Saturday, January 15, 2011

Seraphim Incessabili Voce

Shorter Charles Krauthammer: "Mountains. Molehills. They're the same thing!"

Fossil fuels; they're what's for dinner. A good portion of the calories you consume are there because of petroleum-derived agricultural fertilizers. Then there's transportation, because much of the food you eat comes from places very far away, unless you happen to be living on a kiwi-fruit farm. As the world's oil reserves decline, food production will decline with it, until the Leviathan of hunger rears its head and human populations drop precipitously.

There's a gun show in Tucson this weekend.

Cynaegeirus was one of the 192 Greeks who lost their lives at the battle of Marathon. He was attacking one of the Persian ships when it is said his hand was cut off. He was the brother of the famous tragedian Aeschylus.



Julia Fischer isn't just a sensational violinist. She is also a formidable pianist and on occasion she has played both a concerto for violin and another for piano during the same concert.



PorkPie!

What's a Reince Priebus? One may similarly inquire, as did Rowan and Martin, "What's an orange gopher?" (The answer is "about a quarter each.")



Janacek. He drinks out of the bowl by dipping his paw in then licking the water off it. If I do not awaken at an appropriate time he gently paws my face in the very early morning. My spouse found him hiding under a car during a hot summer long ago, when he was still a kitten.

Arizona state senator Lori Klein, Republican, carries a Ruger in her purse while serving in the Capitol even though signs on the doors indicate that it is a weapons-free zone.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

New Developments in Evolutionary Biology

Other countries do not automatically confer citizenship to the children of (illegal) immigrants, so we should be like that, too.

Other countries also have single-payer universal healthcare. But we should never ever do *that,* because it would be gay and socialist and it would undo The American Dream of going bankrupt because of family healthcare crises.

Crimes can only be attributed to those who commit them, because words and images ultimately cannot be proven to have any direct effect upon our actions.

We now pause for this commercial, which will subtly and surreptitiously persuade you to go buy a new Lexus and vote for Sarah Palin.

Telling people to take to Second Amendment Remedies, to not retreat but to reload, and to threaten to meet census workers coming to their door by aiming guns at them is Sacred Free Speech and should be subject to the deference of all.

Calls for civil debate are anathema and those who make such suggestions are toying evilly with the fragile emotions of pious gunslingers and they should just keep their sorry mouths shut or somebody's going to get hurt.

Children are our future.

But religious bigots deserve our respect for showing us the connection between that girl's tragic shooting death and gay marriage and she can just burn in hell for it.

It's a miracle that Gabby Giffords is still alive; god himself must have saved her.

Those who died, not so much as a peep from said god.



Christina Taylor Green.

The insanely religious Phelps clan will actually hold no protests in Tucson; they will be given airtime on local hate-radio instead. Equal time will be given to Noam Chomsky and P.Z. Myers to offer their rebuttals.

It's wrong to exploit tragedies like the Tucson shootings for political gain.

911! 911! 911! If you criticize our war-lust, you are a traitor!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Catalogue of Ships (Homage to Homer Shamelessly Lifted from William Rivers Pitt)

The eloquent Mr. Pitt:



Rush Limbaugh
James Hansen
Phil Gramm
Ann Coulter
John Berbyshire
Don Davis

And many many more.

"You false patriots who bring assault rifles to political rallies, you hack politicians and media personalities who lied through your stinking teeth about "death panels" and "Obama is coming for your guns" and "He isn't a citizen" and "He's a secret Muslim" and "Sharia Law is coming to America," you who spread this bastard gospel and you who swallowed it whole, I am talking to you, because this was your doing just as surely as it was the doing of the deranged damned soul who pulled the trigger. The poison you injected into our culture is deeply culpable for this carnage."

From William Rivers Pitt in a recent edition of truthout.

Many speak, but many do not listen. Many others speak, and too many listen uncritically.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Build Up

"You choose your side. You either build up or tear down. You either keep in the light where you can see, or you stand in the dark and fight everything that comes near you, because you can't see and you think it's an enemy.

Frances Hodgson Burnett, "The Lost Prince."

Hat tip to Pentimenti over in the Eschaton rabble-rousing, mostly-enlightened (almost completely, actually,) Echo-enfeebled crack den.

Another hat tip to Gromit, who suggests that you peruse the April 2009 report issued by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis; a link to the full report can be found here, which references a few of its highlights. The Shrill One also links to it.

My own analysis of recent speculations: "The shooter was an advocate of currency backed by gold and silver. Glenn Beck shills for gold on his television show. Therefore, the shooter was a leftist."

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Domestic Terrorism



And many others.

May the survivors recover fully and speedily. May the dead rest. May the rest of us work to make things right.

"Second Amendment Remedy"



Sharron Angle, this is on you. Gabrielle Gifford's blood, as well as the blood of the other victims, is on your hands.

Sarah Palin has already quickly removed this from her website.

Friday, January 07, 2011

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

PorkPie-Wan Kenobi



"These aren't the droids you're looking for."