Infamous Links

Forgotten crimes, forgotten Americans.

WATB Round-Up

Hoftstadter, cherry-picked by a guy at Salon, meaning he draws from more than The Paranoid Style.

Greatest Revelation: The newly paranoid right does hate America, as has been suspected for some time. (Some time around 1954, to be specific.)

The notion that paranoid movements were activated not by negotiable interests but by “fundamental fears and hatreds” was a more general and abstract version of the argument Hofstadter had made in an essay he wrote 10 years earlier, “The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt – 1954.” Hofstadter opened that essay by arguing that the new far-right dissenters were not in fact conservatives at all. “[A]lthough they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, [they] show signs of serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions. They have little in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word … their political reactions express rather a profound if largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways – a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive evidence both from clinical techniques and from their own modes of expression.”

And then it goes on & on & on, but read it anyway. Minutes of amusement; few things are better than seeing one's despicable enemies demolished through dime-store psychology.

A Box Of Ugly Plastic Things

"Murder & destruction scream the toys in every store."

More On The End Of The Human World

Difficult as it is to hold the wind, we suspect your species will kill itself over the more-easily-commodifiable water. Punchy final paragraph:

We know at least one big thing about how this particular tragedy will turn out: the so-called civilization of the Southwest will not survive the present century, not at its present scale anyway. The question yet to be answered is how much it will have to shrink, and at what cost. Stay tuned. It will be one of the greatest, if grimmest, shows on Earth.

Perhaps not as grim for those who don't occupy this great emptiness. Even we may not be here in 80 or 90 yrs.

70th Anniversary

Inspired by JennofArk, we found more on the Santa shit theme.People died at Pearl Harbor so Yankees could buy crap like this in vain attempts to compensate for the emptiness of their miserable lives? Fuck, bet those guys moldering in the hull of the Arizona are really sorry they're dead now.

Rich School/Why Fake It?

45 yrs.+ later & this country still sucks. (Not that any place else is much fucking better.)

As B/4, Dillinger

Here, Learn Something Useful

Oh, great, didn't notice the "RIP" in the tweet. Should have known, really. Not too long ago:Hell, we remember seeing James Cotton back in the '60s, when he (& we) could still stand up.

And at last, something not shot by some pinhead using an iScrod equipped w/ a mike the size of the head of a pin.We don't always like using the "Morbidity Report" label.

Brainiac

Newton Leroy Gingrich, Defense Genius or Military Moron?

Either way, the photo's funny.

Click, read & decide.

Items We Never Finished Reading

After the anti-intellectualism of George W. Bush, Palin, and Perry, Republicans are showing a preference for a presidential candidate of substance by embracing Gingrich and Romney.

Sweet. Blood. Of. Jeee-zisss ...

Monday Music: D³

Not D3:

D is for disco decadence,death,
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Waiting For The D Train by Yoko Ono

“'Waiting for the D Train' - D stands for death, so the thing is you’re waiting for death in a way. And while you’re waiting for death, a lot of things go on in your life. Separations or pain or some beautiful joy, all this stuff happens. And then in the end [of the album is] the song called “Higa Noboru,” which means “The Sun is Rising.” After the D Train, The Sun Is Down. And then the sun is rising, and I’m saying “I’m still alive.” It’s going into the new era, a new age. We’re gonna go to a new age together. That’s what it means.

Oooooo-kay.

And The Dead:

Fun W/ 'Phones

We miss good sound: One signal, by wire, w/ clarity & comprehension for all. No more in the age of cordless, wireless & Bluetooth digital whatnot: Expect to sound as if you're underwater in all your vital, just-couldn't-wait-till-you-got-home communications for the next few yrs.

And don't get us started on today's manners!

Anyway, a look at one schmuck's collection of Bell System 'phones of the previous century.

On the left, a 1947 prototype pushbutton phone which recently sold on eBay for $17,999.99.
On the right, a clear plastic version of the 302 model. From this model on,
Western Electric manufactured limited editions of most of their models in clear plastic.

Giant Art Rock Up-Date

Seasonal

Ho ho ho, sailor.

Think her toes are cold?

130 & Fading Fast

Neither price nor page count indicated, but a front page over 50% adverts is good.

Make book on it: We won't be blowing US$2.00 on today's edition for the privilege of sorting through a lb. & a half of lithographed advertising & yesterday's news.Too obvious?

Wrong Side Of The Tracks

"Somewhere Swirling in There"

Chee-zis Louise. Pompous Windbag, Dictionary Definition thereof:

Washington Monument, Newton Leroy Gingrich & Callista Bisek Gingrich

Newt Gingrich — flush with pride over new polls showing his left-for-dead candidacy now leading the pack — is letting his healthy ego roam free again, littering the campaign trail with grand pronouncements about his celebrity, his significance in political history and his ability to transform America.

“I helped lead the effort to defeat communism in the Congress,” Gingrich said this week on Sean Hannity’s show

“I’m going to be the nominee,” he informed ABC News while in Iowa.

“I was charging $60,000 a speech and the number of speeches was going up, not down,” Gingrich said in South Carolina, explaining why he didn’t actually need his consulting fee from Freddie Mac. “Normally, celebrities leave and they gradually sell fewer speeches every year. We were selling more.”

“The degree to which I challenge the establishment and the degree to which I’m willing to follow ideas and solutions to their natural consequence without regard to Republican or Democratic political correctness makes me probably the most experienced outsider in modern times,” he told Radio Iowa.

Even descriptions of his wife Callista fall prey to aggrandizement: “She actually describes herself as being a cross between Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush with just a slight bit of Jackie Kennedy tossed in and I think there is, somewhere swirling in there, the model Callista would like to live up to.”

We suppose the Friends of Newt can chalk this up to POLITICO's well-known leftist bias & the baseless assertion that The Left is most scared of a Gingrich-Obama debate (PLEASE DO NOT THROW US IN THE BRIAR PATCH!) but what the hell?

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond dismissed criticism about the speaker’s self-regard, saying his boss is speaking the truth about the nation’s problems.

“Newt Gingrich has been against the status quo in Washington since he first arrived from Georgia,” Hammond said. “Many times he’s the first to point out a dumb idea and say, ‘here’s how to fix it.’ And in many cases, he uses the words ‘dumb idea.’ “

Bonus peep at GOP strategy:

“Yes, ‘Bad Newt’ is emerging again,” said GOP strategist Alex Castellanos. “He refers to himself as a celebrity, when voters despise Washington’s arrogance and he knows that was one of McCain’s most effective assaults against Obama. He dismisses charges of corruption by telling us he’s too successful* to be tempted, when he’s just seen what happened when Rick Perry declared he was “insulted” by charges that he could be bought for only $5,000.”

Arrogant indeed. That any of the Republican candidates think they're qualified even to run for the Presidency is arrogant beyond belief. As is their condemning Washington from their Washington homes & offices.

But, he added, “So what? The rule in politics is that if you tell voters what they already know, they remain where they already are. You have to give voters new information to change how they react to candidates. We already know ‘Bad Newt’ is undisciplined, even, reckless and has an inflated sense of self-worth. And Gingrich is leading in Iowa. A lot of ‘Bad Newt’ is already built into the front-runner’s stock price.”

The options for conservatives, Castellanos added, are dwindling.

Horse racing now, but who sees any of the remaining clowns emerging from the dust & making a comeback? There can't possibly be a swell of Santorum can there?

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*How'd he make all that money again?

Mind Train

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Mind Train by Yoko Ono

Har Har Har

And now, the story behind the story ...

Gingrich Round-Up

Christian Leaders in Government? What's wrong w/ the hypocrites & fools in government now?

More Of The Same Old On & On

Why Republicans Embrace Simpletons and How it Hurts America

Of course you're going to click (It's all good, you should.) & no we won't be arsed to pull anything.

Visual Aid

Never get caught w/o a fill light.
Photo: Melina Mara/The WaPo

As spotted.

Same Old &c., Etcetera

Yeah, so why even bother? Read it or ...

Xmas Cheer & Info

Windsor Canadian

Animation for fans of comic book covers.

Looks like a lot of work. You'd need a drink when you got through.

Pissing Off The Liberals, Again

We figure Tucker Carlson's TheDC is running gun reviews (as well as Top Ten Gun lists, misty-eyed tributes to retro/vintage weapons & other manly penis-related stuff) because they're desperate for money & being paid for "advertorials,"* or they're just desperate for attention & hoping that a leftist gun-hater will take the bait &, in a fit of pissed-off liberal rage, complain that TheDC dared to piss them off.

Or, as they started promptly 15 November 2011, it's just Commercial Xmas fun. Who doesn't want a gun or three under the tree? We know we sure as hell do. (Our Fifth Amendment at Work: The exact reasons we'd like a weapon or five have gone wisely unmentioned, on advice of a legal consultant.)

A blade or two would be sweet, while you're playing Santa.

Don't let them take away your knife rights either. You know how the conservative mind works. Lives in fear, but because of all the free-marketin' & rugged, socialized welfare medicine-hatin' self-reliant exceptionalism that the universities, Hollywood & Barack Obama will never be able to stop, there is an inner John Wayne/Incredible Hulk waiting to happen inside every real American:

Operating a motor vehicle is a daily occurrence for most of us. Regardless of your destination—work, favorite hunting stand, range, grocery store or to pick up the kids—statistically, the more time spent behind the wheel the greater the chance of being involved in, or coming upon, an accident. Under most circumstances the care of those involved should be left to state-certified first responders, but when faced with fire or water submersion, immediate extrication may be required to save a life. The Benchmade Emergency Response Tool (ERT-1) was designed for these situations.

Or, you might just have to cut a bitch.

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*Yes, the NRA's greasy prints are obviously all over it. Work w/ us here, people.

What's This Have To Do W/ Jesus?

Leave our Solstice Fest the hell out of your Commercial Xmas, appropriators!

That star inside a crescent sort of thingie look in any way Islamic to you?

Just Keep Shopping

Brutish & Short Plug

A link from a bigger (Ha ha.) operation, 'cause these poor saps need help, & because it mentions someone dear to us.

I suppose we learned the hard way that the blogosphere of 2011 isn’t anything at all like the blogosphere of 2003 or 2004. There is no place for advancement without institutional backing. Getting links from other blogs just doesn’t happen, because the voices are all entrenched, and they all just link to one another all the time. Scott Lemieux said this about that, sez John Cole, and I’m all like, “No shit, I read that blog, too.” And while it’s fun to stay current, I pretty frequently feel like I’m stuck in an echo chamber.

(But then, hell, the most obscure blog I read is M. Bouffant’s, and he’s bigger than we are.* I’m a victim of the fallacy I seek to correct, too, buddy. I get it. I’m complaining here, not absolving myself of guilt.)

And congrats on being noticed by one of Sullivan's nameless & faceless flunkies, & reaping the rewards thereof.

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*A) How is "bigger" defined here?

B) And if so, let's not get personal, gym-goer.

Survey Shows

Dullness Report:

Glendale is boring. Or at least that’s what more than a year of market research indicates.

Consultants hired to develop a new brand strategy for the city unveiled their findings Tuesday at City Hall, saying most people think of Glendale as the boring city between Burbank and Pasadena.

They didn't ask us, but we'd have said while we weren't sure if it was Glendale between Burbank & Pasadena or Burbank between Glendale & Pasadena, all three were terminally dull.