So Many Tabs, So Little Time...

Happy New Year, for those who celebrate it!

Oh, and visit the Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2011 at Vagabond Scholar.  It is well worth your time.  (I don't seem to have linked to any of those!)

Theme & Variations

Avedon Carol:

The only thing liberals have been asking the White House to do is to tell the truth about the greater efficiency and promise of liberal programs and quit lying about the necessity of making us all live like Chinese slave laborers. Tell the public the truth about real single-payer medical systems, and then they won't worry about having to pay more taxes for a single-payer system. Tell the public that Social Security is not broke and that there is no reason on earth to raise the retirement age. The public already supports SSI, as the Dem leadership knows, which is why they keep lying about it to make it less popular. The truth is that the White House is perfectly happy to use the bully pulpit to push right-wing memes they know are false in order to try to make the public less likely to put their heads on pikes for trying to wreck Social Security and Medicare.

Amanda Marcotte:

Right wing media has quite literally cast its audience as belligerent, picky children and Michelle Obama as Mom standing over them telling they they can't have any dessert if they don't eat their vegetables. One could argue the facts on this until the end of time---do they seriously believe the First Lady has such all-encompassing powers that Olive Garden would rather cater to her than make money?----but I'm more interested in the psychology of this. Why are so many conservatives eager to imagine themselves not just as children, but as annoying, picky children? You'd think a bunch of authoritarians would at least prefer the image of well-behaved children who politely eat what's served, but their hatred of the Obamas runs so deep that they are willing to cast themselves in the role of the pointlessly petulant child.
Of course, it probably runs deeper than that. The truth may be that they don't realize that they are casting themselves in that role, but are just naturally drawn to it, because they are petulant and childish.

H. L. Mencken:

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Knew I'd Forgotten Something...

Merry Christmas!  (to those who celebrate)

(Also Happy Birthday to Isaac Newton!)

Truth and Rudeness

"Emperor, you have no clothes."  (Paraphrased from the Rude Pundit.)

Musical Interlude

Via, in roundabout fashion, Shelleybear at Live Journal, Darlene Love on Letterman.

Because it's not Christmas until Darlene Love Sings.

And have a terrific Solstice!

Happy Hanukkah

to those who celebrate it!

(Meanwhile, my Brazilian readers have taken the week off.)

Oh, And...

1. Via skippy:  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is costing Wisconsin 18,000 jobs this year. (Actual report as a .pdf here.)  Y'know, when I was a kid, Republicans stood for prosperity...
2. Roz Kaveney actually knew Christopher Hitchens and has begun a series of poems memorializing him: here, here, and here.  (Via Avedon)
3. I got frustrated with the standard ordered lists and went and looked up the HTML tutorial, that's why.
4. Two items from Notes from the Lizard Lair:  When to use old language and slang in your stories; and On gender roles and (fictional) women in power.
5. For the halibut:  A slideshow of Seattle movie theaters, then and now.  (A lot of them are gone.)

Tin Pots

Jurassicpork examines the failure of the US to deal with the late Kim Jong-il.

Kim's 17 year-long reign as North Korea's dictator, a mantle reluctantly handed to him by his father after years of relentless campaigning for more power, also represented the ultimate failure of one of the last Communist states on earth. The belligerent and maddeningly stubborn Kim was so focused on harvesting every single scrap of fissionable nuclear material to create a pitiful arsenal of 6-8 nuclear warheads that he forgot how to feed his own people, depending on his enemies South Korea and the United States to do it for him.

Like Gadaffi and Bush, he was an international punchline, a man who benefited more from the cult of personality and nepotism than any other ruler of his time.

One Lump of Coal or Two?

Comrade Misfit predicts the fallout from the war that's now over.

Last Decade at Marienbad

Scott Horton asks six questions of Glenn Greenwald.

But there’s also a more positive side: the country’s vigorous embrace of the principle of equality before law enshrined it as aspiration. It became the guiding precept for how “progress” was understood, for how the union would be perfected.

And the most significant episodes of progress over the next two centuries—the emancipation of slaves, the ending of Jim Crow, the enfranchisement and liberation of women, vastly improved treatment for Native Americans and gay Americans—were animated by this ideal. That happened because “blind justice”—equality before law—was orthodoxy in American political culture. The principle was sacrosanct even when it was imperfectly applied.

The Ford pardon of Nixon changed that, radically and permanently.

There's more.

And I completely spaced the fact that Christopher Hitchens had been Harper's Washington Editor (I do read the rest of the magazine after I've done the puzzle, y'know.)

In Memoriam

Vaclav Havel, playwright, president, and fan of Frank Zappa.

“Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred,” [h]e famously said. It became his revolutionary motto which he said he strove to live by.

(Yes, I do correct the New York Times when necessary.)

In Other News

Spocko expects that Fox News will practice what they preach (in internal memos, anyhow).

In Memoriam

Christopher Hitchens, who now knows for certain.

Clear-eyed appraisal by Melissa McEwan of Shakesville.

Ironic Phil Ochs Quote Here

Officially, the war in Iraq is over.  The investigation into the Haditha massacre produced secret transcripts and documents that were supposed to be destroyed because they revealed stuff like this:

The stress of combat left some soldiers paralyzed, the testimony shows. Troops, traumatized by the rising violence and feeling constantly under siege, grew increasingly twitchy, killing more and more civilians in accidental encounters. Others became so desensitized and inured to the killing that they fired on Iraqi civilians deliberately while their fellow soldiers snapped pictures, and were court-martialed. The bodies piled up at a time when the war had gone horribly wrong.

Terrance, Republic of T, for the WIN

Conservatives can’t fix poverty, because conservatives don’t want to fix poverty. For the same reason that Republicans never even attempted health care reform when they controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House. From a conservative perspective, poverty isn’t the real problem. Poor people are.

With examples.

Enough to Go Around

The headline on Anna van Z's post says it all:  Merry Christmas, You're Screwed!

Shorter Comrade Misfit:  Someone will misuse sweeping powers; better not to enact sweeping powers.

I May Have to Establish a Label

for "You Don't Want Me To Vote."

Because conservatives apparently don't like anyone not them voting.

Vivisection

Doghouse Riley (Bats Left, Throws Right -- which I need to look at more often during the off-season because it's not a baseball blog) flays a Ross Douthat column.  (Yes, it's easy -- I could probably do it, except reading Mr. Douthat causes a massive need for a copy editor, desire for a blue pencil, and speculation as to how he got out of high school history with a passing grade.  Ajita in the morning is not good for anyone.)

Yes, salty language.  Brief excerpt:

If this He's the Anti-Obama shit was real, how th' hell did it take the massive self-immolation of four front-runners--any of whom should have embarrassed you to the extent that you started writing your column under an assumed name--before you lit on the only guy still standing who isn't a Mormon?

Y'know, it's too late for George Eff Will, of course, and too late for Brooks. But Ross, you're thirty years old. You still have a chance to go through half your life without using shit for brains.

And then Mr. Romney seems to have exhumed a KKK slogan (via No More Mister Nice Blog, who got it from Steve Benen at Washington Monthly).  Also, Fox Nation, whoever they are, is upset about Christmas tree safety warnings that have been given since the '70s.

One for the Money, Two for the Show...

1. Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast on the plight of the unemployed, and what our politician/representatives are doing about it.

   This tactic of pointing people's attention down the economic ladder to the boogeyman of choice while the people up the ladder take the last few bucks out of our back pockets has worked for thirty years, convincing Americans that THEY are somehow different, that poverty will NEVER affect THEM, because THEY aren't LIKE those OTHER PEOPLE.
   
   Except that in the Great Recession of the Oughts, yes, they are. The only question is how many of them know it, and how long it will be before they join them.

   Note first comment, which points up the overall attitude Jill is decrying exactly.
2. The Daily Howler on education, test scores, liberals, poor children, and Gingrich:

   Which of those people has ever told the public about those rising NAEP scores? Has Professor Dyson, for all his greatness, ever stooped to such a task? For all his thunder, do you think he knows? How about well-scripted Joan? Indeed, has any one of those fiery figures cared enough about “really poor children” to examine those gold standard data—the data our educational experts swear by, as long as the data can be used to tell us a gloomy tale?

   Warning: He quotes a succession of people who use Dickens or Dickensian as an example. Nice that the pundits have caught up with me.

APB

Be on the lookout for propylene glycol.

Cruisin' for a Snoozin'

Apparently I didn't really want to sleep.  Tough.  Thing is that whenever I dozed off, sooner or later I found myself in the position of having somehow offended someone (the someone was different every time) who was very determined to Get Back At Me.  The nature of the offense was never clear, and I didn't know any of the people.

I've got lots of stuff to feel guilty about but I'm not sure which transgression the dream was addressing.

They're Out of Touch, They're Out of Time

Messieurs Gingrich and Romney, residing in Fantasyland, via Shark-fu.

Oh, all right:

But Newtonian form demanded that Newt double down on that “invented people” mess…which he did…and it is beyond telling that he’s still the candidate du jour after making a statement that, if he were President, would effectively toss massive amounts of gasoline on an already volatile situation.

Choosy moms choose Jiff…

….and likely Republican voters prefer zealots, homophobes, and hypocritical lying sacks of shit.

Mercy.

Anyhoo, then we have Romney’s $10,000 bet in response to some challenge about his stand on health care reform.

[...]

Every single candidate on that stage can make $10,000 bets…and none of them live on the average American salary. As much as the pundits want to talk about how out of touch Romney is, the real story is that all of these candidates are out of touch.

[...]

They don’t know…have never experienced…cannot empathize with having to decide between meds or food, heat or rent, transportation or lunch.

These people are so far removed from the masses that they didn’t even realize Romney stuck his foot in it until their aides told them.

And More Again

Video at Mills River Progressive:  It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

And Words are All I Have To Take Your Heart Away

Three women accept Nobel Peace Prize.

In Memoriam

Dr. Muriel Petioni, doctor and advocate.

It's Not Over Yet

Appeals court hears challenges to Prop. 8.

Judge N. Randy Smith said Cooper was essentially arguing that a judge in a divorce case would have to disclose difficulties in his own marriage. And Judge Stephen Reinhardt said Cooper's position might also disqualify married heterosexual judges from considering Prop. 8, since backers of the measure argued that same-sex unions would weaken traditional marriage.

Found!

For the last three years, I've bookmarked the Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar, but this year I kept going to the old one (at boston.com) and searching for the current one and no luck.

And it turned out that the bloke who was responsible has moved to the Atlantic's website.  The perfidy!

The Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar for 2011 (ten days are already up and awesome!)

Compare and Contrast

Republic of T on Herman Cain and Eddie Long:

Both Long and Cain were on the “down low,” while pretending to be upstanding. Yet they led others to look askance at someone like me. And for a long time, they got rewarded for it, and may yet be forgiven for it. Herman Cain will probably be rehabbed to Fox News. Long will return to his pulpit or find another one somewhere else.

Current largely warranted assumption is that those making a Major Deal of how anti-gay or pro-"family values" they are have sex scandals waiting to go public. The more vocal the politician, the more likely that seems to be.

Doubleheader

Southern Beale:

1. administers a thumping (Andy Cobb video) and 
2. shines a bright light on some cockroaches.

   Meanwhile, in that time GE has:
   
   • Closed its Virginia lamp plant and moved it to China ….
   
   • Moved its x-ray division from Wisconsin to China …
   
   • Cut 600 jobs from its Lynn, MA aircraft engine plant …and demanded $25 million in tax credits from the State of Massachusetts to keep from cutting any more. (Extortion, much?)

In Memoriam

•  Howard Tate, singer
• Dobie Gray, singer/songwriter
• And it's John Lennon's yahrzeit.

Statistical Clout of Gingrich

Nate Silver explains it.

ETA:  And you might want to see what's going on with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in case you thought Republicans were in favor of the consumer.

Random News Artifacts

1. Once in a while people have mentioned Zappadan, but I never managed to run across anything else.
   
   (I know perfectly well who Frank Zappa was; I was introduced to his music by the same person who took me to the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center back in 1967 (hi, Susan!) and further indoctrinated by WFMU in the early '70s.  "Hungry freaks, daddy!"  So there.)
   
   Via driftglass, the Mock, Paper, Scissors celebration of Zappadan, as far back as they go.  (Others go back further.)
2. Pearl Harbor, unsaintly behavior, and Mahler.
3. Derek Boogaard was what is called an "enforcer" in hockey and was apparently subjected to a lot of blows to the head.  The New York Times did a feature story on Mr. Boogaard and his injuries and the state of his brain.  And drugs.
4. Mumia Abu-Jamal will not be put to death.  

Signpost

So the pastor of my sister's church gave the sermon, message being that faithfulness to God brings God to your side as your defender.

That's one I haven't tried

Point of Reference

When, not if, the next less-than-intelligent Saudi apologist starts wibbling about women driving, read them this post from Dr. Grumpy.

One (of the three paragraphs):

Were you a perfectly straight heterosexual until you learned to drive, and then, upon getting your license, immediately developed an uncontrollable attraction for your own sex and switched to the other team?

Prepare to Panic

Nothing like announcing one will not be posting much to bring postable links out of the woodwork. ;-)

Mills River Progressive highlights the "sneaky insertion" of indefinite detention into a Defense Appropriations Bill and the failure to remove that feature.  The ACLU has further information. If you know history, you know why this is Very Bad Stuff.  If you don't, you need to go read up Right Now on all those regimes America Is Not Like, because guess what?  America is poised to become Just Like Them.  Pardon my caps.

Also, a bit of humor, because it's true.

Things that Don't Compute

1. Echidne of the Snakes on campaigning v. governing:

   The point I wanted to make in this context is this: A politician's ability to get elected may have little or no correlation with that politician's ability to do the actual job well.
   
   Telegenic applicants do well. Applicants who look like someone you'd like to get drunk with do well. Applicants who speak well do well. Applicants who understand the mass psychology of politics do well. None of those test the applicants' ability to govern.  

2. Southern Beale points at more "You don't want me to vote" in Tennessee.
3. Two from Republic of T:
• On the GOP tax "plan:"

  That’s why the $30 million a year the government spends in welfare for those who earn $1 million or more a year never gets mentioned. It’s why the tax expenditures for the wealthy — which cost more than what we spend on defense, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all the other non-defense discretionary programs is never addressed, and is thus sacrosanct while all the other programs above are targeted for cuts.
  
  It all boils down to the Randian notion that the one percent contribute the most to the real wealth of society, while the other 99 contributes nothing and merely “leeches” off the mythically “self-made” one percent. But they’re the ones who’ve been getting a free ride for the last decade or so, at great cost to the other 99 percent of us. The one percent is largely made up of Wall Streeters, hedge fund mangers and other financial sector types — who arguably create nothing of social value, but have instead destroyed more wealth than they’ve created, and caused more misery in a quest to suck even more out of the rest of us.

• On dysfunctional family dynamics and Newt Gingrich:

  But Newt says, “Don’t talk about it.”
  
  After all, that’s the first rule of dysfunctional politics. The problem with the first rule of dysfunctional politics is identical to the problem with the first rule of dysfunctional families: It guarantees that everything stays dysfunctional, because problems that don’t get talked about don’t get solved.
  
  When it comes to conservatives like Gingrich, however, that seems to be the whole point.

Both articles are link-rich.

Still Alive

There are obits still to be posted and rants to write, but it's December, and we have to recalibrate the brain (and fluff-dry it when that's done) and develop new schtick.

Posting will be sporadic until morale improves.

Shark-fu Rings the Bell

On one aspect of conservative hypocrisy:

[Cain's attorney, Lin] Wood added...

"No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life."

Cough.

Um, Lin...jumping up into private citizen’s bedroom-based business is a plank in the GOP platform.

And where she speaks for me:

But most of all I’m tired of hypocritical bullshit spewing politicians preaching the gospel of jumping all up into private citizens’ sexual bitness and then whining and keening when the masses and/or the press jump all up in their sexual bitness.

Thank you, Shark-fu.