UpChuck Todd Rides Again

This one's making the rounds big time, so why not pile on a little?



Todd's main "point" is that if he barks at the politicians who make statements that are obviously untrue, then those politicians won't come on the show again.  As long as he doesn't call 'em on their bullshit, he'll always have a steady stream of "News Makers" on the show in order to attract lotsa viewers who'll absorb some of the enlightening messages from all those ads about Lockheed's F35 and Raytheon's new E-Surveilance Software and the killer drones from General Atomics (yes, that's a real company).

That's what makes sense now.  That's what passes for reasoning.  Chuck Todd doesn't want people who don't tell the truth to stop coming on his TV show.

I'm not big on arguing from a strictly binary position, but this one's kinda hard to avoid: Chuck Todd wants people to lie to us, on his show.

What exactly would be the harm in keeping liars off your show, UpChuck?

Cuz - Science, Muthuhfuckuh

Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 27, 2014

And also too - it'd be kinda nice to see this happening a little more frequently back here in USAmerica Inc.

Winter Song

Winter Song --Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Micaelson

Lying Media

The DumFux News affiliate in Baltimore ran a clip that made it sound like protesters were ending their chant with "kill a cop".

And of course, it was bullshit (Hanlon's Razor notwithstanding).  The station took the story down after they got a lot of push-back, and they even made with the usual "apology", saying it was accidental - which is also bullshit because you don't accidentally do a quick-cut edit unless you're trying to make the thing say something it doesn't actually say.  This does not happen by accident.  Somebody wanted that clip out there.  Somebody OK'd that clip for air, and for posting on the website.



But it's prob'ly not gonna matter to the rubes - they got their Scary-Black-People fix and that's all anybody cares about.

In case anybody wants to know:
We won't stop
We can't stop
'Til killer cops
Are in cell blocks

Hanlon's Razor

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained in terms of stupidity.

I'll be trying a little harder to keep that in mind from now on as I try to sort my way thru some of the phenomenally idiotic political arguments that have come to be the benchmark of public discourse here in USAmerica Inc.

After Xmas Pix

A Song For Christmas

An Atheist Christmas Carol --Vienna Teng


It's the season of grace coming out of the void
Where a man is saved by a voice in the distance
It's the season of possible miracle cures
Where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown
Where time begins to fade
And age is welcome home

It's the season of eyes meeting over the noise
And holding fast with sharp realization
It's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention
You are safe here you know now

Don't forget
Don't forget I love
I love
I love you

It's the season of scars and of wounds in the heart
Of feeling the full weight of our burdens
It's the season of bowing our heads in the wind
And knowing we are not alone in fear
Not alone in the dark

Xmas Pix

A Little Rational Thinking

...goes a long way.  From Rolling Stone:

After months of escalating protests and grassroots organizing in response to the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, police reformers have issued many demands. The moderates in this debate typically qualify their rhetoric with "We all know we need police, but..." It's a familiar refrain to those of us who've spent years in the streets and the barrios organizing around police violence, only to be confronted by officers who snarl, "But who'll help you if you get robbed?" We can put a man on the moon, but we're still lacking creativity down here on Earth.

But police are not a permanent fixture in society. While law enforcers have existed in one form or another for centuries, the modern police have their roots in the relatively recent rise of modern property relations 200 years ago, and the "disorderly conduct" of the urban poor. Like every structure we've known all our lives, it seems that the policing paradigm is inescapable and everlasting, and the only thing keeping us from the precipice of a dystopic Wild West scenario. It's not.

I have no plans to stop bitching about things - when I think something's wrong, I'm gonna bitch about it.  But while it's really lotsa fun to unleash a good cathartic-feeling tirade, eventually, there's no point in it if all I ever do is bitch about it.  So here's the thing: we've gotta come up with alternatives.

We have a problem with violence.  Recognize and deal effectively with that problem, and we're a big step closer to being able to solve some of the other problems that grow out of our problem with violence.

Right now, we look a lot like the townsfolk in the old westerns who hire a gunslinger to deal with (insert local bad guy here), but then realize they've only substituted one bully for another.

Violence in service of politics is at the heart of what we're supposed to be the exception to.

Let's try something else.

Like It's Christmas

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town --Ramsey Lewis Trio





Please Come Home For Christmas --Charles Brown





Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis --Tom Waits




The Christmas Song --Siatigas





Christmas In The Room --Sufjan Stevens





All I Want For Christmas Is You --Mariah Carey and Jimmy Fallon et al





O Holy Night --Dublin Gospel Choir





Christmas Tears (cover) --Eric Clapton





Someday At Christmas --Jack Johnson