Where'd All The Money Go?

For Sam Stone's kids it was a hole in daddy's arm. For the 99% in the current jobless recovery, it's the hyper rich:

And yet somehow or another Obama is a socialist marxist scum.

How Horrible Are The Republicans

Here is a harrowing account of a woman's experience with the Texas law concerning forced probing and mandated moralization. The woman's account, I think, exposes the heartless cruelty and horridness of the wretched god-botherers who think that their blinkered concept of religious life is the tune to which we ought all march.

These Horrid Little People

Rustication refers to the process of expelling someone from Oxbridge. It features prominently in 19th century British fiction usually associated with some nerdowell or another. Recently, one of Britain's neoliberal twits came to Cambridge to announce the destruction of higher education in the service of expansionary austerity. The students and professors were not pleased and so they

as he came to the lectern, a number of audience members (both students and academics) stood up and read, or performed, collectively, a poem articulating opposition to the policies he was advocating. They continued to read and repeat the poem until after a few minutes Willetts was ushered away and the lecture and question and answer session cancelled.

In response, 

one PhD student was singled out for reprisal by the university authorities, and made subject to the university’s disciplinary procedures.

This singling out despite

a letter signed by sixty dons and students advertising their own actual or implicit part in the protest was drafted and sent. This had no effect on the proceedings, and the hearing went ahead.

The result? The student was given

a sentence of seven terms rustication which, as earlymodernjohn points out, is almost the whole period of PhD study.

From gambling and drink to protesting the absurd idea that the best way to respond to years of neoliberalism more neoliberalism.

Bunny Ears

An earless bunny from Germany:

Der Spiegel reports that earlessness combined with

his cuteness would surely have made him a media celebrity, especially in Germany, which has a history of worshipping furry baby animals.

And so they had the "media" into take video, which could then go viral, unfortunately for the bunny the videographer stepped on and killed the earless fellow.

Again With The Idiocy

First a video as a reminder:



It's not a series of political opinions or policy suggestions, Limbaugh's rantings over at least three day is just one of many examples of his use of lies to create a false image of an "enemy" in order to use vile language and vitriol to whip his ill-informed and willfully ignorant listeners and fellow "cultural warriors" into a frenzy.

So when Andrew Sullivan decries the boycott or quotes child-scribe Ezra Klein centrist Kevin Drum worrying about the knock on effect of the boycott on legitimate political discourse, it might help lay their fears to rest to remember that legitimate political discourse doesn't require lies, abuse, and horrid little men and women.

If the boycott tends convince pundits to stop lying or even just stop using vile language society will be a net gainer.

Conservative or Stupid

Over to The New Yorker John Cassidy, who isn't all that bright, conflates conservative with stupid:

First, Alabama and Mississippi remain two of the most conservative states in the country. Second, Rick Santorum is the most conservative candidate in the G.O.P. field. For a man who has questioned the science of global warming and the morality of birth control to win a plurality of the vote in two states where, according to an election-eve survey from the research firm Public Policy Polling, almost two in three Republicans don’t believe in evolution and almost one in two think Barack Obama is a Muslim, shouldn’t have been so surprising.

In this case, however, it seems to me that he is on to something. Only an idiot holds the latter two positions and only an idiot thinks that Santorum could govern.

Why Contraception Matters

From the Historiann:

 There is more at the link and you ought to read it. The larger point is, I think, that taking away medical advances is a really bad idea. To which I would add, mega dittos.

When Is A Quote a Lie

George Washington in his 1st inaugural:

A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

Pretty clearly an argument for either a standing army or for a well trained militia not individual ownership. However, according to AWR Hawkins PhD the meaning of the quote is:

 When George Washington wrote that “free people ought … to be armed,” he gave us a clue as to the kind of America the Founders envisioned. It was one where the government stayed within its bounds, carrying out its limited duties while leaving the people free to exercise their rights and liberties.

If you ignore the full quote and misrepresent it; sure, it can mean whatever you want it to.

Not content with misrepresenting Washington, our PhD insists that

during the 1930s Mahatma Gandhi bemoaned the fact that Great Britain had forcibly disarmed his people. He saw it as not simply a denial of the right to possess a weapon but as something that cut much deeper: “Spiritually, compulsory disarmament has made us unmanly … has made us think we cannot look after ourselves or put up a defense against foreign aggression, or even defend our homes and families.”

The full quote:

Spiritually, compulsory disarmament has made us unmanly, and the presence of an alien army of occupation, employed with deadly effect to crush in us the spirit of resistance, has made us think that we cannot look after ourselves or put up a defense against foreign aggression, or even defend our homes and families from the attacks of thieves, robbers and miscreants.

"We hold it to be a crime against man and God to submit any longer to a rule that has caused this fourfold disaster to our country. We recognize, however, that the most effective way of gaining our freedom is not through violence. We will therefore prepare ourselves by withdrawing, so far as we can, all voluntary association from the British Government, and will prepare for civil disobedience, including nonpayment of taxes. We are convinced that if we can but withdraw our voluntary help and stop payment of taxes without doing violence, even under provocation, the end of this inhuman rule is assured. We therefore hereby solemnly resolve to carry out the Congress instructions issued from time to time for the purpose of establishing Purna Swaraj.

Ghandi is,  on the one hand, condemning colonialism as a means of infantilizing Indians and, on the other, denying that arms mean or make freedom.

My point is this, Limbaugh et alia cannot wage "cultural war" without resorting to lies, vile rhetoric, and vitriol and, as result, the Right's preferred method of argumentation is lies and more lies.

Here in Wisconsin

Scott Walker's campaign or members of his staff who also worked for the campaign or something or another, are or is under investigation of violating the rules of the road. Today, we learn that Walker has set up a legal defense fund, although he denies being a target of the investigation. Interestingly according to the WSJ, for the last link,

Wisconsin statutes allow government officials to seek or obtain contributions to so-called defense funds only if they are being investigated for or charged with a violation of either campaign finance or other election laws.

 So which is it? Either he is a target or he is violating the law.

What is it with these louts and their refusal to take the law seriously.

Eat

By the way  if you're in or near Sun Prairie stop in at Porktopolis for some really fine BBQ and an array of sauces. The sides, unfortunately, are only mediocre.

A Lie Too Far

The hopeless stupidity of Obama's hugging of Derek Bell goodness knows how many years ago is obvious, I think, to anyone with eyes to see. At the same time, this video of Bell's wife shows the proper response:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Video via

Crazy Talk

Ross Douthat has a Op Ed up in which he "argues" that Republican voters aren't either crazy but rather just being good citizens as they desperately seek someone who isn't Mitt Romney. This might be true were it not for the fact that the Republican candidates have been spewing lies about Obama, crazy talk about Iran's invasion and contraception. On the whole, the primary has been a vile and horrid affair in which the candidates are willing to pander to the 27 percent. The voters are crazy and the candidates either crazy or uninterested in governance and truth.

Want to

see some cool pictures of bikes and cycleing? Of course you do:

More here.

Thinking Ahead

Today one of the NRO buffla-heads discovers the horrible situation in Uganda. Way back when Obama sent troops to Uganda to help stop the horrific situation in Uganda caused by Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, horrid little man and vile lying lunatic Rush Limbaugh accused the President of waging war on Christianity.

It's not just his lies and vile rhetoric about Fluke and contraception, the man, if that's the word I want, is a walking talking example of all that is wrong, vile, and destructive in America's public discourse. And, whatismore, it is not a mistake that he is a conservative culture warrior. All that is vile, wrong and destructive in America's public discourse grows out of the need of the "cultural war" for lies, vile rhetoric, and wrong-headedness.

Rights, Responsibility, And Boycotts

This  vile, lying, cretin, both Maher and Sullivan, "think" ought not be punished because speech is a right. Liberty, the 18th century liberals and radicals, used to say is not  license. Here is a taste of his vile lies and bullshit:



Not one word he utters here about the pill or Fluke is true or has any basis in reality. He is a horrid little man.

see also.

Andrew Sullivan

is just plain silly. Watching how a democratic polity polices unhealthy and undemocratic speech he finds that although

[i]t's a free country. . . [he] get queasy with boycotts to target disgusting but free speech.

So if vile, lying, vindictive, morons spread malicious lies and vitriolic bile on their fellow citizens, Sullivan suggest, the solution is to live and let live; after free speech. This is the kind empty-headed  silliness that insists that the existence of a natural or man-made right means that there can be no consequences for its exercise. Clearly this is wrong. Worse yet just today Limbaugh, show that his infinite capacity for growth is all about girth, (allegedly) read a book and didn't like its conclusion and so he complained of about

all of these young, single, white women, overeducated — doesn’t mean intelligent.

If the man isn't show the error of his ways day after day he will continue to poison the well.

Indeed

Obama, we are told, is a push over for the tough-talking Right wingers:



(video via)

How To Win a Culture War

If the Right loses the ability to lie about other people and then pour vitriol and vile language on their  fellow citizens, the phony "culture war" disappears. Obama, for all his faults, understands or seems to understand this:



Who knows maybe things are look up, all evidence to the contrary.

(video via)

Religious Exceptions

The Right want's to allow moral and religious standards to govern obedience to secular law, at least when it's their ox being gored. How, one wonders, do they view (via) this particular case of the religious objections:

Dozens of Israel Postal Company employees in Ramat Gan refused to distribute thousands of copies of the New Testament to city residents. They claimed such distribution is forbidden according to the halacha laws, and might even be illegal.

This is the kind of situation that arises when nut jobs seek to Balkanize  one nation under God, as it were. On what level do they think that dividing us against ourselves on narrow theological grounds represents 100 percent Americanism.

Failure to Communicate

Over to the NRO Jason Lee Steorts misses the point about the Rights "culture war." He warns that 

[t]he article by Angela Morabito to which Kathryn links is a good example of how conservatives must not sound if they wish to win the debate over the HHS mandate. It suggests that Sandra Fluke has too much sex, says she speaks for “skanks who don’t want to take responsibility for their choices,” and rebukes her for having “missed the ten commandments.” Maybe the author was trying to be funny, but instead she conveys arrogance, condescension, and a total lack of manners. 

But it’s not just about manners. It’s also about making the right arguments. Nothing in this debate hinges on the particular sexual choices of Sandra Fluke, whatever they may be. (She might have been a married student who wished to use contraception with her husband.) And nothing hinges on whether the Catholic teaching about contraception is sound. The fundamental point is twofold: that the government should not dictate to private institutions what sort of health-care coverage they must provide, and that the government should not force a religious institution to violate its conscience. There are a great many people who hold this position but are disgusted by remarks like Morabito’s. They are people we need on our side

.

The Obama administration would like nothing more than to drag opponents of the HHS mandate into debates over the character of a particular young woman or the moral permissibility of contraception. These are traps. Don’t walk into them.

They vitriol and vile name calling are ancillary to the "culture war"; they are the the "cultural war." A reasoned debate about the state's power to set standards for health insurance and the limits of religious and moral convictions in evading these standards is an argument the Right loses, at least in part because of the hysteria they have been whipping up over Sharia.

The non-existent "culture war" can only be waged in the twilight of lies, distortions and invective; once mannered debate and facts come into play, the Right loses its base of rageholics and fails to persuade the average American, who really doesn't care what its neighbors get up to. Most of the Right now this and that's why they lie, distort, and use vile  invective, like the horrid little men and  women they are.

Set For Life

Oddly enough this ended up in my Spam:

Attention:

My name is Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi Lamorde the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) New Executive Officer in Nigeria. I was until  my appointment the Director of Operations of the EFCC. I understand you were expecting your fund sum to be wired to your bank account for so long but your expectation was not met.

I am contacting you to let you know the truth because i know how far you must have gone in trying to get your funds paid out to you under  the leadership of the erstwhile Chairperson Mrs Farida Waziri. Which  has caused you to pay huge sums of money into wrong hands most  especially to Fraudsters who frequently impersonate the identity of real Government and Bank Officials to help make themselves and their  scam appear legitimate.

I will be ready to help in delivering your fund sum to you with your honest and sincere co-operation with my Office.

Sincerely,
Mr Ibrahim Lamorde,
Chairman,
EFCC.

Free at last.

Now That's A Recovery

Via we learn that the top 1 percent absorbed 93 percent of the wealth created during the recent "recovery." Let's hear it for expansionary austerity and Neoliberalism more generally.

Odd Choices

Dr, Suess, it seems, once wanted to be taken seriously as an adult author.  Consequently, he wrote and illustrated a book on the Godiva sisters. The book disappeared without a whimper. Suess claimed that

[he] attempted to draw the sexiest babes [he] could, but they came out looking absurd.

Judge for yourself:

Neoliberalism Explained

Robert Walser[1] once wrote:

I only know that all the poor people work in the factory, perhaps as a punishment for being so poor.

The consensus is that he was being ironical; the Republicans, conservatives, the Right, and Neoliberals more generally mean it and, consequently, work is the punishment for not having Romney's parents.

[1] About whom more later.

Culture War

Rush Limbaugh sort of apologized for being a vile, lying, cretinous bastard, which is to say a proud member of the Conservative Movement. In the course of that apology he continued to distort reality and consequently implied that that his cretinous and vile lies and language we're, in fact, the result of the target of his hate-filled lying and vile nonsense. Some see this as a step in the right direction; others think, rightly in my opinion, that the response is simply one more example of the shameless lying and vileness without which the "culture war" could not continue.

And this is, I think, the point that has to be emphasized: Limbaugh constructed a lie and then became enraged about his lie and consequently attacked an innocent human being in the vilest way he could think of. That he was telling one lie after another is obvious. As one example, there is no  correlation between the number of times anyone has sex and the amount of birth control pills needed. It's not, in other words, like condoms.

The fact of the matter is that there has never been a "culture war" in this country but rather a bunch of dishonest, vile, and contemptuous conservatives who fear freedom and liberty used one lie after another to whip up a  minority of the population.

This isn't, I know, news. It does, sort of, help to remember that the only way the Right wins is to lie in the vilest and most obvious way possible.