The Bleat Goes On: Football Rapists; Media Boxes;

Rapist Jocks: Woody don't have a dog in this fight, but it seems to me that the whole culture of football has become debased, decayed and degraded far beyond the point here it should be an acceptable part of any civilized society; especially, not for youth.
Let's FIRST stop growing, and then stop coddling these bullies and the thugs. And their enablers. Every person who was involved in the "parties" should be charged as an accomplice, including the parents.
An event such as this one should occasion sanction of the most draconian sort, including shutting down the program, completely, in the school which spawned it.
No football for Steubenville for at least 5 years, and the same sorts of penalties for any other such events elsewhere--and it happens ALL THE TIME.
Fire the coach, and clean house in the whole school administration. They KNEW what was going on. In a town of 19,000, EVERYFUCKINGBODY knew. One of the kids  implicated in the ordeal is the son of the local  prosecutor, for fux sake...
I'd enthusiastically support a measure to surround the whole feculent cess-pit  of "Steubenville" with concertina wire to keep the infection contained.

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It's the Media, Stupid! It is a HUGE mistake to regard the mediated life-world thrown up around us by television and the rest of the flickering screens as mere "entertainment."
They are, in fact, nothing less than the conduits by which the entire culture receives its epistemological marching orders.
Media consolidation, which now has reduced the practical number CorpoRat boardrooms which control the WHOLE of the country's epistemic vocabulary to a mere handful, began in earnest in the late '70s, with the likes of Gannett, Ted Turner, and others. Ben Bagdikian published his first edition of "The Media Monopoly" in 1983, so he had to have gathered the data earlier, and the trends were substantial, evidant, and pernicious even then. My old pal and one-time mentor, Prof Robert Picard, published his own economic analysis of the trend in 1985 and thereby created his own "field."In '83, Bagdikian though that the consolidation of all that social capital in FIFTY companies was a disaster in the making and ALREADY constituted a monopoly. Today the number of companies holding controlling interests in the American media "marketplace" is only SIX.
The phenomenon even got a "name" to make it "legit": Media Consolidation," and Billy, the Clenis, Clinton reified it all when he (enthusiastically) signed the Communications Act OF 1996.
There is a really useful, albeit significantly out-dated, graphic appended to THIS link:

The Bleat Goes On: Wurds; Young Earth; "Free Will?" Selective Outrage

What books kids read in school only really matters if you think/believe that those are the ONLY books those kids will EVER read.
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Wurd!: As a "word-nerd," a "syntax-snob" and a "grammatik-geek," I totally concur...

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Remember: Those people who believe this arrant nonsense also drive cars, purchase weapons, and spew children like horny rodents.

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"Free will" is a scam
It was invented by priests and their satraps in civil authority as a way to assign blame to the peons, themselves, for their inability to avoid or escape the traps which the churches and the royalty set up to keep them in their low estate, and make them accept it as "natural."
The VERY best for which an individual may hope is a limited amount of "local autonomy," which permits the ILLUSION of choice in a narrow range of basically insignificant matters.

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 Selective Outrage?Woody callz bullshit! Waco is Jonestown for white people.

In any case, there were enough weapons and ammo IN the Davidian house--and they were using them-- that, if the claims that guns protected you were sustainable, the Davidians should have been able to repel the attack, nest paw?
It seems to me that the Dividians provide an effective counter-example: It doesn't matter HOW well armed you are, if the Gummint wants to gitcha, they GONNA!

And why is this the paradigm case? There's a lot of selective outrage: Nobody raised a similar hue and cry when the City of Philadelphia fire-bombed a tenement block in West Philly to dislodge MOVE, and 11 people, including 5 kids, died, and 65 homes were destroyed in 1985 (Raygun's folks presided.)

But, hey, they were only uppity blacks, so I guess it didn't really count?

 

The Bleat Goes On: Lying; Fixing, and Puking

• Everybody lies.
  We all lie, mostly about the little shit: forgetting something, or doing or not doing something we shouldn't or should have.
  Be of clear conscience: The Bible, at least, does not FORBID lying.
  Only "speaking falsely about one's neighbor," or slander.
  If everyone DIDN'T lie, the "Big Lie" wouldn't ALWAYS work, and it does, spectacularly, and predictably.

  
  

  

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The Fix NOT In: ALL these fixes make SOOOOO much sense, I sense that they will become law when coal develops a sense of touch.
Not Sir Barry, who once again negotiated away his advantages and ended up truckling to the GOPhux.
Certainly not the GOPhux themselves.
NEVER MIND the Dims. They couldn't pass gas in a sausage factory.
So, what who have here is a nice, neat catalogue of solutions to problems nobody in DC will admit we have.

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Ralph!: A year (the New one)--so far--of illness and discomfort:
Yrs. Truly, apparently misunderestimated the strength and tenacity of whatever bug it is which has taken up residence at the lower end of my my alimentary canal.
Recall: It started Saturday night with several epic bouts nausea, which continued intermittently throughout Sunday. It seemed to subside on Monday; or, rather, it changed the orifice out of which it expressed itself, reemerging as explosive diarrhea, which I have endured for the last 36 hours until, seemingly unsatisfied with the amount of discomfort it imposed on my anal passage, and with the renewed material supplied by my (foolhardy) endeavors to eat "normally," it recrudesced about an hour ago to revive as nausea, again.
Now that it has re-emptied my system, it apparently has gone of for a bit of R-and-R, but I am have no illusions that it does NOT patiently await my next efforts at replenishing my internal food store before returning in full force.
I am grown weary of it all...

The Bleat Goes On: Faint Falsehoods

 There is a persistent problem with MANY of these iconic posts, mostly that they are usually, in some significant aspect, totally wrong.
Such is the case here.
You can't accept and agree with shit just because the claims are plausible.
Plausible, but false.
Not that the sentiment is altogether misguided; only that the data used to elicit that sentiment is dubious.
Look it up...

Here's another example:

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I do wish smart people would stop posting this without checking if the claims made are accurate...which they are not.
Google Government pensions: When I did it just now, there were more than 93 MILLION pages...
I wouldn't mind that, actually, so much, if as a condition of their pensions they were required to abstain completely from trying to sell their DC skills to the private sector.
Make 'em an offer they can't refuse: Take the pension, the health care, the rest of the federal retirement bennies OR go private.
Not both.

Here's yet another one.  
This is another of those things which are bandied about and which are SORT of true, but are too readily and too simplistically and too thoughtlessly accepted by too many only partially informed readers.
Of the "value" of the debt, in general, the "majority"--about 30%--is owed to Social Security, but it is far less than the "more than 50%" which the lexicon suggests.

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The Bleat Goes On: Off the Cliff!

Just Binness: What should NOT be forgotten in this "Fiscal Cliff " farago of lies and misinformation is that the USofA owes the MAJORITY of its debt to ITSELF, payable in its OWN currency, at any rate or schedule it may decide. Even the 'debt' we owe to outsiders is denominated in our own currency.
The thing is, is is NOT a "crisis," except that it has been manufactured ands sold by the placid, stenographic "press" as one of those "shocks" which are often invented and always used by the Bosses/Owners to provide the excuse for anti-democratic, and/or anti-popular programs and projects which would otherwise not see the light of day. The PATRIOT ACT was a memorable example.
The thing to remember is the whole fiscal cliff thing was Shamwow's idea, designed to blackmail 'liberals' into going along with "entitlement" cuts that Shamwow has wanted since Day One, 2009, after the failure of HIS very own "Catfood (Bowles/Simpson) Commission" to make those recommendations which he would then "regretfully" implemented.
It's nothing personal, you understand: he's under ORDERS to fuck us.

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An Offer You Can't Refuse:  In reporting labor conflicts and actions, the press always follow this formula: Unions and workers "demand," while CorpoRats and bosses "offer."
In fact the "offer" by the bosses is every much a "demand" as the "demand" by the workers is an offer. But there is a rhetorical advantage in being seen to be reasonable, while the reverse inheres with the notion of a demand.

I knew LONG before he was elected that Pres. Shamwow was NOT an avatar of hope OR change when, in all his public pronouncements, he never once tried to redefine the terms of the debate. He NEVER challenged the corruption of the term "entitlement,." for instance--it has since turned out that the reason for his reticence was and is because he is actively hostile to the programs which constitute the USer social safety net. 

He actually revealed these things unabashedly in the '08 and '12 campaigns. In the first case, in an interview with the editorial board of some important media outlet,  he first revealed that Reagan had been his "favorite" president, and then that he was embarrassed by the "excesses" of the counterculture of the '60s and '70s. I've said before, on hearing that, I felt like he was standing on my/our shoulders, shitting noisily on my/our heads.

The fucker...

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The Bleat Goes On: Killer Weed; Killer Teachers; Killer Buds;

"Killer" Weed:  The TRUE reason hemp is and will remain a "controlled substance" is because of the threat its non-psycho-active qualities and properties pose to ecologically disastrous, but well-established, 'profitable' (if the EXTERNALIZED costs are ignored) businesses and industries which would be threatened, if not out-right eradicated--think cotton--by the competition with the products derived from nature's "miracle weed."
There are a MINIMUM of 25 THOUSAND, non-psychotropic uses for it. Here are some "Little known Hemp facts": 

The original diesel motor was designed to run on hemp oil.
An acre of hemp produces as much paper-quality pulp as FOUR acres of trees.
Hemp oil is the highest source of essential omega 3 and 6 fatty acids

See, e.g.: Hemp versus Marijuana: Myths & Realities

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Killer Pedagogy: Wayne LaPierre and the rest of the moronic, drooling, bloody-minded gun goons want to ARM teachers in classrooms to intervene if/when another incident such as the Sandy Point slaughter should begin to unfold. Here's one BIG problem (or two, depending):

To keep a gun in a classroom safe from the hands or attentions of the children, it would need to be kept in a gun-safe, or on the teacher's person at all times.
If in a gun-safe, it would be difficult to access in an emergency.
If on the teacher's person, it would be FAR too much of a responsibility for someone who is as often distracted as typically teachers can be.
Plus, to USE a gun properly in a life-threatening situation--to actually SHOOT someone--takes dozens of HOURS and thousands of rounds of practice. Even trained soldiers often simply blaze away, blindly, in a fire-fight. Coolness under fire only comes with experience.
And I'd add: Do you REALLY want teachers who are trained killers in your child's classrooms, anyway?

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Weed Killer: The BIGGEST problem with bringing into gummint guys like this TAYLOR fuckstick, with a career and a LOT of money invested in Big Agra, and who won't EVER (and would never even DREAM to) devote their lives to public service, izzat they have "conflicting" loyalties; i.e., they will be RETURNING to the industries from which they've been drafted, and so will (naturally) at least be tempted to use their gummint positions to sweeten their eventual returns to the private sector.

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Killer Apps: USers are funny.
They are utterly, totally, completely immersed in the endless, insidious streams of propaganda emanating from the CorpoRat State, its lap-dog, bought-and-paid-for media, their religions, the constant, unavoidable flow of advertisements, and yet they'll proudly proclaim THEY aren't affected by it.

BUT, they'll then turn around and assure you there is a "real" difference between Ford and Chevy, Bud and Coors, McDonald's and Wendy's, Catholics and Baptists, Dims and GOPhux, etc...There's a "difference" between a Ford and a fig-tree. There is none between a Bud Light and a Coors Lite other than spelling... 

We live in the world's biggest, most comprehensive, most sophisticated, most carefully built Skinner box, the boundaries of which are maintained by the flickering blue screens by which we are perpetually surrounded. What we are operantly conditioned to do is to consume without complaint or compunction.  We are manipulated every MINUTE of the day. EVERYTHING is "mediated," and by the very definition of the term, manipulation is implied.

No word is heard, no image seen, in the CorpoRat culture which has not passed before the critical eyes of some corpoRat media maven, or some Frank-Luntz-clone, to make certain it accords with the relevant elements of the master narrative of which it is a part.

The Operant Conditioning Chamber, aka The Skinner Box

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Kill the Messenger: Until such time as electronic messaging is totally ubiquitous, as commo9n as electricity, and access to the Netz can be had as cheaply and reliably as a stamp, there is a PRESSING, PUBLIC NEED for the Postal Service.

The Oligarchs, Owners, and Oners want only to destroy the Postal Unions. They have NO care about what happens to the people served by the Post Office.

IF YOU SHARE IT! THEY WILL SIGN!
---- http://www.saveourpostoffice.us/ourpetition.html ----

"PETITION TO SAVE POST OFFICE!"
Mail a postcard mailed to: Save Our Post Office, Post Office Box 5041, Terre Haute, IN 47805

 

 Let's try not to be too "correct" or inoffensive about all this, shall we?

 The Postal Service has been the object of perpetual, perennial Congressional butt-fucking since Raygun's days. The Owners and Bosses want to destroy the Postal Unions, the most powerful still in the Federal govt. It IS as simple as that.

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Killer Reagan: Based on the argument that the GOPhux might NOT have become the pack of slavering loons, racist fuckwitz, and/or corpoRat felons without it having been led astray by Ronald Raygun, his handlers, and their gunsels, toadies, and lickspittles, a commentator blames Raygun for "killing" the GOP. 

Maybe...

The true author of our minently successful, unquestionably triumphant, nearly universal, neo-fascist counter-revolution, the concluding days of which we are now enjoying, was Lewis F. Powell, who was appointed to the SCROTUS in 1972, but not BEFORE he had created for and bestowed upon his friend and neighbor, the COO of the US Chamber, a memorandum in which Powell outlined the steps the oligarchs and bosses would have to undertake to subvert all the "liberal" institutions of the State and the People, and thereby regain their rightful place atop the hegemonic structures of the nation. 

Powell, who was still on the Court when Raygun treasonably stole the '80 election, was the architect of the rise of what we now know as the CorpoRat Rightwing who took over all the institutions of culture and society from their positions in the nation's boardrooms. 

If you want to see exactly HOW the fascisti triumphed in the years since Raygun, find and read 'The Powell Memorandum."

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The Bleat Goes On: Lawyers, Guns & Money

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Ready, Aim...: This is the weapon  of choice of the Sandy Point killer: a Bushmaster .223cal semi-automatic "street-sweeper." Despite the apparent similarity in calibration, this weapon bears NO physical nor functional resemblance to your childhood, bolt-action .22.

I'd like the advocates for the "right" to HAVE one of these things, in any civilized surroundings, to explain to me FROM WHAT/WHOM they expect to employ this device for protection.

To be frank, I don't really trust ANYBODY with a gun, and especially THAT gun. Nobody can't derail, and go all fuuking postal. This kind of weapon just makes 'em MORE lethal when they snap.

But actually, I'm opposed to semi- and automatic weapons in public hands on principle. I think it quite reasonable to limit the "people's" armories to muzzle-loaded flintlocks, either long or short, as the Framers intended.


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Woody warnz: This is just the tip of the feculent fucktard iceberg, the Koch Bros.
There's still the Olins , and the Coors, and the Mellon-Scaiffe, Adelson, and ALEC (still HUGELY influential), AEI, and Heritage...
All are the linear descendants of the Powell memorandum, and the direction of Assoc. Justice Lewis Powell, who led the rightard/corpoRat counter-insurrection of the 70s and 80s which resulted in Raygun and the complete defilement of the Public Sphere.
Google is really reluctant to give the names of the worst offenders.Google "Wealthiest Rightwing Tycoons" and NOTHING comes up...

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Don't be misled. This DOES NOT MEAN there are more jobs, or fewer unemployed workers. It's a statistical trick. It means that there are fewer people APPLYING for unemployment compensation.

But MANY of them were the "other 99ers," the people who were granted 99-week extensions for their unemployment compensation whose 99-week extensions have expired this month without them yet having found jobs to replace those they were DISEMPLOYED from by the Bosses.

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Woody thinkz: This is sugar coating.
The fact of the matter is that NOTHING EVER goes "back" the way it "was."
Get used to it...

 

The Bleat Goes On: A Whole Convo

This is how I spend my days:
18 minutes ago ·

• Those who defend their 'right' to possess and potentially use high-powered, battlefield-appropriate, military-style firearms to "protect" themselves and theirs have to answer one serious question:
  
  From whom/what do you suppose your pop-gun armory is going to defend you?
  
  By their evasions shalt thou know them...

  Like · · · Share · Promote

  • Stephen Noll, Zulu Penguin, Ajagbe Adewole-Ogunade and 8 others like this.
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    Doug Milliken Funny how the NRA didn't say, after Trayvon Martin was killed, that every young black man should carry a gun to be safe.

    16 minutes ago · Edited · Like · 7
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    Terran Perro Good arsenals make good, dead neighbors.

    15 minutes ago · Like · 1
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    Alexander Lotorto I'm wondering what gun laws the gun control advocates propose that would have prevented the CT shootings.

    15 minutes ago · Like · 2
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    Doug Milliken *steps aside*

    14 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak The assault rifle ban would have prevented the shooter's mom from acquiring one. Since that apparently was the only weapon he used--including the clip he emptied into mom's head--that could have kept the body count lower, if not prevented it altogether.
    Most weapons used in these indicents have been obtained legally by the shooters.

    12 minutes ago · Like · 4
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    Alexander Lotorto Lanza would have used his two hand guns. Next?

    11 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak Why didn't he, then? Thanks for playing...

    11 minutes ago · Like · 2
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    Alexander Lotorto Because he had an assault rifle, but could have easily shot as many people with his hand guns.

    10 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak But if you're proclaiming the right, then answer the question:
    From whom/what are your citizen-killing shooting irons gonna protect you?

    10 minutes ago · Like · 1
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    Alexander Lotorto It doesn't matter, it's our right to own them.

    9 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak If you're a shooter,m you know it's lots harder to hit a target with a hand-gun with one hand than with two hands on a long gun.
    Avoiding the question betrays a certain uneasy self-awareness of the answer, nest paw?

    8 minutes ago · Like · 1
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    Alexander Lotorto Do you support Obama?

    7 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak Another dodge?

    7 minutes ago · Like · 1
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak Gettin jumpy?

    7 minutes ago · Like
  • 

    Alexander Lotorto I'm wondering why you aren't spending more time and energy on the antiwar movement

    7 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak I multi-task. I gotta ph-fucking-d. I can handle it.

    6 minutes ago · Like · 1
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    Alexander Lotorto Assault weapons don't kill as near as many people as they do in civilian hands as Obama's military.

    6 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak Answer the question, yet?

    6 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak Relevance?

    5 minutes ago · Like
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    Terran Perro Right, and LaPierre said he could just as easily have killed them all with a baseball bat. If handguns were equal, why use an AR? Handguns are easier to hide. For some odd reason he chose am assault rifle.

    5 minutes ago · Like
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    Alexander Lotorto I am a skilled gun owner and can hit any target at the distance Lanza was shooting at with a rifle, handgun, BB gun. It was a ruthless slaughter

    5 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak More dodge's than a carnival ride.
    It shoiuld be easy. "I need that kind of protection from...And fill in the blank...

    4 minutes ago · Like
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    Alexander Lotorto The mob and the gas industry that have issued me death threats?

    4 minutes ago · Like
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    Ajagbe Adewole-Ogunade Ban ALL semiautomatic weapons.

    4 minutes ago · Like
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    Woody NinetyNiner Konopak Show us the evidence--like getting a warrant--swear out a complkaint, and you can get a waiver.

--30--
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