Complete Stupidity, Conservative Style

Sometimes, my dear readers, you run across examples of stupidity so blatant, so unutterably and ineffably Out There that you just can't really comment about it - you can only stand in awe.

Like this, courtesy of Salon and Gawker (partial transcript follows):



BRIAN KILMEADE: We keep marrying other species and other ethnics--

GRETCHEN CARLSON: Are you sure you are not suffering from some of the causes of dementia right now?

BRIAN KILMEADE: The problem is the Swedes have pure genes. They marry other Swedes, that's the rule. Finns marry other Finns; they have a pure society. In America we marry everybody. We will marry Italians and Irish.

DAVE BRIGGS: This study does not apply?

BRIAN KILMEADE: Does not apply to us.

[pause]

DAVE BRIGGS: Huh.


See what I mean, people? But that ain't all. Stand in awestruck silence at the stylings of Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina (I specify what state this jackass belongs to, because it'd be an insult to any other state). DeMint was at the National Press Club hawking his new book when he spewed this bit of abject nonsense:

"Part of what we're trying to do in Saving Freedom is just show that where we are, we're about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela. People become more dependent on the government so that they're easy to manipulate. And they keep voting for more government because that's where their security is. When our immigrants get here, they're worried, because they see it happening here."

So, open elections that don't result in Republican victories are "power grabs," Senator? Gee, what an illuminating outburst coming from a conservative Senator such as yourself.

We are seeing plenty of stupidity from the Right.

I know YOU are, but what am I?

The nature of temptation
Why those who speak against vice so often fall for it.

Excerpt: The study of how we form opinions of our own moral worth is a budding field, and it suggests that the human mind works in powerful, subtle ways to make hypocrites out of all of us - especially those who hold themselves in the highest moral esteem. People who inveigh against a vice in others are often themselves fixated on it, and more likely to succumb to its allure. And, the research suggests, virtuous deeds are often a form of penance for thoughts a person is ashamed of.

It's best not to brag about how good you are... you are setting yourself up for a fall. That seems to be the big problem with conservatives and why they turn out to be such major hypocrites... especially the ones that criticize those who have affairs or fight tooth and nail against homosexuality. When you look back at the Clinton years and the Lewinsky affair you find that the most outspoken opponents of Bill Clinton were very much involved in extramarital affairs themselves. Turns out the most ardent critics of homosexual marriage have dabbled in gay sex. The "real America" has the highest divorce rates and the most teenaged pregnancies. Projection anyone?

How about when a friend or lover dumps you for someone else and tells you how absolutely fabulous things are with the new person and how bad things were with you.... don't brag because before long things will be going straight down the tubes. Pride comes before the fall.

I just wish Palin would STFU and go away

I don't hate Sarah Palin. Never did. I was just appalled that John McCain brought her into the limelight because she had so very little to offer, she was incoherent and she was being billed as a "woman" when in fact she was not very womanly at all. She was the anti-woman, the anti-mom and worst of all, she condoned shooting wolves with automatic weapons from a helicopter... hell that isn't even very manly. What made my head hurt was that she was touted as some sort of family values candidate. Hmmm. I would have made a much more credible family values candidate as would many of my liberal friends who put our families and children before our ginormous egos. In fact whenever I hear "family values" being tossed around by talking heads in the media, I can now automatically assume that we aren't talking about "family values" at all!

Sarah Palin resigned and spoke like a defensive teenager- never making a point. Now that MJ is dead and buried, the media can't stop talking about her. I can't keep the news on TV for more than a few minutes without being nauseated. She feels that she was being picked on. I wonder if she ever paid attention to the media attention Hillary Clinton had to deal with? Palin's attention never even came close to the scrutiny the Clinton's received and Palin was far more deserving because what she said never made sense or was very far from the truth. What's more is that the ethics violations being investigated against Palin were from REPUBLICANS in ALASKA except one that came from a DC group. Yeah, it was costing Alaskans tax money to investigate her, but the complaints came from her own party in her own state. It had nothing to do with the main stream media because they freaking love her.

While I was flipping the channels last night, it was being discussed that if Palin ran for president in 2012, 43% of Americans polled said they would vote for her. I'm sooooo disappointed in my fellow Americans. Did we not learn that having an incoherent boob in the white house for 8 years is a disaster?

Michael Jackson - The Elephant in the Room

It seems all anyone wants to remember about Michael Jackson are the good things: his music, the love of his family, his charitable works. Laudable, to be sure; but we all know there’s more to Jackson’s legacy than that. Should it be mentioned? Or remain the unacknowledged elephant balancing on that beach ball in the middle of the room? Am I the only one whose attention continues to be drawn towards the center ring?

Every human being is a universe of complexity. We carry within the seeds of unimaginable death and destruction. Most make it through without tapping that darkness. Did Jackson? According to law, yes. The truth? Probably never be known. Elephant in aspic – icky, smelly; preserved forever – indelible and indigestible. So why look at it at all? Good question. Maybe it’s me – my tendency to pick at sores even if they sting - anything to make them go away faster. I’ve spent my entire life trying to understand the genesis of personal demons – those nasty elephants dancing ‘round MY room: Why did my mother hate so damn much? What made my brother so violent? Why did my sister kill herself? Around, and around, and around – addiction, abuse..... So why aren’t I as crazy as Michael? How did I emerge with my soul (and personality) intact?

I have to say I abjure the freak show Jackson encouraged and became part and parcel of. For every cliff I walked up to, looked over and decidedly moved away from – Michael seems to have jumped off willingly with both feet (or so it would seem). And there lies the rub. How many of those dancing elephants he consorted with were really real? To put it bluntly: Did he molest those boys? I cannot even begin to answer that question - because I don’t understand how something like that could happen in the first place. Under what mechanism does the abused become the abuser? What sours in the brain? I have never in my entire life ever intentionally hurt a single living creature. I couldn’t even force myself to – the empath in me begins screaming at the first sign of pain. Hell - I can’t even retaliate in kind when someone does or says something directly to my face. Creating pain is as alien to me as breathing water.

Hurt myself? Now that’s different. Oh yeah – I’ve hurt myself more times than I could count (there’s that inability to retaliate rearing its pacifist head). But just me. Only me. I don’t foist my bad choices (or destructive behaviors) on anyone else. I’m the only one who suffers. So how is that different for others? What satisfaction can be derived from experiencing another’s fear or pain? I can still hear my mother saying over and over that she wanted someone else to ‘understand’ the length, depth and breadth of her own abuse. She‘d tell me this while torturing me, by the way – my tears personal vengeance against her own vicious mother and sister. How on earth this assuaged any of her childhood pain I do not know. The harder I’d cry – the crueler she became. It was as if my tears drove her to be all the meaner. My brother? He’d just laugh. He really got off on it too – a died-in-the-wool sadist, that bastard (may he rot in Dante’s hell for all eternity).

I could never, ever, under any circumstances do anything even remotely like that. I’m incapable of it. So it’s hard to understand (or possibly forgive) Michael Jackson’s sins (if sins there were). Can I ignore them like everybody else and just celebrate the good? I dunno. I’m conflicted. It’s the same when I look at Bing Crosby. All four of the children he had from his first marriage are dead. Two of them committed suicide. All spoke of the dreadful abuse they suffered at his hands. He was a real son-of-a-bitch. Does that make him a bad actor or singer? Depends on your point of view. I look at the affable character he presented on film and wonder……had he injured one of his sons that day? Were they nursing wounds while he frolicked in front of the camera? How did that make him feel? The mind reels. It’s hard to turn off that kind of knowledge – to pretend there’s no elephant there; and as such it impedes my enjoyment of his work. It didn’t use to, by the way – but that’s changed as I’ve grown older. I understand more and tolerate less now. Same with Jackson. I look at his open visage, I listen to his music and I’m left terribly confused.

You see, there’s no denying the man was loved – and not just by his fans or those who depended upon his benevolence either. Jackson had friends, family – people who loved him for who he was and not how much he had. I was particularly affected by his daughter at yesterday’s memorial. Ask me at age 11 if I loved MY mother – and I’d have said no – no way. Feared and hated? You bet! Same with my brother. But Paris really loved her dad. It seemed obvious - though I’ll admit to being troubled at the way she kept grabbing the back of her neck while speaking (though maybe that was just a reaction to Janet’s playing with her hair). Odd behaviors like that often signal hidden emotions. I’d literally pull mine out at that age. Still - somewhere under all Michael Jackson’s Halloween makeup and Twilight behavior lived a decent human being. Can someone like that do evil? What if the answer is ‘no’? What if those elephants are merely constructs – creatures of smoke and fog, lingering because gossip keeps them there? One puff and they’re gone. Then why does the image persist? Why are my eyes still drawn to that center ring? If the accusations weren’t true – why pay twenty-odd million to make them go away? That’s fear talking – fear of exposure.....isn’t it?

More questions than answers, I’m afraid. So those elephants keep dancing, beach balls in tow: around and around and around and around. What’s the truth here? Where’s it hidden? Will the real Michael Jackson please stand up? Thing is – he can’t – not any more. So I’m left with questions and a clinging sense of evil I just can’t ignore. That’s the problem with abuse. It leaves scars that color and affect every single thing. Maybe I’m viewing all this through a distorted prism – seeing things that aren’t really there (on both sides). Like I said before – I guess we’ll just never really know.

Did ya watch the Jackson funeral?

I didn't but you can tell us all about it.

so, city poultry is the new trend apparently

For practical reasons, I've succumbed to peer pressure and am doing what a lot of folks in the so-called 'urban farming' movement are doing. 

 

I have chickens in my backyard (well, adolescent chickens to be exact).  So far, the neighbors have not complained (nothing to complain about really; no nuisance no noise no stink no kidding).  The neighborhood cats have not pulled any stunts.  And the girls themselves are a real delight.

 

2 buff orpingtons, 2 black australorps, 2 rhode island reds.  That's Edwina, Josefina, Mildred, Norma, Geraldine and Georgina.  They all have distinct personalities and voices, tend to pair up by breed when relaxing or eating, and my compost pile has become way more manageable since bringing them home, because they live for veggie and fruit scrap treats when they're not stuffing their beaks with organic starter feed. 

 

A lot of things led to this, but a primary reason was the desire to control where my food is coming from, and also lessen its carbon footprint.  I'm already growing hordes of vegetables in the yard, and hopefully will have enough surplus to preserve some things and to donate others to local food banks.  The simplicity factor is a big draw as well, because I won't have to buy eggs once the girls start to lay.  The wrinkle is that I'm not supposed to have 'livestock' where I live.  But in the same statement in the city code it dictates that I must have 25 feet between the animal enclosure and the property next door.  Self-sufficiency is a food justice issue, to my mind.  We've been trained away from being DIY'ers, to our collective detriment in the cities.

 

And to keep this post topical, here's a piece about the 'urban farming movement', and how it is taking on revolutionary proportions as self-sufficiency catches on. 

 

With any luck I'll have my act together to set up a bee hive next year.

So ...

Sarah Palin says that she's answering a "higher calling" in announcing her resignation, adding that she can go national now and seek to unify the conservatives.

Pardon me for saying this, but this Bull Goose Loony has been pranging about the Lower 48 for far too long since the end of the 2008 election, to the detriment of the state she governs.* Her "higher calling" may be to raise as much money as possible to defend herself against any legal challenges (it is rumored that an indictment is in the offing).

Now, to any one in the Republican Party who has the merest moiety of their marbles,** Palin has managed to destroy whatever credibility she had left as a serious leadership voice in the Party. The Establishment has almost written her off and the GOPAQ (GOP al Qaeda, the rancid Base of the Party) is beyond help anyway, so the only "calling" she's possibly answering is the siren song of her bank account - or she's just delusional.




* She is still Governor until July 26th.
** My political and social leanings put me beyond the pale of the Party, so I consider myself smarter than most of the Party membership. So there.

Palin Cuts and Runs

Governor Sarah Palin (R-Crazyville North) has done what would be considered unthinkable for any sitting Governor with Presidential aspirations.

She's resigning, effective July 26:



I strongly suggest you listen to the entire rambling and almost-incoherent screed by the Wasilla Wonder. It's instructive, as well as amusing.

Now, why is she doing this?

Here my best guess:

Palin's trying to clear the lines to her rear - shake herself loose from her sagging popularity figures and the spate of ethics complaints that have been dogging her heels since 2008.

Reason?

She's planning on a run in 2012, although, as Jed Lewison over at Daily Kos points out, taking cheap shots at "lame duck" Governors going on overseas trade missions is rather odd. If she was so convinced that Alaskans liked her, she wouldn't have been a lame duck, but gotten re-elected.

I think the catalyzing event was the Vanity Fair article, as well as the ridicule surrounding her interview in Runner's World.

The major drawback to this is she's only been Governor for 30 months and about 8 months ago she thought she had a good shot as VPOTUS because she had more "executive experience" than Obama. Her contention in her video statement that she loves her job and is doing what is best for Alaska reveals a level of cognitive dissonance. If she wants to do the best for her state as the Governor, she needs to lead, pure and simple.

Not cut and run.

Good conservatives don't cut and run, Sarah. Unless, of course, you're Reagan in Lebanon - oops, shouldn't have brought that up.

So here is Sarah Palin, leaving office about midway through her first term, and MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell states that "sources" have told her that Palin's through with politics.

Don't believe it for a New York second, folks. This woman's got a taste of the Big Politics, and I doubt - for all her rambling basketball metaphors and the resurrection of Douglas MacArthur - that she's given up on making some kind of splash on the national scene.

Of course, though, she has made a splash nationally.

But that was more like an offering made on the Porcelain Altar.

Right-wing extremist heads are exploding as we speak, the "Establishment" pundit Charles Krauthammer is pontificating that she was never a serious candidate to start with (watch for this to be the New Truth in the coming days) and I'm sure the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party would love to have her as their candidate for President.

President of Alaska, of course.

So lay back and enjoy it this Fourth of July, folks - bask in the reflected glow of The Crazy as Governor Barracuda flames out.

UPDATE: Rumors flying about a Palin scandal about to break.

More Palin Antics?

Anyone care to guess why Sarah Palin is resigning as governor of Alaska on July 25th?

and in music news

The Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is the best selling album of all time.

It's not Thriller, which was the second best selling album.

TPM blog

More on the Francine Busby fundraiser in San Diego County

The other day I posted a piece "Only in A Republican Stronghold" about a Francine Busby fundraiser in San Diego County that was raided after a bogus complaint that there was noise coming from a private house. There was a helicopter, dogs, pepper spray and an out of control sheriff.

On Monday, three of the women held a press conference, blasting the arresting officer, Deputy Marshall G. Abbott. "He had a raged look in his eyes and his head was bobbing from side to side," said Kimberley Beatty, who said that she had called 911 to report that he "appeared to be out of control."

And last night, the San Diego ACLU put out a press release, which was forwarded to us by Busby herself, lambasting the Sheriff's Department for all manner of improper behavior here, and calling for greater transparency as the process of investigating this whole mess goes forward. The opening paragraph of the press release is essentially a dry narration of the reported events -- ending with an extraordinary closing sentence, emphasis ours:

• On Friday, June 26, 2009, according to press reports and witness statements, a San Diego County Sheriff's deputy, responding to a noise complaint, entered the home of Shari Barman who was hosting a political gathering to support Francine Busby, a candidate for Congress. When the homeowner questioned why she had to provide her date of birth, the deputy grabbed her arm, put it behind her back, and brought her to the ground. Feeling intimidated by a group of mostly middle-aged women, he pepper-sprayed a number of guests and arrested Barman.

...

Shari Barman, the homeowner who was arrested, also released a statement Monday night: "He told me I was under arrest, grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind me and threw me on the ground. Some of the 25 or so people who were still in attendance observed what was happening and started asking the deputy what was going on. My partner, Jane Stratton, asked him to please be careful as I had recently had right shoulder surgery. His response was to knock her to the ground."

Turns out that the Sheriff was a Marine until 2 years ago, if that means anything. Maybe he has PTSD and is afraid of Democrats. A new sheriff was sworn in today which is good news. The complaints against the maniacal old sheriff are being taken seriously.

Good Read of the Day

'There Is No Way I Will Deploy to Afghanistan' -- Seeds of Dissent in the U.S. Military Are Growing
By Dahr Jamail, Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Posted July 2, 2009.

From suicide to desertion to refusal to deploy -- service members' dissent may be growing into something far larger.

Relationships, Culture, Romance

Newsday reports that Mark Sanford had a tryst on Long Island. Ah yes, it's very romantic here and most of us (well not most, but many) have trysts... but this story about him with his lover girl/soulmate is actually quite romantic if you ask me. He also admitted that he crossed the line with other women. I don't know why he feels the need to disclose so much information. I suppose he is just trying to get it out there before the press (which should be investigating real news) does it and makes it sleezy.

Then I read this story Why Politicians Cheat On Their Wives and I don't really think that they cheat more than regular guys... but the article seems to convey the idea that power corrupts... well yeah, and so does a big ego and/or an unhappy marriage.

Then I read this story Ooga Ooga! Men Overspend to Attract Mates and while I think it's irresponsible for a guy to piss away a whole lot of money to impress a gal and put the rest of his life on hold for what might turn out to be a fling... I believe that a guy who never opens his wallet is meant to be alone. I wouldn't give it all up for a cheapskate.

Men Agree Who's Hot, Women Don't. Men like thin, seductive women and women like all sorts of different things about men. Yawn. What else is new? Try to guess what I think is hot about a man.

Many Bangs, No Whimpers

Yesterday marked a milestone in our relationship with Iraq.

No, we haven't left yet - we're not that lucky.

Apart from small training cadres, we have pulled our troops out of the cities (a day early too), an occasion marked by fireworks and jubilant Iraqis dancing in the streets. It was also marked by a number of car bombs and suicides that have killed scores and reminded people that peace and order are still very fragile things in Iraq.

But it's no longer our primary task; that task is now shouldered by the 650,000 troops of the new Iraqi Defense Forces. I wish them well, so we can get the hell out of there.

As for the violence, don't listen to idiots like Feith, Cheney and Fox News - the violence was expected no matter when we left Iraq. We kept a lid on things, first by overwhelming force, then by paying Danegeld to the Sunnis so that they'd stop shooting at us and start shooting at the salafi jihadi groups that we lumped together in our simplistic way as "al-Qaeda in Iraq."

General Ray Odierno was on the news and refused to say how many troops are still based in the cities, but took the time to dip into the Two-Minute Hate on Iran (now that the protests are suppressed and we can go back to hatred and fear of the mullahs in Teheran).

Meanwhile, in a shadowy conference room, dark forces have gathered ...

To bid on Iraq's oil fields! Yes, indeedy! Just because the SOFA demands we leave Iraq doesn't mean that the oil companies can't start capitalizing on the secondary real reason we invaded Iraq.

What was the primary real reason, you ask?

Simple.

We invaded Iraq in order to make George W Bush feel like a man, of course.