This, on the other hand, would be amusing — even satisfying, in a schadenfreude kind of way (it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of intolerant hypocrites!) — if I didn’t think they were just trotting out yet another prevarication parade in an effort to separate gullible people from their money.
Scary stuff. Keep listening to hear the part about “Wamp of Chattanooga.”
It’s been a while and these things do pile up…
• How The Average U.S. Consumer Spends Their Paycheck — this is an interesting chart. We’re by no means average (we’ve never carried a car loan, for one thing, and we probably spend more on food and alcohol, even though we don’t eat out much), but the proportions seem to be generally true.
• Have you tried goofram yet? It’s a combination of google and wolfram|alpha.
• Think you’re a geek? Have you mastered the essential skills?
• The Young Republicans have elected an Aryan as their leader.
• Barney Frank visited the Daily Show last week.
• Just how rich is Fitzwilliam Darcy? (Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: Pride and Prejudice is not only my favorite novel, it’s also the first book I ever read aloud to Emmie — starting when she was about a week old.) And speaking of Jane Austen, today is the anniversary of her death.
• How’s your sense of pitch? (I scored a 26 out of 26 — which, if you’ve ever heard me sing, you know must mean that I hear pitch perfectly — I just can’t produce it that way.)
• Local coverage of Zach Wamp’s psooper psekret christian adultery cult (read about yet another C Street philanderer here — and here!).
• You Suck at Craig’s List is pretty funny (via Joe. My. God.).
• Badass of the Week, featuring Blenda, the Viking Heroine!
• Rick Perry is apparently rethinking that whole Texas-as-a-country thing (seriously — who voted for this guy?).
• If you want to see the Great Barrier Reef, you better go soon.
• Can someone find Glenn Beck a nice small room with soft walls and a good therapist?
• … and speaking of health care (that’s what set Beck off)… Glenn doesn’t have it quite right when it comes to France’s system. The current American system is fine until you get sick, but will the next one be any better?
• This can’t be said enough times: the only thing abstinence-only “education” produces is unbelievably stupid kids.
• I loves me some Usain Bolt footage. He makes all the other best runners in the world look like my grandma.
• And finally, Pat Buchanan: he really stepped in it this week — even more than usual!
…And Tax Day will perhaps be forever changed…
Everybody’s talking about teabagging this week (much to Rachel’s amusement!). Even Chattanoogans, who are notoriously non-activist, had some tea parties today. Events all over the country have been getting a lot of media coverage, but I wonder if at least part of the reason for that is the fact that protesters’ choice of language is providing so much amusement for people (and giving at least one poor old woman asthma attacks!).
But besides their unfortunate use of language — which is a place they keep going back to (more here), deliciously — conservatives might also be hurting their reputation in another way: their choice of metaphor just doesn’t ring true, and so it leaves them looking clueless and petulant. The “tea party” is, I gather, supposed to refer back to the Boston Tea Party (where they dumped chests, not bags, of tea into the harbor (not on the sidewalk) — tea which had been siezed, not purchased at the nearest Wal-Mart Asian Import Store). The 1773 Tea Party was part of a protest of the the fact that colonists were being asked to pay levies while not being allowed representation by the taxing authority — but sadly, the reference is willfully ignorant.
The events across the country were not being put together by people who suffer from a lack of representation by the taxing authority. Today’s demonstrators had the opportunity to vote for their representatives in government just last fall. I can only assume that these activists took advantage of that civic opportunity, so at this point, they’re really just being sore losers. These people put politicians in power who demonstrated an incredible incompetence at running a government over a number of recent years, and then they suffered terrific losses at the polls as a result. That is what makes today’s protests not so much like an iconic event that might change the course of history and more like a toddler’s tantrum — complete with the red face, teary eyes, and bulging diaper — after just 86 days in the minority. As Joe says:
I’m all for fighting against big government. My only question is: why just now? With a few exceptions, where have you guys been?
And, I might add, where are your suggestions as to an alternative course? (Come on, be serious — if all you’re going to say is “shut down the government,” then, really, how is that helping?) Given where we are, how should we proceed?
First the original ad, created by the forces of wing-nuttia, or the National Organization for Marriage (Oh, the gays! If they can get married, then my life will be ruined!!!! And the sky is falling!!!):
And then came the truth…
Continue reading ‘Nom, Nom, Nom-nom!’
Tidbits from the Right Wing as the week came to a close:
1. Oh, but the world is coming to an end because gay people in Iowa can get married! At least, that’s what you’d gather if you were hanging out with the freepers or other right wingers yesterday (my favorite comment in the response to the response: “It seems God turns a blind eye to the high straight divorce rate, pedophile priests, straight criminals etc. I didn’t know that homosexuals such as myself were so powerful and could bring about Armageddon but if we are responsible it will be fabulously well run and organized. Oh what to wear?”).
2. Pope condoms are selling well in France.
3. Look who is finally leaving New York (don’t let the door hit you in the ginormous ass, Rush!)! UPDATE: Rush forgets.
4. And lastly, is Glenn Beck unraveling before our eyes?
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The 10.31 Project | ||||
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It’s hard to believe that someone could come up with an idea that is dumber than the War on Drugs, but South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford has gone and done it (via Ice Station Tango):
Now, why would we, as a community, want to take a productive member of society and turn him into the taxpayer’s problem by throwing him into jail or prison, when all he did was drop the f-bomb (or pick up a bit of weed for the weekend)? Plus, if swearing were outlawed, we’d miss out on wonderful moments like this one (via One Good Move):
I think it might be the new black.
I don’t know if they’ve taken up their crusade as a way to suck up to the right’s (increasingly irrelevant?) wingnut base in a cynical attempt to get Mitt the dog lover into the White House, or if it’s something they’ve been planning for years, but the end result is that they’ve painted a big, red bull’s eye on their church — or is it a political party these days? Either way, while they’re claiming moral authority over the rest of us, let’s not forget some of the loonier things they buy into…
Fortunately, some saner heads are willing to walk away from what is becoming the LDS train wreck: Mormons resign, Prop 8 Made Me Quit, Son of LDS Leader Quits — why even Jesus’ General Himself Resigned. There’s LOTS more here.
UPDATE: like I said, it’s fashionable.
Is anyone watching Mitt Romney? Is he on crack?
He complains about the liberals in Washington and says we should throw them out and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin!
Huh? Is he saying that George Bush and Dick Cheney are evil liberals?!? He also whines that “it’s time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother!”
So, does Mittens know that for six of the past eight years, the Republicans have been in charge Washington? And that for all of the last eight years, it’s been George Bush who’s been running the country into the ground (and tapping Romney’s phone?)?
What planet has Mittens been living on? I’ve been watching this convention since it began and so far, there have been no ideas floating around — big or little. All I’ve heard is abortion, abortion, abortion liberals are evil USA USA USA!
Alaska’s Senator (and Internet expert) finally got caught (here’s the scoop).
Hello! I'm Alice, which is my real name (most of the other names here have been changed, though, to protect the innocent). I live in an almost-100-year-old house in downtown Chattanooga, TN with my first husband, G-Dog (who is from New Canaan, CT), and a cockapoo named Nonnie (the moniker comes from a Laurens van der Post book). We have one kid (that we know of) -- a daughter, Emmie, who plays a supporting role on the blog. She's off being a student, but she pops in often enough to keep things interesting.
I originally hale from Batavia, NY, a quiet little town in rural western New York. G-Dog and I met while attending college in Carlisle, PA, and then moved on to Chapel Hill, NC together before finally settling in Tennessee. Other places we've lived in long enough to have a mailing address include London and San Francisco.
This blog is about a lot of things -- the places I visit, things I cook, people I meet, photos I take, things I read, and -- of course, politics. I'm an unrepentant, arugula-eating, progressive, liberal, lefty, euro-loving, educated elitist and I'm looking forward to an administration that doesn't raise my blood pressure quite as often as the outgoing one did...
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