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.

Sunday Funnies

Today's Pix

That Clock Kid

"...that's not a wall of explosives..."

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Uh-Oh (re-try)

2nd attempt.  And I'll try to quell that shitty feeling I always get in my gut when I try to post something about this kinda stuff and it fails due to "tech problems" at Google or whatever.

Anyway, via Charlie Pierce:

The mathematician wanted to examine the voting tapes after something didn't add up. Clarkson explained, "I don't understand why those patterns are there, the patterns are very definitely real. But we don't know what's causing them or why they're there. They do fit what would be expected if election fraud is occurring, and that's very concerning." In Sedgwick County, the voting tapes record every stroke a voter makes on the machine. The Election Commissioner there said the tapes are 385 feet long and are stored in 42 boxes. However, in Johnson County, voting is done primarily on electronic machines where there is no automatic paper trail. They're machines which Clarkson said can be easily hacked.

Smoke doesn't always mean fire - sometimes it looks like smoke when it's actually just a little ground fog after a rain or some bugbrain trying to prove something with his new Vape thingie or whatever.  This looks a whole lot like a whole lotta smoke.

Today's Best Garphic

From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors

Mellow Morning

Morning Aire --Tommy Emmanuel

Waiting --Calum Graham & Don Ross

Dawgmatism --David Grisman

Jesus, Joy Of Man's Desiring --Leo Kotkke

Today's Quote 2

"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours."​ --Yogi Berra

You don't have to be a baseball fan to love a guy like Yogi. 

Today's Quote

"Let nature do the freezing and frightening and isolating in this world. Let men work and love and fight it off." --Jack Kerouac, Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954

Call It A Win

She's headed for a jail cell, at least temporarily, but the fact she survived the initial encounter - plus the simple fact there was a good buncha witnesses - just might combine to make it more likely she'll stay alive thru the rest of her ordeal.  

And that could mean that whoever's next stands a tiny bit better chance of being treated a tiny bit better as well.

Watchfulness and locks help honest people stay honest.  Transparency and citizen oversight help good cops stay good.

hat tip = AlterNet

Today's Tweet

Da Donald's social media squad decided to try a Twitter Interview, and (as happens pretty much every fucking time) they got some questions that were prob'ly not quite what they were looking for.  This one's the best I've seen so far:

Is it true that if you say Donald Trump 3 times in the bathroom mirror, the hair in the drain will rise up to shout racial slurs? #AskTrump

— P a t r i c k (@ruinedbyreality) September 21, 2015

I'm gonna make a radical assumption here, and say there's prob'ly a coupla job openings at the Trump campaign right about now.

Wherefore, Repubs?

There's no Republican Party anymore.  There's just a string of independent contract franchisees, looking for the opportunity to make a tidy commission on helping their billionaire sugar daddies take their pound of flesh.

These guys know a coupla important things about USAmerica Inc.

First, they know this joint's net worth is something like $124 Trillion.

One Hundred-Twenty-Four. Trillion. Dollars

Second, they know the hard part is done; we're convinced we have the requisite imaginary disease(s)...

• Immigrants-Gone-Wild
• FEMA Camps and Gun-Grabbers
• Muslims hiding under our beds waiting for a chance to kill us and rape our house pets
• Scary Black People
• Foreign Competition
• etc etc etc

...so all they have to do is look for a chance to sell us the miracle cure; the make-believe crutches - and some snake oil to take the edge off tomorrow morning when we get that nagging feeling that this is the same old shit - zealotry dressed up to look like common sense - and that we fall for it every fuckin' time.

This isn't an election - it's not even a hostile takeover - it's a leveraged buyout to be staged during the run-up to the Stockholders' Meeting next November.  And guess who's gonna end up holding the bag when it's done?

These people have no soul and no honor.