Today's LOL Cats

Turn About's Fair Play(?)

I'm not buying into this one 100%, but there's a point worth considering.



hat tip = Bored Panda

Take Me Back

The bad old days, when 42nd Street was something kinda wild and dangerous (also fun):

I'm not convinced this qualifies as "improvement":

But I have to keep reminding myself that 'Nostalgia' was considered a mental disorder until mid-20th century.

Dodging Bullets

Like anybody needs more reasons to avoid Wal-Mart:

PHOENIX -- Police said a man accidentally shot himself in the leg while at a Wal-Mart store in Phoenix on Saturday.
Phoenix police spokesman Officer James Holmes said the man had a gun on his hip and it went off.

Christa Allejandro was checking out at the store near 16th Avenue and Bethany Home Road when she heard a loud bang.

“It sounded like a balloon,” she said. “We were in the aisle paying for our stuff and then the next thing you know, a couple of aisles down from me, we hear a gunshot and we see a man cover his belly."

Holmes said the man's injuries were not life-threatening.

“I was just trying to get stuff for my son's birthday ... and next thing you know, all this chaos, and now it's shut down,” Allejandro said.

The whole ordeal caused confusion, shoppers to panic, and the store to be evacuated.

“I was tripping. I was trying to just get out of the store,” Allejandro said.

No one else was hurt.

--and--

COLUMBUS, Ind. (AP) -- Police say a gunshot wounded a woman inside a central Indiana Wal-Mart store after a man's handgun fell from his pants and fired.

Columbus police Lt. Matt Myers says the 26-year-old woman was treated for an upper arm wound by medics at the store but declined to go to a hospital.

Myers tells The Republic that city Police Chief Jon Rohde was inside the Wal-Mart store Saturday evening when he heard the gunshot and called for assistance.

Myers says a 56-year-old man told officers that his handgun was in a holster when it fell from his waistband. One bullet hit the woman who was pushing a shopping cart with her newborn son inside.

Myers says officers confirmed the man had a handgun permit and he wasn't arrested.

Wasted Weaponry

An unused weapon is a useless weapon.  Could we just stop fuckin' around with this shit now please?

And maybe do something with all that junk that might actually be of some use to somebody?

We really do deserve better than what we're getting out of all this.

The Patron Geek

How rich is Bill Gates?

What's The Matter With Wal-Mart?

The short answer, of course is, "Who fucking cares?"  but there's something that feels like a bellwether in this, from CNBC:

At the center of the discounter's domestic woes is its appeal among shoppers who are facing stagnant wage growth and simply can't afford to spend on discretionary items—or in some cases, food.

"They're lowering prices and they're still not getting the traffic," said Belus Capital Advisors analyst Brian Sozzi.

First, Wal-Mart is making all the right moves if what they're attempting to do is to drive a deflationary downward spiral.  They cut their prices which means they have to hammer their workers and their vendors to cut costs, which means their vendors have to hammer their workers and their vendors and on and on and on - until nobody's making enough to spend the few pennies it takes to buy any of the piece of shit merchandise available anywhere.  It's an obvious over-simplification, but that's basically how an economy works.

But there's a kicker - a delicious extra bit of irony.  From the comments at the CNBC site:

walmart can have it, went yesterday, stopped stocking three things we went there to get. no customer service, the place is full of third world village idiots who have no discipline with themselves much less five or six anchor babies in tow. Their prices may be cheaper, but I'll pay more just to stay away, or starve.............now car insurance?? whats next?? baby birthing stations for illegals??????

This rube has grown up believing the bullshit about how differences between people are all about ethnicity and skin color and everything except economic class. So the guy we tend to think of as the "typical Wal-Mart shopper" is now going to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart because it's filled with people just like him.

Today's Quote(s)

A couple from Bertrand Russell:

"It's a good idea to hang a question mark on things you've long taken for granted."

--and--

"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes....A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men."

Today's Eternal Sadness

"We wear our Widow's Weeds like nuns, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifice."



Memorial Day is actually the one day I wish we could forget.  But as long as we seek  retribution while mistaking it for justice; as long as we see the extreme cowardice of brute force and insist on calling it gallantry; as long as we're willing to cover the stench of corpses rotting on the battlefield with dress uniforms and neatly folded flags, then we'll continue to have wars - which means we'll continue to have the dead and broken warriors that go with it, which means we'll continue to pretend there's something noble in sending people we love to fight and to bleed and to die in some shit-hole halfway around the world in order to get some dickhead politician re-elected so he can make sure ExxonMobil and Pfizer and Halliburton and Grumman and Goldman Sachs can add a few extra pennies to their quarterly earnings per share, which makes sure those companies have lots of extra cash to contribute to other dickhead politicians so we can keep this parade of war porn cranking along smoothly and efficiently.

In the meantime, maybe we could take just a moment away from our little celebratory circle-jerk and try to focus on a few of the reasons for this particular day.

One lousy fucking day - 0.3% of the year.

Anyway, take a look at this from Addicting Info:

Twenty-Two: the estimated number of veterans who commit suicide every day.

Three hundred and fifty: the number of active-duty military members who killed themselves in 2012.

Eight hundred and forty-one: the number of active duty troops who attempted suicide one or more times in 2012.

Eight thousand: the estimated number of troops who die by their own hand each year and that is a low estimate.

Military Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Military One Source: 1-800-342-9647

Wounded Soldier And Family Hotline: 1-800-984-8523

Today's Quote

"Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences—deep, corrosive, obstinate differences—radiating painful roots into the community and into the family, and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice, and present prejudice." --Lyndon Johnson

Ta-Nahisi Coates does nothing to help me as I wrestle with what I do or don't need to do about "Reparations".

Sometimes, I understand completely why people spend so much time and energy longing for the good old days, when (they think) everything was so much simpler and easier.  Shit makes my head hurt.

God Love The Onion

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Sitting Waiting Wishing --Jack Johnson

Now I was sitting waiting wishing
That you believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs
But Lord knows that this world is cruel
And I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning loving somebody don't make them love you

Must I always be waiting waiting on you?
Must I always be playing playing your fool?

I sing ya songs I dance a dance
I gave ya friends all a chance
Putting up with them wasn't worth never having you
And maybe you been through this before
But its my first time
So please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you

I cant always be waiting waiting on you
I cant always be playing playing your fool
I keep playing your part
But its not my scene
Wont this plot not twist?
I've had enough mystery.
Keep building me up, then shooting me down
Well im already down
Just wait a minute
Just sitting waiting
Just wait a minute
Just sitting waiting

Well if I was in your position
Id put down all my ammunition
I'd wondered why'd it taken me so long
But Lord knows that I'm not you
And If I was I wouldn't be so cruel
Cause waiting on love ain't so easy to do

Must I always be waiting waiting on you?
Must I always be playing playing your fool?
No I cant always be waiting waiting on you
I cant always be playing playing your fool, fool

Today's Yeesh

Can't imagine why Repubs are having such difficulty appealing to Them Wimmins.



This lunkhead says it straight out - women are ornamental.  And so what he obviously thinks is a great idea is to treat them like so many prize heifers to be won (ie: owned) by the awesomely virile and irresistible manliness of GOP candidates and party organizers.  Because we fucked up 94 years ago when we "gave" them the vote, so now I guess we gotta pay some attention to 'em, even tho' they're not really people, they're just "the gals".

Y'know fellas - they don't even pull this kinda high school fuck-around bullshit in high school anymore.

Yay, Free Enterprise

The whole banana by Col Bateman guest-posting on Charlie Pierce's blog:

Last week I mentioned the harassment that the women of Mothers Demand Action Against Gun Violence received in the past few months since the group was initiated on Facebook. The hatred is real, violent, and should not be ignored. What I did not appreciate at the time is the reason why the rabid gun advocates were so angry with these women. Now I know.

"Open Carry Texas" (which I think of as "Wimps With Mommy Issues"), conducted an open carry, en masse, at a Chipotle Restaurant — then the moms shared the word. They posted pictures of these morons carrying rifles in a family restaurant. Then they asked that the chain bar weapons on their private property. As Founder Shannon Watts put it: "The Chipotle petition received more than 10,000 signatures within just a few hours." The corporation realized where their business interests lie and that guns are wrong in their establishments across the entire nation.

In a statement Chipotle released Monday, the company said, "the display of firearms in our restaurants has now created an environment that is potentially intimidating or uncomfortable for many of our customers."

These women are doing what nobody else had managed to do before now. They are actually affecting change. Not through legislation, but through the free choice they have to patronize, or to NOT patronize, private companies that allow guns to be carried in their stores, restaurants, malls, and more.

Watts has become a target, and a heroine. She is the sort of woman that I want my daughters to grow up to be, facing a threat to our nation and taking it head on. Is she afraid? Of course. Anyone would be in her situation. Gun advocates (most who identify themselves as such are also NRA members) have threatened her life, they have threatened to rape her, they have threatened her family, and they have demonstrated their earnestness by showing up at her house. But she has not stopped, she has not quit, and she has not backed down.

This is moral courage, and indeed physical courage, of the highest order.

Today's Pix

Logical Fallacy # 14 - Band Wagon

Just try to remember that once upon a time (1974), the Ford Pinto was the best-selling car in the US - and that was after it was discovered they had an annoying tendency to explode (of course that little gem of consumer information would be a well-guarded secret for another 3 years, but that's a different rant - or better yet, just watch Fight Club again).

In Contrast

Two kinds of people in the world - those who have more time than money and those with more money than sense.

People (and remember, "corporations are people, my friend") who have enough money get to pay for their crimes by donating cash to whatever government agency gets in on the action.  When the government is being starved of the funds it needs to operate properly, you're going to see the evolution of semi-entrepreneurial efforts to make up those short-falls.  Eventually you get exactly what we're seeing now - people in government selling freedom to wealthy law-breakers for whatever price can be negotiated over a few breakfast meetings downtown.

So Credit Suisse "pleads guilty" and mails a few big fat checks to Eric Holder and to Andrew Cuomo et al, and they go on their merry way.  A few upper management suits have been fired, but are you willing to bet they don't land on their feet somewhere else?  Or that they didn't picked up a nice severance package on their way out the door?

Meanwhile, a woman named Cecily McMillan is going to prison because she elbowed a cop who (essentially) sexually assaulted her while trying to arrest her during one of the dust-ups between NYPD and Occupy Wall Street - and she was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 5 years probation even tho' something like seven jurors wrote letters to the judge saying that while they had to vote to convict, they think she deserves leniency and shouldn't be punished by having to serve time in jail.



No peace without justice.

Crank It Up

The fact that there are 100,000 gun casualties in the US every year starts to look like little more than prelude.

Quick Review: We have a self-sustaining cycle where the NRA floods our election process with money to peddle the bullshit about how Da Gubmint is coming to take yer guns, which riles up the rubes who go to the polls to put their local gun freaks in office, who then press for ever-more liberal "gun rights" and gun-related policies, which makes a shitload more money for the gun makers, who then boost the NRA, which collects more money from the whole Ammosexual Community in order to flood the next election with more money...

Not that the NRA's the only outfit that does this, mind you - that's how the game is played.

But there's a nasty little twist when it comes to the guns.

The NRA has had to contend with it's own bit of paranoia for a good long time; afraid that people would eventually wise up and see that simply having access to a gun is a big part of the problem we have with gun violence.  So every time there's been a big deal shooting, they've had to spend significant time and money and energy on damage control, which kinda cuts in on the profits, y'know?

Anyway, they hit on the brilliant notion of doubling down (big surprise, right?), but that's getting to be old hat now, so they had to dress it up in a fresh new jumper and smear even more lipstick on it by sloganizing it with, "Good guy with a gun vs bad guy with a gun", which of course is hooey because once everybody has a gun, how the fuck are you supposed to know who's who?

Enter Gary Kiehne, running in the GOP primary for the nomination in Arizona's 1st district:

“If you look at all the fiascos that have occurred, 99 percent of them have been by Democrats pulling their guns out and shooting people. So I don’t think you have a problem with the Republicans.”

“But I can assure you that if you don’t have a firearm, you ought to go buy one.”

So there it is:  The Good guys with guns will stop the bad guys with guns, and the bad guys are Democrats.

We are so fucked.

Today At Fox Nation

Here're 3 of the top stories at Fox Nation today, and I've circled the numbers of the comments for each article.

OK - we're all about hyped up nationalistic pride and compulsory expressions of patriotism, so yeah - yay, troops!

But wait - problems at the VA?  Problems that are real; and problems that probably can actually be laid at Obama's feet?  But crap, that means I'd hafta consider acknowledging that I want Da Gubmint to do something - it just confuses me.  So y'know what?  Uhm... if these guys didn't have the guts to die on the battlefield like they were supposed to, then they can't expect me to go outa my way to do anything special about it now.  Buncha moochers.  Fuck 'em.

Now you're talkin'!  All we need is a little glimmer of daylight and we'll be able to find some quack to speculate wildly about Hillary's "condition", and that means we can go on ignoring our problems while we squat in the dirt chanting Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!

No soul and no honor.

About That Spring Thing

"Conservatives" are always telling us that Da Gubmint is too big; that we need to down-size congress and if we could just spend a lot less money on it, government would shrink back to a more manageable thing - like what we had back in the - whatever the fuck - 1920s(?)

So, how come what they wanted was a massive collection of 10-30 million "Patriots" to show up in DC in order to take down the Kenyan Usurper's International House of Tyranny?

Well - Operation American Spring turned out to be a demonstration of just how powerful the idea of "small is better" can be.  And wow - they caught us way off guard this time.

Word is that almost a thousand Strict Constitutionalist Warriors rallied on the mall, and then, when they amassed by the nearly dozens in front of the White House, it took all of Washington so completely by surprise that the TeaBillies were able to pull it off beautifully, and everybody's pretty sure Mr Obama and Cruella Moochelle are packing up and leaving for exile in Morocco any minute now, because who could witness such a compelling thing and not be moved to comply with the will of the (several cement-for-brains) people?

But wait - ya gotta figure an awful lot of these yahoos were probably wearing camo. So maybe they really did number in the several millions, but we just couldn't see 'em!?!

Damn clever.