From super-edumacated Jeff Godlstein to the shortbus commuters Weasel Zippers, nine out of 10 wingnuts agree: It's not a joke unless it's about Michael Moore being fat.
-- Roy Edroso
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Line of the Day: 2011-03-30
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sneaked/snuck
Twin asks:
Of course all three of those nitwits were just dizzy with delight hearing Trump go on and on about how Obama could have been sneaked into the country after his Kenyan birth, and the birth records and newspaper notices falsified after the fact.
Sneaked or snuck?
My answer:
I had thought sneaked was standard and snuck was widely used but still considered not quite proper, but it may not even be that far apart anymore. Snuck is near full acceptance, it appears from a quick look, even though it's comparatively new. Some people even insist that as it's more commonly used than sneaked by Americans, it should be considered the correct form in American English. Googlefight lends strong support to that claim, showing nearly twice as many instances of snuck.
In formal writing, I'd stick with sneaked if the question occurred to me, but I am not sure I would catch snuck when proofreading someone else's work, and depending on the sentence, I might use snuck myself. He snuck out of the room seems more natural to my ear than He sneaked out of the room, for instance.
In your example, sneaked seems more natural, though. Might be a case of different kinds of past tenses, the vocabulary of which I've never learned.
Authoritahs: See Brians for the succinct answer. The middle of Safire's 1995 column and The Mavens (via Daggle) go into more detail.
What do you brilliant wordsmiths think?
Monday, March 28, 2011
Apparently, the "thug" double standard applies outside of tea parties and Wisconsin
Charles Pierce, reacting to news that a certain third baseman had his rental house broken into, and a "personal item" liberated:
In any case, is it untoward to ask what in the name of Mikhail Kalashnikov Evan Longoria is doing with an AK-47? Hunting? What, is he going out in search of the elusive Armored Personnel Carrier? Self-defense? Who's going to mug him? The Republican Guard? Time was that there was a lot of earnest beard-pulling about how ambivalent we should be about our athletes's going out at night while strapped. Every time an NBA player exercises his Second Amendment rights into the air, while exercising his First Amendment rights of free association outside a strip club, it's a perilous moment for our culture. But one of the signature players in baseball has lodged in his place enough firepower to hold off the Zombie Army, and everyone takes an even strain? Oh, and one correction to the deputy's report -- Longoria's AK is no longer "perfectly legal." It is now an illegal weapon, and it is in the hands of a criminal.
The ADA Congressional Voting Record for 2010
Full report is now available (PDF). Introductory post here.
From the introductory post:
In compiling the rankings for each chamber, ADA scored 20 votes from the second session of the 111th Congress on issues including health care reform, repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, unemployment compensation, and ratification of the New START nuclear weapons treaty. Since their first issuance in 1947, ADA scores have been relied upon by scholars, journalists, and the general public as the standard indicator of American political ideology.
Excerpt from the report:
ADA’s Congressional scorecard shows that the 111th Congress took a sharp rightward swing in the second year of the Obama Administration. In 2009, only one Senator (Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky) earned an ADA “zero” by opposing the ADA position on every key vote. Last year, the number of Senate zeroes ballooned to 19 – nearly half of the Republican caucus. Conversely, 16 Senators in 2009 boasted a perfect ADA score of 100; in 2010, there were only five such Senate “heroes.” While not quite as dramatic, the shift in the House was also pronounced: in 2009, 75 zeroes and 98 heroes; in 2010, 90 zeroes and 48 heroes.
The ultra-conservatism of the House Republican caucus is striking. Of the roughly 178 Republican members (the number varied slightly through the year as vacancies occurred), only three voted as much as a third of the time with ADA. Only nine voted the ADA position over a fourth of the time, and only 13 House Republicans voted ADA’s way on as many as one-fifth of the tracked votes. Overall, the House Republicans scored 5%, while their Democratic colleagues received an 84%. The Senate party averages were 7% for Republicans and 88% for Democrats.
In conclusion: Damn that Obama for being unwilling to Reach Across The Aisle™.
(x-posted)
Foster Kamer accomplishes the impossible
Hard to believe, but it's true: he's managed to come up with a compelling reason to keep MoDo on at the NY Times.
Wingnuts Hold Annual Event Celebrating Their Pride in Their Own Ignorance
Ah, yes. That again. "Human Achievement Hour." Dreamed up by the Koch-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, trumpeted by culture warriors across the World Wide Web, and embraced by thousands of people who show their RealAmericanism by being as stupid as they can be.
Roy Edroso rounds up this year's festivities: intro here, full column here.
(x-posted)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
"The Republicans’ Big Lies About Jobs ..."
"... (And Why Obama Must Repudiate Them)." Good piece from last week by Robert Reich, if you haven't already seen it.
(h/t: op. cit.)
"Thomas Friedman Takes a Beating"
A very small sign of hope, recounted by Driftglass. More like that, please.
(h/t: The Professional Left podcast, episode 66)
Accusations hurled
Megan McArdle and Peter Suderman, and to a slightly lesser degree, David Weigel, are accused of being water-carriers and worse for the Koch brothers. Ezra Klein gets a few finger wags, too.
Mark Ames's piece in Exiled Online, "The Koch-Whore Archipelago: How The Billionaire Kochs Screwed My Scoop While Screwing America," begins with a claim that an investigative piece done by him and Yasha Levine in 2009, that broke the news that the Kochs were behind the astroturfing of the so-called Tea Party movement, was removed from its site by its original publisher, Playboy, in large part due to a disinformation campaign led by Megan. He says that what he and Levine reported has all since come out and become accepted as the truth.
It's over the top, but worth a look.
(h/t: M. Bouffant, who's got a related video | x-posted)
Make it stop
New results in the search for the lowest common denominator, on the front page of the NYT, no less:
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Report on "Rampant Child Prostitution" Exposed as Bullshit
You should have a look at Nick Pinto's cover story in The Village Voice, "Women's Funding Network Sex Trafficking Study Is Junk Science."
I'd be the last person to advocate turning a blind eye to the problem of girls being forced into prostitution, but it doesn't help when an advocacy group hires a PR firm to put together a study that is so easily called into question. And it really doesn't help when lazy reporters so uncritically retype press releases.
Thers is right: the rebuttal from The Schapiro Group -- the firm whose study Pinto lambastes -- is a powerful fertilizer such that none may abide its smell.
"This is my last column for The New York Times ..."
... after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society.
Says Bob Herbert. His last column is a summary of everything he's been trying to bring to his readers' awareness, perhaps to less effect than one would like. I can only wish him the best of luck, and a louder megaphone, from here on out.
(h/t: Ken Layne)
"It's not TV, it's Tea-V."
Click pic for full listings.
Snarkier than you'd expect to see in the NYT. Outside of Krugman's blog, at least. Hurrah!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Why can't we be more like Canada?
From the BBC:
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government has fallen after a no-confidence vote passed in the country's parliament.
The vote, engineered by the opposition Liberal Party …
Now that babby is formed?
Joe. My. God. says: "Worst Ad Placement Ever."
Agree? Vote on it, over at the Slog at The Stranger.
Dave Brockington has dispatched an agent from the field office to see whether this is 'shopped or not.
(title: cf.)
Tim Pawlenty makes war on capitalism to show how much he hates the Muslins
It's hard out there for a Republican preznidential candidate!
Sharia-compliant financing is a growing industry, particularly when it comes to mortgages. "Traditional secular, money lending banks are setting up Sharia-compliant products because they make money," says Abed Awad, an attorney who specializes in Islamic law. Companies like Citigroup and Visa have tried their hand at Sharia-compliant products. Usually companies structure the payments in a sort of house-buying layaway plan. "It's a major moneymaker for banks." Shariah compliant mortgages allow observant Muslims like Lakhani to buy homes, where previously they were stuck renting to avoid interest payments.
There's nothing sinister about the growth of Sharia-compliant finance. It is just capitalism at work, an emerging market in which firms are meeting demand for a particular kind of product. But a decision by one 2012 Republican hopeful, Tim Pawlenty, may come back to haunt him in the GOP presidential primary, where any association with Sharia-compliant finance could be toxic.
[...]
Pawlenty's effort to increase minority homeownership by encouraging companies to offer Sharia-compliant mortgages was entirely in keeping with his reputation as a "Sam's Club Republican" concerned with helping "regular people." But in the 2012 race, he'll be up against competitors who may try to use it against him.
"Who may." That Adam Serwer is a funny guy.
Of course, Ben Smith won the morning obediently rushed to type up the new Pawlenty position.
But a Pawlenty spokesman told me that the governor has no intention of defending the program -- and that in fact, he shut it down himself as soon as he learned of it.
(h/t: Jack Stuef | x-posted)
The mane thing about Trump
Happened across this picture on the Internets:
What do you think? Is it a a tribute to George W. Bush?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Religion: The Silent Killer?
... young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to turn into obese middle-agers as those with no religious involvement, according to research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The study tracked 2,433 men and women over 18 years and provides much stronger evidence that religion may be a predictor of who becomes obese. [...]
(h/t: Ken Layne | pic. source)
Ohio Republicans Seek Further Disenfranchisement of Likely Non-Republican Voters
Daniel P. Tokaji, Professor of Law at Ohio State University:
In 2004, Ohio became infamous for making it difficult to vote and have one’s vote counted. Much of the criticism was directed at then-Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Remember his directive to reject registration forms on less than 80-pound paper weight?
Now, Ohio House Republicans are attempting to go further than Blackwell ever dared. In an obvious attempt to gain an advantage in the 2012 presidential election, they are attempting to rush through a bill (HB 159) that would make it more difficult for eligible citizens to have their votes counted. Ohio already has a tough voter ID law, but the proposed bill would make the burden on eligible citizens more onerous, requiring that in-person voters present one of four specified forms of government-issued photo identification.
“Disenfranchisement” isn’t a word to be used lightly. But it is necessary to capture this bill’s purpose and impact. Passage of this bill would restore our state’s unfortunate reputation as the nation’s capital of vote suppression. Yet so far, it has gone completely under the radar. This comment provides background on the problem, debunks the arguments in favor of the bill, and anticipates the lawsuits that can be expected to follow if it passes.
The rest.
(h/t: Kay at Balloon Juice)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sanity breaking out all over the country
TPM:
Buyer's Remorse: Polls Show 3 New GOP Gov's Losing In Do Overs
Last year's midterms elections swept incumbents from office nationwide, as voters turned to newcomers -- often Republican newcomers -- for change.
But just months after election day, three new Midwestern governors -- Wisconsin's Scott Walker (R), Ohio's John Kasich (R), and Michigan's Rick Snyder (R) -- have seen their approval ratings fall to the point that polls show them losing hypothetical do-over elections with the candidates they beat last year. [...]
Alternet (via RM):
New Poll Shows Buyer's Remorse: GOP House Majority in Jeopardy Already
Buyer's remorse is setting in quickly, according to Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
GQR polled 50 House districts currently held by Republicans which are expected to be major Democratic targets in 2012. The results indicate that the Republican House majority is already endangered, less than three months into Speaker John Boehner's regime. [...]
Newt Gingrich's apparent new campaign strategy: Out-flip-flop Mitt Romney
We laughed when Roy Edroso gathered up the wealth of examples from Greater Wingnuttia earlier this week, which he summarized thus:
The message was clear: The United States should deal with Qaddafi unless Obama is President and actually does it, in which case it's ridiculous.
But no one outdoes the disgraced former Speaker of the House!
(h/t: Dave Weigel | x-posted)
Weird to realize
Robert Farley notes that Liz Taylor, who died yesterday, was about a year younger than William Shatner.
When life gives you lemons, make sour grapes
Important conservative pundit Andrew Breitbart has echoed a new line of patter first put forth by ex-important conservative pundit Ann Coulter several months ago: concerning He®self's aspirations for having her tweets geotagged 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the preznincy is "beneath her." Coulter had said it would be "a step down for her."
This is not an Onion link.
(h/t: RM/FB)
Double-check your email for something from NYTimes.com
If you don't get one, don't fret. You probably already accidentally deleted it. It's not that you're not "smarter" or anything. Really.
(h/t: Don McArthur)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
My first Firefox 4 gripe
Yes, it's out of beta. If you're running Firefox 3-point-something, do Help → Check for updates and you should be offered it. Otherwise, visit firefox.com.
So far, so good, as far as I can tell with a few hours of light-duty surfing. But there is this one thing, which will be of interest to maybe no one? When composing a blog post, on Blogger, in Edit HTML mode, using the old-school editor, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-A pops up the window to insert a URL. That keyboard shortcut still works, at least as far as Blogger is concerned. Unfortunately, that keyboard shortcut now ALSO means, to Firefox, "Oh! You want to open up the fancy new Add-ons Manager in a new tab! And bring that tab to the front, no matter what else you were doing! THIS IS ONE OF OUR MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS, WE THINK!"
Gahhh. I fail to see why having the Add-ons Manager in a new tab, instead of a separate window, is something to be excited about, but whatever. But I really fail to see why that item suddenly needs a new keyboard shortcut, when it didn't have one before, in every preceding version. I mean, it's not like Alt, t, a wasn't good enough, even for the mouse-hating extremists. How often do I need to Manage my add-ons, anyway? Not enough to need a new, other, keyboard shortcut which overloads one I was already using, that's how often.
Not for the first time have I wished Firefox supported remapping/reassigning/deassigning keyboard shortcuts. If anyone knows that this is actually possible to do, and can point me in the right direction, I'd be eternally grateful for months at least.
Dammit Zawinski, where are you when we need you?
Twitter now respects your securitah!
You can set your Twitter account to always use https; i.e., a full-time secure, encrypted connection. You should do this anyway, because why not? But especially if you access Twitter from public Wi-Fi hotspots, or using one of those smart phones (?) I keep hearing the kids talk about. (You remember this issue, in the Facebook context, probably.)
Go to your Twitter home page, click the Settings link at the top of the page, scroll down to the bottom, tick the box marked "Always use HTTPS," and click the Save button. Done. (You may get asked to type in your password again. But then you're really done.)
More info from the Naked Security blog, if you want it.
Somehow, we doubt the feeling is reciprocated
The Truth-O-Meter welcomes Tim Pawlenty
So far, he's been evaluated three times by them, scoring a False, a Full Flop, and a Pants On Fire.
(x-posted | pic. source)
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