There was one thing that I regret not hitting as hard as I should have hit it during the presidential campaign recently concluded. And when I say I didn't hit it hard enough, I mean I didn't hit it like I was swinging Mjollnir at a bass drum the size of Lake Huron. The point was a simple one. There is no possible definition by which the Republicans can be considered an actual political party any more. They can be defined as a loose universe of inchoate hatreds, or a sprawling confederation of collected resentments, or an unwieldy conglomeration of self-negating orthodoxies, or an atonal choir of rabid complaint, or a cargo cult of quasi-religious politics and quasi-political religion, or simply the deafening abandoned YAWP of our bitter national Id. But they are not a political party because they have rendered themselves incapable of politics.
Dec 21, 2012
Swan Song(?)
From Charlie Pierce at Esquire:
Dec 20, 2012
Dec 19, 2012
The View From Out There
When the whole whole world says you're bug-fuckin' stoopid, one thing you have to stop and consider is that maybe you're bug-fuckin' stoopid.
The Week:
The Week:
Coverage of the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, was splashed across newspaper front pages around the world, a testament to the universal horror of a tragedy in which 20 children, all of them ages 6 and 7, were killed in their classrooms by a lone gunman. There was an outpouring of sympathy from the international community, which was inevitably followed by utter bewilderment at America's continued obsession with lethal weapons. The U.S. is home to 270 million privately held guns, which equates to an average of nine guns per 10 people. (In second place, with roughly 1 gun for every two people, is Yemen, "a conflict-torn Arab nation still dealing with poverty, political unrest, a separatist Shia insurgency, an al Qaeda branch, and the aftereffects of a 1994 civil war," notes Max Fisher at The Washington Post.) It is no coincidence that the U.S. also boasts the highest rate of gun-related deaths among developed countries — an American is 20 times more likely to die at the hands of a gun then another member of the developed world. Here, some reactions from around the world:
And there're 10 more links and excerpts.
Canada's The Globe and Mail:
There is something inexorable about the phenomenon of mass shootings in the United States. We have been forced to write about it with tragic regularity for years. We have exhausted adjectives to describe our horror and revulsion. We have stated and restated the problem…
The time for platitudes is past, Mr. President. It’s time the U.S. cured its gun sickness.
Dec 18, 2012
Today's Toon
Dear Obama Haters
I'm not saying you're all the same as this bunch of spit-cup deep-fried slop-faced apes, but I think you should know about your fellow travelers.
via Wonkette
Dec 17, 2012
Better Gun Laws Now
A gunman puts a bullet in the brain of a Democratic congressman, Gabrielle Giffords, and nothing changes. A madman murders young people in a crowded theater in Aurora, Colorado, and nothing changes. Sikh worshippers in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and Christmas shoppers in Portland, Oregon become casualties and nothing happens. Our children are now being slaughtered as a result of a political calculation.Tim Dickenson at Rolling Stone
Mike Bloomberg at Mayors Against Illegal Guns
Today's Toon
And when weaponized anthrax is outlawed, only outlaws will have weaponized anthrax. --John Fugelsang
Dec 15, 2012
Godly(ish) Tunes
Of course, the inevitable crap immediately showed up on Facebook about how assholes shoot kids at school because the schools have told God to get out. Here's the thing: if your all-powerful god can be kept out of anywhere just because some minor functionary on some random local board says so, then that is one weak shit god ya got there, Sparky.
And if your all-loving and all-merciful god turns his back as innocent people are being slaughtered - and while you shrug and rationalize it all as "god's will" - then you and your god can both go fuck yourselves.
The Shooting(s)
We have a gun problem. And since the problem is all about guns, the solution has to be all about guns as well. So here's the logical approach to solving it.
I'm calling on all you gun owners to carry your guns wherever you go, and when you see someone who has a gun, I want you to shoot him. Shoot anybody you see who has a gun.
There's bound to be some collateral damage, but once the gun freaks are all busy shooting each other, maybe they'll leave everybody else the fuck alone.
And while we're at it, the Sate Department should add the NRA to its list of Terrorist Organizations.
I'm calling on all you gun owners to carry your guns wherever you go, and when you see someone who has a gun, I want you to shoot him. Shoot anybody you see who has a gun.
There's bound to be some collateral damage, but once the gun freaks are all busy shooting each other, maybe they'll leave everybody else the fuck alone.
And while we're at it, the Sate Department should add the NRA to its list of Terrorist Organizations.
Dec 14, 2012
Dec 13, 2012
The Krugman Speaks
Bleeding Europe
Europe has surprised me with its political resilience — the willingness of debtor nations to endure seemingly endless pain, the ability of the ECB to do just enough, at the very last minute, to calm markets when the financial situation seems ready to explode. But the economics of austerity have played out exactly according to script — the Keynesian script, that is, not the austerian script. Again and again, “responsible” technocrats induce their nations to accept the bitter austerity medicine; again and again, they fail to deliver results. The latest case in point is Italy, where Mario Monti — a good guy, deeply sincere — is leaving early, ultimately because his policies are delivering Italy into depression. (And yes, for the record, this means that Italy won’t get the full Monti.)
So what’s the answer? Stay the course, say the Eurocrats. It will work any day now — the confidence fairy is coming!
Kevin O’Rourke has it right: Europe has become the continent where good times are always just around the corner.
It really is like medieval medicine, where you bled patients to treat their ailments, and when the bleeding made them sicker, you bled them even more.
Dec 12, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)