Today's Pix

What Charlie Said, et al

Charlie Pierce:

The balance of power in half the national legislature now seems to be in the hands of the crème de la crazee. (This is such a mess at this point that Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from Wisconsin, and a man whose ambition makes Satan look like Uriah Heep, has done everything except hire a skywriter to say he's not interested.) Is this finally enough for the elite political press to notice that half the American political process is in full-blown dementia? Or does Jason Chaffetz have to lose, too?

 And from Matty Ice via twitter:

SHOCKING: Rep. Kevin McCarthy drops out of Speaker race to join Hillary's campaign.

— MATTY ICE (@MattyIceAZ) October 8, 2015

That purity movements are self-limiting is supposed to be self-evident.  But, like JFK said, there's always gonna be at least one son-of-a-bitch who doesn't get the word.

So, I guess I'm thinking this is another stellar example of the upside-down-and-bass-ackwards-ness of trying to apply The Greater Fool to a certain brand of politics.

And, as always, Brother Driftglass reminds us to be ever watchful for the coming Both-Sides bullshit:

2. What shiny, Dirty Hippy-shaped object will the Beltway press now deploy to continue the pretense that this problem is shared equally by Both Sides? My guess is, since this is an "All Hands On Deck" Both Siderist emergency, we can expect the David Brookses, Ron Fourniers and Mark Halperins to be called out to work double shifts on the Sunday Gasbag Cavalcade.

From time to time, just remind yourself that eventually this comes down to, "we both know the whole world is fucked up 'cept for you and me - and I'm beginning to have my doubts about you."

Pick A Bias, Any Bias

The more we learn, the more we understand how little we actually know.

A cognitive bias refers to a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion.[1] Individuals create their own "subjective social reality" from their perception of the input.[2] An individual's construction of social reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behaviour in the social world.[3] Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality.[4][5][6]

Some cognitive biases are presumably adaptive. Cognitive biases may lead to more effective actions in a given context.[7] Furthermore, cognitive biases enable faster decisions when timeliness is more valuable than accuracy, as illustrated in heuristics.[8] Other cognitive biases are a "by-product" of human processing limitations,[9] resulting from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms (bounded rationality), or simply from a limited capacity for information processing.[10]

A continually evolving list of cognitive biases has been identified over the last six decades of research on human judgment and decision-making in cognitive science, social psychology, and behavioral economics. Kahneman and Tversky (1996) argue that cognitive biases have efficient practical implications for areas including clinical judgment.[11]

Some examples:

A Music Thing

Tiny Desk Concerts

What You Don't Do
Unstoppable
Forget
--Lianne LaHavas

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Refresher Time

Not milk and cookies so much - well, maybe, but grab enough for a couple meals or whatever; this can take a while.

The Power Of Nightmares Part 1: Baby, It's Cold Outside 

You can find Parts 2 & 3 at the archives

It's About The Guns

I don't know Nicholas Kristoff's stuff very well, so I'm not endorsing the whole package - I'm just saying he seems to be talkin' some sense here.

First, we need to comprehend the scale of the problem: It’s not just occasional mass shootings like the one at an Oregon college on Thursday, but a continuous deluge of gun deaths, an average of 92 every day in America. Since 1970, more Americans have died from guns than died in all U.S. wars going back to the American Revolution.

When I reported a similar figure in the past, gun lobbyists insisted that it couldn’t possibly be true. But the numbers are unarguable: fewer than 1.4 million war deaths since 1775, more than half in the Civil War, versus about 1.45 million gun deaths since 1970 (including suicides, murders and accidents).

If that doesn’t make you flinch, consider this: In America, more preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013), according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI.

--and--

Daniel Webster, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins University, notes that in 1999, the government listed the gun stores that had sold the most weapons later linked to crimes. The gun store at the top of the list was so embarrassed that it voluntarily took measures to reduce its use by criminals — and the rate at which new guns from the store were diverted to crime dropped 77 percent.

But then he comes up with this clinker:

But in 2003, Congress barred the government from publishing such information.

Why is Congress enabling pipelines of guns to criminals?

Why? Really?

The NRA spent $15,000,000 against Democratic candidates, $92,000 against Republican ones. "Non-partisan." http://t.co/EDy64n4l8w

— Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) October 4, 2015

 

Like the man said: Follow the money.

Coin-Operated Politicians do what they're told to do by the people who put them in power, and keep them in power.  And those "people" ain't me (even tho' I always go out and vote), and it sure as fuck ain't you when you decide you're above it all and refuse to vote.  

And just to be clear here - it ain't me (even tho' I do vote) because you don't vote.  You're sitting on your ass letting the rest of us do all the work; and then you continue to sit on your ass, bitchin' about how fucked up everything is, even tho' you refuse to pitch in and help.

So in the case of guns and public health policy, what exactly is the Number of Dead Children that we have to reach before you give up your stoopid sorry-ass excuses for neglecting your baseline responsibility as a US citizen?

Runnin' With Jeb

So Jeb Bush supporters are all up in arms because his "stuff happens" comment when asked about the dead college kids in Oregon prompted a landslide of snarky tweets, and of course, his communications team (and the usual Pundits and Press Poodles) are falling all over themselves trying to control the damage, saying he was quoted out of context and blah blah blah.

I could point out that he did actually say "stuff happens"; and even tho' it was contained in a  longer statement and he was trying to make the "larger point" about not rushing to do something in a rash reactionary way (which is easily seen as bullshit deflection), here's the thing: too fuckin' bad, cupcake.  

Your guys have been taking shit outa context and/or makin' shit up outa nothin' for a good 25 years. So cry me a river, muhthuhfuckuh.  Payback's a bitch, ain't it?

Today's Trevor

Interesting that he gives us a peek at ourselves from the outside - pointing out that we're maybe a little too much like those other joints to be walkin' around thumping our chest trying to tell everybody how "exceptional" we are.

Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows

Today's Pix

Today's Larry

hat tip = Crooks & Liars


And here's your visual:

Today's Sendup

hat tip = Facebook buddy VWE

Today In Stoopid

The Super Blood Moon got some folks pretty spooked, I guess:

The AP said it’s unclear how many Mormons are buying into the end-of-the-world prophecy, but leaders of the church were concerned enough to issue the statement assuring them that the world is not about to end.

Preparedness is one of the tenets of the Mormon faith, which believes that a period of disasters and tribulations will precede the second coming of Jesus Christ. Many Mormon-built homes in Utah and other southwestern states feature special built-in shelves for rice, flour, canned goods and other nonperishable supplies.

The pronouncement by the church, said Patrick Mason — chair of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in California — indicates that fear of the End Times must be fairly pervasive among Mormon families if church elders felt the need to address it.

“For it to filter up to that level and for them to decide to send out a policy letter means that they felt there was something they needed to tamp down on,” said Mason.

Sometimes I wonder why you'd spend time or effort telling these pea-brains to get ready for the shit when ya gotta know you'll have to talk 'em down off the ledge when they get all worked up and thinking the shit you've been "warning" them about is here and real and happening.

But then I remember this is all part of the big bamboozle anyway, so it's just the cost of doin' bidness.

These particular believers are so thoroughly hornswoggled they're wearing magic underwear.  So I'm thinking it comes as no surprise to church execs when they hear the faithful are willing to buy into some bullshit about the moon.  And of course it's easily debunkable, but why would the rubes not believe it when they've been very well taught to be totally committed to staying ignorant and superstitious?

Satan's greatest trick was convincing us that the people who insist that Satan exists will deal honestly with us if we just give them enough money.

And I don't really have to make this last little connection for anybody, right?

I Blame Paris Hilton

It's a critter for fuck's sake - one of God's critters if you prefer.  And not to get too PETA all over the place, but you don't get to make this implied tacit claim of "dominion" to provide cover for doing whatever the fuck you want.

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