Resistance Is Life

The whole thing from Juan Cole:

Kurdish Women Fighting ISIL Send Solidarity to BlackLivesMatter

“You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world,” the YPJ wrote to Black Lives Matter.

Fighters from the Kurdish Women’s Defense Units or YPJ, have sent a message of solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.

“To our black sisters and brothers! The people of Kurdistan stand with you!” read the short statement posted Saturday by the group, who has been fighting the incursions of ISIS [Daesh] in northern Syria for close to two years. “Here are the women who fight ISIS in Rojava (northern Syria) – saluting your honorable struggle for freedom, dignity, and resistance!”

The call for Black Lives Matter has become a focal point for discussions around systemic racism and police brutality following the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014, as well as numerous other incidents since. This past week, police killed Philando Castille and Alton Sterling – both incidents filmed and subsequently shared ober social media – touching off more protests across the United States.

For the women of the YPJ, solidarity and building “world revolution” against racism, sexism and capitalism, go hand in hand.

“As the women in Kurdistan know very well, we need to build our self-defense in all spheres of life. You are among the most radical voices in today’s racist, sexist, capitalist world and the freedom-loving peoples of the world deeply respect and salute your fight! Solidarity is the first step to world revolution!,” the statement continued.

Since the most recent string of high-profile U.S.police shootings of Blackpeople, expressions of solidarity from other communities in the United States as well as groups from around the world have been pouring in – with the radical, communist Kurdish groups being the latest.

“Black Lives Matter! As we say in Kurdish: “Berxwedan jiyan e!” – Resistance is life!,” the YPJgroup concluded.

Via TeleSur

I guess I'd worry a little about backlash because of a ringing endorsement from a group that espouses "communism" - if I thought anybody was gonna pay any real attention to it anyway.

We seem to think we can rule the world without actually having to live in it.

Today's Video

Things are not always as they seem (duh) - an important concept to keep in mind when it comes to choosing a candidate.

(Stay with it - the explanation is pretty informative):

So, ya gonna believe me or your lyin' eyes?  Let's be careful out there.

(hat tip = Facebook buddy VW-E)

How Wrong?

Real wrong.  I ran a little video on my little blog here not all that long ago, showing Jim Webb's announcement that he was running for POTUS - and I remember saying I'd give the guy a look because he did some decent things in his one term in the US Senate (not the least of which was simply keeping George Allen out of that seat). 

Anyhoo - I've been wrong about a lot of things, but never wronger than thinking Jim Webb  as a candidate for Prez was worth more than a spit shine a dead man's shoes.

Samantha Bee:

The OpEd piece Ms Bee refers to is still up at WaPo, and I was kinda struck by a line Webb uses in the last paragraph:

Mark Twain once commented that “to arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man’s character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours.”

OK, but let's look at the behavior of both Jackson and Tubman thru the lens of those standards - which, btw, change over time.  You don't get to suspend the rules to suit your convenience - we play the full nine innings here.

In the early 1800s, Jackson was doing what most people were doing, and it all seems to be in line with the standards of his time. 

Tubman was doing things that were illegal in the mid-1800s; things that were considered by at least half of her contemporaries to be seditious and treacherous and evil.

Looking back on it all, which one was actually doing the good things, and which one was doing the shitty things?  What would you want to be remembered for - The Underground Railroad or The Trail Of Tears? 

So by Webb's metrics, Bull Connor (eg) was an OK guy because we need to think of his complete assholery as something other than complete assholery because he was a man of his time and so we have to judge him by the standards prevailing in Alabama in 1963?  What-the-actual-fucking-fuck?

Webb decries the PC / White Privilege criticism while arguing a position that is totally embedded in it. 

Here's the thing, Jim - when you've got your head up your ass, even if you open your eyes, all you're gonna see is your own shit.  I need you to work on that one for me, OK?

Think Of Something Better

And that kinda goes with a piece at WaPo:

The U.S. suicide rate has increased sharply since the turn of the century, led by an even greater rise among middle-aged white people, particularly women, according to federal data released Friday.

Last decade’s severe recession, more drug addiction, “gray divorce,” increased social isolation, and even the rise of the Internet and social media may have contributed to the growth in suicide, according to a variety of people who study the issue.

But economic distress — and dashed hopes generally — may underpin some of the increase, particularly for middle-aged white people. The data showed a 1 percent annual increase in suicide between 1999 and 2006 but a 2 percent yearly hike after that, as the economy deteriorated, unemployment skyrocketed and millions lost their homes.

“People [were] growing up with a certain expectation . . . and the Great Recession and other things have really changed that,” said Julie A. Phillips, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University who studies the demography of suicide. “Things aren’t panning out the way people expect. I feel for sure that has had an effect.”

Too Many Dots

Just thinking a little semi-randomly.

There's an empty seat at SCOTUS, and many empty seats thru the Federal Judiciary, and practically no discernible intent coming from Mitch McConnell to get any of that filled any time soon.

Also, after shitloads of Anti-Abortion laws coming out of the states, plus the Anti-Voting stuff, now we have this growing tide of Anti-Equal Rights legislation.

Recently, a very nice lady told me her thinking is that the GOP / "Conservatives" have been pushing all this malarkey knowing it serves a function beyond the usual thing of whipping the wingnut voters into a rich creamy lather.  She says they know most of the shit they're putting into the law is ridiculous, and it'll be struck down, but that the little extras that go along with these new statutes stand a good chance to stick. 

So first - yes it's true - one of the best things for a man is the company of a smart woman.

Second, I need to look a little closer at what else is included with the bullshit in Georgia and North Carolina and may be coming up in Michigan.  

Circling this back to SCOTUS and empty seats on Federal Benches, it's an interesting little game.  Because a whole strategy has to emerge now for moving the challenges to existing law thru the courts.  With a real probability of a prolonged 4-4 split at SCOTUS, each of the circuit appeals courts becomes a de facto mini-SCOTUS.  And won't that be fun?

And now, kinda skipping to the chase, I've recently been thinking some of these newer developments are starting to make sense if I factor them into a wider strategy that looks a whole lot like a continuing assault on the Redress Clause of the 1st Amendment.

For quite a while, Conservatives and Neo-Libs have been pushing for things like Tort Reform and Mandatory Sentencing, and Forced Arbitration (instead of law suits) on everything from Cable Subscriptions to Employment-At-Will Agreements, and a variety of other things I'm sure I'm totally unaware of.

An awful lot of power is being brought to bear to make it harder for "Regular Joes" to seek relief thru the courts because LLC's (eg) are finding it easier to off-load or duck entirely their responsibilities under the law. 

I have to consider it a pretty bad sign when so many people in positions of power and privilege seem to view our Justice System as something that's old and clunky and just too inconvenient; or they see the probability of having some judgement going against them as just another business expense.

And then add in a coupla hundred million people who can't or won't - or anyway don't - pay much attention to the whole thing because they're increasingly too busy keeping their last nostril above the water line, and holy fuck, Batman, how do I not think we're crazy stoopid close to Caesar crossing the Rubicon.

I really don't like myself when I get all alarmist like this, but honest, kids - this shit ain't good.

Somebody talk me down here.

Dots

Fun fact reminder: the American economy took a 12-14 Trillion-Dollar hit starting in 2008.  

And tax-payers had to borrow that much (paying interest, of course) from our buddies around the world, and that means - lemme see - about 13 Trillion plus about 2-and-a-half percent interest - gosh, it seems we might have a number that fairly closely resembles the horribleness of the $15 - 18 Trillion added to our national debt that "Conservatives" love to bitch about.

Or maybe it's purely coincidental.  I suck at math, and I'm often real wrong about a lotta things.  But my Spidey Sense tells me the guys who make billions off of Other People's Money aren't likely to become saintly and altruistic just because their shit hits somebody else's fan.  They'll do what they know how to do - which always comes down to making sure they're not the ones left holding the bag.

And oh yeah - I want Elizabeth Warren to stay where she is, doing exactly what she's doing for a good long time.  Dang - the mad crush on that woman continues unabated.

GOP Ain't Shit

So I'm thinking there has to be something wrong with the GOP - no really, something way wronger than the usual junk we see every day.  Something fundamental.  There's a serious rot problem in the heartwood. 

They're always telling us that the only polling that counts is the polling that happens on Election Day, and we hafta let the people decide.  Well first, how come Repubs are working so hard to keep people from voting? And second, why are Repub leaders in Congress so sure the people didn't decide they wanted Obama to appoint a Justice to SCOTUS (eg) if need be? They say all these high-sounding things about democracy and then ignore the decisions people make when those decisions don't jive with GOP thinking?  If that thinking is so obviously superior, why is it so often a direct contradiction of what so many people are  telling them?  Elitist much?

Here's the kicker - Repubs and "Conservatives" (and Neo-Liberals too) love to link themselves to Business; they preach at us every day that we have to run the joint like a business; "the free market" - that magical marketplace of ideas - provides all the truly great pronouncements about quality and truth and America-ness because we're "letting the market make the call".

But it's largely an upside down bullshit little game.  People have been polling and voting in favor of (eg) Zero-Emmission Cars and Solar Energy and a Greener Planet for a coupla generations now, but the (mostly) Republicans have perverted that message and have been telling us that what we're really saying is that we want more Ford Pintos and Coal Mining Jobs and 8-Dollar Toasters.

Gotta remember that popular doesn't necessarily mean good and unpopular doesn't necessarily mean bad, but over a period of time, when millions of your "customers" are trying hard to send you the message that your product stinks because your company's been taken over by people who can't be trusted to run a high school car wash, ya gotta brighten the fuck up a little and make some changes.

That's the "Marketplace", guys - it's speaking in loud clear ways; has been for years. You can't take all that feedback and pretend forever that it doesn't say what it says.  And you can't just throw some pixie glitter in the air and wish for a whole new set of customers.

You have to make some changes.

(And BTW: let's not hear any more about "conservatism hasn't failed us, we've failed to be conservative enough".  Cut that shit out.  The Soviets sounded stoopid when they were singing their version of it in the late 80s and you don't sound any smarter now. So just stop it.)

An Acculturated Callousness

In WWI, civilian casualties accounted for about 10% of the total.  By the time we got around to invading Iraq almost 100 years later, that number had climbed to 90%. 

It's pretty simple really.  First, it's a transaction - there's lotsa people, so we can spend them - the cost of war.   

Second, in spite of our efforts to impose "Rules Of War", WWII made it very clear that nothing much had actually changed at all. 

Counter Force = kill their soldiers; destroy their weapons and equipment 
Counter Value = destroy roads and bridges and factories and farms
Counter Collateral = kill their people - the ones who become the soldiers, build the roads and grow the food.

Whoever loses the least gets to call themselves the winners, and put the other guys on trial for "war crimes".

All of that gets real clear about 42 minutes into this film:

Dots

Once is an anomaly:

I think every LEO needs a complete BG check by FBI, just as a person working in top secrete field, eliminate threats https://t.co/EY9h6HCex7

— Mickey Cox (@TheRightImageLV) January 2, 2016

Twice is a coincidence:

Entiire Florida police department busted for laundering millions for international drug cartels https://t.co/I1zGsr1r9d

— margaret stuart md (@marstu67) January 2, 2016

Just waiting for that third occurrence to confirm the trend.

We became allergic to the basics of paying for the things a healthy civilization needs - Education, Infrastructure, Healthcare, Science, Justice.  We decided making rich people richer was more important than looking out for everybody as best we can.  So it forced public servants to look for ways of stretching their budgets.  Some of that is a good thing, but most of it turns out to be a very bad thing when the people looking for creative ways to augment their budgets are the ones who carry badges and guns and who have our tacit blessing to treat people extremely badly as long as it's "those other people" catching the shit and not us.

So - when somebody says "Police Department", think "Sheriff".  And when they say [insert your town's name here], think "Nottingham".

And BTW - not to blow up the analogy or anything, but fuck Robin Hood; where's Frank Serpico when ya need him?

Today's Connection

Like the man said - follow the money.

I wonder if nice fat campaign contributions from the Healthcare Sector to (largely) Repub politicians...

...together with this little info-nugget...

...might have anything at all to do with the drive to kill Planned Parenthood.

And like Molly said - ya gotta have the balls to drink their liquor and bed their women and take their money, and then vote against them anyway.

Here ya go guys - take two of these and call your pollsters in the morning.

Today's Depressing Realization

It's becoming more probable that the seeming rise in over-aggressive police response needs to be understood in the context of Roid Rage.

David Krajicek, committing deliberate acts of Journalism over at AlterNet:

Many police agencies now focus on testing individual officers identified as possible juicers under “reasonable suspicion” or “for cause” guidelines.

I asked James Pasco, director of legislative advocacy for the 325,000-member Fraternal Order of Police, how many of the nation’s 18,000 agencies currently test officers for steroids.

“I have no idea,” he replied.

It seems nobody does. Since there is no systematic national data collection on testing and results, the number of officers disciplined each year for steroids is unknowable—a potentially important criminal justice data point that is lost down an information black hole.

--and--

“I keep seeing all of these cases where the level of anger and violence shown by officers makes no sense," Gilbertson says. "And when things don’t make sense, they don’t make sense for a reason…Maybe steroid rage is a reason so many police officers seem so angry and aggressive.”

"Suddenly" it's a not a matter of perception - it doesn't just seem like the cops are goin' a little nutty.  There's a real explanation available, and we need to start looking at these things in this new light.

And also too - lotsa cops are coming out of the US Military, where the use of Roids and HGH (et al) is one of the worst-kept secrets ever.

Sometimes, they're just random dots, but sometimes they connect up quite elegantly.

Need any more reasons we should try a little harder to stay the fuck outa the war bidness?

Today's Eternal Sadness

9 dead church-goers in Charleston SC.

Nine people were shot to death by a white man at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday night, the Charleston Police Department confirmed at a news conference early Thursday.

Calling it "the worst night of my career," Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said the gunman entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during a prayer meeting and opened fire. Eight people were found dead at the scene. Two others were transported to a hospital, where one later died.

None of the victims has been named by police. However, State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford said the church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed, according to the Associated Press.

-and-
Can you say, "tone-deaf, Guv"?

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) also issued a statement, and urged people to pray for the victims and their families.

“While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another,” she said. “Please join us in lifting up the victims and their families with our love and prayers.”

I'll now indulge myself in a little speculation while insisting on calling it an attempt to think a little more generally: We don't know what moved this one asshole to do this one incredibly shitty thing, but I'm thinking maybe part of that motivation has something to do with "conservatives" almost constantly setting Americans against one another by promoting policies that require Us-vs-Them choices (ie: "We don't have the money to take care of all those veterans because your Democrat neighbor is giving it all to The Welfare Moochers".  -or-  "Teachers are just a bunch of elitist union thugs with college diplomas, and they're teaching the children of hard-working patriotic Americans to hate Jesus."), and then shrugging it all off when something bad happens because of all that, saying, "Whoa - who coulda knowed?"

And then this:

A new study attempts to debunk the claim that gun owners rely on their firearms for self-defense.

The left-leaning Violence Policy Center released a study Wednesday that finds people are much more likely to use a gun to kill someone without cause than to protect themselves.

According to the study, gun owners committed 259 justifiable homicides compared to 8,342 criminal homicides in 2012, the most recent year data was available.

That means gun owners are 32 times more likely to kill someone without cause than to act in self-defense, the study reasoned.

First, I really don't know why this comes as any kinda news to anybody at this point.

But anyway, secondly, the American Civil War didn't end in 1865 - partly because it started a long time before 1861.  We just take breaks once in a while.  The shit is never very far below the surface, and it bubbles up in an amazing variety of ways.

And third - as kind of a recap - I just have to wonder about a certain brand of politics that  advocates violence (in a subtle plausibly deniable way of course) while refusing to limit the principle means of violence, and then pretends to be confused as to the connections that seem so obvious between the two.

Charlie Gets It

It starts with what seems like an unrelated event in Georgia, but Charlie knows there's no such thing as unrelated event.

Mr Charles Pierce at Esquire:

Somewhere in itself, and not very far from the surface, either, this country has gone mad with fear and rage. As a result, it is finding sustenance in the acts of official violence, and doing so in more different ways than the republic has seen since we had lynching, union busting, and Red Scares at the same time, back when the 19th century was turning into the 20th. Anyone who can't see the political and sociological tissue connecting the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and the revelations of a decade's worth of CIA brutality, and the execution of Robert Holsey isn't looking hard enough. In the country's untrammelled fear and rage, it is exercising the only function of self-government it can recall as its mad brain turns to red fire -- to encourage the exercise of the state's power to wound and kill all the right people. In this madness, race and class are mere diagnostic categories. In this madness, the politics of right and left, of Republicans and Democrats, of conservatives and liberals, of red and blue, are pathetically inadequate to assess the situation. In this madness, the choices are not made within the easy and obvious contexts . This is a choice between barbarism and not, between savagery and not. This is a choice between the national soul and the national Id. This is a choice of whether to take inchoate and weaponized vengeance against the living representations of the monsters in our paranoid dreams. That's the last vestige of self-government that we have allowed ourselves. The right to demand that the institutions of government kill what we fear. By any means necessary, as someone once said. 

It Got Me Thinkin'

Which is always a little dangerous, but anyway - here's a little bit of a thing:



'Conservatives' are always yammerin' about how they want Gubmint to run more like a Bidness.

My contention is that's pretty much exactly what we've been seeing for 20 or more years, and here's why I think it:  Congress Critters are privy to lots and lots of information that's either not known to the rest of us, or that they get to know about way before we get to know  about it; AND, they get to make rules and regulations that can easily tilt the money chute a little (or a lot) in the general direction of their own bank accounts and portfolios.  So while we have managed to put certain safeguards in place to make it harder for them to give themselves raises in their salaries, we've done practically nothing to keep them from creating a very slick and lucrative money-laundering apparatus that funnels shitloads of cash into their pockets, even if it does happen behind a thick veil of toxic fog.

Meanwhile, Corporate Bosses get to do this in a slightly more open way - but it's still pretty fucked up.  CEOs and Directors and Senior Execs get paid a lot, but the way they make the real money is by putting policy decisions in place that benefit them greatly at the expense (often) of everybody else.

Ask a simple question: why are so many companies spending so much (~$2.4 TRILLION) buying their own stock?

Then ask: what's the Comp Plan look like for those Bosses?  

I'm betting dollars to dingleberries that those guys are gonna make more than a few bucks over and above their salaries if the company stock performs well, and what better way to boost the value of a share of your stock than to make it look like it's a hot property because "somebody's snapping it up like crazy"?

And when you're in bed with the politicians who conveniently vote against close enforcement of the rules you've already gotten them to weaken, then collusion and cronyism and outright bribery become the orders of the day, and simply the usual and customary way of doing business.

It gets really complex and convoluted, and I'm not pretending to know what all is wrong or what all needs to be done.  But I think it points back to the need for Separation-Of-Powers solutions; we have to rebuild the firewalls - the ones that keep Businesses and Governments and individuals from becoming too big and too powerful.

Cuz always remember - a business is not a democracy.

The American ISIS

...meets the Islamic Klan(?)

Whatever I'm doing on any given Saturday morning isn't more important or educational than listening to The Professional Left podcast from driftglass and BlueGal.

Starting at about 37:00, they get to the meat of something that sounds about right.  Even if it does end up seeming a little obvious, when somebody connects a coupla dots for me, and there's the sound of a click in the upper part of my brain, I know I've become aware of something worth learning about.

Anyway, listen to it and then tell me there's nothing to worry about with something like the Bullshit Revisionist History Curriculum in Colorado (eg) right now.

It's important to believe as many true things as possible, and to not believe as many false things as possible. (paraphrasing Matt Dillahunty)

Narrowly Averted Eternal Sadness

hat tip = Addicting Info



Stopped for a seatbelt violation, the driver makes the near-fatal mistake of trying to cooperate and comply with the cop's instructions.  Of course, that near-fatal mistake followed the obvious mistake of having dark brown skin in South Carolina, and then the guy just makes it worse by raising his hands trying to demonstrate he was actually not a threat to the officer - all of which taken together tends to cause a lot of stress in the minds of some people (maybe like this cop) - people who've been over-trained to expect trouble, to the point where their brains will manufacture a threat even tho' all their sensory input indicates otherwise.  The cop did in fact shoot that guy at least once AFTER he put his hands up.

More simply - if we teach people to expect trouble, let's try not to be surprised when they find it even where it doesn't exist.

In this case, at least the Cop Shop Mgmt made the right calls in firing that officer, charging him with "Assault and Battery of a High and Aggravated Nature", with bail set at $75K.  But I do wonder how they plan to address a pretty obvious failure when it comes to training their officers, and in their reckless inability to identify and neutralize potential fuck-ups like this guy.

And BTW - with so many of these incidents coming to light, at what point do we stop considering these guys "Rogue Cops" and start to understand there's a big fucking problem here?  What dots can we connect between cops shooting unarmed citizens, and the proliferation of guns, and the headlong slide into authoritarian governance, and the trend toward militarized policing, and the post-trauma emotional time bombs ticking away in the brains of way too many veterans (many of whom are now cops), and and and?

We need to get this thing unfucked in a big fuckin' hurry.


(As of 10:24am EDT, I'm waiting to hear from Lt Kelly Hughes at SC State Patrol as to how long Groubert had been a trooper and whether he's a US Military Veteran)

Today In Connecting Dots

From The Boston Globe, via Charlie Pierce:

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah elementary school teacher who was carrying a concealed firearm at school accidentally shot herself in the leg when the weapon discharged in a faculty bathroom shortly before classes started Thursday morning, officials said.

The teacher at Westbrook Elementary School, in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville, was severely injured when the bullet entered and exited her leg, and she was rushed to a hospital, Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley said. She was in good condition and alert at the hospital by midmorning, Horsley said.

And now the dots part (well, kinda anyway) from Army Times:

Outside of the war zone, active-duty troops are dying by firearms at a rate 62 percent higher than a decade ago and are injured by firearms at three times the rate they were in 2002, according to a Defense Department report.

In a trend that defies the armed services' focus on weapon and range safety, as well as suicide prevention, 4,657 service members were injured by firearms outside of combat from 2002 to 2011, more than one-third, or 1,623, fatally.

In the previous decade, by comparison, the military had 446 deaths from gunshot wounds not related to combat and 1,919 injuries requiring hospitalization, according to a September report from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.

So lemme see if I've got this straight.  The Army - the people who are really well-trained and who actually know what the fuck they're doing when it comes to weapons - the US-fucking-Army is struggling with the problem of injury and death because of firearms, and somehow, we're absolutely sure that putting guns in our schools is the best way to keep everybody SAFE!?!

What else has to happen?  And at what point in some hoped-for future does our societal psyche stop and say, "What the fuck were we thinking?"

Weird Feeling

I was in California in August of 1962 the night Marilyn died.

And I was in California in August of 1977 the day Elvis died

It finally occurs to me that I should maybe stay the fuck outa California in August.

Meet Your Fellow Travelers

If you're ready to start bunkin' in with the Tea Party (aka: GOP Mainstream wannabes), then you need to know who some of these jokers are, and what they're all about.



It's about the power.  The new meme (even here in Exceptional USAmerica Inc, where we're supposed to do it differently) is "nobody just hands you the power; you have to take it".  Thru intimidation and threat, or by legal wrangling or by the actual application of force, you take power; you don't request it, and you don't play nice.

And the whole "democracy in action" thing?  There's a pretty big and important faction of "conservatives" who seem to think an election is little more than window dressing - a good way to distract the rubes so they don't notice they're gettin' fucked with their pants on.  They allow us to go thru the motions of voting, and they hang bunting from every lamp post, and we have to listen to every sappy-crappy tune that ever fell out of Nashville's ass as we fight the parade traffic trying to get to the polls - all because the pig they're peddling requires a shitload of lipstick.  Ever wonder why the Yippies wanted to crash the convention in Chicago so they could nominate Pigasus?  That wasn't a stunt so much as it was Political Prophesy.

Anyway, moving on to a little development from here in Virginia, Ken (Kenny the Kooch) Cuccinelli is among the latest failed wingnut candidates (who'll never get elected to anything again because they don't really wanna get elected because wingnut welfare is a much better-paying gig than anything Da Gubmint has to offer); Kooch clings desperately to what's left of his political relevance by coming out with this thoroughly upside down and backwards little gem. (hat tip = Blue Virginia):

Because ya just can't get pure enough.  The whole world is corrupt and evil 'cept for you and me - and I'm beginnin' to wonder about you.

That Sinking Feeling

Sometimes the metaphors walk up and smack ya right in the face.

Here's a picture of Lee Jun-seok, captain of the ferry that sank off the coast of South Korea recently:

Captain Lee has been arrested because he left the ship before doing everything he was supposed to do to ensure the safety of his passengers.  Weirdly (to me anyway) the conduct of a ship's captain is generally prescribed in terms of "should" instead of "must",  but according to S Korea's laws, this guy split early and now he's in deep shit.

What if I look at this from a different perspective though?  Am I not supposed to try to see things from the point of view of people with whom I disagree?  Shouldn't I be willing to consider others' opinions and philosophies?  What if I never stop asking rhetorical questions?

Maybe I should wait until I have a chance to ask somebody directly, but I don't see it as a big stretch to imagine the reaction of Paul Ryan (eg) to Lee's behavior.  I should hope Mr Ryan would react with the same disgust and horror as the rest of us, but in one way (one that feels pretty important to me) Lee did exactly what I think Ryan and his fellows are always saying we should all do.  Lee found himself in dire circumstances, and simply turned his back on the people who were looking to him for help and guidance.

The Straw Man risk notwithstanding, it can't be all that hard for any of us to believe there's a tiny inkling of thought on the part of our current batch of "conservatives" that sounds like this: "those dead passengers should've had the gumption to save themselves - but they didn't - they had grown complacently dependent on the superior capabilities and sheer awesomeness of Capt Lee and his crew, and they were obviously just waiting around expecting a handout.  See what happens to stupid moochers!?!"

Wanna go full Romney with it?  "...do whatever it takes - borrow some money from your parents if you have to - so you can buy your own rescue boat..."

In the end - look at that picture again - having tended to his own interests to the exclusion of everything else, Capt Lee loses everything worth saving in the first place.

Just sayin' - the Slippery Slope can be a real thing.