A Brilliant Idea
I wasn't planning on blogging tonight, for various reasons which are of interest to no one, but I need to heartily concur with Kevin Drum's suggestion for a Constitutional amendment requiring a Presidential press conference every week.
Actually, you know what else would be great? An amendment requiring something similar to the Prime Minister's questions in the British Parliament.
This idea was kicked around Atrios' comments boards a few weeks ago, and I think the consensus opinion was that a "President's Questions" would likely have the immediate effect of getting Bush impeached and quite possibly deported.
So where do I sign up?
Saturday, March 08, 2003
Friday, March 07, 2003
Ridiculous
This is just about the most pathetic thing I have ever read in my life:
"...he'd spent a month attacking me, so I demonstrated that I'm fully capable of operating on that level if need be. He was fighting dirty, so I showed him I could, too.
"Only I'm better at it than he is. I've had years of practice; I've been engaging in flame wars since the mid 1980's. In fact, I've been unimpressed by his performance this entire time. I've been insulted by experts, and he doesn't rate." [italics added]
Am I the only person who thinks that that is not a credential one should be bandying about? I just don't get some people.
denBeste can eat it. D2 is fantastic.
This is just about the most pathetic thing I have ever read in my life:
"...he'd spent a month attacking me, so I demonstrated that I'm fully capable of operating on that level if need be. He was fighting dirty, so I showed him I could, too.
"Only I'm better at it than he is. I've had years of practice; I've been engaging in flame wars since the mid 1980's. In fact, I've been unimpressed by his performance this entire time. I've been insulted by experts, and he doesn't rate." [italics added]
Am I the only person who thinks that that is not a credential one should be bandying about? I just don't get some people.
denBeste can eat it. D2 is fantastic.
One Steak Please, And I Want It So Rare I Can Hear It Moo
Holy Lord, do I hate PETA.
When my family got our first dog, we all started saying hello to him before we would say hello to anyone else in the house when we arrived home from work and school.
This led my mother to institute a rule for greetings when we entered the house that I think can be carried over to the rest of the world:
People first.
Fuck PETA. You jackasses make the rest of us Liberals look bad.
Holy Lord, do I hate PETA.
When my family got our first dog, we all started saying hello to him before we would say hello to anyone else in the house when we arrived home from work and school.
This led my mother to institute a rule for greetings when we entered the house that I think can be carried over to the rest of the world:
People first.
Fuck PETA. You jackasses make the rest of us Liberals look bad.
Thursday, March 06, 2003
Ragnarok, or Mind In The Gutter Time
Am I the only person who foresees a clash of apocalyptic proportions between The Lysistrata Project and the boys over at Masturbate For Peace?
Am I the only person who foresees a clash of apocalyptic proportions between The Lysistrata Project and the boys over at Masturbate For Peace?
Press Conference Transcript
Bush: We captured a bad Al Qaeda man. Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. The UN Security Council should do what we want it to do or they do not matter and will be disbanded. Saddam is lying. Saddam is a terrorist. Saddam is a terrorist. And Saddam is a terrorist. We must start a war to defend peace.
Reporter: So when do you think war will begin?
Bush: Saddam is bad. I do not want to go to war. But Saddam is a terrorist. I must defend America from terrorists.
Reporter: Are you resigned to the fact that North Korea will be a nuclear power very very soon?
Bush: Eh, it's a regional problem. By regional I mean that everyone else in the region should deal with the problem, and not us. Bill Clinton's policy of dealing North Korea worked until I fucked it up, and so we must convince our allies to deal with North Korea for us. It is very important that we deal with North Korea in a way that is completely opposite the way in which we are dealing with Iraq, because we trust Kim Jong Il more than we trust Saddam Hussein, who is a terrorist.
Reporter: What about all the peace protestors around the world? Why do you think they disagree with you?
Bush: I love freedom of speech. It is the a very important part of America. So why don't the people who disagree with me go the hell to Iraq, where there is no freedom of speech? Saddam is, after all, a terrorist.
Reporter: What do you see the aftermath of the war being like?
Bush: We are confident that after we attack a sovereign middle eastern Islamic nation that citizens throughout the Muslim world will pour out into the streets in spontaneous demonstrations of love for us and our people and will peacefully proceed to form secular democratic states.
Reporters: [tame, gutless questions]
Bush: [Blah blah, repeating things you've heard over and over again] And Saddam is a terrorist.
Nation: Fuck this. [collective channel change to Happy Days on TV Land]
Edit: In light of recent information, I should change that "tame, gutless questions" to "tame, gutless, scripted" questions.
Fuck the press corps.
Update: It has been suggested by one of my friends that this bit is unfunny, unoriginal, boring, vaguely depressing, and only occasionally even marginally clever. I agree. And that means that I have captured the spirit of the President's press conference perfectly.
Bush: We captured a bad Al Qaeda man. Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. The UN Security Council should do what we want it to do or they do not matter and will be disbanded. Saddam is lying. Saddam is a terrorist. Saddam is a terrorist. And Saddam is a terrorist. We must start a war to defend peace.
Reporter: So when do you think war will begin?
Bush: Saddam is bad. I do not want to go to war. But Saddam is a terrorist. I must defend America from terrorists.
Reporter: Are you resigned to the fact that North Korea will be a nuclear power very very soon?
Bush: Eh, it's a regional problem. By regional I mean that everyone else in the region should deal with the problem, and not us. Bill Clinton's policy of dealing North Korea worked until I fucked it up, and so we must convince our allies to deal with North Korea for us. It is very important that we deal with North Korea in a way that is completely opposite the way in which we are dealing with Iraq, because we trust Kim Jong Il more than we trust Saddam Hussein, who is a terrorist.
Reporter: What about all the peace protestors around the world? Why do you think they disagree with you?
Bush: I love freedom of speech. It is the a very important part of America. So why don't the people who disagree with me go the hell to Iraq, where there is no freedom of speech? Saddam is, after all, a terrorist.
Reporter: What do you see the aftermath of the war being like?
Bush: We are confident that after we attack a sovereign middle eastern Islamic nation that citizens throughout the Muslim world will pour out into the streets in spontaneous demonstrations of love for us and our people and will peacefully proceed to form secular democratic states.
Reporters: [tame, gutless questions]
Bush: [Blah blah, repeating things you've heard over and over again] And Saddam is a terrorist.
Nation: Fuck this. [collective channel change to Happy Days on TV Land]
Edit: In light of recent information, I should change that "tame, gutless questions" to "tame, gutless, scripted" questions.
Fuck the press corps.
Update: It has been suggested by one of my friends that this bit is unfunny, unoriginal, boring, vaguely depressing, and only occasionally even marginally clever. I agree. And that means that I have captured the spirit of the President's press conference perfectly.
George Goes Off-Message
The President just admitted that there is a possibility that a nuclear North Korea might sell nuclear weapons to dictators and bad people! (Although he carefully avoided saying they might sell them to "terrorists." After all, isn't that why we're going to war with Iraq?)
Now, let's see what they do about it. (Hint: Anything would be more than they've done in the last two years.)
Edit: That's not entirely true. Completely fucking up the careful diplomatic agreements with N. Korea created by the Clinton administration was something, not nothing. So, it is unfair of me to say they haven't done anything.
The President just admitted that there is a possibility that a nuclear North Korea might sell nuclear weapons to dictators and bad people! (Although he carefully avoided saying they might sell them to "terrorists." After all, isn't that why we're going to war with Iraq?)
Now, let's see what they do about it. (Hint: Anything would be more than they've done in the last two years.)
Edit: That's not entirely true. Completely fucking up the careful diplomatic agreements with N. Korea created by the Clinton administration was something, not nothing. So, it is unfair of me to say they haven't done anything.
Pre-Presidential Press Conference
I don't know what Our Leader is going to say. I don't know what he will do. I don't know what other people will say about him. I don't know what other people will do about what he says.
All I know is that when the President is done talking, and the cameras cut away to some news anchor's head, I am going to duck, so that I do not get hit by flying Andrew Sullivan-spooge.
(Hey, it's been two weeks. Time to bring it to that lying expat-brit motherfucker. I love the British, but I do not love Andrew)
I don't know what Our Leader is going to say. I don't know what he will do. I don't know what other people will say about him. I don't know what other people will do about what he says.
All I know is that when the President is done talking, and the cameras cut away to some news anchor's head, I am going to duck, so that I do not get hit by flying Andrew Sullivan-spooge.
(Hey, it's been two weeks. Time to bring it to that lying expat-brit motherfucker. I love the British, but I do not love Andrew)
A Good Start
Gun nuts annoy me, but I'll be damned if I haven't wanted to do this for a long, long time.
Gun nuts annoy me, but I'll be damned if I haven't wanted to do this for a long, long time.
Stupid High School Kids
The ever-entertaining Glenn Reynolds, never one to pass up a chance to smear Anti-War folk through implication, directs us to an article about an anti-war demonstration by high school students in California that got a bit out of hand. Apparently, some of the 500 students present decided that it would be fun to knock over a gas station during the festivities.
Obviously, this is a Bad Thing. But I really resent Reynolds' "THUGS FOR PEACE" headline and his sly "Protesting for imaginary Arabs, while robbing real ones. Yep." Why? Because it has the unmistakable air of an "I told you so." This one is going to get a lot of traction from the anti-anti-war crowd, because it seems to confirm everything they've been saying about anti-war hooligans and hippies.
Goddamn those violent Peace marchers!
What no one is going to point out is the simple fact that when you put 500 teenaged kids anywhere without a shitload of supervision, something's gonna go down. It's just the way it works. It has nothing to do with the anti-war or pro-war causes and everything to do with a bunch of kids with all kinds of hormones gathered in one place. Hell, it's pretty much a given that a crowd of 20 teenage males will eventually become violent to one degree or another. It's the way us guys are wired (or raised...but that's a seperate issue entirely).
And, hey, let's not even cast aspersions on teenagers in general (whoops...already did. Oh well). Let's extend this to all of the Peace rallies that have been taking place over the past few weeks. In the aftermath of the worldwide protests two weeks ago, a lot of the anti-anti-war crowd crowed long and loud about people throwing things at the cops in San Francisco and a couple minor scuffles that took place elsewhere.
Well, so fucking what?
In any sizable group of people, no matter what the defining characteristic of the group is, there is a statistical certainty that a few of them are going to be scumbags. This applies to the (extremely isolated) incidences of violence in the worldwide rallies. I don't care if your group is a bunch of peace protestors, attendees at a Metallica concert, or the crowd at Easter Mass at the Vatican. Some of them are assholes and will get rowdy given opportunity and a lack of supervision. It is either foolhardy, dishonest, or both to imply that the imbecilic actions of a few people within the group should discredit the motives of the group as a whole.
Besides, shit that's a whole lot worse goes down every year at your typical big-city St. Patrick's Day parade. Does this mean we should kick the Irish out of the country (sit down, Mr. Savage, I wasn't asking you)?
Shame on Glenn Reynolds. Shame, humiliation, and dishonor.
The ever-entertaining Glenn Reynolds, never one to pass up a chance to smear Anti-War folk through implication, directs us to an article about an anti-war demonstration by high school students in California that got a bit out of hand. Apparently, some of the 500 students present decided that it would be fun to knock over a gas station during the festivities.
Obviously, this is a Bad Thing. But I really resent Reynolds' "THUGS FOR PEACE" headline and his sly "Protesting for imaginary Arabs, while robbing real ones. Yep." Why? Because it has the unmistakable air of an "I told you so." This one is going to get a lot of traction from the anti-anti-war crowd, because it seems to confirm everything they've been saying about anti-war hooligans and hippies.
Goddamn those violent Peace marchers!
What no one is going to point out is the simple fact that when you put 500 teenaged kids anywhere without a shitload of supervision, something's gonna go down. It's just the way it works. It has nothing to do with the anti-war or pro-war causes and everything to do with a bunch of kids with all kinds of hormones gathered in one place. Hell, it's pretty much a given that a crowd of 20 teenage males will eventually become violent to one degree or another. It's the way us guys are wired (or raised...but that's a seperate issue entirely).
And, hey, let's not even cast aspersions on teenagers in general (whoops...already did. Oh well). Let's extend this to all of the Peace rallies that have been taking place over the past few weeks. In the aftermath of the worldwide protests two weeks ago, a lot of the anti-anti-war crowd crowed long and loud about people throwing things at the cops in San Francisco and a couple minor scuffles that took place elsewhere.
Well, so fucking what?
In any sizable group of people, no matter what the defining characteristic of the group is, there is a statistical certainty that a few of them are going to be scumbags. This applies to the (extremely isolated) incidences of violence in the worldwide rallies. I don't care if your group is a bunch of peace protestors, attendees at a Metallica concert, or the crowd at Easter Mass at the Vatican. Some of them are assholes and will get rowdy given opportunity and a lack of supervision. It is either foolhardy, dishonest, or both to imply that the imbecilic actions of a few people within the group should discredit the motives of the group as a whole.
Besides, shit that's a whole lot worse goes down every year at your typical big-city St. Patrick's Day parade. Does this mean we should kick the Irish out of the country (sit down, Mr. Savage, I wasn't asking you)?
Shame on Glenn Reynolds. Shame, humiliation, and dishonor.
Youz A Ho
Caught Bill O'Reilly the other day in a clip on some show talking about Ludacris. Hoo, boy. I'm not a huge Ludacris fan, although I have been singing his Youz A Ho pretty much non-stop for three weeks, but, Good Lord, Mr. Bill needs to be stopped. Leaving aside all of my (many) reasons for thinking O'Reilly's a jackass, the man just sounds like an utter buffoon every time he mouths off about "this rap stuff."
I wonder if he will ever realize that he doesn't sound morally superior when he talks about hip hop so much as horribly, horribly out of touch and completely unaware of the fact. I would almost feel bad for him, if I didn't dislike him so much.
As it is, though, I hope he gets himself a regular gig on MTV. I think it would be a good thing if the youth of America got an idea of what things would be like if people like O'Reilly were in charge.
Oh, fuck...they already are. Ha ha, joke's on us.
Caught Bill O'Reilly the other day in a clip on some show talking about Ludacris. Hoo, boy. I'm not a huge Ludacris fan, although I have been singing his Youz A Ho pretty much non-stop for three weeks, but, Good Lord, Mr. Bill needs to be stopped. Leaving aside all of my (many) reasons for thinking O'Reilly's a jackass, the man just sounds like an utter buffoon every time he mouths off about "this rap stuff."
I wonder if he will ever realize that he doesn't sound morally superior when he talks about hip hop so much as horribly, horribly out of touch and completely unaware of the fact. I would almost feel bad for him, if I didn't dislike him so much.
As it is, though, I hope he gets himself a regular gig on MTV. I think it would be a good thing if the youth of America got an idea of what things would be like if people like O'Reilly were in charge.
Oh, fuck...they already are. Ha ha, joke's on us.
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Technical Difficulties
Apparently, my computer's power supply has gone bad. After having a long conversation with the nice people at tech support, I learned that if I leave my computer on for more than ten minutes at a time, there is a low to medium chance that it will catch on fire.
Since I consider any chance of my computer bursting into flames to be Absolutely Unacceptable, I will be taking a little hiatus from all things computer-related until my new power supply arrives, most likely by Friday.
So, nothing new here until then. Apologies all around.
Apparently, my computer's power supply has gone bad. After having a long conversation with the nice people at tech support, I learned that if I leave my computer on for more than ten minutes at a time, there is a low to medium chance that it will catch on fire.
Since I consider any chance of my computer bursting into flames to be Absolutely Unacceptable, I will be taking a little hiatus from all things computer-related until my new power supply arrives, most likely by Friday.
So, nothing new here until then. Apologies all around.
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