Archive for the ‘Splenetics’ Category
Gays Finally to Blame
We've been waiting days for someone — finally! — to blame gay people for the current disaster in New Orleans. At last, it has come to pass. You can tell, though, that no one was rushing into the breach. Perhaps Pat Robertson still felt a little tender from being beaten up over his hysterical idea […]
Celebrity Spokesmodel for President
Continually milling around in my mind are questions like: shouldn't someone in charge of running the country be smarter about a lot of things than I am? Why should I feel safer if the guy in charge is dumber than rocks? If I were having brain surgery, would I like the brain surgeon to be […]
In: All, Eureka!, Splenetics
Radical Christian Cleric Faces Consequences?
CARACAS, VENEZUELA – Venezuela's government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries after a U.S. televangelist [extremist radical cleric Pat Robertson] said Washington should assassinate President Hugo Chavez. [Patrick Markey, "Venezuela halts missionary permits: Action taken after comments by Pat Robertson regarding Chavez", Reuters via Houston Chronicle, 26 August 2005.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Specious Proofs
The New York Times continues to fan the flames of the "Evolution vs. Intelligent Design" [so-called] debate in what it thinks is an objective, balanced way.* My favorite bit of reporting was this: Stephen C. Meyer, director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, compares the design approach to the work […]
Steal This Vote
I'm blogging this bit from Krugman's piece mostly because I want to make a note to read the book sometime. As Krugman hints elsewhere in the piece, simmering election scandals is merely one pot of many that's going to boil over once we see regime change in the US. In his recent book "Steal This […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
More on Terrorism Hysteria II
The story about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by London police just keeps getting worse. This from The Guardian [UK] ("New claims emerge over Menezes death "): It has now emerged that Mr de Menezes: was never properly identified because a police officer was relieving himself at the very moment he was leaving […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Pentagon Too Reality-Based?
The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad. The United States no longer expects to see […]
In: All, Plus Ca Change..., Splenetics
Gosh, They Had No Idea!
In the matter of Supreme-Court nominee Roberts, I read someone quoting someone about the tens of thousands of pages of documents that the White House was refusing to release about Roberts' legal career, his opinions and ideas, his writings on the law, and such things. The thought that lept into my mind was: what is […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
By What Measure?
You'd think, given that his popularity in surveys would probably skyrocket as a result, that the President might wipe the sweat from his brow and set a spell with Cindy Sheehan at his Crawford ranch and talk some about her dead son, Casey. It might not be an easy conversation but — as the President […]
Such a Safer World Today
Jean Charles de Menezes: an unarmed, brown-skinned man from Brazil, shot five times in the head by British policemen who thought his coat was too bulky and might, therefore, be hiding something. Which truly makes us less safe: terrorists, or the "war on terror" itself? For a chilling examination of what unthinking, bigoted hysteria can […]
Understanding vs. Control
I was struck today by another distinction between liberals and authoritarians that seems to summarize quite a few observations for me. Liberals want to understand other people's behavior; Authoritarians want to control other people's behavior. The goal for the liberals then, seems to be to figure out things to do that will accommodate and acknowledge […]
Republican Fortunes
Last night we ate at our semi-local Pho restaurant. After our big bowl of tasty noodle soup, we were given fortune cookies, standard chinese-restaurant fare, although this was nominally a Vietnamese restaurant. The one Isaac opened said: Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it. It sounded to us like an explanation for the [alleged] […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Rove's Nondisclosure Agreement
For those who are emotionally concerned with whether Karl Rove has actually violated the letter (perhaps even the punctuation) of the law, this note just came in from Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-CA) office, via the Government Reform Minority Office mailing list: Friday, July 15, 2005 — A fact sheet released today by Rep. Waxman explains […]
Heavens to Murgatroyd
This just in from WKYT, 27 Newsfirst in Lexington, Kentucky: FRANKFORT, Ky. — A special grand jury indicted three of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's subordinates, including his deputy chief of staff, on various misdemeanor charges, including criminal conspiracy and political discrimination. Dick Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and former deputy transportation secretary, was indicted Wednesday […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
OYE Bingo
Since I generally believe that truthful mockery is a good way to irritate one's political adversaries, and that Republicans are well deserving of that irritation, I want to do my bit to draw attention to the exciting and rewarding new game called "Operation Yellow Elephant Bingo", invented by "PNC Paul from The AWOL Project" and […]
Support Our Troops (BBA XIII)
A little while back, having read an interesting piece about Bush's imperial dreams and his place in history (which he's imagining a little differently from the rest of us), I realized the place of his own hubris in invading Iraq. ("To Be Seen as a Great Leader (BBA X)".) The conclusion then — and I […]
Almost Right, Karl (BBA XII)
Karl almost got it right. He had nearly all the right words, just in the wrong order: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war." — Karl Rove "Conservatives prepared for war and saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks as an opportunity." — me Yes, I'm also of […]
Republican Insurgency: Last Throes? (BBA XI)
True, I am a self-avowed "America Hater" (I don't even have a magnetic "ribbon" of any color on the rear of my car) but, among the many events swirling about, I note the following: The Downing-Street Memo story is still remarkably alive The administration's mouths all keep saying that the DSM is not a story […]
When to Adjust Plans in Iraq
"Stay the course"? GWEN IFILL: What is the Achilles heel here? Is the Achilles heel that we didn't study up enough on what to expect from these [Iraqi] paramilitary or as the Pentagon likes to call them, "thugs"? [i.e., the term two years ago for "the insurgency" which, as Donald Rumsfeld has assured us, is […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
No Recruiting!
Having read that New York Times Magazine feature story about the zealous anti-gay soldiers marching to protect the sanctity of "traditional" marriage (right here in my home-state of Maryland, no less), Stephanie Sandberg summarizes this way: In sum: the anti-gay-marriage activists in the Times story say they are galvanized by fear of contagion. They claim […]