Threat Level

Majority Say Government
Threatens Personal Freedoms

A new Pew Research survey finds "trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high. And for the first time, a majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.

"The poll found shows [sic] "that 53% think that the federal government threatens their own personal rights and freedoms while 43% disagree."

Name. Just. One.

Relativity Report

Apparently once one is over the hill & picking up speed in the race to the bottom time passes faster as well. Already the first mo. of the new yr. is behind us, & we barely noticed it whipping by.

Two Faces, One Patriot

©Nick Anderson

Theme Song

That synthesizer really isn't improving things.

---

[Another that didn't leave draft stage, from 19 January.]

Out Of Afghanistan & Into The African Frying Pan

A reminder that the work of empire is never done.

For now, officials say they envision flying only unarmed surveillance drones from the base, though they have not ruled out conducting missile strikes at some point if the threat worsens.

Last June, a Washington Post report noted that: conventional aircraft hold two big advantages over drones: They are cheaper to operate and far less likely to draw attention because they are so similar to the planes used throughout Africa.

Law-Abiding Citizen Thwarts "Home Invasion"

Friends said Sailors pointed
the gun at the car and shot
Rodrigo Diaz, 22, the driver.

Wait ... no, that's not quite what happened. Rodrigo Diaz, 22 (at right) was killed while driving away from a confrontation w/ a delusional paranoid who owned both a house & a gun.

LILBURN, Ga. —

Lilburn police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man.

Police said they were called out to a man's home on Hillcrest Drive on Saturday night.

A group of friends said they were going to pick up a girl who lived in the area to go ice skating around 10 p.m. when their GPS system sent them to the wrong home.

The friends said they pulled into the driveway and saw a man peer out the window. They said they waited in the car for a bit and then the man, Phillip Sailors, 69, came out of the home with a handgun, firing a round into the air.

“The guy came out. He went in again and he came out with a gun in his hand and he shot into the air,” 15-year-old passenger Yeson Jimenez said.

The friends said that's when they tried leaving the house, and said Sailors pointed the gun at the car and shot Rodrigo Diaz, 22, who was driving the car. An arrest warrant said Sailors had a .22-caliber pistol.

The passengers said Sailors never asked what they were doing there.

“’Shut up.’ That’s the only thing that came out of his mouth,” passenger Gandy Cardenas said.

The friends said Sailors held the rest of the people in the car at gunpoint until police arrived at the home. All three passengers in the car are Parkview High School students.

Sailors is being held on no bond on charges of malice murder. He has no known criminal history.

The warrant said the Diaz was struck on the left side of the head.

Friends told Channel 2's Tony Thomas that Diaz had just arrived here from Colombia three months ago.

Thomas has also learned Sailors is a war veteran and a former church missionary. Sailors' attorney told Thomas that the man believed he and his wife were being attacked.

“He is very distraught over the loss of life from the defense of his home. This incident happened late in the evening hours when he was home with his wife and he assumed it was a home invasion and he maintains his innocence,” the attorney said.

The perp: Too old to do sufficient time; torture should be part of his sentence.

The arrest warrant said Philip Sailors fired his .22-caliber pistol
in the direction of the victim while the victim was driving away.

Talking pictures for the less literate.

Fear Report

The artist blathers.

Free Flapjacks!

Pencil it in on your iPhone now:

IHOP is bringing back their annual free pancake day on February 5, which is notorious for its long lines, enthused crowds, and massive stacks smothered in flavored syrup.

Massive contradiction two paragraphs later:

The offer is for one free short stack per guest

Security Theater

Hundreds of people line up to enter the Legislative Office Building
to attend a hearing of a legislative subcommittee reviewing
gun laws in Hartford, Conn., Monday, Jan. 28, 2013.
(AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Under heightened security, including the rare use of metal detectors inside the Legislative Office Building, gun owners warned that they shouldn't have to give up their rights after Adam Lanza killed his mother, then murdered 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14.

Fiscal Conservatism

Waste, fraud & abuse, to coin a cliché.

Fox News paid Palin over $15
per word, including 111 ‘amens’

Quantity is quality: If we got even 85¢ (US$0.85) for every word we typed at this mess we'd have been doing something besides sitting around here typing long ago.

Raw Story makes it so easy ... if there are adverts visible (just says "advertisement" in our preview) we all know free speech isn't, &c. And our sincerest apologies for the break, but we didn't want to dick about w/ the HTML when we could be eating or something.

Fox News paid Palin over $15 per word, including 111 ‘amens’ (via Raw Story )

An analysis by the University of Minnesota’s non-partisan Smart Politics website determined that Fox News paid former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin over $15 for each word she uttered on the air during her three-year contract, and 111 of those words were “amen.” Following last week’s news that Palin…

Love Me Two Times

Diseased

Today's factoid:

GSD type V is also known as McArdle disease or muscle phosphorylase (myophosphorylase) deficiency.

You don't say!

The disease was first reported in 1951 by Dr. Brian McArdle of Guy's Hospital, London.^[3]

Coincidence?

Fuck The South*; California Über Alles

It used to be said of California, especially the southern part, that the United Snakes had been turned on its edge & everything loose (or all the nuts & flakes) had rolled to Southern Calif., where most of them opened a health food store in Venice or started a sex cult.

This slanderous calumny has at last been taken from the collective SoCal us by Gary Wills in the NYRB & applied where it's always belonged: To the dumb-ass crackers in the Bible Belt:

This is the thing that makes the South the distillation point for all the fugitive extremisms of our time, the heart of Say-No Republicanism, the home of lost causes and nostalgic lunacy. It is as if the whole continent were tipped upward, so that the scattered crazinesses might slide down to the bottom. The South has often been defeated. Now it is defeating itself.

---

*A-yup.

Sunday Funny

Prowl Car Up-Date

Somehow failed to connect (not that we didn't make the connection, but for whatever reason, probably sloth, we didn't link the first one in the later one) these two items.

Now that's done, yet another unequipped black & white parked in front of a Ralphs.

Somehow this never made it past the draft stage on 18 January. To be sure we hadn't run it under a different title, we searched "Ralphs" & found a third suspicious car we'd recorded. Ah ha! Same car, 83507, spotted at a different Ralphs in 2011. No question now that Ralphs owns this vehicle & just moves it from store to store, so if you see it at your neighborhood Ralphs, shoplift away!

Them From A Summer Place

Censorship Report

The only way we could be any prouder of ourself would be if this had occurred some time other than Sat. night when the only people dicking around on the Internet are other broke, unemployed/retired losers.

Extra proud we had to be censored. It would be nice if they'd get the entire web log name in there, but broke retired losers can't be choosers.

Sports Media Wrap-Up: The Best Laid Plans

We approach the world of sports as a mere (though not small) subset of its wealthiest enabler, television, so the hell w/ scores & stats, here's some local sports media action the civilized world may not be fully aware of. Local sports media schadenfreude, even, though we'll probably be laughing out of the other side of our mouth when cable rates go up as a result.

The misery we're enjoying is the property of TimeWarnerCable (An outfit that provides cable tee vee, Internet & telephone service to both New York City's Manhattan Island & most of Los Angeles & its many surrounding/enveloped by communities. You know, the top two decadent coastal enclaves. How'd TWC manage that?) which has recently gone nuts w/ sports programming, adding the NFL network (after nine effing yrs. of negotiation) & several other sports channels. Lotta fucking Association football channels too. (Why they want to make America-haters feel at home here is beyond us, but they do.)

But TimeWarner's biggest move was committing to pay the Los Angeles Lakers (a basketball team, if you don't know but almost care) literally billions of US$ over the next X yrs. for close to exclusive telebision rights. Exclusive in that there are no more over-the-air broadcasts of Laker road games, & exclusive in that TWC was asking other cable providers for lots o' money, causing fans to worry they'd be even more screwed than usual once the season started.

And what's giving us the schadenfreude is that the Lakers, whose off-season acquisitions (of players, not just TWC funds) provoked various media blatherers & typists to contemplate this season's aggregation being possibly the best team ever (no, really) currently SUCK, BITE, CHEW, BLOW & EAT, also. As in historically bad, awful & not any good either. We must assume viewership is down, unless the train wreck factor's at work. Ha ha, either way.

Research: US$3 billion to the Lakers over 20 yrs. Added research indicates schadenfreude potential may be almost unlimited:

Time Warner Cable will shell out between $7 billion and $8 billion for a 20-to-25-year partnership in which it will manage much of the operations and handle distribution. The channel would likely launch either late this year or early next year after the Dodgers' deal with Prime Ticket ends.

With the Dodgers having their own channel, it will bring the number of regional sports networks in Los Angeles to six. Besides the Dodgers channel, there is Fox Sports West (Angels and Kings), Prime Ticket (Clippers), SportsNet and the Spanish-language sister service Deportes, and the Pac-12 channel.

"That's too many channels," Marc Ganis, a sports industry consultant in Chicago told the Los Angeles Times earlier this week. "I can't imagine that is sustainable on a long-term basis."

Hee hee.

We're also figuring there's some sort of cable curse here, & that next season the Dodgers will suck even more than recently as a result of TWC handing them those billions. It's obviously what happened to the Lakers.

Homeland Security Report

On Friday afternoon, an Iowa gun dealer closed out the week by becoming the sixth person shot at a gun show. The man claims he was “showing off a .25 caliber pistol he thought was unloaded when he slid the action of the gun.” The gun was not unloaded, and a bullet went through his left palm.

You betcha we trust a clown like that to keep America safe from a tyrannical (yet apparently not well-armed) gummint, spree killers, home-invading darkies & armored (if not armed) deer, pheasant & other dangerous wildlife.

After this incident, police found a second loaded weapon on the wounded gun dealer’s table.

Once again, America gives us shit we couldn't make up.

Keep Fucking That Corpse

Breitbart's flying-monkey drones, now either on auto-pilot or flying in circles, are honored by an exclusive w/ Sarah Palin, whose departure from FOXNews has transformed her into a 21st-century John Paul Jones, in that she has not yet begun to fight.

PALIN: 'WE HAVEN'T YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!'—
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH BREITBART NEWS

Yet the flailing robots can't go more than the opening paragraph before invoking poor dead Andy.

Andrew Breitbart embraced the Governor as a fellow warrior in the long struggle against a detached and venal political/media complex. He lives on in spirit and through the work of those he inspired—including, but not limited to, those who report and contribute at his site.

The Governor has been at the forefront of the fight against the Permanent Political Class and, as such, inspired Peter Schweizer and myself in our work last night on Fox News with Sean Hannity’s special “Boomtown.” We consider ourselves honored at Breitbart News to have her share with us her thoughts on the road ahead in this exclusive Q & A.

Hell, can't go two paragraphs w/o mentioning themselves.

All anyone needs to know:

3. The MSM have declared both you and the Tea Party dead and buried. Reaction?
I was raised to never retreat and to pick battles wisely, and all in due season. When it comes to defending our republic, we haven’t begun to fight! But we delight in those who underestimate us.

Q: So once she really starts fighting we can expect more postings on her Facebook page?
A: Yes, as long as there's one red penny to be extracted from a rube, she'll be there w/ her hand out.

Safety Through Guns

We're assuming these unfortunate officers (the "good guys") were all armed. If they hadn't been then all three of them would be dead now, right?

CHARENTON, La. (AP) — Police arrested a man suspected of shooting and killing a police officer and wounding two sheriff's deputies Saturday near a south Louisiana casino.

A Chitimacha tribal officer was pronounced dead at the scene of the shootings near Charenton, while two St. Mary's Parish sheriff's deputies were critically wounded and taken to local hospitals, said Louisiana State Police Trooper Stephen Hammons.

Hammons said the officers were responding to a fire at a trailer home near the Cypress Bayou Casino when the unidentified man allegedly shot them.

[...]

A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office referred questions about the shootings to the State Police.

"We've got a lot of unanswered questions," State Police Capt. Doug Cain said.

One of the injured deputies was taken to a hospital in New Orleans and the other was taken to a Lafayette hospital, according to Hammons.

© 2013 Associated Press

Wait a minute. How's that "good guys w/ guns" deal work, exactly?

Every Propulsion Has An Equal & Opposite Repulsion

Ah, Here's The Outrage! Flapjacks!

WTF, WTH? Why how &c. is this anything?

Ebay seller freeperdan has done it again. For Obama's 2013 inauguration, the artist has uncorked yet another masterpiece featuring a nude Obama with a unicorn and pancakes.

Freeperdan has a long history of creating such paintings, always with similar themes. Nude folks, pancakes, and unicorns are ubiquitous in the artist's works.

Freeperdan has painted cats with pancakes, guns with pancakes, unicorns with Stalin and TV character Gregory House (and Obama), Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand... with pancakes. He's even done one with Deadmaus5 and pancakes.

Needless to say, there's lots of pancakes.

Several years ago, I contacted Mr. freeperdan, whose real name is Dan Lacey, to ask about his art. He told me he is a "painter of pancakes" and spares no political party from his brush. He also told told Roll Call last year that he generally considers himself to be a conservative, not a liberal.

Really, that's it.

Hey, I Can See My House!

Pictures from space, via a neighbo(u)r from the north.

Capital of the known universe.

In the interest of fairness, the Bay Area.
We can see several of our old houses.

Fox Nation Inciting Hate

Who'd a thunk we'd link to Little Green Footballs approvingly? Mr. Johnson there believes

one of the main functions of Fox Nation is to incite racial hatred among the audience of Fox News. And time after time, that audience responds by spewing torrents of the most astonishingly horrific racist commentary you’ll find anywhere on the web, up to and including neo-Nazi hate sites. It’s been going on for years, and there can be no doubt that it’s a deliberate, calculated editorial policy to not only tolerate, but actively encourage this.

He has plenty of evidence, too. One example:

Notice that the original article used the term “social services office,” but Fox Nation not only called it a “food stamp office” in their headline, they actually edited the text of the quote they pulled for their article.

The real winners are the FOXNation commenters, who rise to the bait like the mental mackerel they are.

You ain't seen nothing yet. Just wait until the Hispanics take over the role of being the number one minority in this country.
[...]
they fool you when they walk upright.
[...]
A fight of fat welfare groids doing what comes natural.
[...]
So, liberals, black people are not violent? They don't abandon their children or have a baker's dozen with six different women and neglect them all? Home invasions are not their favorite pastime? They're not committing a disproportionate percentage of crime? The people who don't believe any of this are spoiled, coddled, sheltered elitists living in suburbs away from it all. Some of us aren't that fortunate. Liberals would love to see a disarmed America where animals like these in the video would roam the streets doing basically whatever they wanted to.
[...]
Anyone who has a load of n166rbabble as a screen name, deserves nothing but scorn.

The meteors can't get here soon enough.

Straw Man

The harvest is in, the fields are stubble, & no-longer-needed workers are disposed of.

Second Amendment Fantasy Land

If liberty-loving patriots really believe they'll be able to resist the tyrannical gov't. when it comes for America's guns, they should maybe take a long & hard look at this photo essayslide show.

Could be your pick-up truck.

They won't need M-1A1 tanks.

The mortar squad invites you to "Bring. It. On."

We suspect these gyrenes would not be terribly amused by keyboard commandos & chicken hawks, oh, just as an example, calling for revolution & shooting duly-elected leaders who've been deemed to be "tyrants." Which, naturally, requires that Bob Owens & friends have firepower equivalent to whatever the police & military have. And this country can not be so insane & inane it would let someone certifiable like Bob Owens have his own mortar, can it?

Maybe you shouldn't answer that.

LATER (2146PST 24 January 2013): Right, this is where we got the patriot/military weapon equivalence concept.Sounds as if Yoho here wants to go around determining whose stability is questionable & violating their Fourth Amendment rights.

The Nuge Today

Sweat-y Teddy gets closer to his goal of being dead or in jail (And why not both?) w/in months of the colored guy sneaking back in the White House. Judging from this, he's trying to get arrested. We truly & sincerely wish Mr. Nugent all the success in the world at that endeavor.According to Ted the American Revolution was not a taxation w/o representation deal at all, but a reaction to King George trying to grab guns from patriots?

Fortunately, We Just Don't Care

OK, OK, we do care just enough to bitch & moan that these three fly-by-night operations were nine+ hrs. behind us (In pulling & linking a Think Progress item; see why it really isn't a big deal?) but who makes memeorandum? Not the hard-typing little guy, that's for damn sure.

Davos: Where's The Outrage?*

This isn't precisely outrage, but is slightly encouraging in that a lickspittle, the

chair [of] the Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk, where we outline the growing vulnerability of elites--as well as key risks and opportunities more generally--in our report that launched today. Feel free to take a look at the report in more depth.

sounds nervous. Elite fear of fairness is often painful to working people in the short-term, but the elite responses & over-reaction will give the workers more reason to "destabliize" elite institutions & gov't. in the longer run (when, of course, we'll all be dead).

As the world struggles to bolster its resilience against economic and political uncertainty, the key risk is the increasing vulnerability of elites. We're seeing leaders of all kinds, in the developed and developing world, in politics as well as business and media, answering to constituents who grow more dissatisfied ... and information-rich. Look at the riots in India over the recent rape scandal, the US Congress' abysmal approval ratings, or the phone hacking scandal at News Corp. Corruption, special interests, or a lack of transparency will spell trouble for leaders. The same goes for a widening gap between rich and poor. The threat to elites of all kinds comes in multiple forms: leaders who are battling for legitimacy will struggle to pursue long-term objectives rather than resort to reactive, 'quick fix' approaches. And in some instances, it could destabilize the very institutions--or even governments--that these elites represent.

Original source & above excerpting from another lickspittle, David Frum.

And here we again see Rover w/ his teeth firmly implanted in the letter carrier's leg:

For a breakdown of attendees at Davos, Quartz put out an interesting piece. Some highlights: a full two-thirds of Davos attendees hail from North America or Europe (no wonder we see such focus on the eurozone crisis!). Africa and South America? Just 4.8% and 3.1%, respectively.

Bow wow!

---

*And the drones. Where are the drones? It is our official editorial position that we would enjoy seeing the wealthy & their lickspittles running from a hail of air-borne justice like the dogs they are.

Wrong Isn't The Word

James "Lurch" Lankford (R-Cadaverous)

No casting director would suggest Congressman James Lankford (right) as a sociopathic weirdo because it would be the rankest & most obvious typecasting in recorded history. We say that w/o having listened to the sociopathy that he spews at length. The eyes are the window to the soul; do not look into his (Even in a photograph!) for long.

Not to mention his constituents, worried about the growing evidence that the crazed children of inbred idiots like this woman are being dosed w/ psychotropic drugs by the government,which is obviously what's behind school shootings. L. Ron Hubbard would be proud.

L. Ron would also admire the way Lankford got off the black helicopter tangent Mme. Defarge there was about to get on & managed to work in the usual ++tired reactionary & racialist boilerplate about "welfare moms," SSI & disability, including bogus concern about labeling a child disabled; apparently as soon as you stop calling little Janey Sue "disabled" she'll get off her gimp ass & get a job to pay for that wheelchair, home-care worker or whatever the hell. Just cut the autism act out you little slacker!

We are so enraged by the sheer repetitive boredom of this sort of thing from these sorts of people that we'd rather make the effort to beat Lankford back into the grave/circle of hell whence he rose w/ a blunt instrument (Golf club, table leg, Doc Marten's; not picky.) than follow our first instinct, which was merely to pump him full of lead from a safe distance.

He'd Open The Gas Chambers!

NewsBusters provides no context, of course, but we do:

Is It Still 22 Jan.?

Yes? Well then ...

Notes on LBJ’s Death From His Closest Aide

Also from Cronkite: Vietnam, energy crisis. Remember?

Another 40 Yrs. Ago

Dig the unprepared reactionary trying to spin the poll & everything else. Starts around (1:25)-ish if your time is too valuable to waste w/ Tweety.No specifics either. What "common ground?"

40 Yrs. Ago Today

"Hey hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" died on this date in 1973. (Apparently three wks. after Truman's death 26 December 1972.) And here's another of history's greatest monsters, the Nix, conversing w/ Johnson 4 January 1973.

It is 4:46 p.m. on Jan. 2, 1973, and Lyndon Johnson speaks to Richard Nixon for the last time ever. Nixon calls LBJ at the Ranch to report that peace in Vietnam is near, urges him to use his house in Key Biscayne, Fla., where their mutual friend Bebe Rebozo lives, and ascertains that Johnson will not be attending a Washington memorial service for Harry Truman, who had died a week earlier. Johnson says that on the day before, New Year's day, he yelled too much at the University of Texas football game, and as a result, had to summon doctors because "I had heart pains all night." Reproaching himself, Nixon says, "I called you at the wrong time!"

Stolen wholesale. Don't bother.

Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill:I Got A Rage To Live!

The usual horrifying stats about the country that kilt the Injuns fer Lebensraum & took other human beings to use as slaves. (Sound like Hitler, & "free enterprise" too? You bet.)

These are startling figures, but they do not tell us enough about the cult and spectacle of violence in American society. Nor do they make visible the myriad of forces that has produced a country drenched in bloodshed and violence.

You're soaking in it, America.

Our emphases below, from personal experience. (Consider bolded terms & phrases like "blind rebellion, depression, rage & willingness of ordinary people to commit unthinkable atrocities" as a direct threat to somebody.)

The grave reality is that violence saturates almost every aspect of North American* culture. Domestically, violence weaves through the cultural and social landscape like a highly charged forest fire burning everything in its path. Popular culture, extending from Hollywood films and sports thuggery, to video games, embraces the spectacle of violence as the primary medium of entertainment. The real issue here is the existence of a pedagogy of violence that actually makes the power of deadly violence attractive. Representations of violence dominate the media and often parade before viewers less as an object of critique than as a for-profit spectacle, just as the language of violence and punishment now shapes the U.S. culture — with various registers of violence now informing school zero-tolerance policies, a bulging prison-industrial complex, and the growing militarization of everyday life. There is also the fact that as neoliberalism and its culture of cruelty weaves its way through the culture it makes the work place, schools, and other public spheres sites of rage, anger, humiliation, and misery, creating the foundation for blind rebellion against what might be termed intolerable conditions. Accepting the logic of radical individual responsibility, too many Americans blame themselves for being unemployed, homeless, and isolated and end up perceiving their misery as an individual failing and hence are vulnerable to forms of existential depression and collective rage. We have seen such violence among students reacting to bullying and among postal workers responding to intolerable work conditions. There is no one cause of violence, but a series of a number of causes that range from the war on drugs and the militarization of police departments to mass incarcerations in prisons to the return from brutal wars of many trained killers suffering with PTSD.[2] All of these factors combine in an explosive mix to create an dangerous culture of violence and cruelty and as Jeff Sparrow points out a “willingness of ordinary people to commit unthinkable atrocities.”[3]

Yep, there's more about what shits humans are, exemplified in what Giroux calls neoliberalism. Doesn't seem so new to us, but we s'pose it's the nature (& necessity) of academic jagoffery to come up w/ new labels for humanity's usual inhumanity to itself.

---

*Howdy, neighbours & vecinos!

Timely Tunes

G.O.P. Outreach

©Monte Wolverton

Bored Limp

Woke up, got up, turned on the tee vee hoping (as always) that something awful has happened. No such luck, & several mins. of watching Joe & Jill Biden wander down a Washington street is enough to send us back to bed.

Filler

Was the church of your choice filled today?

K-Dub

Then, Now

Photos © 1936, 1964 Columbia Pictures, Industries, Inc.
All Rights Reversed

B&W (middle) photo.

Today's "Law-Abiding" Gun Owner

Wouldn't you think a brave & noble police officer (or oinky pig) would be the very definition of "law-abiding." (Where else in contemporary usage do we find "abiding," by the way? No usage I can think of.)

And yet ...

A Prince George's County jury found a D.C. police officer guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mistress and their infant child, News4's Jackie Bensen reported.

[...]

Phillips was arrested in June 2011 after police located the bodies of 20-year-old Wright and her daughter, Jaylin, in a park outside Washington. Prosecutors said Phillips shot Wright and then drove the child - still strapped in the car seat of her mother's car with the doors closed and the windows up - a short distance away, where he left her to die.

A heat advisory was in effect, and temperatures inside the car reached 125 degrees, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said.

Do the D.C. police even do background checks for employment? And if background checks done by the police dep't. in our nation's capital can't determine they're about to hire a murderer, what good are any other such checks going to do?

This is not a call to forget background checks, but a demonstration that any one can flip at any time, background check or not, so just maybe no one should have guns. Especially not the fucking police, most of whom are thuggish compensating criminals to begin w/. Fuck them!

"Let Youth Go Ahead"

Dozens of Poems Created
Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- Poets under the Central Committee of the Writers Union of Korea created dozens of poems and words of songs in the first week of the new year.

Such poems as "Let Us Go for Great Victory" and "Our Strength, Banner of Victory" praise the greatness of the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, noting that his ringing voice would always be cherished in the hearts of the service personnel and people of the DPRK.

Poems "Footsteps of the DPRK in the Year 2013" and "With the Same Spirit and Mettle As Were Displayed in Conquering Space" fully represent the firm will of all the service personnel and people to successfully carry out the tasks set forth in the New Year Address of Kim Jong Un.

Poem "Let's Dedicate Springtime of Life to Country" and words of songs "Dreamful Girl in Sepho" and "Let Youth Go Ahead" fully represent the unanimous determination of the youth to make a breakthrough towards victory in every worksite for great surge in response to the Party's call.

Copyright (C) KOREA NEWS SERVICE(KNS) All Rights Reserved.

Is this what the "DPRK Internet" looks like? Also, would someone pls. click one of those white squares & tell us where it goes. Merci!Never mind. Removed them.

NRA & Crime: All For It

Interesting.

The NRA doesn’t protect the public. It protects the gun rights of accused criminals.

Down By A Point

The 27% loon line is slipping, if you want to believe some liberal WSJ poll.

What’s more, 49 percent hold a negative view of the Republican Party – its highest negative rating in the survey since 2008. Only 26 percent have a positive view.

That one percent slippage is doubtless w/in the margin of error, but not un-encouraging. If only the drooling reactionaries would absorb this information & stop pretending that an (incredibly silent) majority of the sheep are as ignorant & reactionary as the distinctly noisy quarter of the population. Hey, we have a dream too.

War On Wimmin Folks

There isn't one. Or is there?

“We have some problematic allies,” Hoff Sommers said in her opening remarks. “Conservative leaders and funders, they don’t take women’s issues seriously.”

“I’m not sure what’s worse: conservatives ignoring women’s issues, or conservatives addressing them,” she said as the audience laughed.

[...]

Sabrina Schaeffer, the executive director of IWF and a panelist, complained that Republican indifference to women’s issues was a problem she runs into. “I know sometimes when I go into a donor meeting and I see someone’s eyes just glazing over, like, ‘why would I care about women?’”

[...]

When prodded by audience questions, the panelists said that contraception was a non-issue. As Hemingway put it, contraception was thought up by Democrats who found it tested well in focus groups despite being a completely settled issue. Her response was to urge Republicans to respond with their own accusations that are “just as crazy,” something like, “they’re stealing your hot dogs!”

Equally crazy alright. How stupid are these dames to think it's a "settled issue?" Can they not read?

But wait, former President Lust-in-His-Heart has something to add:

So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

Yeah right you sad-assed cracker fuck, it's just a question of interpretation. No way are all the fucking "holy" books patriarchal or anything of the sort, except to the literate population. And "selected?" Those books from the Bronze Age desert are a complete fucking contradictory mess. We figure heat stroke is as sensible an explanation as any for the crap written therein.

Also, J.C. is involved in an Illuminati-style conspiracy of wretched old men:

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

Guess Jimmy can't read, or doesn't want to face the truth about the bullshit he's been swallowing all his life.

We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasize the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

We're sure that the very minute someone finds something about dignity & equality in any of that shit they'll all get right to work honoring that. Or wiping their asses w/ those pages. When the Catholic Church in its resplendent Babylonian glory & excess goes on about "dignity" you know lay people are getting fucked over, figuratively & (if under the age of consent) literally, often in the ass. In this case it's pain & suffering (or, if you're lucky, drugged oblivion) while machines keep you alive & very dignified. Like when you're 92, shitting the hospital bed & have a tube shoved down your throat, &c, that's dignity. But hey, you wouldn't expect baby-rapers to have an understanding of normal or average humans.

Anyway, ladies, get back in that kitchen & be dignified, wouldja? Jesus isn't going to make those sandwiches for you, no matter how much you pray. And if you aren't a "lady," well, Jimmy Swaggart (Why is he still living?) would like a word w/ you. No, two words: "How much?"

Today's Tweet Of The Day

Deadspin may deserve a spot on the bog-roll.

Whole Food Fascism Follow-Up

Previously on Just Another Blog™. And now, the conclusion. (Or episode two, depending on when someone deals w/ this fucking jerk.)

More Buffoonery

Here's a fucking link so no assholes whine about their "rights," "payment" or other capitalist bullshit. Oh, guess what, the site won't load so we can't provide a link. Too fucking bad, but not our problem. Also, "intellectual" property is theft, so eat us!

MOMENTS LATER: OK, here it is. The above imprecations, insults & rudeness still apply, fuckheads! (Fuck, awfully cranky. Maybe it's time for lunch.)

Almost Forgot

Bowling For Buffoons

You may have heard that loud-mouthed one-term Congress creep & attention-whore Allen West, realizing he'll never again be elected to any office higher than dog-catcher, will be spewing his disturbed Jesus-loving ignorance for PJMedia's latest scam, something called "Next Generation." Because the yout' want a 51-yr. old disgraced Army officer telling them crap on the Internet.

Fuck off, gramps.

See if you can follow the tortured reasoning (for lack of a better word) here:

You may be wondering why am I taking on this mission.

Earlier this month, my family and I traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., to attend the 2013 BCS Fiesta Bowl. It was truly great to be in such a festive atmosphere, and even see some old friends.

However, as I watched the opening kickoff, I got that deep feeling in the pit of my stomach that it would be a long evening for the K-State Wildcat Nation. So my mind started to drift and analyze what was before me.

I looked over at my two daughters, dressed in K-State purple, and thought about my first college bowl game. I considered the cost today to attend a BCS bowl game, and thought about how the college-bowl experience will be something that will be harder for future generations to afford.

Is our dollar losing such value that ticket prices may become untenable for our next generation? I remember as a kid working hard doing errands and chores for neighbors, like washing cars and cutting grass, to earn the money to go see a game.

This is just one example of traditional American experiences we must stand up for in order to preserve the American dream for future generations.

What a sad jag-off. And an excellent illustration of just how pig-ignorant he is. It's the alleged weakness of the dollar that makes bowl games (Absolutely the most important part of the American Dream.) so expensive? Just how many bowl games did he attend w/ his washing & mowing money?

Not A Joke At All

Not to us, anyway. We are in complete agreement w/ the Onion.

Speaking with reporters, web users expressed a near unanimous desire to visit a website and simply look at it, for once, without having every aspect of the user interface tailored to a set of demographic information culled from their previous browsing history. In addition, citizens overwhelmingly voiced their wish for a straightforward one-way conduit of information, and specifically one that did not require any kind of participation on their part.

“Every time I type a web address into my browser, I don’t need to be taken to a fully immersive, cross-platform, interactive viewing experience,” said San Diego office manager Keith Boscone. “I don’t want to take a moment to provide my feedback, open a free account, become part of a growing online community, or see what related links are available at various content partners.”

“All I want is to go to a website, enjoy it for the time I’ve decided to spend there, and then move on with my life,” he continued. “Is that so much to ask?”

No fucking shit. It's why we prefer telebision to video games. We want to be entertained, not to perform more fucking work; nor do we have any desire to participate in anything w/ anybody. Ever. So fuck off already.

Today In Trollery

Here, a pissing match between two skunks:Cheezis. 70-80 yrs. ago we had Fred Allen & Jack Benny feuding, now it's these two. Talk about decline & falling down. Text.

Keeping The Grift In The Family

Whoa! When we heard the Prez mention Reagan's 1994 appeal to ban "assault weapons" earlier today we wondered if a reactionary would take the opportunity to claim (admit) that Ronnie was demented. And looky:Can't be coincidence that the above drooler has the same last name as the executive director of the ++nutty Gun Owners of America. Bet little Erich there can't find a gig in the real world of profit & loss.

Today In Anti-SemitismTheocracy

The situation worsens:

Early last year, Benny Katzover, a leader in the settlement of Elon Moreh, told a Chabad paper, Beit Mashiach, “I would say that today Israeli democracy has one central mission, and that is to disappear. Israeli democracy has finished its historical role, and it must be dismantled and bow before Judaism.”

Yeah, fuck democracy, some rabbi should be in charge.

Time Again To Get Out The Paving Stones

Also bricks, & even just plain rocks. Why? Because there are windows crying out to be broken in every one of Whole Foods' over-priced stores in this country. Also Canada & the UK.
Whole Foods CEO says Obama healthcare law is 'more like fascism'
Speaking of fascism, might not be a bad idea to steal copies of the asshole CEO john Mackey's new book & burn them. Maybe even soak the book ("Liberating the heroic spirit of business." Money-grubbing & exploitation is not "heroic," you pathetic sack of garbage.) in gasoline, heave it through the just broken window & see what happens. Target locator.

NB: Our simple suggestions are not meant to preclude anyone from spitting on, strangling, throwing organic tomatoes, eggs, &c. at or shooting a few rounds through the empty head of Mr. Capitalism. See if he's going to be in your sector pimping his forest-murdering waste of paper & go say "hi" to him. Here's another target locator. Note appearance at the Milken Foundation, 25 January 2013 at 1630. Says it all. Also note: The Milken Foundation is in Santa Monica (4th & Arizona) not Los Angeles, & The public is welcome to attend our forums, which bring acclaimed authors, economists and thought leaders to Santa Monica.

Is there any phrase more fascist than "thought leaders?"

Cult Report

Good news:

More Rastafarians Than Scientologists?

According to a former spokesperson for the church, there are only 30,000 members in an organization that church members are “forcefully encouraged” to join, the International Association of Scientologists. A survey called the Statistical Abstract of the United States estimates only 25,000 Americans call themselves Scientologists. “That’s less than half the number identifying themselves as Rastafarians.” (The Church of Scientology claims 8 million members worldwide—supposedly the number of people who have donated to the church. A recent ad claims 4.4 million new members every year.) The church has $1 billion in liquid assets, and in terms of cash reserves this figure eclipses the holdings of most major world religions. It claims to own about 12 million square feet of property around the world, with 26 of them in Hollywood, valued at $400 million. At its headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., it owns 68 largely tax-exempt pieces of land worth $168 million. The Sea Org is the church’s clergy, a navylike core estimated at around 3,000 to 5,000 members. Most of them join when they’re children, rendering services with barely any pay.

Rasta no pick pocket/Rasta no run racket.

America Continues Eating Its Young

From Aaron Swartz' funeral:

In 2011, Swartz was arrested in Boston, charged with 13 felonies, including computer fraud, accused of stealing more than 4 million articles from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Swartz’s indictment said he stole the documents from JSTOR, a subscription service used by MIT that offers digitized copies of articles from academic journals. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.

He was found Friday after he had hanged himself in his New York apartment. He faced 35 years in prison on the charges. He had pleaded not guilty and faced trial in April.

“He was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles,” his father said at the funeral.

His activism and what friends claimed his crucifixion at the hands of cruel prosecutors and a heartless MIT bureaucracy have heightened debates about access to academic and other expensive documents online, and about how existing laws make no distinction between malicious and ideological hackers.

"Basic principles" are made to be betrayed, as far as we can determine.

Witch Of The Wk.

If this fucking fascist had any honor she would kill herself, just as her victim did.

U.S Attorney Carmen Ortiz at the
John Joseph Moakley United States Court House.
Inset: Aaron Swartz.
(Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty; Inset: AP)

Also, your justice system sucks, America. Time for "Second Amendment Remedies?" If they don't fix the system, YES! (Why should the right-wing have all the fun?)

Statuary

So Give The Fuck Up Already

If there are no humans alive to miss all the other dead humans, what possible fucking difference could it make?

With climate change, unless we act fairly soon in response to the timetable set by physics, there’s not much reason to act at all.

Hurry up & die already so we don't have to listen to anyone's bullshit     about anything, ever again.

A Tree