Oct 11, 2013
Poe's Law
Per RationalWiki:
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing.Poe's Corollary:
It is impossible for an act of Fundamentalism to be made that someone won't mistake for a parody.Poe's Paradox:
In any fundamentalist group, a paradox exists where any new person (or idea) sufficiently fundamentalist to be accepted by the group is likely to be so ridiculous that they risk being rejected as a parodist (or parody).
Today's Quote
"Knot by knot I untie myself from the past
And let it rise away from me like a balloon.
What a small thing it becomes.
What a bright tweak at the vanishing point, blue on blue."
— Charles Wright, closing lines to “Arkansas Traveller,” from The Other Side of the River (Vintage Books, 1984)
And let it rise away from me like a balloon.
What a small thing it becomes.
What a bright tweak at the vanishing point, blue on blue."
— Charles Wright, closing lines to “Arkansas Traveller,” from The Other Side of the River (Vintage Books, 1984)
Oct 10, 2013
The Carrie Prank
Remember back in the 70s, when The Exorcist came out, and suddenly there was a whole rasher of "real life" stories (planted by the PR guys) that popped up in newspapers - about mysterious and unexplained behaviors that just maybe might be possibly "demon possessions"?
Well, taking it up several levels:
What do you think you can't be manipulated into believing?
hat tip = All In with Chris Hayes
Well, taking it up several levels:
What do you think you can't be manipulated into believing?
hat tip = All In with Chris Hayes
Prophecy
From Paddy Chayefsky's Network (1976):
ARTHUR JENSEN:
"And I have chosen you, Mr Beale, to preach this evangel."
HOWARD BEALE:
"Why me?"
ARTHUR JENSEN:
"Because you're on television, dummy."
hat tip = Democratic Underground
ARTHUR JENSEN:
"And I have chosen you, Mr Beale, to preach this evangel."
HOWARD BEALE:
"Why me?"
ARTHUR JENSEN:
"Because you're on television, dummy."
hat tip = Democratic Underground
At The Nexus
...of dreams and reality - yeah, OK it's pretty obviously a little Twilight Zoney, but damn if this ain't impressive either way.
Oct 9, 2013
Go Blow Yourself, Kenny
SCOTUS has refused to hear Ken (Kenny the Kooch) Cuccinelli's appeal to overturn a Circuit Court's decision that his ass is just way too tight for post-11th-century law, not to mention people who're...well, you know - normal.
From Addicting Info:
First off - "carnal knowledge"? Who the fuck even talks like that anymore?
And with McAuliffe posting a 9 point lead, together with falling approval for the GOP generally, Kooch can't afford this.
From Addicting Info:
Ken Cuccinelli’s Law Would Outlaw Sodomy And Oral Sex Among Consenting Adults.
The VA Republican’s now-invalid law is known as the “Crimes Against Nature Act.” Here’s the part that outlaws oral sex and sodomy between consenting adults:
“If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony.”
First off - "carnal knowledge"? Who the fuck even talks like that anymore?And with McAuliffe posting a 9 point lead, together with falling approval for the GOP generally, Kooch can't afford this.
Up Next
Let's hope the fuck ups in congress can get done fucking up the Federal Budget and the US Credit Rating and the global economy real soon so they get on to the confirmation fight over Janet Yellen and fuck that one up too.
Can't wait - should be lotsa fun.
Can't wait - should be lotsa fun.
Today's Best Tweet
In reaction to Obama stiffing the TV Poodles at his press conference yesterday:
Obama refuses to call on any TV network reporters at press conference, leading to nationwide false equivalence shortage.
The Amazing Charlie Pierce
Copied in it's entirety from Esquire - picture and all:
Jesus god, Ed fking Meese?
Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama's health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.
I didn't know that there was an Old Timer's Game for Authoritarian Yahoos.
Will the sad detritus of the Saint Ronnie administration ever stop fouling American public life? We have Our Lady Of The Magic Dolphins on the teevee almost every weekend. We had a whole clutch of the foreign-policy fantasts rehabilitated during the late reign of C-Plus Augustus. And now, this guy, who once advocated concentration camps for student demonstrators, who personally oversaw the most embarrassing "investigation" into the porn industry ever conducted, and who functioned as lookout and getaway driver for the Iran-Contra crooks, up to and including the increasingly dim president himself, comes back to help screw up the nation again. Nobody listens to Gary Hart, but Edwin Meese III still has a place in public life. Wingnut welfare is forever.
At least part of the blame has to be shared by those nominal Democrats who, either through their silence on the crimes of that era, or in their admiration for Reagan's "style" and toothy obliviousness. (The latest of these, alas, is Chris Matthews, who has written a book about how Tip O'Neill and Ronnie made politics "work," and who, between 1980 and 1982, probably sold out truly progressive politics for at least two decades.) A number of truly horrible things were set in motion in our political life in the 1980's. The people responsible never have really been called to account for it. Now, one of the worst of them is back, doing further damage. I am, frankly, stunned.
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