Ten Gallon Liberal
They really are spying on us, tin foil hats or no.
Deep thought: George Bush has won his game of hide-and-seek. Nobody knows where he has gone. This will shortly end when somebody hears his chortle in a nearby broom closet. Deeper thought: Maybe he’s hiding to listen to innocent Americans having phone sex? This...Beyond the Palin: Apocalypse Never would be just fine
I grew up in the Southern Baptist church. My dad was a minister, in fact. (He still is ordained, but his main gig is seminary prof.) So when I see video of Sarah Palin being blessed by an Assembly of God minister so that she’ll be successful in politics and be...With all-new Grimace Action (TM)!
I want a McCain action figure that does this:Bold and Spicy!
So look–the real deal is my last post, so please feel free to check that out. But I just read some anonymous blog commenter’s contribution to the zeitgeist, and it cracked me up so much I figured some levity was in order. Here, my friends, is the new Spice...John McPenguin, baby!
The Penguin=John McCain? (with massive hat-tip to Ezra Klein)10/15/08Back to 2000! Deep thought: Are you an Arab or a family man? Deeper thought: Why does Sarah Palin hate America? (and yes, wingnuts, that’s sarcastic)Deepest thought: So ACORN registered Mickey...Me and Bible Spice, sittin in a tree
I don’t know if you caught it, cause it was mostly a Sarah-and-me thing, but Governor Hot Stuff winked at me. And I just forgot all about policy and all that crap, and figured, hey, if I elect her, the two of us are going to have a thing. And that’s pretty...With all-new Grimace Action (TM)!
I want a McCain action figure that does this: 10/16/08 The Penguin=John McCain? (with massive hat-tip to Ezra Klein)10/15/08Back to 2000! Deep thought: Are you an Arab or a family man? Deeper thought: Why does Sarah Palin hate America? (and yes, wingnuts, that’s...We Are the World gets out the vote; Live Aid to follow?
We seem to have barnacles again. Very sensitive barnacles. Anyway. Today's big news: Huffington Post has an exclusive about a presidential candidate who, as senator, insisted on meeting with a ruthless dictator, free of preconditions. McCain met with Chile's...GOP county chair: “I see black people voting“
A Halloween triple-header:1) Florida GOP county chair spells out the terrifying threat–all these black people, they just keep voting! And college students! Help! Don't they know Obama is a closet Stalin? He'll take away their freedom of speech! [Does he...Go Vote!
I tend to save my harshest rantings for the forces in our country which are anti-democratic. And that is what the Bush contingent is. They've proven over and over that they see the Constitution as a mere obstacle to doing whatever they want with the overwhelming...More things I won't miss
McCain, once upon a time, seemed a respectable sort. Don't know what convinced him to give in to those who suggested he run the same kind of campaign that brought him down against Bush in 2000. And I sure as shootin' don't know what possessed him to pick...Obama's faith
What is it like to have a president who's extremely intelligent, and whose view of faith is mature, non-fundamentalist, and open? We're about to find out.The fundies are not going to like Obama's simultaneous born-again status and non-dogmatic stance. And...Mormon no more
The Mormons seem to have made a lot of gay people angry with the California Proposition 8 bidness. And, though the "prayer" involved might turn you a particularly lime-y shade of green (absolutely not one for the easily offended), what a riposte: in response...Pick a Savior, any Savior
It can be so hard to choose between cults. So I was quite pleased to find this handy guide to dime-novel saviors. There is a bit of a theme here–mostly, to be a modern Jesus pretender, you have to combine middle age, being male, giving at least strong...Really really secret ballots
Ah… a little sunlight: if you've followed the deeply problematic results of touch-screen voting since 2002, you probably know that Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) won a remarkable upset victory in 2002 over Max Cleland. Chambliss was behind in every...A Turkey Round-up
What's there to say, really: Ann Coulter's jaw wired shut?And in other news: last night I was subjected to part of Dancing With the Stars. I can now confidently report what I'm sure many people already knew–wow, does Miley Cyrus blow. She's got...Why we won't stop terrorism until we stop being &^%holes all over the world
Here's a stunner: turns out the "liberal" intelligentsia–i.e., everyone to the left of Dick Cheney–was right about torture all along. An interrogator in Iraq taught his team to win over insurgents instead of torturing dubious info out of...Long live yeast!
Turns out something weird about yeast is also true for humans. There's quite a mechanism at work inside both of us–genes called "sirtuins" handle turning other genes off and on, so that, for instance, the heart genes in a stomach cell stay turned...Mad scientists and moustaches
Not even Brad Pitt can make a justache cool: And in other news–mad scientists, rejoice! (I hope to retire as a mad scientist, for what it's worth.) Turns out virtual bodyswapping works! Gin up the machine with the big spark and phone the morgue, Igor....The Last Liverpudlian
Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to lie shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice?This is one of those days.When I have one of those days, I always go here, at least since about 1989:In other, BREAKING news:Barack Hussein Obama, almost...Where are the documents, Sarah Palin?!?
In light of today's lack of interest by the Supreme Court in the "Obama's a Kenyan-Brit-Indonesian-Muslim-Communist-Socialist-scary-not-white guy" faction's endless string of wingnuttery, I'd like to take this opportunity to start the work...Bush: Hey fundies, I didn't believe all that crap anyway
The "Wonder-Working Power" crowd will swallow its study Bibles in apoplexy when it hears this:Asked whether the Bible was literally true, Bush replied: "Probably not. No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it." He also...Worse than we thought (and we thought it was pretty bad)
During Bush's first term, I interviewed one of my heroes, Jim Hightower. (I was born in the same small Texas town as Hightower, which, for the sole benefit of my favorite blog barnacles, is full of… wait for it… Southern Baptist fundamentalists!) At...Extremities–what makes them so extreme?
Don't know about you, but upon seeing the cover of this week's Hartford Advocate, I've decided to spend the rest of the afternoon kicking back with some Pepsi Clear and mini Ritz crackers to watch the X-Games and contemplate the extremes of the extreme...Too Much to Dream Last Night
Back in '91, Win Wenders' Until The End of the World posited a future technology to record dreams. Stunning, but it seems impossible–brain waves seem to indicate things that are way more general than a very specific image. How could the brain possibly...Protect the InterTubes!
Old battle, meet new battle. We've spent eight years having to oppose what should be unthinkable–a president lying us into war, American torture, domestic spying, the unitary executive, Vice President Evil, on and on. So we deserve a respite. But this may...Cheney growls
Never one to miss a party, Dick Cheney proudly proclaims that he aided torture, just after saying "we don't do torture":Did you authorize the tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? CHENEY: I was aware of the program, certainly, and...The bad apple
From the summary and conclusions of the Senate Armed Services Committee report released last week, in case anybody was wondering if American torture came courtesy of "a few bad apples." What does one do about criminal actions like this? Al Qaeda and Taliban...Mistah Kurtz
T.S. Eliot: Mistah Kurtz—he dead. A penny for the Old Guy IWe are the hollow menWe are the stuffed menLeaning togetherHeadpiece filled with straw. Alas!Our dried voices, whenWe whisper togetherAre quiet and meaninglessAs wind in dry grassOr rats’ feet over...View from the floor: Bush's final Christmas in the mansion
Wow. Just watch it.They did reject one ornament, it turns out, from downer Seattle.Puff
Deep thought (or, at least, as deep as I can manage at present):Why doesn't someone write a lighthearted song called "Saltsman the Testy Chipmunk Cracker"? I just can't let go of this beautiful Christmas video, so please feel free to continue to...Bush in Flatland
Two things to blogulate, now that I'm back in the saddle after one of those hiatuses necessary to the proper functioning of the synapses. First up is the President-elect. What is the intent of the current leaking from Camp Obama about 300 billion in tax cuts? Is...How to create a terrorist
Nutcases beget nutcases. And so we tumble onward, caught in the crossfire of our extremists. If I had to put money on how the world will end, I'd bet fundamentalist absolutism will play the central role. It's the scourge of our primate brains.Nicholas Kristof...Stop, hey, what's that sound?
When the political gets dull and the wars too awful, there's always the inexplicable. Personally, I take great comfort in knowing that the world is far weirder than at first it might appear. There are strange things afoot all the time. And one of the most...Joe, meet Bob
What is it that makes anybody want to send Joe the Plumber to play journalist? His opinions on foreign conflicts, to be fair, are probably more informed than those of Britney Spears. But can even a right wing media organization think promoting ill-informed non-writers...Don't drink Obama's Kool-Aid either
Obama is no saint, no purist. Nor should he be–he's a politician. And Glenn Greenwald nails the dynamic of American democracy in regard to pressuring politicians: speak up or be ignored. (And of course, the more money you have, the more loudly you can...'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth, and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.(Monty Python, The Meaning of Life) Methane on...memento moroni
This is the last post I will ever type while Bush is occupying the White House. Even my fingers are giddy. He could not flee far enough from the nation to suit me if he took up residence upon an Antarctic peak with a case of screech and a portrait of Condi to keep him...SORT OF BREAKING: The ladies love men who smell like meat!!*
Missed this when I was out–Burger King's Flame "fragrance,"complete with weirdly hairy King mascot in front of a fire. Gives me the shivers, personally. And doesn't make a Whopper sound any more appetizing than the burned pile of extruded...Wheels of Doom, mein Fuhrer
Just sayin'…Cheney's Fedora–if Flaubert's got a parrot…
All the talk of Cheney's chapeau got me thinking. There's the obvious notion that he's channeling Snidely Whiplash, a fitting tribute for a man who always looks like he just got done dining on braised liberals. But the black fedora certainly fires on other...The country's playing Gin Rummy, but they're still on Go Fish
The Right used to have some measure of diversity in its thought, but once you get addicted to screaming "Be afraid!" at every turn, it's apparently hard to stop.Which is to say that finally dealing with the prisoners at Guantanamo with old-fashioned...If you don't have anything to hide…
If these allegations are proven true, will the staunch defenders of Bush-era lawbreaking finally stop defending totalitarian practices? Will we finally have the cojones to investigate the extent of this? But most of all: remember when conservatives opposed stuff like...A Rove-ing
If you look a few blogs down on the main Advocate page at the Public Humanist, you'll find a piece I wrote about This American Life and a sort of narrative/musical project I've been working on. Hope it might prove an interesting read of a non-political...The Disgruntled Chorus
The Memory Hole yields further information regarding the extent of the Bush administration's spying, with two more recent whistleblowers to add to the chorus that also includes Russell Tice, Michael Klein, Babak Pasdar, and Thomas Tamm: "These [people we...Don't Put This Off
If you have a head full of monumental things you wish to complete, as pretty much everyone I know does, you have no doubt suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous procrastination. Happens to me all the time. 'Tis easier to blog and watch the turgid wake that...Fighting Comedy with Comedy?
Norm Coleman: running for court jester?Little else could explain the awesome progression of foibles that has unfolded in the legal contest Norm Coleman (used to be R-Minn.) has brought against Al Franken (probably soon D-Minn.). The contest, in my opinion, is a very...The Curious Case of Bible Spice
Two pieces of today's news are certainly prompters of mixed feelings. First up is word that Obama is continuing the CIA practice of rendition. This is certainly a matter that requires a grasp of subtlety–there is rendition, then there's...Straw Money
We've all seen the "straw man" argument over and over. You know, when someone says "Ice cream tastes good," and somebody else comes along and says: "So you're telling me that a crap souffle doesn't taste good?!? I've had crap...Cheney: Be afraid! Stay afraid! Is this thing on?
In his first big post-Vice Vader interview, Cheney clings steadfastly to the rationalization of the worst excesses of his administration. He's not a stupid man, but he's certainly pandering to the stupid. He and Bush mastered oversimplification tactics, and...From the Department of Unfortunate Analogies, GOP branch office
Ouch! "Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. "And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and...Magic in Northampton
Yesterday I caught "Being Harry Houdini" at the Academy of Music. There's something about magic performance that seems to me older than the hills. I know music has been around as long or longer, but the trappings, even the premise of magic, are very...Obama, wherefore art thou?
Obama, in the midst of undoing so many of Bush's abuses of secrecy, just focused on the mother of all secrecy ploys, the "State Secrets Privilege," and has initially signalled that he'll continue abusing it like Bush did. You know what they say about...Incoherity!
Blogger Mark Nickolas tries an interesting trick regarding Obama's speaking level versus Bush's. So, I just finished comparing the transcript of President Obama's first presidential press conference this evening with the very first one that former...Fascinating and disgusting!
I'm in awe of a new find by one of my favorite bloggers, Leisure Guy. Behold in all its glory This Is Why You're Fat. It's a collection of disgustingly appetizing(?) food for those who aren't afraid of things like heart attacks. I think the picture...How to swim the Atlantic
First, start in Cape Verde and go to Trinidad, conveniently cutting down on the approximately 2,500-mile trip by a few hundred miles. Second, spend most of the trip in a boat, not swimming, cutting the voyage by another 1,700 miles or so. Third, accidentally inflate...Mad science isn't what it used to be
I'm on record with my plans to retire someday to a chateau somewhere in the Black Forest, build a lab, lose my hair gel and become an honest-to-goodness mad scientist. But crikey, is the competition getting stiff. Used to be you could hack up a few things, sew...Mos Spec? Biggie Palin?
RNC chairman Michael Steele: "We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings." “It will be avant garde, technically. It will come to...Absolute power, etc.
Leads that need to go away: "The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush…"It's a truism of opposing executive power: you're going to be disappointed. Makes sense–Obama stands to expose himself to lots of trouble...E-Edition
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