geek empire
and if you don't read ace
then what the hell are you doing here? he's about as pissed as i've ever seen him, about the red cross. and for good reason.
i have an amusing but unrelated side note about the red cross. while i was stationed at dix in jersey, my paternal grandmother died. in order to get emergency leave, i had to have my dad petition the red cross. when he called them, they told him i don't exist. i had to call them and had one of the most surreal experiences of my life, trying to convince the red cross receptionist on the other end of the line that i do, in fact, exist, i don't give a shit what they get when they run my social i am here and i need to get home, right freaking now. gotta love the beaurocracy.
other than that, the red cross/red crescent seems hell bent on making sure that every dirtbag asshole murderer we find lives better than we do.
to which i say, fuck them, and their high horse. i know they do alot of good work, both here and abroad, but i wish they could just shut up and do it allready, and stay out of politics. how does standing up for the rights of someone that has killed thousands improve the human condition?
maybe instead they could focus on getting relief to iraqis injured in attacks by "freedom fighters". just for once i would love to see them come down on the wackjobs indsicriminatly killing civilians as hard as they come down on the u.s.
until then, fuck 'em. they don't want us, the people of this country, then we don't need them.
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we've just outlawed iraq, we will begin eating their brains in five minutes.
i know you've allready all seen this, i found it on allah, but damn, that's one of the funniest fuckin things i've ever seen.
two of my heros together, romero and reagan. i wish i knew how to work photoshop, this is a classic just begging for photos.
BRAAAAAAAINS!
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morrissey
michelle says it much better than i, but i love the smiths, and morrissey's later work. people make fun of him and the cure because they are so successful and yet sing such sappy "woe is me" songs, but if you've ever felt like a truly pathetic individual in your life, then there's a song there for you.
and morrissey does it with a sense of humor (see: hang the deejay), which just makes it that much better.
to quote michelle:
But no matter how many goth poems you’ve written, no matter how many times you sighed and declared your life to be meaningless, no matter how many times unrequited love slapped you in the face, you could never, ever pull off patheticness quite like Morrissey.
In the beginning notes of HSIN, we’re there with him. Son, heir, vulgar shyness. If you’ve ever been a wallflower (and if you hero-worshipped Morrissey, I assume you have), you nodded along to those weirds.
You shut your mouth, how can you say, I go about things the wrong way. I am human and I need to be loved, just like everyone else does.
hey, you know what? if i stopped listening to every musician that hates gwb, i'd have no music left, except ted nugent. and don't get me wrong, but one can only listen to sweaty teddy sing cat scratch fever so many times. most of the bands i like hate most of the stuff i stand for, see kmfdm for a good example. but if they put out good music that isn't overly political, then they can take a few of my evil capitalist dollars for it. it's worth it.
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reporting reagan
i have a few thoughts on the rash of people bitching that reagan's death is overreported.
first, in the category of "methinks they doth protest too much": i've heard alot of people whining that they think it's unfair that the right can prather on and on about how great reagan was, but that they are not allowed to talk about his bad points. but i am yet to hear anyone on the right say anything negative about someone who wishes to (politically, not personally) criticise reagan's administration. in fact, the only criticism i've heard is that these people refuse to say what they're really thinking, they feel the need to lie to us instead. if you have something relevant or substantive to say that is less than positive about reagan, or about bush in comparison to reagan, say it allready. if you can think of a way, somehow, that kerry is the actual heir to the reagan legacy, go for it. but quit bitching about how you aren't allowed to say anything, it's your program, say whatever you like. just be ready to back it up, and if you devolve into pointless namecalling and bashing what many consider a dead hero, then expect to get called on it.
second, in the "there's other more important things to talk about" category: again, it's your program. you want to to talk about something else, go for it. of course, there isn't much really going on out there they can use, so all this plea is "can we stop talking about how great reagan was, we hated him then and just want to get back to pictures of nekkid iraqis." and they know they can't do that, because it will reveal them as the partisan hacks they are, and because the people aren't ready to get back to bashing america in this wave of patriotism yet. but hey, it's your show, you want to go on re-rehashing grabanarab prison and helliburton and bushitler, go for it, just watch your ratings go through the floor.
finally, in the category of "oh shit i just sait what i really think out loud", dan rather: "Once
the herd starts moving in one direction, it's very hard to turn it, even slightly," Rather said. "Nationally,
the herd has grown tremendously."
that's right, you stupid cattle you, i want to talk about naked prisoner pyramids, how dare you spend your time revering a president i hated anyway!
but don't blame dan, he's just mad because "the herd" is spooked by the big black storm clouds around his show, and are furiously stampeding in the other direction.
with props to
4rwws for the blather quote.
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a rebuttal to a rebuttal to a rebuttal...
the washington post writes a story about those big mean campaign ads being run by the bush administration. that's fair, except they krughman-esquely forget a number of ads run by kerry attacking bush, and misstate, misquote, or mislead the reader in trying to prove unfairness or inaccuracy by the bush campaign.
ace has some commentary on what the ombudsman for wapo has to say about it's blatant overwhelming partisinship...favoring bush.
and
byron york has the numbers for all the misleading statements and outright lies is this piece of "objective" (don't laugh) journalism.
oh, as they say,
that liberal media.
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the gipper
RIP, President Reagan
i was born in 1981, so you could say i didn't exactly follow reagan's presidency. which is a shame, because i wish i knew more about the president that is the architect of the political movement of which i am a part. i have a book of his quotations and have read alot of the history of his presidency, but reading the history is nowhere near the same as living the history.
but i have an understanding of what he did for politics in this country, especially for bringing the right into fruition as a current political force in this country. he embodies what many conservatives believe to be the ideal.
and i understand what he did for the world, being the primary force in bringing about the downfall of the blight called communism. that single act, along with all of the other things he did, raised the bar on the human condition both in america and around the world more than anything else since ww2
it saddens me that i never really knew him, only what i read of him in books. and it saddens me even more that he is gone. but i am very glad that he lived, that he did the things he did, that he had the courage to say what he believed, said it clearly, and that he was there to help build the better world in which we are living.
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your mother's army
via
curmodgeonly & skeptical (whose entire site is not work safe)
kerry has named
claudia kennedy as a military advisor. i didn't recognize the name, but it turns out that she is likely to be single handedly responsible for every single mushy namby pamby wussified army policy and program i have ever been subjected to. pretty well illustrates how he envisions the military should be.
if he gets elected, it will just make me that much happier i get out soon. as if clinton didn't frig it up enough...
and on a lighter not, while you're over at c&s;, check
this out. perhaps kerry should ditch kennedy and name daryl as an advisor, he'd do much better among swing voters.
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evangelical environmentalism
found it in this also-worth-reading comment thread at ace's.i don't know much about michael chriton's politics, but judging by the books i have read of his i had always thought of him as more of a lefty. the tone of human arrogance causing massive destruction via science always smacked of liberalism to me, but i could be mistaken.
having said that, he has
an excellent piece on how environmentalism has become the religion of many these days. you know the type, absolutely invincible to facts, always blathering some odd statistics that show that every time we fart it kills a tree in the rainforest, etc, etc, etc. and it is a shame, because the sheer nuttiness of it turns so many off what is an important issue, that needs to be discussed rationally. it's hard to do when the picture of an environmentalism is an anti-capitalist stoner college dropout.
anyway, his piece is one of the best articles on the modern environmental movement i've read, he pleads for the return of environmentalism from space cadet nutters to the realm of real science, where we can dispassionately find out what is actually going on and realistically do something about it.
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gratutious bird blogging
meet the newest member of the geek menagerie, a pearl cockatiel. added to the existing critters, one chinchilla, and one beta fish. plus, the most ferocious of all, my girlfriend. all of us living happily in our two bedroom filing cabinet.
the bird is really cool, and they're suppossed to make great pets, although this one has been nothing but a total dick since we got him. i wanted to post a pic of a pissed off tiel ruthlessly attacking somebody's finger, because that would be a little closer to reality. but we're working with him, i think he just misses his buddies at the pet store and everything. at least, i hope that's it, and i just didn't get a bitchy birdie. i'm sure enough overdone sacchrine lovin' and he'll come around eventually.
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i'm willing to pay taxes for welfare freedom
a response to the
this bit of drooling insanity on the pg's letters page. the last one on the page, titled "i'm willing to pay taxes for peace." here is my reply, if only i wasn't afraid of turning into a letters to the editor junkie.
To the Editor,
in a letter in wednesday's paper, tim pearce struck upon a really good idea. he wishes to no longer have to fund our country's military (one of the few legitimate purposes of the federal government provided for in the constitution) because he is apparently morally opposed to being able to defend ourselves and wiping the virus that is terrorism off of the planet.
using the logic of mr. pearce's argument, i would like to no longer have to pay taxes for all government programs that i am morally opposed to. this includes but is not limited to: unemployment benfits, government healthcare (to include medicare and medicade), social security, any and all forms of welfare, any and all foreign aid allowments, any and all programs designed to sponsor the arts, music, science, or any other private endeavor, public school systems, government subsidies for education, transportation, or any ailing company, etc. essentially, i want the 53% of my taxes that does not go to the military back, because i strongly disagree with any government funding of anything other than what is specifically provided for in the constitution, and i am morally opposed to government aid and redistribution of the wealth.
my religion and my conscience forbid me to allow these horrid practices to continue, and i cannot in good conscience know that my tax dollars are being spent on the victims of wealth redistribution. i believe that there are other ways to solve our problems, but i want the government to stay out of it and let the people fix it themselves.
so, as mr. pearce says, write your congressmen to let them know you support the military, and love your country, but are morally opposed to seeing it devolve further into a quagmire of socalism and misspent goodwill, and that you wish to see monetary freedom returned to the land of the free.
actually, i don't want all those programs eliminated entirely, of course, but i do think it makes the point.
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memorial day
i have been trying to think of something substantive to post in celebration of memorial day. but since i can't, i'll just post my thoughts on what would be a good way to spend a memorial day.
first off, of course, is to say thanks to the soon-to-be-gone wwii vets. if you know any or see any about, let 'em know they're appreciated.
second, if you know anyone servind overseas, drop them a line. dosen't have to be anything spectactular, i don't even reccommend getting all gooshy, just say hi.
and third, do the thing that pisses off our enemy more than anything else: have fun. enjoy your family, have a cookout, get hammered, whatever you do. (assuming, of course, that you're lucky enough to have monday off :P ) turn off the tv, don't watch the news, don't obsess over the war or who said what on the hill. it'll still be there tuesday.
take a moment to remember those who have fallen and those who came before us and then spend the day doing what they sacrificed to allow us to do: enjoy freedom and make the most out of life.
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the day after the day after the day after the day after...
if you should happen to go see that nutty day after tommorow movie (which, by the way, if "tommorow" never really comes, because it's always the next day, what does that make the day after a day that never comes?) print out a few of these and take 'em with you in case you run into any moo-oner's passing out their flyers. the sheer confusion in their eyes would be hilarious.
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I finally read 'strength'
because i've been seeing on every freaking blog i read about how great it is, but i haven't had the vacation days built up to read it. but, eventually i broke, sat down, took some ritalin, and of course,
it is everything promised and more. i'm going to read it again and take notes when i have a few days to kill, but if you haven't yet then call in sick tommorow and head over there.
my only other comment on it is that i didn't find it particularly deep, or subtle, or (dare i say) nuanced. the things he talks about are things that we all know but don't...connect in the way he does. it's less deep thinking and more blunt obvious blatant reality, explained in such a way that so many, many things you already knew but didn't fully understand (even if you didn't know you didn't understand) finally make sense.
it isn't some deep-thinking naval-gazing incomprehensible manifesto, and that's what makes it so good.
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video shows...
for whoever googled me for "video shows american rangers killing iraqi civilians"...
fuck.off.
you won't find it here, and if you do find something like that somewhere, you better do some serious fact checking.
not that something as insignifigant as "facts" matter to your view of the greater good...
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