Link roundup for 20 February 2010
I've linked to the immortal Chinese menu before, but here it is again for the entertainment of new readers.
Coming soon: Cthulhu comedy (found via Mendip).
A dissatisfied customer confronts God.
Cheney watches the Olympics for one event.
At last -- clear video of bigfoot!
Dallas office workers get creative with snow.
Switzerland provides first aid training where it's needed most.
Some people are apparently freaking out over Michelle Obama's bookshelf. (My own books include the Bible, the Koran, and Mein Kampf -- not everyone agrees with every book they read.)
That embarrassing Texas survey inspires a cartoon.
Family Guy actress Andrea Friedman rebukes Palin.
The "Big Lick" horse shows involve horrifying abuses.
How much do the rich pay in taxes?
The timing of Bayh's resignation allows the Democratic party free rein to choose a replacement candidate.
The stimulus tracker shows how federal stimulus money is being spent in each county in the US (found via Hello..... Mr. President).
The push to re-instate the public option gains steam, and Obama seems prepared to act without Republican support (all found via Oliver Willis).
Moderate conservative David Frum seems unimpressed with the Mount Vernon credo (more here, his suggestions here). Liberal views from Dissenting Justice, Progressive Eruptions, and Green Eagle. My own assessment is that most of it is intentionally vague, written to send coded signals to the bigots and theocrats -- "we're your kind of people" -- while retaining plausible deniability for the sake of moderate voters.
Andrew Sullivan explains why Palin is scary.
You might not want Romney sitting behind you either.
RedState's Erick Erickson takes a stand against far-right nutters.
If you're being stalked, you can't always count on the law.
Liberal Christians deceive themselves about the Bible.
Catholicism is analog, Protestantism is digital.
Religion in the US continues to decline.
Christianity was spread via cruelty.
Atheism is thriving in Canada -- a country which also has wiser banking policies than most.
Australia may have averted a major terrorist attack.
Michael Totten assesses Iran.
Dir Journal posts a large collection of new-found Soviet photos from World War II (found via Mendip).
King Tut lived a short, miserable life (sent by DemWit).
Jellyfish are cool.
A meteorite which may be older than our solar system is crammed with organic molecules.
Coming soon: Cthulhu comedy (found via Mendip).
A dissatisfied customer confronts God.
Cheney watches the Olympics for one event.
At last -- clear video of bigfoot!
Dallas office workers get creative with snow.
Switzerland provides first aid training where it's needed most.
Some people are apparently freaking out over Michelle Obama's bookshelf. (My own books include the Bible, the Koran, and Mein Kampf -- not everyone agrees with every book they read.)
That embarrassing Texas survey inspires a cartoon.
Family Guy actress Andrea Friedman rebukes Palin.
The "Big Lick" horse shows involve horrifying abuses.
How much do the rich pay in taxes?
The timing of Bayh's resignation allows the Democratic party free rein to choose a replacement candidate.
The stimulus tracker shows how federal stimulus money is being spent in each county in the US (found via Hello..... Mr. President).
The push to re-instate the public option gains steam, and Obama seems prepared to act without Republican support (all found via Oliver Willis).
Moderate conservative David Frum seems unimpressed with the Mount Vernon credo (more here, his suggestions here). Liberal views from Dissenting Justice, Progressive Eruptions, and Green Eagle. My own assessment is that most of it is intentionally vague, written to send coded signals to the bigots and theocrats -- "we're your kind of people" -- while retaining plausible deniability for the sake of moderate voters.
Andrew Sullivan explains why Palin is scary.
You might not want Romney sitting behind you either.
RedState's Erick Erickson takes a stand against far-right nutters.
If you're being stalked, you can't always count on the law.
Liberal Christians deceive themselves about the Bible.
Catholicism is analog, Protestantism is digital.
Religion in the US continues to decline.
Christianity was spread via cruelty.
Atheism is thriving in Canada -- a country which also has wiser banking policies than most.
Australia may have averted a major terrorist attack.
Michael Totten assesses Iran.
Dir Journal posts a large collection of new-found Soviet photos from World War II (found via Mendip).
King Tut lived a short, miserable life (sent by DemWit).
Jellyfish are cool.
A meteorite which may be older than our solar system is crammed with organic molecules.
posted by Infidel753 at 2:31 AM
16 Comments:
Palin.... a view from across the Pond here. Yes, I expect her to be in charge one day, if not by election then by military coup. This is relevant here: http://harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488
Thing is, democracy rests on an agreement to be good losers. You have a procedure, which may be flawed or even silly, but you nevertheless abide by the result. Theocrats both Muslim and Christian are quite right that such a set-up is ungodly. How can you possibly let God be defeated at the polls by Satan?
I regard the Clinton impeachment as the first expression of the breakdown of this consensus. It wasn't about the bimbos, or even Hillarycare and the tobacco settlement, it was a refusal to regard him as the legitimate incumbent, cf the birthers. And an attempt to introduce the parliamentary principle (that the executive sits at the pleasure of the legislature) -- for use by Republicans only, of course.
Then the Gore election victory was overridden by gerrymandering and coup d'etat, and the Democrats just lay down and accepted it. In another country Gore would have formed a government-in-exile. So what are they doing to do if Obama wins again and faces armed rebellion?
Also, the USA has gotten away with overturning foreign elections by means of "people power" and "colour revolutions", as a result of which it is doubtful whether losers will ever accept defeat again. It's all good practice for 2012.
it was a refusal to regard him as the legitimate incumbent,
Probably true. He remained in office, though.
Then the Gore election victory was overridden by gerrymandering and coup d'etat, and the Democrats just lay down and accepted it.
No, he lost because of the Electoral College and the idiots who wasted their votes on Nader. There have been previous elections where the candidate who got the most popular votes didn't win. The electoral process is what it is, and Gore had to accept it as such, even though it's "flawed or even silly".
So what are they doing to do if Obama wins again and faces armed rebellion?
We will doubtless see more right-wing terrorism, but no armed rebellion. If an armed rebellion were to happen, we already established what to do about that, in 1861-1865.
Also, the USA has gotten away with overturning foreign elections by means of "people power" and "colour revolutions",
Bull. The flagrantly-rigged election in Ukraine was overturned by an outpouring of public protest there. The same is in the process of happening in Iran. The US has little ability to influence the outcome in either case.
Talk of military coups in the US belongs to the realm of addled fantasy, not reality.
Excellent set of links - Thanks!
Yes, Clinton remained in office, but not for lack of trying, failure doesn't invalidate my point about the motives and mind-set of the tryers.
I'm aware that Kennedy really "lost" in 1960. But I didn't mean the way that the popular vote translates into the Electoral College, I was thinking more of the goings-on in Florida, and again meaning the Texas felons with the same names rather than the chads and stuff. Where does the border go between silly constitutional rules and rigging? Which brings us to other countries.
Don't agree about Ukraine. It was just a matter of two corrupt elites fighting over the same pie, and the Gas Princess did have American PR people. (Though I think Yanukovich does too, now.) I suspect your government was in there doing what it could. At that time, remember, there was talk of NATO membership. I was also thinking of Georgia, which you can hardly claim had no American connection. Our media loves Timoshenko because she's pretty, though I've seen pictures of her as a mousy brunette, before her makeover into the ideal of Ruthenian peasant womanhood. :-) She's a populist nationalist, a very dangerous creature in my continent. Making one language, not spoken by all, into the only official one is what triggered the civil war in Sri Lanka.
As for Iran, I think our media underplays the genuine support for Ahmadinejad, we just dismiss his fans as ignorant. I think he probably won, though not by such a crushing margin; his adding to his majority by fraud appears to have been counter-productive.
If I told you twenty years ago that you'd have a candidate of the Palin specifications, you'd have called me addled, verdad? But I wasn't thinking of a military coup quite in the classic sense of tanks on the street. It will be something subtler. She'd need a mass movement behind her, street power; but they're working on this, aren't they?
Clinton remained in office, but not for lack of trying,
But he remained in office. The system proved stronger than those who tried to usupr it.
Don't agree about Ukraine. It was just a matter of two corrupt elites fighting over the same pie
Which doesn't change the fact of the popular will at that time, even if the orange forces have subsequently lost support due to incompetence.
I think he probably won,
Wrong.
If I told you twenty years ago that you'd have a candidate of the Palin specifications, you'd have called me addled, verdad?
Twenty years ago I was much more worried about the extreme right than I am now.
But I wasn't thinking of a military coup quite in the classic sense of tanks on the street.
You said "military coup". It won't happen. Barring some very bizarre conflation of circumstances, Palin cannot win a Presidential election, and no one will ever take the leadership of this country by illegal methods.
This is all fantasy-land and conspiracy-theory-type stuff, not reality.
Ranch Greeting's Mr.Infidel!
The Chinese Menu piece, I really never understood what it is supposed to mean? If anything? Read it twice, and didnt even catch a bit.
Telegraph.co.uk on defibrillator training for sex industry personel. Smart thing to do, after all .... dead client's you cant get repeat business out of, you dont "want a" stiff .... you "want it" stiff, and pumping blood. However being the entrepreneur type fella I am, I figure you can hit two bird's with one stone on that, being by equipping room's with this, you can also use it to serve electro-shock/ medical sex fetish client's as well!
Reading "liberal Values" piece on the horse abuse thing is a hard read for one like me to comment on, reason being on one hand I am really fairly strong on thing's like preservation and sanctuary for chimp's and such, and eco conscious, yet I am also a big rodeo fan, one of my ex-roomate's when I was young in Houston was a rodeo clown, he used to ride, but got thrown from a horse once that gave him permanent injuries to not be able to ride again. But despite my sporting love, I must admit if it came down to a vote, I would have to vote in the horse's favour. When I was in graphic's pre-press/ printing for instance, worked in Mesquite(TX) for almost 7 year's, one of my biggest account's was the "Mesquite Rodeo", I knew several of the cowboy rider's, who would come by the shop and small chat with me while I worked on and reviewed job's for advertisement's, these guy's and gal's loved their horses like familia and grew up with them. So it is difficult to imagine how they must feel as well. So for all them cowboy's and cowgal's out there who wonder where ya'll would be without the rodeo to ride in? Well .... ya'll can alway's ride the mechanical bull's at "Gilley's" ( a local bar in Texas with mechanical bull riding machine's, some great concert's as well I may add!)
Critter's Crap on how much do the "rich" pay in taxes? I am shocked to even see report's that they pay that ... I dont buy it. Why? because if a poor SOB like me can figure out how to write off and defer damn near anything, these geniuses should have no excuse for paying tax unless out of guilt and compassion. I'll leave it there.
"Progressive Eruptions" geeeez .... when I first seen that blog title I thought it was a blog sight of Tiger "Woody" Woods, just kiddin ..... "What Texan's Believe", .... Yep .... that's it ... ya'll got us all figured out now. Thanx for the cartoon which was hilarious, wait till I tell Maw and Paw .... and lil sis (sis is still on her period, so I had to shag the dog this week) but none of us knew there was an animation piece on us! I thought also that dino's and human's co-existed .... and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ seen they were too big and we couldnt afford to feed and house them .... so he went to God (daddy) and replaced them with dawg's, for modern house pet's, and named them "dog" from his name backward's ... well at least alot of us Texan's believe that ....49.33.5% of us that is. :)
BBC News on the space rock with organic molecules was a great piece! It wont be too long now before that answer of how it all started here will be common knowledge.
And those WW2 photo's from Mr.Mendip were excellent piece's! BTW .... I dont use roman numeral's like II for 2, and the reason why, as odd is it may look .... is because I'm a Texan American in 2010 ... I dont live in ancient Rome.
Thanx Guy ...........
RC: The point of the Chinese menu is that the Chinese restaurant people translated it into English without knowing English, with absurd results. Most people think it's very funny.
I think the "Big Lick" horse abuse is a lot worse than what happens at a typical rodeo (I may be wrong, since I don't know much about rodeos). Even there, though, I can't blame the horse -- if another animal jumped on your back and tried to ride you, wouldn't you try to throw it off?
Roman numerals are traditionally used in certain contexts. I notice you don't mind using the Roman alphabet:-)
You noticed I dont mind using the Roman alphabet? Goddamn boy! you sure got my ass in a sling on that un! :)
"My own books include the Bible, the Koran, and Mein Kampf -- not everyone agrees with every book they read."
Ah, one of those perverts who actually reads books, huh? Didn't your parents tell you that you're supposed to order them up by the foot and the colour to look good on the shelves and impress visitors? Goes with the talk about the birds and the bees.
A useful thought experiment for everyone, though: go and look at your own bookshelves while pretending to be a secret policeman, see what sort of a case you can build against yourself. Taking facts wholly out of context is a must!
I think possession of "Mein Kampf" might even be a felony in Germany and Austria. An author in my country has written a roman à clef with the equivalent title in the local language, as a goof, but he is never going to get it published on the Continent without a name change.
Re the excellent collection of Soviet war photos: I was reading somewhere, was it on the Blag Hag?, about sexual abuse in the American forces, and the writer said that Iraq/Afghanistan were the first wars with large-scale female participation in mixed units. That is so not true. The Red Army was full of women soldiers and aircrew, of whom we see some here. The partisans were also thoroughly mixed.
A virtual beverage of your choice to anyone who can name an army of recent times that was about 50% female, albeit not in mixed units. Fortified positions manned by a male army were stormed by terrifying all-female assault units.
HG: I'm sure my stacks of Russian-language reference books and books on Russian history would arouse the worst suspicions. Hard to say what they'd make of all my books on the great apes and on biotechnology. Maybe they'd think I'm a Communist mad scientist who hopes to make Planet of the Apes a reality.
I have read about how startled the Nazis often were to find themselves fighting women soldiers in the Red Army. Social conservatives that they were, the Nazis must have been quite appalled at the idea.
I must say I can't call to mind an army of recent times which was 50% female, but there are many areas of history I'm not very familiar with. Israel?
RC: Well, if you have a problem with Roman numerals, why not the Roman alphabet?:-)
And those he-man, all-American Texas numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) which you prefer to the Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, etc.) are technically called "Arabic numerals" since Europeans adopted them from the Islamic world, and they were actually invented in India. Hindu or Roman, take your pick.
Texas traditional culture is based on cattle (domesticated thousands of years ago in the Middle East), horses (domesticated thousands of years ago in what is now Ukraine and southern Russia -- undoubtedly by Commies), and guns (invented in China around 800 years ago).
Everything is a hodgepodge of stuff that came from everywhere.
"Maybe they'd think I'm a Communist mad scientist who hopes to make Planet of the Apes a reality."
"Go for it, mate", sez I.
Israel is often quoted, because they very unusually have female conscription, but the bulk of the womanpower serves in support roles. I am given to understand that the prettiest get made secretaries to the generals......
The answer to my quiz question is, however, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Uhhhhh .... I didnt think those good folk's were commies back then .... they were more like good ole downhome right winger's, heh? Wow .... and what a melting pot Texas 2010 is .... Sam Houston would have bever imagined this!
Later Guy ...........
Great links!
Loved the Bigfoot footage. He is one goofy ape isn't he? & so are his devoted followers. Did you see the Bigfoot ladies letter to the editor, (I think it was last week)? About what kind of reception you'll get when you tell the police you saw Bigfoot?
Hilarious!
Hah! Yes, I saw that letter. She reminded me of the flying saucer nuts who claim the Men in Black will "disappear" anybody who gets too close to the "truth" about Area 51.
We humans are the goofiest apes of all.
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