The Bleat Goes On: Gun Goons vs. Cars; FBI's Spies; Matters of Degree; Timing

Only the police should have high-powered engines.

If civilians had them, they could use them to flee the scene of crimes and outrun the police. If we restrict cars to go only 80mph, then the police can catch criminals more easily and we'l...See More

Cars Are NOT Guns: Woody hopes nobody falls for this specious, egregious exercise in gun-goon false equivalence and bullshit.
If 33k people died of injuries suffered in motor vehicles, only a tiny, miniscule fraction were victims of hi-performance vehicles such as the poster features, and upon which the argument rhetorically (and stupidly) depends.
Whereas, of the 32,000 people who perished of bullet wounds, ALL were victims of guns.
See the difference???
If not, pleases save us all some hassle and defriend me.

In the meantime, we shouldn't over-think this:  In ANY discussions with the gun-goons, the key question needing to be asked is: From whom/what do you think your pop-gun arsenal will protect you?
By their evasions shall ye know them... 

The true-blue, pry-it-from-my-rictic-fingers 'gun goons' are not interested in "preserving" their armaments to defend the freehold against "gummint tyranny" as much as they wanna be armed in case the Negroes and Mexicans get restless and turn uppity..." They wanna be sure they're still armed in case "Open Season" happens comes along on any of the assorted classes of people they despise, and they can blaze away at the negroes and other brown folks, liberals, feminists, and hippies.

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The FBI Spies On Dissenters? Really?  Huffpost had a relatively alarmist piece up about how the FBI had cooperated with local authorities to "keep an eye" on the "Occupy" demonstrators. The tone was of astonishment.

No. Really!

The FBI or its forebears (established in the same year as the NKVD in Russia) has been monitoring--that is to say, spying on, infiltrating, betraying, provoking and suborning--suspicious "subversives" for more than 125 years. 

"Subversives," to the FBI, are anybody who actively agitates against or threatens the stability of the established, conventional orthodoxy and order. 

The FBI have either killed or set-up to be killed hundreds of such 'agitators.' You didn't think they'd stop for YOU, did you?

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"Degrees" Don't Lift Poor Recipients: In the NYTimes, today a story about how social class still impedes progress for many recipients of questionable or dubious degrees from for-profit and commercial "colleges and universities."Da Nutz:

"It’s becoming increasingly unlikely that a low-income student, no matter how intrinsically bright, moves up the socioeconomic ladder. What we’re talking about is a threat to the American dream." - Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford.

That's why the for-profit "Schools" and so-called 'private' universities like Phoenix and its emulators are such predatory scum: They sell spurious (at best) "degrees" as credentials for professions don't exist to people desperate to believe in the mobility myth. At the same time, they indenture the eager students to life-long commitments to "school loans" that are structured NEVER to be repaid, and are safe from bankruptcy dismissal. PLUS, they target veterans who have federal benefits, and short-change them lika any other marks.

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Is This A Bad Time? Doncha think it slightly dubious timing to be going hopefully after an INCREASE or ELIMINATION if the SS cap, when at this very instant, the biggest bone of contention seems to be on a mere technical "quibble" merely over how to conduct cost-of-living adjustments, meanwhile the bastards already siphoned off BILLIONS of dollars from the SS Trust Fund in the form of the so-called payroll tax holidays?
Isn't it a bit ludicrous to suppose that when the Bosses are trying to TAKE DOWN the whole program, some plan/petition to endow the program with MORE money is gonna fly?

The Bleat Goes ON: Take THAT, You Mischievous Mayans!

 Gun Lunacy: It seems to me that "gun lunacy" is a predominantly "white person's" preoccupation.

So, at the risk of being accused of painting with too broad a brush, I suggest that, if you approached those "gun loons" most fearful of losing the "protection" allegedly afforded by their firepower, and asked them to draw a picture of those against whom they figger they most need to defend themselves and loved ones, the "enemies" they drew would not look much like Jerrod Loughner or Adam Lanza, but would be of a MUCH "duskier" hue than the artists themselves or the vast majority of mass murderers.

 

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So "Wrong," It's Been Good To Know Ya: My pal, Jim Terr, the premier sarcast and finest filker in these parts, reported this image today, saying that, since the peril of imminent extinction had for the moment safely passed, we could happily return  to our TRUE pursuits: low humor and degrading comedy, or perhaps it's vice versa...It SURELY is "vice."

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I'm A Push-Over: Woody thinkz: Cliff? What "cliff?"

Somehow, this doesn't seem terrible to me.
Is THIS the notorious "cliff?"
If so, please back me up and gimme a runnin' shove!

Rep. Peter DeFazio makes this choice very easy.

 
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Oh, Promises, Promises, Didn't He Promise? I'm pretty sure Sir Barry, the Glib & Mendacious, Valued Protector of the Owners' Purses and Perquisites, carefully avoided saying HE'D vouchsafe to keep SS safe; he's slicker than snot on a door-knob.
But I am POSITIVE Joe Biden did promise to do so. I guess Biden WASN'T speaking for the regime on that occasion.

Doh!

Call the White House: http://bit.ly/callobama

The Bleat Goes On: Aimlessly

 

Pack Shot/Shutterstock)

Even well-trained soldiers, in a fire-fight, often either DON'T shoot, or simply fire wildly.

What are the chances that a civilian, coming under live fire for the first and only time in their lives, will have composure enough to return fire carefully, and avoid doing MORE damage?

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Fun With Digits: "Numbers" capture and express the unnoticed regularities upon which we depend for our fantastic lives.

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Woody thinkz it's downright amusing when folks--like the chap who posted this cartoon with a long expostulation about "fixing things" with strikes, and the like, pompously declare that "we allow," or "we permit," or we "tolerate" the encroachments of the CorpoRat, totalitarian /authoritarian ideologies.

I'd WELCOME just ONE serious suggestion as to how the People are supposed to RESIST these intrusions and usurpations, especially when the political "leaders" are among the ones doing the most damage.

Seriously: Anybody?

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Down with anti-Semanticism!

Words matter. They're how we understand what we experience and feel. ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Another "Casus Belli?" Where have we heard THIS before?

Remember, Rummie or one of those feculent gunsels proposed that the the reason that the Busheviks couldn't find Saddam's WMD was because he moved them all, along with the "trailers of death," to Syria?
Who knew?
Now there's a good excuse to intevene in Syria, even though them shifty Ay-rabs will just move the WMD to, oh, say, Lebannon...
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 Serio-Comic Mash-up: This is an interesting/entertaining  mash-up: Cenk Uygur and Lee Camp. 

Cenk Ugyur gets flack for being a self-confessed "conservative" defector. 
But what I like about Cenk is that he is truly a non-partisan, critical intellectual.
He calls 'em aas he sees 'em, and he sees 'em through the eyes of a first-generation immigrant. He has that "immigrant" POV, similar to Ralph Nader's. It is skeptical but forgiving, while expecting the public rhetoric to be honored. 
I used to love participating in the 'acculturation' experiences of international students who landed wherever I had a teaching job at the moment. It was mind-expanding. One woman I recall had been a member of the PRC Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics team in the '84 Olympics, and then defected. Her perspectives were fascinating. Watching her gradually succumb to the blandishments of the mediated realities of #Wonderland# was instructive, if dispiriting.

The Bleat Goes On: Chain of Fools

Truth or Consequences?
What do you plan to do if  Sir Barry, the brave defender of the weak and powerless, does, in fact, go ahead and fuck us?
Not re-elect him? Late for that, imho.
Not send him a birthday card? Yeah, that'll show 'im!
No, seriously!
WTF! What, exactly do you propose???

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Chained Lightening: If a GOPhuq had introduced the "Chained CPI," the Dims would have arisen en masse to repel it.

 Just as, had John McCain had been elected in 2008, Social Security cuts wouldn't even be in the vocabulary of the debate, much less be on the fucking table because, under GOPhux attack, the DIMS would have ferociously protected THEIR safety-net programs.

But with THEIR boy, Sir Barry, the Pale Male, in charge, and pushing it, they have no incentive to resist.

So you could take it to the fucking bank: Any "solution" to which the Sir Barry, the Capitulator, and the Orange Boner could agree would be the one that MOST deeply and thoroughly fucks the GREATEST number of powerless and defenseless people.

Why would you expect it be otherwise?
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Anti-Semantics: Ever a pain-in-thy-ass, Woody'd say--in reference to the punch-line, below--that's not "statism,"per se. 

Statism, in PoliSci, (French: étatisme) is simply the belief that a government should control either economic or social policy, or both, to some degree.

What this message describes is a combination of ethnocentric jingoism, murderous nationalism and patriotic exceptionalism which could best be encapsulated as "Americanism."

Some protest that they LIKE the usage, that  the term captures their sentiments.

Okay. Fine. Humpty Dumpty changed meanings all the time as the pleasures suited.

But it's semantically incorrect, specious, and intellectually dishonest to use it to descriibe conditions to which it is not related. Like saying "that begs the question," when what is meant is "that leaves questions unanswered." Cf, e.g., petitio principii (rhetoric lesson follows):

The fallacy of petitio principii, or "begging the question", is committed "when a proposition which requires proof is assumed without proof", or more generally denotes when an assumption is used, "in some form of the very proposition to be proved, as a premise from which to deduce it".^[2] Thus, insofar as petitio principii refers to arguing for a conclusion that has already been assumed in the premise, this fallacy consists of "begging" the listener to accept the "question" (proposition) before the labor of logic is undertaken (aka, 'tautology.').

The fallacy may be committed in various ways. When ... committed in a single step, it is sometimes called a hysteron proteron,^[3][4] as in the statement "Opium induces sleep because it has a soporific quality".^[5] Such fallacies may not be immediately obvious due to the use of synonyms or synonymous phrases; one way to beg the question is to make a statement first in concrete terms, then in abstract ones, or vice-versa.^[5]

Another is to "bring forth a proposition expressed in words of Saxon origin, and give as a reason for it the very same proposition stated in words of Norman origin",^[6] as in this example: "To allow every man an unbounded freedom of speech must always be, on the whole, advantageous to the State, for it is highly conducive to the interests of the community that each individual should enjoy a liberty perfectly unlimited of expressing his sentiments".^[7]

When the fallacy of begging the question is committed in more than one step, it is sometimes referred to as circulus in probando or reasoning in a circle^[3] but incorrectly so, if this fallacy is considered under the definition Aristotle gave in Prior Analytics.^[1]
"Begging the question" can also refer to making an argument in which the premise "is different from the conclusion ... but is controversial or questionable for the same reasons that typically might lead someone to question the conclusion".^[8]

…[S]eldom is anyone going to simply place the conclusion word-for-word into the premises … Rather, an arguer might use phraseology that conceals the fact that the conclusion is masquerading as a premise. The conclusion is rephrased to look different and is then placed in the premises.

—Paul Herrick^[9]

An example of "Begging the Question":
Speaker 1: "Unbelief is disobedience to God's commands."
Speaker 2: "Says who?"
Speaker 1: "Says the Word of God Himself."

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CODSWALLOP!

This is just so much sour grapes.

Obama PROCLAIMED LOUDLY what he intended to do, and though it SEEMED to include "reducing corpoRat welfare," there were no explicit "promises to that effect.

But he did announce that his plans and Rmoney's plans for the Social Safety net were basically indistinguishable, in the debates.

Now he's doing what he SAID de'd do,  and you cannot honestly say it is NOT what he was elected to do, since he announced it and was elected anyway.

The made bed awaits your recumbency!
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The Grand Bargain. BOHICA! If I had a dollar for every "I told you fuckers" I'm entitled to, I could go to Hawai'i for the rest of the winter...

"So here's where we sit." (according to Esquire's Charlie Pierce)...

"The Democrats, led by the president, who never is going to need to depend on Social Security, are prepared to concede on an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the deficit. They are going to make life harder for millions of seniors. Social Security is now squarely "on the table" in any future budget negotiation. (Hey, who unplugged the third rail?) (Ed. Note:

The simplest solution — raising the cap — is beyond discussion, now and forever. The "chained-CPI," which is a terrible idea on its own merits, as well as a piece of noxious moral sleight-of-hand, seeing as how it cuts benefits while pretending not to do so, is being adopted whole hog without a corresponding mechanism to raise more Social Security revenue to make up for the loss.

If the president maintains his faith in the great god SimpsonBowles, the old folks will get a bump for only two years after the deal takes effect. Swell.

The Bleat Goes On: A New Day

This is just so much jingoistic bullshit!

Muslim Arabs were doing differential algebra while the ancestors of the Europeans were still painting themselves blue to make it rain.

(This post garnered more than 20 "Likes," and a slew of comments.)
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Venting: A restaurateur in Austin, a chap named Eddie Nimibutr, took to social media to vent in the of the bathos and chest-beating occasioned by the slaughter in Connecticut.

 
An intergalactic ethnographer might judge Mr. Nimibutr as having lacked something in the way of tact, but his complaint is not, for the most part, incorrect, nor is it without merit...

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Season's Bleatings: What Can You DO With Sheep and LED??

We took to the hills of Wales armed to the teeth with sheep, LEDs and a camera, to create a huge amazing LED display. Of sorts. For more info search for samsung LED TV or visit samsung.com/LED

A Bleatlet (12/17/12) Goes On

Not In It To Win It:

They--the GOPhux--didn't WANT to "Win." They didn't NEED to win to have their way.
They threw it.
Look at the candidates and tell me ANY of them was a plausible contestant in a SERIOUS race? Just like they threw it in 2008. Sarah Palin? Really?
This was all entertainment, a distraction, friendz. They just needed to put on a good show. They didn't "spend" 800 million bucks, they merely passed into different hands. The same folks still have all the money.
And they're fixing to steal a WHOLE lot more.
You know how to know this is unreal? Nobody went broke.
As Mencken said, nobody ever lost money underestimating the taste of Average Americans; it's true whether you're selling soap or snake oil.
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No Dirges Needed: Racism is not "dead" in Murka. It won't die. It's not even particularly injured. Electing a smart, slick, erudite corpoRatist as president who happened to be half-black did NOT fundamentally change the underlying structures of society. Racism is embedded in the very core of the country's being.

“Take That Nigger Off The TV, We Wanna Watch Football!”:

Idiots Respond To NBC Pre-Empting Sunday Night Football

Timothy Burke (via Deadspin)

NBC pre-empted the first quarter of tonight's 49ers-Patriots game to show President Obama's speech at the Newtown memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. As you might expect, many football fans didn't take kindly to this. (So, too, some Bob's Burgers fans.) Here are those idiots, led by someone who claims to be a Division II football player in the state of Alabama. [Update: The Birmingham News reports he was a walk-on long snapper and is no longer on the team.]

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The Bleat Goes On (12/17/12): Reloaded

Fill In The Graves

v 

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Load and Lock: The putative purpose for arming the citizenry is to protect rights, liberties, etc. by deterring the State with the threat of armed resistance.
It'd be funny, if not so pathetic. Be cause those rights and liberties are pretty obviously disappearing, wholesale, anyway, under either Party, despite our having the deadliest, most heavily armed populace in the world.
Which suggests to me that the "gummint" (those dreaded 'usurpers') aren't particularly worried about our armaments. The 'usurpers of our rights," such as they are, are not at ALL fearful about a populace armed with pop-guns, no matter how sophisticated.
For which, I must say, having seen an actual Vulcan mini-cannon in full operation--See video, above; a weapon that can put an explosive, 20mm cannon shell in every square foot of a football field in less than a minute--I cannot say I blame them...
The greatest danger such an armed, and dangerously deluded populace poses is to itself--which is plenty, and should be regulated as much as possible, but falls well short of deterring the full armed might of the US Military machine.
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Pattern Recognition: A second, striking pattern in the tragic trajectory of murder and terror is the number of these events which were perpetrated by privileged, young, white males.

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Profiling "Courageously." Even though the VAST majority of terrorist acts perpetrated in the USofA are and have always been committed by white males (Tim McVeigh, abortion doctor killers, clinic bombers,, etc), that special 'class' of USer will NEVER be accused of being terrorists because it would entail discommoding the largest, most powerful bloc of voters in the country, and anyone who promoted the idea would be committing political suicide.
Similarly with efforts at profiling potential mass murderers when the majority of them come from the same demographic/constituency: Nagahapun! There is NO way the dominant class will permit itself to be classified as a potential danger to society....David Sirota explains:

"Let’s review: any honest observer should be able to admit that if the gunmen in these mass shootings mostly had, say, Muslim names or were mostly, say, African American men, the country right now wouldn’t be confused about the causes of the violence, and wouldn’t be asking broad questions. There would probably be few queries or calls for reflection, and mostly definitive declarations blaming the bloodshed squarely on Islamic fundamentalism or black nationalism, respectively. Additionally, we would almost certainly hear demands that the government intensify the extant profiling systems already aimed at those groups."

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The Color of Mayhem!: Woody sez: I'm reminded of a cartoon: A white boy is complaining that there were black, and asian, chicano, even women's studies classes, everywhere, but no WHITE studies classes or programs.

And his companion, a woman of color, says: "Where have you been? That's Western Civ, 101." He is somewhere in the "rogue's gallery" arrayed below. Deadly smiles.

Will police now start profiling White males? Will unarmed White male youth be shot by cops who get a paid vacation for there troubles? Will they be turn away from jobs and lose opportunities for housing because they are now seen as a Menace to Society? Will White males have to deal with suspicious stares when they enter public places, and have rent-a-cops follow them around stores?

Will Oprah and Tyler Perry put out a bunch of movies depicting how violent, depraved, and self-destructive the White male is? Will young White males now be relegated to industries that emphasize their physical prowess and their musical talents; while being discouraged from perusing intellectual interest, or positions of power within the society?

Every Tarantino ever made is a cautionary tale about the psychopathologies of ARMED, WHITE men, innit??...As is every James Bond flick, any other "adventure" film you ever saw, other than the blaxploitation genre... Those behaviors we fear and reprobate in the "other" we lionize and celebrate within our own "group."

The Bleat Goes On: 12/16/12--A New BeGunning

 There was a rumor of a tumor...:


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Viral: This has been semi-viral in the wake of the recent shootings in Connecticut.

While touching and evocative (and capable of once again affirming why I never risked reproducing), it seems to me this mother's struggle with a truly crazy, obviously dangerous, unpredictably fucked-up kid (her carrying around a container for impounding the sharp objects in the house, just in case, DOESN'T sound to me too dissimilar to "gun control," but that's probably just me) is not of the same sort of crazy as Adam Lanza's situation.

The killer Lanza (apparently) had previously never presented with obvious violence, at least not that has been reported--other than that apparently he was an obsessive violent "gamer." He doesn't seem to have any record of counseling or therapy.

Lanza's mother, otoh, was apparently also a loon: a "prepper," one of that group of obsessives determined to "prepare" to survive thaa social apocalypse they anticipate (and it seems to me, to relish, in quite an unseemly manner).

I betcha she was terrified of scary black people too, cuz she lived where there apparently aren't ANY.
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Woody'z a bit puzzled. The alleged reason/rationale for an armed populace is to present a sufficient threat to deter the "totalitarian usurpers" who wanna fuck with us, limit our freedoms, an restrict our liberties, etc...Right?

But that seems to me, anyway, what many of the same folks who proclaim the necessity of an armed citizenry proclaim is ALREADY happening. DESPITE an already fanatically, obsessively armed citizenry.

Which suggest to me, prima facie, the "usurpers" aren't all that worried worried about "our" armaments, if they're already busily and apparently uninterruptedly at work doing what our armaments are supposed to prevent.

I mean: We've already got a ferociously armed citizenry, but it doesn't seem to deter the "gummint" from fucking with us.

So it appears to me that the "gummint" isn't all that worried about an armed citizenry, if it is already taking from us what our guns are supposed to protect....

That is: If our guns are supposed to protect our liberties, it ain't fucking working.

Or am I missing something?
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"Gun-lust"--the total, almost erotic obsession with firearms--is enshrined as a mainly a white, male obsession.  This stems from colonial times, when the greatest (and only) threats against which the colonists were unable to adequately defend were raids by the "indians," and the possibility of a slave revolt.

Guns in our culture begin (and apparently end) as instruments and icons of our dominant ethnic, imperial, "Machismo/masculinity." The prevailing ethos then as now was the responsibility to protect your children, your genes. But, until the end of the 19th century, anyway, that was a difficult task especially on the "frontier," one at which those husbands and fathers often, embarrassingly, failed.

But superior fire-power was what gave 'em a chance. Meanwhile, because of social and technological change, according equal status to their former enemies, the white american male psyche is still beset with those demons,. and gun-lust is its manifestation and the 'security binkie' of choice. Susan Falludi wrote an interesting book about it, called "The Terror Dream."
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Health-care, schmealth-care. The usual, thunderous, thumping chorus of national breast-beating once again echoes across the land. ANOTHER 28 innocents slaughtered by a madman with a high-tech arsenal. Cries and moans of mourning, loss and grief arise like clouds of dark birds from the carcass of a recent kill.

And because this is America, we immediately look for ways to absolve the system. This means blaming the individual(s), either victim(s) or the perp(s). Of course, if the cops/law spent HALF the time and resources controlling/suppressing ILLEGAL firearms/weapons transactions--just enforcing the EXISTING laws, across the board--as they/it do tracking down cannabis users and dealers, this would be a much safer place. But you see, pretty soon they start busting "decent, law-abiding" (i.e., "white") people with guns they shouldn't have, and that would NEVER do.

So the anguished call goes out, again for better mental health. And probably the kid was bat-shit crazy; his mother certainly was.

But without semi-automatic firearms (which his mother apparently owned, illegally), Lanza wouldn't have been able to kill 28 people before the cops arrived to stop him. Possibly that mightn't have prevented the killing spree, but it would have kept the body count down...

Why does anyone think free mental health clinics would have prevented this?

Did he ever present violent symptoms? Did he have a history? Counciling? Therapy?

Apparently nobody noticed he really, really, really, really hated his mother: according to reports, he emptied at least one clip into her head before setting off for school.

If you don't notice, then there's no reason to interrupt, is there?

And then there's the wealth part. His family had the bucks. Kids from families whose families really have the bucks don't get scrutinized as closely as other folks do. They get away with more of life's little eccentricities.

Sure, available mental health facilities are a good idea. No doubt about it. I think it's dubious that that would have prevented this situation, however, if the shooter was never "in the system.".

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Good Families:  Here's a provocative essay from last summer after the Aurora, CO, massacre. Why ARE apparently so many of our mass-murderers, our berserkers, our slaughterers of innocents, privileged, white, males? (There have been over 60 such incidents in the last 30 years--since Raygun, that is; though surely THAT's a coincidence, right?)...Here's one of many "money quotes:

Perhaps the greatest asset that unearned privilege conveys is the sense that public spaces “belong” to you. If you are—like James Holmes (in Colorado) last week, or Charles Whitman, who killed 16 people on the University of Texas, Austin campus in 1966—an American-born, college-educated white man from a prosperous family, you don’t have a sense that any place worth being is off-limits to the likes of you.White men from upper middle-class backgrounds expect to be both welcomed and heard wherever they go.

When that sense of entitlement gets frustrated, as it can for a host of complex psychological reasons, it is those same hyper-privileged men who are the most likely to react with violent, rage-filled indignation. For white male murderers from “nice” families, the fact that they chose public spaces like schools, university campuses, or movie theaters as their targets suggests that they saw these places as legitimately theirs.

The vast majority of white men from comfortable backgrounds don’t commit mass murder, of course. Our entitlement doesn’t manifest in the sense that public spaces are ours to terrorize, but it does show up in the confidence with which we move in those spaces. The certainty of belonging is at the core of our privilege.

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The Daily Bleat: 12/15/12

Faux Nooz Beavers Blame "Games": NONE of the "women of Fox" are there because they possess any particular journalistic talents. They are ALL there because they 1) have pretty faces, and 2) are willing to sit on low divans in short skirts and flash their panties to keep the geezers watching and the demographic sound.

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and analyst Keith Ablow got together on the network today to chat about some of the factors in today's tragic shooting in Connecticut. "You mentioned earlier how people lose themselves in online activities, gaming and what have you," Kelly remarks. "Reality TV is no friend of preventing such things," Ablow responds. "Facebook is no friend of preventing such things." What fantastic, nuanced analysis.

P.S.: You Can't make Up Shit Like This:
The Second Most Powerful Gun Lobby in the Country is Located in Newtown, Conn.
Jordan Sargent
"Today's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. happened in the shadow of the headquarters of one of the biggest gun lobbies in the country: the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is just three miles away from the school. The NSSF pales in both stature and power to the NRA, but they still actively work to ease laws and regulations for gun owners and supporters.

Lydia DePillis of The New Republic reports that the NSSF has spent over $500,000 in 2012 on pro-gun lobbying (compared to the NRA's $2.2 million), most of which went to a D.C. lobbyist.

The lion's share of that went to Patrick Rothwell, the group's director of government relations, who served for three years as chief of staff to the House Republican Policy Committee. He spent a lot of time this year working on legislation that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating chemicals in gun ammunition and fishing equipment, and the organization has backed a slew of concealed-carry bills.

DePillis also reports that the NSSF spent $26,000 this campaign season and is frequently consulted by reporters writing facile "he said, she said" stories to give a pro-gun point of view. The foundation takes in $26 million per year and its CEO makes over $300,000 per year. The NSSF's location in Newtown is an incidental coincidence, of course, but an unfortunate one nonetheless in light of today's events."

The Daily Bleat, 12/14/12

My pal Stephen Banks--aka "Dirk Gently" from a 'bluer' life---made the following remarks today on his wall and they are so apposite and on point that I want to repeat them:

(Corporations are NOT "people.") But the people who run them are.

The "bank" didn't launder drug money. Someone used it to do so.

Stop saying that the bank laundered money, or the stole someone's house, or the bank gambled away pension funds.

The bank was just the instrument used by actual living breathing people, and those people should be accountable. Name them."

And arrest them, and try them, and put them in prisons to rot for their crimes. And if you cannot do that, then stay the fuck out of our way when we come for them!

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This makes so much sense that I am absolutely CERTAIN the troglodytic, drooling tools at the top of BOTH parties will ignore it:  

Rebuild from Sandy using environmentally friendly technologies.

Restore the infrastructure to be able to SURVIVE the next storm, because there will BE a "next" storm, and it will be as bad as or worse than SANDY: Put solar panels on every rebuilt roof. Bury the utility lines. Use green materials and best practices. Train workers.

Remember the "Shock Doctrine?" Here's a chance to use the shock of a disaster to actually do GOOD for once.

But of course, they won't do it.

No, they won't. Because if they used the opportunity to bring POSITIVE change, they'd be accused of "socialism" or worse by the corpoRat fucknozzles who profit exorbitantly from and therefore want to preserve the status quo untouched.

Ignorant, peon-asswipes would resist, and object, and refuse.

We are SOOOOOOO Fucked.

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The ONLY "deals" that Shamwow has EVER "negotiated" have been "bad" deals.
Without exception, when there was a negotiation and the peoples' interests were on the line (the Public option, NDAA, reining in banksters, tax cuts for the wealthy, the social safety net), the skeevy fuckstick has sold us out EVERY FUCKING TIME! And will continue to do so, GAY-RON-TEED, as Justin Wilson usta say...

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Clancy ("Cunt-hair") Thomas: This skeevy, sleazy, cheating, lying shitheel--arguably the MOST corrupt, most mendacious, most dishonest, least effective, least transparent, least forthcoming public official in the history of the whole fucking country--deserves to be impeached, removed from the Court, indicted for Federal and State crimes, disbarred, tried, and sent to Leavenworth to spend the last days of his useless fucking life making little ones outta big ones in that harsh, unrelenting Kansas sun on the rock-pile at Leavenworth.

Or just die, motherfucker.

He was chosen by GHW ("Poppi") Bush as an implicit affront to all the members of the civil rights community who demanded Bush appoint another black Justice to replace Thurgood Marshall. Poppi, who possesses a "god-father-like" sense of humor, earnestly sought around to find the most reprehensible, laziest, most self-loathing, race-hating, wanna-be-white NEGRO he could find, and that was Clancy Thomas.

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In re: Tea-baggers' loathing for the REST of us.

The Tea-baggers were the dullards and drones in college (if they even went), the kids who played by all the stupid rules, never smoked weed, never dropped acid, never got laid, just went to class and got their "Cs," worked REALLY hard, and then became Assistant Managers at Payless Shoes.

OF COURSE the fuckers hated (and still hate) those of us who pressed the envelope.

The Daily Bleat: 12/13/12

Woody Sez: The people's man, St. Barry, the Pale, the bright beacon for hope and change, the "First Black American President," seems to be fine with this (though there are mutterings that the Dims may fiond spine enough to resist it.): raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67. But what the FUCK? Extending the eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67 is, effectively, a death sentence for MANY of those forced to wait. Is he gonna count those bodies as part of his "legacy," too, along with the central Asian drone-kill?

"Naked Capitalism on Death by Medicare:
"Remember, this isn’t a story of heartbreak and sadness.It’s a story of murder by policy. Medicare isn’t a welfare system where people are getting charity from the state, it’s a social insurance system that these people have already paid for. Increasing the eligibility age for Medicare isn’t shared sacrifice is simply confiscating the property that people prepaid for and that they need to stay alive. Morally, it’s no different than choosing 1261 people aged 65 and 66, disproportionately picking more black and/or poor people, and killing them so that you don’t have to honor the promise they paid for that they would get health care at 65."

Did you REALLY not know that this skeevy shitstick was gonna fuck you when you elected him? Really??

And then I wrote:
Will SOMEONE please explain why so many folks seem to think that the next 4 years are gonna be different from the LAST four years?

The GOPhux still hold the House with a 35-seat majority BEFORE you factor in the Blue Dawgs. Harry Reid says he's got the votes to modify the filibuster rule in the Senate; but he had that in the LAST term too, and chickened out.

Obamster is NOT stronger this term than last. His "mandate" is SMALLER, if anything: he won by FEWER electoral votes than in '08, and with a SMALLER percentage of the popular vote.

So, riddle me this: WHY do people think it will be "better" this term? On what evidence do they base their claims? I'm really, really curious.
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Recrudescence: In an effort, lame for even his lame ass, to broach like a festering gobbet of sludge, propelled surfaceward from the very depths of the cesspool that is Righttard, wackloon fucknozzle bloggery, by its own corruption and decay, rises Glenn Reynolds, aka "Instapundit," like a feculent white wail, with retrospective advice for the lackluster GOPhux to remind us again why we ignore him in the first place.
The GOP didn't spend enough time, energy and money attracting the Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, cosmo crowd, condeding them the the Feminist "mean Girls." No, really:

In her 2004 book, “Spin Sisters: How the Women of The Media Sell Unhappiness — and Liberalism — to the Women of America,” Myrna Blyth (a former Ladies Home Journal editor) explained in considerable detail the variety of “Mean Girls” feminism that the women’s media aim at their readers with every issue. The message: There’s one way that women should think; people who don’t think that way are bad and stupid — and if you think the wrong way, women won’t like you.

It doesn't improve.
N.B: He, too, is a "law professor."

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There was a nifty moment in the FA Cup replay of the tie between Hastings and Harrow Town, today, when the side from the lower league, Level 8 Hastings, advanced into the Third Round for the first time ever, and ousted Level 6 side Harrow on penalty kicks after regular and extra time left 'em locked up at 1.
The exuberance and jubilation of the victors, on home ground, was absolutely PALPABLE. The side had never made it even into Round 2 before. Next opponents: Middleborough, formerly a Premier League side who now compete in the second division of the FA, the Championship. They meet in January. +~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

The Daily Bleat: 12/12/12

ITEM: Here's that "tolerate private power" bullshit again!

Wadda load o'crap. Who da fuuk does he think he's kidding?

We don't "tolerate" these fuckers. Who "tolerates" usurping assholes?

They never pay us any mind.

They just do whatever the fuck they wanna do, which is always "legal," and we take it in the shorts!

Tolerate? Fuck me! We have NO FUCKING CHOICE!@!!
 Chuy, jodido!

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ITEM: Don't be fucking naive, people.

These folks NEVER do anything for the "good" of anyone but themselves.

If they're dropping opposition, it's because they know they'll never have to pay 'em, anyway, after they hire the next battaliuon of MBA and former Cabinet officials to evade and/or avoid 'em.

Some of the nation's leading executives drop opposition to boosting taxes on wealthiest Americans

www.dailykos.com

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ITEM: Your job-site benefits--all of them: weekends, paid vacation, health care, 40 hr week, overtime, work place safety, everything--were bought with the blood of workers, your parents and ancestors. Nothing was "given." People bled and died for 'em.

So now, if the motherfucking Bosses are gonna rescind the deal, it ought to cost them a full measure of that same blood that was spillled to win them.

Make them PAY, like for like, if they're gonna to renege,

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ITEM: BOTH were correct:Big Brother's jackboots only await the moment when the Soma wears off.

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ITEM: This is an apocryphal, unsourced statement of which, though it could well have been made, there is no reliable record. 

Regardless, Poppi's murderous, conniving, anti-democratic fucking CIA thug whose passing should be wished for by ANY sentient citizen. 

Oh, yeah. I forgot treasonous.

He and Bill Casey negotiated with the Iranian Mullahs in Paris, in 1980, to prevent the release of the Embassy hostages before the 1980 election, to deprive Carter of his October surprise, in direct contravention of Section 2 of the US Constitution. He should be stood against a fucking wall and shot.:
http://bit.ly/TheAwakeningOnFB

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Nobody in elected office wants there to ever be MORE voters than the ones who were eligible when THEY got elected.

They may claim to want to expand the franchise, but they lie in their rotting teeth.

And election officials in all 50 states are also elected.

So it aintagunnahapun...

Eric Holder: Time To Consider National Voting Standards

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com

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Woody thinkz: An ostensibly "democratic" society/culture in which people/workers spend between a third and a half of their WHOLE lifetimes sniveling and groveling for pathetic crumbs at the feet of totalitarian Bosses--even more when you consider the intrusive, coercive surveillance the Bosses exert over us even when we're NOT at work: THIS is not a "free" society.
Here speaks the authentic voice of the "True Fucktard Intelligentsia." Read it and weep.

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

By: Human Events
5/31/2005 03:00 AM

HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books nominated. A title received a score of 10 points for being listed No. 1 by one of our panelists, 9 points for being listed No. 2, etc. Appropriately, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing.
1. The Communist Manifesto

Authors: Karl Marx and Freidrich (sic) Engels
Publication date: 1848
Score: 74
Summary: Marx and Engels, born in Germany in 1818 and 1820, respectively, were the intellectual godfathers of communism. Engels was the original limousine leftist: A wealthy textile heir, he financed Marx for much of his life. In 1848, the two co-authored The Communist Manifesto as a platform for a group they belonged to called the Communist League. The Manifesto envisions history as a class struggle between oppressed workers and oppressive owners, calling for a workers’ revolution so property, family and nation-states can be abolished and a proletarian Utopia established. The Evil Empire of the Soviet Union put the Manifesto into practice.

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2. Mein Kampf
Author: Adolf Hitler
Publication date: 1925-26
Score: 41
Summary: Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was initially published in two parts in 1925 and 1926 after Hitler was imprisoned for leading Nazi Brown Shirts in the so-called “Beer Hall Putsch” that tried to overthrow the Bavarian government. Here Hitler explained his racist, anti-Semitic vision for Germany, laying out a Nazi program pointing directly to World War II and the Holocaust. He envisioned the mass murder of Jews, and a war against France to precede a war against Russia to carve out “lebensraum” (“living room”) for Germans in Eastern Europe. The book was originally ignored. But not after Hitler rose to power. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, there were 10 million copies in circulation by 1945.

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3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
Author: Mao Zedong
Publication date: 1966
Score: 38
Summary: Mao, who died in 1976, was the leader of the Red Army in the fight for control of China against the anti-Communist forces of Chiang Kai-shek before, during and after World War II. Victorious, in 1949, he founded the People’s Republic of China, enslaving the world’s most populous nation in communism. In 1966, he published Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, otherwise known as The Little Red Book, as a tool in the “Cultural Revolution” he launched to push the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese society back in his ideological direction. Aided by compulsory distribution in China, billions were printed. Western leftists were enamored with its Marxist anti-Americanism. “It is the task of the people of the whole world to put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism, and chiefly by U.S. imperialism,” wrote Mao.

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4. The Kinsey Report
Author: Alfred Kinsey
Publication date: 1948
Score: 37
Summary: Alfred Kinsey was a zoologist at Indiana University who, in 1948, published a study called Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, commonly known as The Kinsey Report. Five years later, he published Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. The reports were designed to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy. “Kinsey’s initial report, released in 1948 . . . stunned the nation by saying that American men were so sexually wild that 95% of them could be accused of some kind of sexual offense under 1940s laws,” the Washington Times reported last year when a movie on Kinsey was released. “The report included reports of sexual activity by boys–even babies–and said that 37% of adult males had had at least one homosexual experience. . . . The 1953 book also included reports of sexual activity involving girls younger than age 4, and suggested that sex between adults and children could be beneficial.”

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5. Democracy and Education

Author: John Dewey
Publication date: 1916
Score: 36
Summary: John Dewey, who lived from 1859 until 1952, was a “progressive” philosopher and leading advocate for secular humanism in American life, who taught at the University of Chicago and at Columbia. He signed the Humanist Manifesto and rejected traditional religion and moral absolutes. In Democracy and Education, in pompous and opaque prose, he disparaged schooling that focused on traditional character development and endowing children with hard knowledge, and encouraged the teaching of thinking “skills” instead. His views had great influence on the direction of American education–particularly in public schools–and helped nurture the Clinton generation.

http://www.humanevents.com/2005/05/31/ten-most-harmful-books-of-the-19th-and-20th-centuries/
And THAT's just the top FIVE? Doesn't it read as if it were composed by Johah ("J-Load," aka 'the Doughy Pantload') Goldberg?