the nightmare continues

must-read update: reference zero

(reference 1)
(reference 2)
(reference 3)
(reference 4)
(reference 5)
(reference 6)
(reference 7)
(reference 8)
(reference 9)
(reference 10)
(reference 11)

the earliest known wolf blitzer video

which neither cn nor cnn will ever show ;)

rage rage against the dying of the left

Sultan Knish is a new favorite of mine, for posts like this:

It is the petty anger of men who have put so much of themselves into their hobbies because their shallow egotism permits them no more human a connection and tolerates not even the slightest slights against the objects of their impeccable tastes. It is the anger of an old elite that has become foolish and deranged and does not really know why it is angry anymore... except perhaps because it is dying.

Liberalism in those northeastern circles used to be a matter of good taste. There is nothing good about it anymore. It has become a suicide pact for angry lonely men who wait in imaginary oyster bars for a waiter who will never come, for an Age of Aquarius that will never be born and a transcendence of government that will never arrive no matter how they twist their hands, tug at their red napkins and lean forward.

Liberalism has become sick with its own disease. It is as dogma-ridden as any Red drinking sour beer in 1920s Chicago. It has nothing to offer to anyone except the ideological denunciation of thought crimes and the attendant superiority of being on the right side of the guillotine. And it has the misplaced self-righteousness of those who are busy pretending that they are angry about what is being done to other people, rather than their own egotistical anger with which they confront their sense of futility.

Liberalism, like all trends, seeks novelty, it burns brightest among the young, it plots to escape from history through the engine of progress only to discover that the mortality that is the greatest fear of the intellectual mayfly outlives the schemes of men.

expect his speech to contain the phrase "ich bin ein ost-berliner"

...and praise for the stasi.

---

update: thanks for the imao link. comments there predict also:

"Hitler seen on a bill board saying “Miss me yet?”"

“Let me be clear… Mr. Putin, rebuild this wall!”

"The Merkel & Urkel Show"

offensive pictures

at today's bleat, jon comments:

...on a 'defining deviancy down' level, Rudy Giuliani's later tiff with the Brooklyn Museum about what government supported art should be showed that approved targets by the cultural elite for boot stomping now had open support for their actions among those same elites, no matter how crude the symbol. That is even though those same elites would never give up the comfort of their own personal privileges (or sensibilities -- try picturing a mural unveiled in a public or a government-owned building in New York that, even in abstract, depicted the horrors of Kermit Gosnell's clinic in a similar fashion to Picasso's Gurnica. The Valspar gallon white flat buckets and rollers would be on that thing within 24 hours of its unveiling).

also, a related comment links a much larger ugly picture

alt-delete

...is what should happen to this control

just the facts, man

john hawkins:
right
and
left

refutation of time travel

i had read this hilarious short story elsewhere before, but recently saw it again on a site with comments, one of which is interesting:

Very entertaining to engage in the impossible paradoxes, but it's all still nonsense:

BACK TO THE NOW - Why time travel is not possible

Forget even getting to the array of unworkable paradoxes if you were to visit the past or future, there is no such thing as the past, future or any related potential to visit or interact with. By the most accurate accounting of the phenomena known as our conscious life experience, reality is only witnessed by us as individuals alone and not collectively as any universally observed form of influence we’re all being controlled by or through. We are each alone and uniquely different in how we see reality or passing time around us constantly. No such ‘universal mind’ or so documented universal account of passing time exists now, in the past or future that runs continuously, like a movie, potentially over and over again. The fact we’re all interacting with the same earthly plane of existence is somewhat deceptive in this context and in large part inadvertently serves to lend the idea that time travel can have a potential point of arrival in the past or future.

Recorded historical events, as representing the complete event from every aspect of how it was experienced by every individual who attended the event involves something that cannot be replicated or experienced in quite the same way again, even if the exact same series of actions could be observed again. Time travel is flat impossible because by definition passing time doesn't exist as another removed or detached potential destination anyway. History or the future exists strictly on record, in our memories or in our plans and dreams in our minds alone, and not as some potential real world breakthrough we can physically experience in life. It’s amazing how much energy and financial commitment from some very bright minds is being wasted on fervently attempting to find some way to make time travel in this sense a reality or proving it’s possible. I’m scarcely trying to rain on innovation, but how so many who are so very smart can appear to be so oblivious of what ought be amongst the most elementary observations of basic reality that we all experience 24/7/365 is beyond me. Just as we always hear, life is only in the progressing moment right now, and at no other time.

update: even talking about time can be difficult :)

picture roundup

my, what big ears you have!
who turned out the light?
collect call charges.
dirty words.
let them eat cake.
voices carry.
accessory to murder.
and in contrast, some obama supporters.

all via imao.

saturated with beauty

almost-unnatural nature photos

a bad trade

vodkapundit:

The Federal government has laws on the books and regulations in the registry for just about everything, except for the “just about.” And we’ve seen what happens when “everything is a crime” or when permission must be obtained before being allowed just to politic.

“Being allowed to politic.” There’s a phrase that would have driven our Founders to take up arms. After a few minutes spent weeping in sorrow for a once-free people, that is.

We used to petition our government for redress of grievances, but that’s become difficult-to-impossible under a politicized and partisan IRS following through on “suggestions” from on high.

We used to vote the bastards out when they got too big for their britches, but the permanent campaign, enabled by MSM hacks, has set that bar higher than ever. Our intelligence agencies listen in on pretty much whatever they want, without so much as a how-do-you-do. What do they do with it all? Nothing innocuous — they assure us. Even our nation’s top bodyguards are knee-deep into drugs and hookers.

So what do people do? What can we do?

... A government with the legal authority to listen to anything and classify everything, is a government that has lost any kind of legal restrictions on its behavior.

We’ve traded a lot of liberty for zero security.

When a state becomes this big and this lawless, it usually means a long period of stagnation... those elections seem to mean less and less, and the security apparatus keeps getting bigger and more intrusive. Better armed, too.

It’s not too late. But the clock is ticking.

that site also has a chart you should see

random thought

"Souvenir bats" means something entirely different depending on whether you're in Wrigley Field or Carlsbad Caverns.

power pigs

obama-irs collusion targets conservatives,
obama arms the irs to target conservatives,
obama-tranzi collusion to target conservatives,
obama-islam collusion to target conservatives,
obama death panels to target conservatives,
obama-epa collusion to target conservatives,
and as a sorbet,
biden points out american soldiers to the enemy.

(s/this planet/obama/)

one big gulp for mankind

sultan knish via dustbury (slightly edited) :

There are reports that Mayor Bloomberg received letters that tested positive for Ricin. I'm sure his butler and his butler's butler and his butler's butler's assistant are all very worried about their health. Not Bloomberg though, who is immune to Ricin, the Ebola virus, cholera, nerve gas, U-238, foxglove, typhoid fever and rabid bats...

Reports that Bloomberg can be kept away by wearing cloves of garlic are untrue. Bloomberg can stand exposure to garlic and sunlight. However, anything with a lot of calories will send him fleeing into the night. If you walk down the street wearing a string of ketchup packets around your neck, no Bloomberg can harm you. If you light up a cigarette while doing it and swig from an open bottle of liquor, you can hear his thin keening cries of pain drifting up or down all the way from 77th Street.

If you find yourself being chased by Bloomberg late at night, instead of trying to run, bend down and erase a bicycle lane. Bloomberg will compulsively redraw it, leaving you free to enjoy your evening. You can also distract Bloomberg by picking up a soda can and exclaiming, "I bet this is good for me."

If you find yourself backed into a corner, grab a restaurant menu without any calorie information next to the servings and recite over and over again, "It's only a tiny little steak. How many calories could it have." If you truly believe it, then Bloomberg will vanish in a puff of smoke and be reborn as an ashtray.

Other charms and unguents efficacious for deterring Bloomberg include, NRA decals, a dash of water from the Gowanus canal, cars that aren't energy efficient, two ostrich feathers tied together, a photo of Rudy Giuliani, a rare Madagascar blue chicken born at midnight, and the United States Constitution.

If your demesne is haunted by Bloomberg, try and lure him into a private jet with a trail of urban reform studies, fly him to Shanghai and hope he adapts to his native habitat in the Communist Party.

also links to this:

Psycho is the great-grandfather of scores of copycat films of diminishing quality over the decades. It presents Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who runs an out-of-the-way motel and apparently has little contact with the outside world. His alternate persona is governed by his dead mother. "She" comes to life when temptation crosses his path. The voyeuristic sight of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in semi-undress in one of his motel rooms triggers in Norman an urge to kill and eliminate the temptation. A cross-dressed Bates stabs her to death in the shower, then disposes of her body and car in a neighboring swamp. A detective, Arbogast (Martin Balsam), investigating Crane's disappearance is also murdered by Bates-as-Mother, to protect Norman from the consequences of his actions.

The parallels with Islam here are fairly obvious...

there are many more here

I.t R.eally S.tinks

NRO:

...the problem (of the IRS) is a perversely complex regulatory framework that gives the IRS — which should simply collect taxes based on an easily knowable formula — enormous discretionary power to discriminate and intimidate. That makes the IRS an un-American weapon, particularly when it is controlled by an Alinskyite will-to-power administration.

Sure, we can worry about prosecuting the weapon-wielders at some point. The urgent problem here, though, is the weapon itself. Our energy should be devoted to exposing the scandal in the light of day and shaming Washington into dismantling the IRS — which is actually planned to swell markedly, and grow even more intrusively offensive, under Obamacare...

...The moment a prosecutor — special or otherwise — takes over, the public flow of information stops. All witnesses will claim that the pendency of a criminal investigation means they cannot discuss the matter “on advice of counsel.” They will cease cooperating with congressional investigators. The prosecutor will claim that grand-jury secrecy rules bar comment about the expansive investigation (a claim the government routinely makes, even though the rules actually bar comment only by the prosecutor, investigative agents, and grand jurors — not the witnesses).

Public disclosure should be the goal here. It is the one thing that has driven the IRS story to this point. Public disclosure of the shockingly intrusive harassment of the president’s political opponents, the prohibitive legal and regulatory expenses imposed on ordinary people for merely exercising their right to participate in the political process, is what has broken through the administration’s Obamedia fortress. Yet public disclosure is precisely what would be lost if Congress were to punt its oversight responsibilities to a special counsel.

It's no Watergate

update 1: read related

update 2: The Virginian - and his commentors - go farther (read it all):

(edited)

(on the plus side,) Richard Nixon:

• ended the Vietnam war,
• ended the draft,
• started arms talks with the USSR,
• pried the Communist USSR-China alliance apart,
• opened China,
• began the USA's support for the dissidents inside the USSR,
• (aided) Israel during the Yom Kippur war,
• got Egypt to break from the USSR and expel the Soviet military,
• ensured NASA could land a man on the moon,
• integrated the officers' clubs in the military,
• signed the first clean air/clean water act,
• did not plot the Watergate break-in,
• appointed William Rehnquist,
• (and) The Nixon IRS never actually went after Nixon's enemies.

A lot of pundits on both sides are telling people that (x) incident under the Obama administration should not be compared to Watergate - where x could equal anything below:

During the IRS incident, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress directed the IRS to deliberately and illegally delay the applications of conservative (and not liberal) non-profit groups.

During the Benghazi incident, the Obama administration:

• directed the military to not aid or rescue its representatives under attack,
• fabricated and actively spread lies to deflect blame from Islamists,
• refused for months to release any information about the coverup,
• blamed lower-level operatives for any mistakes, and
• threatened witnesses who might contradict the Obama administration's lies.

During the AP spying incident, the Obama administration directed the Justice Department to deliberately spy (in an illegal, i.e. warrantless, manner) on the contacts of a press organization.

The Obama administration has knowingly appointed numerous tax cheats to high office, while directing the IRS to harass his opponent's contributors.

During the Solyndra incident, the Obama administration:

• wasted a half-billion dollars on a failing company, and
• made sure his donors benefited from its bankruptcy.

The Obama administration's Eric Holder has perverted justice by:

• actively preventing Arizona and other states from securing our border with Mexico,
• dismissing the charges in the Black Panther Party voter intimidation case solely for racial considerations,
• refusing to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act,
• giving automatic weapons to Mexican druglords while preventing law-abiding Americans from owning those same weapons.

Under ObamaCare, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have:

• strong-armed Congress into passing the bill without reading it,
• misled the American public about its costs, benefits, and legality, and dismissed their legitimate concerns,
• actively harassed its most vocal opponents, and
• piled on trillions of dollars of debt, while asking for the unconstrained right to create more debt.

And on countless occasions, the Obama administration has lied to Congress while under oath.

Now to be fair, let's include the facts about the Watergate scandal: Nixon operatives drew up an 'enemies list', then carried out two burglaries. Then Nixon and several members of his administration engaged in illegal wiretapping, destroyed a few documents, and perjured themselves before Congress.

Conclusion: The pundits are correct that it is wrong to compare Nixon to Obama - but only because it's so insulting to Nixon.

double vision

two takes on google glass:

xkcd
vodkapundit

aka "it's not paranoia if everyone is out to get you"

imao: "worrying about government tyranny is the exact sort of thing that will get you audited."

as a sorbet

i've known a lot of people who were into sci-fi. some were almost to the trekkie stereotype, but never as momomaniacal in their tastes - star trek, star wars, blade runner, red dwarf, etc., were cool with them, as were monty python, (the first) highlander, princess bride, or whatever. about half of those friends were also into the early doctor who episodes. apparently the old series had been broadcast on kera in dfw for a while, but i never saw more than 3 or 4 episodes 'back in the day'.

much later, when bbc america revived the series with rose and the 9th doctor, i finally got to see enough episodes to understand the premise, liked it, and kept watching until just after the 10th left. then last month, bbc reran some of the oldest episodes, so i tried to watch a couple...

ugh...

other episodes might have been better, but the parts i watched were so stiff and staged that they made 'star trek original series' look like cinema verite.

let them eat cake

lots and lots of cake