Other than that, Kate Sheppard's piece on professional denialist Patrick Michaels, Most Credible Climate Skeptic Not So Credible After All, is quite good.
Transparency!!!1!
(h/t: @kriswager)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Why We ♥ Paul, Part ∞+17
Go to this transcript page, go all the way to the bottom of the page, and let your eyes drift up until you see "KRUGMAN:" Then read, oh, say, the screenful or two preceding that.
If there was any remaining doubt about what is meant by the term Villagers …
Not to mention which I'm pretty sure everyone on that panel except for Krugman has probably said once or a thousand times, "Why hasn't Obama changed the tone in Washington???1?"
Hat tip to DougJ, who in turn picked it up from Steve Benen. Both posts are well worth a read.
When Two Tribes Go To War, A Point Is All You Can Score
In sport, however, it would appear … not even that much:
We may scoff at the idea that the Olympic Games have anything to do with the “endeavor to place sport at the service of humanity and thereby to promote peace,” as the Olympic charter enshrines as its ideal. But at least nations across the world were able to put aside differences for two weeks of friendly competition in Vancouver.
A mundane achievement, perhaps, but it’s one that’s beyond the grasp of the Islamic world. The Islamic Solidarity Games, the Olympics of the Muslim world, which were to be held in Iran in April, have been called off by the Arab states because Tehran inscribed “Persian Gulf” on the tournament’s official logo and medals.
Worldwide Caliphate FAIL.
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Always did like that song …
The Kids Are All Right
Following up on my last, where I said, "… but the majority of this country really doesn't want to associate itself with racism, nihilism, and hate," here is a snippet of the latest Bloggingheads.tv diavlog that caught my ear:
I've just started watching "Values Added: Progressive Christianity," and I may have more to say about it after watching the whole thing. But for the moment, I thought I'd share the above encouraging note.
[Added] Later on, these two say some encouraging things about same-sex marriage, too. I mean, considering the source. Also, some good statements about rejecting the partnership with the GOP's fiscal crazies.
"The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged"
Frank Rich's latest column bears a read.
I guess I'm not quite (yet?) where he is in seeing the Stack suicide and the notes of approval it generated in a worrisome light. It's all too easy for some anonymous or pseudonymous clown to give vent to his fantasies online, and as for the prominent Republican officials who gave it the old wink, wink, nudge, nudge, grin, grin, I am in many ways happy. The more Republicans do to align themselves with rightwing extremists, the less chance they have of reacquiring majority power.
Rich is correct to call the overall GOP "efforts to co-opt" the teabaggers "ham-handed." I think he misses another aspect of it, though: to the extent that they succeed, it's only going to backfire, just as it did with the decision to align themselves with the radical religious right. You can get a quarter, maybe a third of the country into your camp by catering to the wingnuts, and maybe even fool another chunk for a short while by preaching a non-stop message of fear, but the majority of this country really doesn't want to associate itself with racism, nihilism, and hate.
Still, eternal vigilance is the price we must pay. My confidence in the ultimate good sense of the Murrikin people could be misplaced. So, to that end, give Frank Rich's piece a look.
(x-posted)
[Added] Steve M. has some more comments on Rich's column, and a slightly different take from mine.
Friday, February 26, 2010
A Name To Keep In Mind
Jennifer K. Hardy, formerly known as Jennifer Koester.
Just following orders, I'm sure.
Will we be learning about her countertops anytime soon, Ms. Malkin?
And while you're there, ask her if she saved her old work email messages. Her last boss claims to have "lost" his.
Unless this ape's name is Pinocchio ...
... ur doing it wrong, ABC sidebar editor:
(Seen on this page, for the record. Thirty-one pix of insanely cute baby animals, including an ACTUAL orangutan, not to mention a wee elephant, here.)
"Conservative? Bad? How About Both?"
Eric Alterman looks at what's become of the WaPo's op-ed pages. Many useful links, too.
Friday Cat-Blogging (Stealing Thereof)
Amazingly, this was not the last thing Greg du Toit ever saw.
He sat "semi-submerged" in that watering hole for a total of 270 hours, and got lots of amazing pics. Go look.
(h/t: pourmecoffee)
If you're like me and just got a chill down your spine from those lion eyes, The Bloggess will warm you up with (smaller) cats on heads and cats on cops.
Remember When Fenway Was Just A Puppy?
Look at him next to Wembley.
(Not a baseball link. A basset link.)
We had to know it wouldn't just be Gaffney
That logo thing I mentioned earlier? Other howler monkeys have started noticing.
It'd be sad, except Roy Edroso makes it funny.
Post Summit Post 3
I can't vouch for this blogger, but if what he or she is saying is even close to correct … well, let's just say there's a reason we say SO CALLED liberal media (via).
This is why we can't have nice things.
With that in mind, here are some "Democratic Health Care Summit Highlights" that you might email to your friends who only get their news from the teevee, assembled by the invaluable Jed Lewison. It's about thirteen minutes long.
Post Summit Post
If you did not watch the health care summit, start with Paul Krugman's "Afflicting the Afflicted." He knocks it out of the park. I would love to offer an excerpt, but his whole column is too good to pick just a piece.
Hat tip to DougJ, whose juxtaposition of part of the above with a Bobo quote should not be missed.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Oh hey, did you know there are now Michele Bachmann comic books?
Produced by the some of the good people at Dump Bachmann.
Here are the covers of issue #3 and issue #1 (the first minus the text). You can see bigger images, and order the actual comic books, at BiasedLiberalMedia.com. Srsly!
(h/t: Eric Kleefeld/TPM)
And speaking of imaginary Muslins and the beds they cause wingnuts to wet ...
... this revelation, featuring K-Mart Coulter as a sideshow unto herself, is just too freaking funny.
Gaffe-ney
I once noted Frank Gaffney's contribution to the discourse, such as it was, a while back. Calling attention to him the few times I've noticed him since has felt a little too much like nut-picking, so I haven't bothered. Besides, he is increasingly not visible that I ever see -- he seems to have lost credibility even as measured by rightwing "news" outlets.
But sometimes, wingnuttiness this extreme must be passed along. And the fact that he can't find an outlet apart from one of Breitbart's Big Ho websites is just pure gravy.
Me, I think it looks more like a belt buckle with a reworked Rolling Stones logo than anything else. YMMV, especially if you're a bed-wetting loon like Frank Gaffney.
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[Added] Think Progress (via) suggests I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss this clown out of hand. They say he still has some clout. Duly noted. But if you follow those last two links, let us hope that they're being a little hyperbolic. Jack D. Ripper doesn't even come close.
[Added2] And hey, how about those Patriots?
[Update] Gaffney tries to walk it back. But not before every other wingnut picked it up and ran with it.
On AGW
Here are a couple of good articles on Anthropogenic Global Warming* that I've come across recently:
• Eric Alterman: Think Again: A Hard Week on the Planet -- Looks at public perceptions in the US of the problem. Some surprising findings, which left me cautiously optimistic: despite the non-stop campaign of FUD from the denialists, most people, including most Republicans, think AGW is real. The problem is that it's not a high-priority problem for most people.
• Robert H. Frank: A Small Price for a Large Benefit -- The title pretty much says it all, but I'll emphasize that it calls for starting to take small steps now, rather than thinking in terms of "solving" AGW in one fell swoop. This seems especially pertinent to me, in light of the attitudes that Alterman discusses.
Hat tip for the second to Mark Kleiman, whose diavlog with Will Wilkinson, posted today on Bloggingheads.tv, is well worth watching. (This is true for all Mark Kleiman diavlogs.)
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* Or Anthropogenic Climate Change, if you prefer. I like the older term for most conversations, because ACC is too overloaded a TLA.
"Kidnapping for Jesus"
Imagine if a voodoo minister from Haiti had shown up in Boise after an earthquake, looking for children in poor neighborhoods and offering “opportunities for adoption” back to Haiti.
Good rant by Tim Egan in the NYT about the Christianist missionary urge.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
World's Only Nobel-Prize-Winning Cat-Blogger
CC says via email:
This week's New Yorker (3/1) has a great article on Paul Krugman.
She always gives good recommendations, so I'll pass this along right away.
Here's a link to "The Deflationist: How Paul Krugman found politics." And here's a link to a follow-up Q&A thing. I haven't read them yet -- that's gonna have to wait till tomorrow -- so this is as much a note to me as you.
Oh, about that title ... you thought I was kidding?
Line of the Day: 2010-02-24
The Senate is holding a hearing today where several current and former Blackwater employees will be testifying, but honestly the only way Congress would stop giving Blackwater money is if it started registering black people to vote.
-- Adam Serwer (via Atrios)
Blog Post Title of the Day
DougJ:
CITY TO FORD: DROP DEAD
When I first saw the post in my feed reader, I thought for some reason it had to do with some town in Michigan getting pissed at the car company. So much for my cred as a political junkie.
Turns out, yeah, Harold did not give good meeting.
(?)
Great Moments in Conservative Punditry
Just below a few posts alternately gushing about Tim Tebow and fuming about baby-killing liberals who kill babies, La Shawn Barber lets loose with this beginning (emph. orig.):
I rarely blog about celebrities because it seems so, you know, shallow.
I make an exception for right-leaning celebrities.
Don't anybody tell her "Johnny Ramone of The Ramones" has been dead for more than five years now, because the next biggest celebrity on her list is "Stephen Baldwin (brother of Alec)."
Too Old To Keep His Lies Straight?
Or is Honest John McStraightTalk just cynically calculating that piling on his earlier lies a new lie that "Obama did it too!!!1!" is enough for the Republican base?
(h/t: DougJ | pic. source)
Check Your Popcorn Stocks
News item: "Romney endorses McCain for re-election."
Wingnut/teabagger freakout in 5..., 4... oh, wait. It's already started. The R, I, N, and O keys are getting a lot of work, and that's from the ones who are still allowed to use scissors with pointy ends.
The Freepers post a "(BARF ALERT)," which leads to commenters calling the two of them everything from progressives to gay.
One of the Clownhallers begins with "Color me angry."
Wizbanger Alan Orfi seems most concerned with Romney's "contention" that global warming is real.
Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage tries humor, such as it is on the far right, by posting an image of "John McCain Nose Plugs."
Boss Limbaugh says the endorsement is "suicidal."
There is a bit of hesitation to go full metal, however, since St. Sarah has already made the same announcement. So, in addition to the entertainment to be had by watching them type out their fury, we can also look forward to the comedy of the scrambling they'll have to do to keep their double standards alive.
One of the Red State Trike Force does suggest a possible out: "Has he gone mad along with Palin?" Probably only be another hour or two before they realize this is yet another example of Obama's hidden hypnosis techniques.
(x-posted)
In Fairness, He Didn't Say Anything About "The Next Six Months"*
Clickbait fail:
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* Which I know by virtue of text search. What, you don't actually expect me to read crap like this, do you?
Their Bombers Aren't On High Alert Anymore, Right?
Good. Just checking. Because this seems a little terrifying:
Just try not to use punk'd and thermonuclear armageddon in the same sentence, okay, Ashton? kthxbai.
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(If you must.)
We need a new definition for "Prager"
You know, like Santorum.
Meantime, read the great takedown by Thers of this exquisitely tiresome scold.
(h/t: Kevin K./Rumproast)
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