I can't be bothered. Two sides yelling at each other. I heard enough yelling at each other from my parents when I was a kid. I learned my lesson early: avoid confrontation it's always ugly and will leave you shivering scared and alone. I pick them like I picked my high school class president: who has a trustworthy face or doesn't have a really really really embarrassing thing in his background. The same guy you'd pick to be team captain. One of those kinds of guys. They like leadership. They seem to be good at it. They're better at it than me. I just want to put in my time, provide for my family, maybe get to enjoy my last decade on Earth with some peace and quiet if my investments are okay and the economy doesn't go all tits-up.

...right? So don't go asking me to take some time out of my day to think about this Occupy: Wall Street crap. Bunch of nogoodniks / louts / layabouts / slackers / leeches / spoiled brats who think life owes them something. Let me tell you kids, you have to grab life by the throat and make it give you what you want. Life isn't some smiling benevolent Grandpa handing you keys to a new Porsche on your 16th birthday. Life is that PE teacher or coach you hated, who made you go outside and run for a half-hour in the cold pouring rain. Life puts you through the wringer to make you tougher, son. So don't go asking me to take time out of my day for those wastrels. They ought to toughen up, get out there, get a good resume from a local career consultant professional, get a good $500 suit and $200 shoes, and go pound the pavement with some eagerness and pride!

I don't know man... I like the way things are going. I have nothing to hide. I trust my government and I feel it's doing a great job of protecting me. The enhanced airport security makes me want to fly again. There was a period where I didn't take any trips anywhere. Seriously dude. Shampoo bomb? Anyone could be a suicidal terrorist at that rate! Creepy as hell, I swear. So I for one am glad we have some crack-down pat-downs happening, and if it means full-body scan machines then so be it. I'll gladly take some extra gamma or other radiation if it means I can fly safely and comfortably again.

Yep. The only people who have anything to fear right now are those who are criminals anyway. They ought to just face up to that fact. They're criminals, domestic terrorists -- and we're gonna trust our government to root them out and keep us safe!

this is what you get

2011-11-28T20:05:00.001-08:00

...when you mess with us!

the set-up

2011-11-26T18:15:00.001-08:00

The Citizens United opinion issued by the SCOTUS was a pin~ata for the disaffected.

It's going to be changed via legislation or via SCOTUS re-visiting, and that will be used to further disarm the ongoing Occupy:______ gig.

How'd I know this?

Because Citizens United wasn't a significant change in the law. It was nothing new. So to reverse it, overturn it, or see it invalidated by Congressional act... this would be nothing momentous. We'd still have Buckley v. Valeo, a 35-year-old opinion which essentially gave formal approval to corporations being able to influence elections.

That it would be a tool for de-fusing the growing powder-keg of citizen pissed-offedness shouldn't be surprising. See, e.g., the New Deal.

Here's Naomi Wolf throwing the first softball pitch:

The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

Well, that's fuckin' fantastic! **

They want to do a bunch of symbolic things. They want to paint a happy face on things.

Who suggested these 3 items? Who prioritized them? Whom did Wolf talk to for this information?

__________________________

** "Fantastic," as in... its opposite. Example here.

you quack me up Herr Doktorr

2011-11-26T13:24:00.001-08:00

You can't quantify psychopathy nor identify it concretely or discretely, no matter what Pop Science Hack Writers and Prison Psychologists suggest.

This is a vehicle for social control, not a method of scientific understanding of the human psyche. If it were scientifically objective, it would recognize that most of the "psychopaths" are in positions of sociopolitical and socioeconomic power.

Instead it's used to identify the occasional serial killer or rapist, which is only one variant on the misanthropy impulse given free rein.

Psychopathy is in all of us. Beware the use of it as an identifier. It is a culling tool, designed to oppress the citizenry.

You don't need the label or category of "psychopath" in order to determine guilt for social wrongs.

the sociopolitical metaphors of The Elder Scrolls

2011-11-25T11:28:00.001-08:00

Since I'm on my 3d game in the Elder Scrolls series and since the series has consistency among races, factions, and related lore I've drawn some metaphoric comparisons that may or may not have been within the thoughts of those who have designed and written the stories of the series.

Altmer - the high elves - Judaica (magic as religion) and Zionism (Thalmor)

Dunmer - the dark elves - Mediterranean / western European (olive skinned minorities), and la Cosa Nostra (Thieves Guild)

Imperials - the caucasians - Yuppies and affiliated strivers (commerce is king; slippery speechcraft)

Khajiit - the cat people - _______________ - here I'm not really sure yet but leaning toward Afghanis or other primitive people whose income is derived from illegal substances since the main export of Khajiit people's lands is "moon sugar," a narcotic, which runs parallel to opium poppies in Afghanistan etc.

Argonians - the lizard people - The naming of the individuals suggests Arabic analogy, but the watery amphibious angle leaves me guessing.

Redguard - dark-skinned natives of Hammerfell - Africans. This one's corny as the game lore consistently describes them as "natural athletes" and "natural warriors." I keep expecting to find the "extra muscle theory" somewhere, or an equivalent to the Mandingo myth.

In Skyrim, the ongoing civil war rumblings resemble those of the USA presently. The Stormcloaks resemble those who would remake the USA to eliminate the essential rule of commerce and banking with militarized imperial ambition, and replace it with a more basic culture. Not quite the "tea party" -- that would be the Forsworn, who are being used to make the "nativist" Nords of Skyrim look brutish, as the Tea Party is being used in America to undercut anti-Imperial sentiments growing on the "right."

Oblivion was all about the parallel planes of the Daedra, or evil/negative gods. It resembled in many ways the Bush-Cheney Admin's outright criminality with a sociopathic bent. Dagoth Ur was a good analog to Dick Cheney, or maybe Binny Netanyahu.

Morrowind was about the influx of the evils of the Daedra within the Empire and thereby resembled the crumbling former greatness of America and its industrial heyday (the first 2/3 of the 20th Century).

Last, the growing power of "the dragons" in Skyrim = a parallel to the rise of China on the present global political landscape.

There are other connections and parallels worth mentioning but I'm not eager to type more right now.

you'll make a nice rug, cat!

2011-11-23T14:18:00.001-08:00

Keel is a Level 30 Khajit thief.

He favors stealth, lockpicking, bow & arrow, one-handed edged melee weapons, and destructive magic.

Thus far he has passed 105 days in Skyrim, after narrowly escaping a beheading in the town of Helgen. The beheading was interrupted by a dragon attacking the town.

He is also a werewolf. This ability was earned by doing work for The Companions, a group of mercenaries based in Whiterun, during his first 20 days in Skyrim.

Also due to those jobs done for the Companions, the Jarl of Whiterun has named him as Thane of Whiterun.

It's not clear whether the Jarl knows the Companions are werewolves. One of the Whiterun town guards has remarked to Keel, "you'd better quiet down those hounds you have over at Jarrvaskr (the Companions mead hall in Whiterun), I can hear them howling all the way over here some nights."

Vampire hunting is one of Keel's specialties. Usually he takes them down by sniping with the bow. Since vampires are vulnerable to fire, Keel's bow is enchanted with fire delivery magic. Every arrow landed also burns the target.

Keel prefers light armor or no armor. "No armor" = mage's robes that make magic ability replenish itself quickly. This is is Keel's preferred pseudo-armor when the foes are known to prefer magic attacks rather than melee or ranged weapons or brute force. He makes up for the lack of physical armor with illusion magic spells that give him magical armor that is nearly equivalent to the physical armor he would otherwise wear. This allows him to move more quickly and quietly, all the better for stealth activities.

Ongoing in Skyrim is a nation-wide revolt that smells of civil war. The ancient native culture is that of the Nords, but the Imperials are spreading their modernism, mandated religion, commercialized culture as quickly as their bullying will allow in the stubborn Nordic culture.

Some of the Nords side with The Empire, of course. They tend to appreciate what is modern and, for lack of a better term, sterile (or perhaps, "safer") about the Imperialized towns and the Empire-favoring Jarls who run their Holds in the Imperial "sterilize and make-uniform" manner.

Justice is still meted out cruelly, violently, and whimsically. Jarls maintain torture chambers where there may be a variety of types of torture to which a prisoner can be subjected. Stretching racks and human-sized bird cages are frequently seen. Lots of cutting tools are used by the torturer. Sometimes the court mage adds some magical violence.

In the more Imperial towns bribery takes you far. The more traditional Nord towns are the opposite. There, a town guard will often say to you, "don't think you can barter with me like you do with those merchants" or, less commonly, "I've heard about you and your honeyed words."

As a stealthy race, the Khajit are normally accused by town guards, merchants and innkeepers with threats regarding the Khajit's likely impulse to steal. You'll hear a town guard say, for example, "we don't like people who play with locks in this town," or "keep your light fingers to yourself, Khajit."

Foes in combat are keen on saying one of two racial slurs to try to rattle the Khajit skirmisher. The commonest one is, "you'll make a nice rug, cat!" and a rarer one heard usually when they're chasing you down a hall or up a stairway, or stalking you after spying you somewhere, "my cousin had a cat and I'm gonna take care of you just like I took care of that cat. I killed that cat."

Still, Keel has earned a decent reputation, with even Imperial soldiers urging him to "sign up" as part of the Imperial army.

The anti-Imperial sentiment among the Nords plays out in various ways, but the most overt is found in the Stormcloak Rebellion, and a second way or maybe just different aspect of the first, is the Forsworn, a gang of bandits who prey mostly on merchants, which is an indirect attack on the Empire.

Keel's loyalty is mostly to himself, but he will help Whiterun defend itself no matter which side tries to dominate or destroy it. But presently he's leaning toward helping the Stormcloaks, even though the Forsworn always attack him when he's ranging the lands.

Keel's hunch is that the Forsworn are funded by Imperial interests, though they pretend to be trying to "save Skyrim for the Nords" (a common battle cry among the Forsworn).