hans.friedrich

27 Oct

Nonetheless, this reality is intolerable to some, and they have created an alternative narrative. In this narrative, Obama is “a Marxisant radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters.” Once elected, presumably, will reveal himself to be the monster that he is, in the manner of Kang and Kodos in that classic 1996 Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons.

… (yet) no one who actually knows Obama has ever said, “You know, once he’s got a couple of drinks in him, he starts going on about Che and finishing the Revolution;”

Conspiracy Theorizing - Peter Sagal

12 Oct

It’s a bit odd that we give the Undecided Voter such a privileged place in American elections. Because from a civic standpoint, few creatures are as contemptible.

Undecided voters? - Los Angeles Times

08 Oct

Let me get this straight. Investment banks and insurance companies run by centimillionaires blow up, and it’s the fault of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and poor minorities?

Are Minorities to Blame for the Subprime Mess? | Newsweek Voices - Daniel Gross | Newsweek.com

03 Oct

A guided collection of reading resources gathered in one page.

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Nobody comes out looking good: the folks who bought these houses made and made poor choices, trading financial prudence for the status symbols of overconsumption, the craven mortgage brokers who fudged and obfuscated the financial reality of these people’s situations to get them loans regardless of the applicants’ true ability to pay, and the banks who underwrote the mortgages, knowing full-well that the they were enabling a bubble that inflated the value of these homes 2-300% above what the fundamentals would dictate.

All this is a given. But this knowledge shouldn’t provide a false “they had it coming” complacency - blame aside, something very tragic for the fabric of American society is happening here.

02 Oct

“In its broad strokes, McCain’s life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives’ evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.”

25 Sep
19 Sep

“Charley Says” - a 1973 animated British PSA series where a little boy narrates various “stranger danger” pronouncements as told through the meows and growls of his ginger cat Charley. Here, Charley nearly drowns during a fishing trip with the little boy’s father, and then explains the dangers of wandering away from adults while near water. As dark and hilarious as it sounds.

Also:

Charley Says - In The Kitchen

Charley Says - Matches

Charley Says - Mummy Should Know

Charley Says - Charley’s Tea Party

Charley Says - Strangers

18 Sep
13 Sep

I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.

— Harry Truman in 1948

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