Okay, sure, I can sort of buy Krugman and Lemieux’s premise that horrible ideas like austerity, torture, and endless war all stem from the same macho impulse to to prove oneself a Manly Serious Man Of Action Who Can Make The Hard Choices, but why is it that it always seems to be someone else who pays the price for those “hard choices”?
It’s kinda hard to respect the machismo and courage of a pundit or politician who calls upon complete strangers to make sacrifices instead of themselves or their family, friends, or peers. If I saw Cheney and Dubya personally ducking bullets in Baghdad, or Paul Ryan urging tax increases for himself and his wealthy benefactors as the first step to shrink the deficit, then I would be impressed.
Maybe Atrios has it right after all, and they really are sadists.
May 20th, 2013 at 06:18pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Economy,
Iraq,
Media,
Politics,
Social Security,
Taxes,
Torture,
Wankers
Gary Busey explains Hobbits, and it is exactly what you would expect.
May 20th, 2013 at 11:23am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is from Woody Allen’s Husbands And Wives:
It’s the second law of thermodynamics – sooner or later everything turns to shit.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s Morgan Freemans…
So majestic…
May 17th, 2013 at 12:48pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
Science!
May 13th, 2013 at 07:27am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is from the B-movie spoof sequel The Lost Skeleton Returns Again:
“The jungle is no place for bitterness.”
“The jungle is every place for bitterness. It sows and reaps it like so much cane sugar. The jungle gets into your blood and builds tiny little houses of pain and you don’t wanna be there when the rent’s due because the anaconda, funny thing, they don’t know how to read a lease. Seems they’ve never learned! But the only thing longer than a croc’s mouth is the time it takes to swallow you whole. So next time you talk to me about jungles and bitterness, next time you’re trying to find your eyes with both hands, just keep that in mind… that is, if you still have a mind.”
“The jungle is a dangerous place, that’s true, but anyone who has ever seen two monkeys give each other things knows that it’s a happy place, too. So let’s remember that and keep in mind you can eat pretty much anything you see, so have fun.”
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s tarsiers…
Hello, freaky!
May 10th, 2013 at 07:59am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
It’ll be interesting to see where the NRA comes down on California’s attempt to ban 3D gun printing. I can’t think of any other issue where the goals of unfettered, unaccountable gun ownership and maximum gun manufacturer profits aren’t perfectly aligned, much less completely at odds.
May 8th, 2013 at 07:05am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Politics,
Republicans
The Rubberbandits explain why horses are an all-around superior mode of transport.
Probably not entirely safe for work unless you’re wearing headphones…
May 6th, 2013 at 11:28am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is from Overnight Delivery, which… I saw, apparently.
You may be cute when you’re angry, but you still hit like a nine-year-old.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s baby pandas…
Aww.
May 3rd, 2013 at 08:25am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
So romantic.
*wipes away a single tear*
April 29th, 2013 at 09:34am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is from the excellent and very trippy John Dies At The End:
Do the bees know they make the honey for you, or do they work tirelessly because they think it is their own choice?
And, of course, there’ll be other people cats and dolphins petting each other…
Wow.
April 26th, 2013 at 07:26am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
Apparently un-hot water and the absence of Hulkamaniacs are the hallmarks of Hell, or possibly some sort of evil WWF pocket universe…
IT’S NOT HOT!!!
April 22nd, 2013 at 07:14am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
If the right “defended” marriage in the same way that they defend gun ownership, I would probably have two husbands and five wives by now. And at least four of them would be cats.
April 17th, 2013 at 08:21pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Politics,
Republicans,
Teh Gay,
Wankers
I would love to see what the OMG OBAMA DIDN’T SAY TERRORISM BECAUSE HE LOVES TERRORISTS right-wing jackasses will say if it turns out that the Boston Marathon bomber turns out to be one of their own, what with the bombings taking place at the site of the original Tea Party on Tax Day and all. Probably complain about how they’re being persecuted and stereotyped.
April 15th, 2013 at 07:46pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Politics,
Republicans,
Terrorism,
Wankers
I don’t even know what to say about this, other than that it gets progressively more and more insane.
April 15th, 2013 at 11:37am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
This week’s quote is from Star Trek: Insurrection:
It took us centuries to learn that it doesn’t take centuries to learn.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s cat fountains…
…Like you do.
April 12th, 2013 at 07:53am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
The Democrats are now officially the party that’s trying to cut Social Security, and the Republicans are now the party that’s trying to protect it. Nice work Mr. President, I didn’t even know it was possible to score an own-goal in eleventy-dimensional chess.
April 10th, 2013 at 07:11pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Democrats,
Obama,
Politics,
Republicans,
Social Security,
Wankers
Jeffrey Goldberg discovers that people who were tortured by Saddam Hussein think that the US deposing him was a good thing. Such insightful reporting, and such a surprising result!
April 9th, 2013 at 11:34am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Iraq,
Media,
Wankers,
War
Meanwhile, in Germany…
April 8th, 2013 at 08:12am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
So… Rick Warren’s supporters are offended by people claiming to know God’s judgment?
Sucks, doesn’t it?
April 7th, 2013 at 05:54pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Religion,
Wankers
This week’s quote is from David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (the book, not the movie):
Teeth, sir, are the enameled grails of the quest in hand. In days gone by this Arcadian strand was a cannibals’ banqueting hall, yes, where the strong engorged themselves on the weak. The teeth, they spat out, as you or I would expel cherry stones. But these base molars, sir, shall be transmuted to gold & how? An artisan of Piccadilly who fashions denture sets for the nobility pays handsomely for human gnashers. Do you know the price a quarter pound will earn, sir? Nor shall I enlighten you, sir, for ’tis a professional secret!
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s wee baby pandas…
Aww.
April 5th, 2013 at 07:20am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
Never-before-seen Empire Strikes Back auditions:
I could be taller, okay?
April 1st, 2013 at 05:46pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Lucy and her dainty chaplain try to talk Mr. Deity out of Hell.
Also probably the best begging segment ever. Neat-o!
March 31st, 2013 at 12:28pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging,
Mr. Deity,
Religion
This week’s quote is from David Wong’s inexplicably-JDATE-spelling John Dies At The End:
I saw a semi truck zip by, hauling rows of caged turkeys. The thing was hauling ass, going at least eighty miles an hour, a cloud of feathers in its wake. Some kind of turkey emergency.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s wee pom puppies…
I expected them to be fluffier.
March 29th, 2013 at 11:45am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
No! Really?
First and foremost, rich people care about the deficit. More than 85 percent of the survey participants said they considered the nation’s budget deficit to be a “very important” problem facing the country, the researchers found. In addition, nearly one-third of those surveyed said the budget deficit and too much government spending is the nation’s biggest issue.
That stands in contrast to the rest of the country, only 7 percent of which focused on the budget deficit, instead zeroing in on jobs and the economy, according to a 2011 CBS survey cited by the researchers.
“Why did policymakers focus so intently on the deficit issue?” Page and Bartels wrote in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. “One reason may be that the small minority that saw the deficit as the nation’s priority had more clout than the majority that didn’t.”
Rich Americans also have ideas about how to cut that deficit that differ from the less wealthy. Compared to others, the survey found the rich are more likely to want to cut government-subsidized health care and social welfare programs like Social Security. They’re also less supportive of initiatives that help the unemployed and raise the standard of living for low-wage workers than the rest of the country.
Wow, if it weren’t for this study, I would have had no idea that rich people have completely different priorities and far more political influence than everyone else. Thanks, Science!
March 26th, 2013 at 11:25am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Economy,
Politics,
Wankers
So would it be more appropriate to say that Cyprus is strengthening its bank deposits, or that it’s reforming its bank deposits?
March 26th, 2013 at 07:04am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Economy,
Social Security,
Wankers
A belated happy 85th birthday to Mr. Rogers.
Mercy.
Also, this.
March 25th, 2013 at 11:31am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Yves makes a good case for calling the billionaires who control our country “oligarchs” instead of “elites” – my only hesitation about endorsing the switch is that it clears the field for the right to continue accusing progressives of being “out-of-touch ivory tower elitists”. I think it’s valuable to point out who the real elites are in this country, but I do agree that “oligarchs” is a better descriptive term, and immediately conjures up all the right overtones of power, avarice and corruption.
March 25th, 2013 at 07:31am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Economy
This week’s quote is from the Samuel Delaney classic Dhalgren:
But the six minutes here, the twenty seconds there, the forty-five minutes how-many-weeks later – the real time it takes to commit the “heroic” or “villainous” act – are such a microscopic percentage of my life. Even what can be synopsized from this journal… are things that have happened to me, not that I have done. What you look like you’re doing and what you feel like you’re doing are disparate enough to mute any mouth that might attempt description!
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s wee bulldog puppies…
Cranky!
March 22nd, 2013 at 11:49am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
Wow. Just… wow. Okay, admittedly Google’s counsel could have done a better job of explaining that internet advertising isn’t really all that different from traditional advertising, just with better and more dynamic targeting, but in all fairness he probably didn’t think he’d need to. My condensed transcript for those of you who don’t have time for videos or Louie Gohmert:
Gohmert: “Isn’t it true that you sell your Gmail users’ data to your corporate customers so they can send ads to them?”
Salgado: “Well no.”
Gohmert: “So couldn’t you therefore sell the same kind of data to the government BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI?”
Salgado: “Wait… what?”
Gohmert: “HuffPo reporters are simpletons.”
Sensenbrenner: “My son is a HuffPo reporter.”
Gohmert: “Oh. Mumble grumble mumble.”
And one direct quote because there is no way I can do it justice:
Salgado: “Sir, I think those are apples and oranges. The disclosure of the identity-”
Gohmert: “Well, I’m not asking for a fruit comparison.”
Your Congress at work.
(Crossposted at MyFDL)
March 21st, 2013 at 07:44pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Politics,
Republicans,
Technology
Well, this certainly isn’t the Hell-spawned stuff of nightmares or anything…
March 18th, 2013 at 07:41am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Previous Posts
