Hitchens On North Korea

Via Slate:

All of us who scrutinize North Korean affairs are preoccupied with one question. Do these slaves really love their chains? The conundrum has several obscene corollaries. The people of that tiny and nightmarish state are not, of course, allowed to make comparisons with the lives of others, and if they complain or offend, they are shunted off to camps that—to judge by the standard of care and nutrition in the "wider" society—must be a living hell excusable only by the brevity of its duration. But race arrogance and nationalist hysteria are powerful cements for the most odious systems, as Europeans and Americans have good reason to remember. Even in South Korea there are those who feel the Kim Jong-il regime, under which they themselves could not live for a single day, to be somehow more "authentically" Korean.

Let Us Hope That The World Never Forgets The Might of Christopher Hitchens

I was awoken this morning by the news, that I had been bracing myself for the past several months, of the death of Christopher Hitchens. He was my hero, and a great man. Great not because he stuck to his beliefs and opinions even though they might offend some, but because of how he arrived at those views. Any tinpot polemicist can hold their views no matter what (and what a poor polemicist they would be if they could be convinced to change their mind), but Hitchens was a true intellectual in the most original sense of the term. His was a talent that will be sorely missed in this world. He was brave and courageous, insightful and thorough, passionate and above all a fantastic writer. It is that last strength of his that makes me hesitate to finish the rest of my points in prose. So instead I will list them below.

-Hitchens force of intellect jarred me out of a complacent mild de facto atheism into 'coming out of the closet' as it were, as an out and proud atheist.

-He made some of the best and most forceful arguments in favor of the power and responsibility of a free press and the power of free speech in a society that wishes to call itself free:

-I will, so long as I am on this earth, regret that I never had the honor of meeting this great man in person. I am consoled by the fact that it will take me years to read through all the work that he has bestowed to the rest of us.

-He recognized the power and smoothness of Johnnie Walker Black Label. A lesser man like Churchill limped by with Red.

-If one were to boil down what animated Hitchens throughout his whole career, it would be a resistance to and fight against totalitarianism and arbitrary authority. Be it the British monarchy, religion, god, Mother Theresa or dictatorial despots, he hated nothing more than unelected and unaccountable power. On that last point, how fitting it is that he died the week that Americans withdrew from Iraq. Given his love of literature, I am take comfort in the belief that the correlation did not escape him.

The sad truth of such powerful writers is that, through they wield influence and attention in their prime, they often quickly fade from the scene. I beg of you, please do not forget this man. Do not forget this lessons, his opinions, and his writings. And through you may not like where his thinking led, please do not forget how he got to those opinions.

Hitchens provides a lesson to us all - think for yourself, and let no man shake you of what you believe to be right.

In Morning - Long Live Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens is nothing short of my hero and idol. I'll have more to write later, but for now I will leave you with the kind of eulogy Hitch deserves:

Congress Literally Passed The Wrong Bill Last Night

When it comes to metaphors for the inability for Congress to function properly, I don't think you could come up with one better than this:

Due to human error, the House on Monday and Senate on Tuesday both passed a pipeline safety bill all right, but an earlier version of the bill — not the final bipartisan, bicameral compromise.“There was a House clerical error and we expect the correcting resolution to be approved in the House and Senate without issue,” said Caley Gray, a spokesman for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who was a lead author of Senate pipeline safety legislation this year. The Senate was the one that discovered the error, Gray added.

Somehow both bodies rose above their usual stubbornness, and yet only achieved incompetence.

Romney Shows Why We'll Eventually Gain Marriage Equality

Romney is confronted, face-to-face and on the same level, by a married gay veteran:



It's one thing to mindlessly repeat he vapid mantra that 'I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman' to a camera or an audience. It's a far different experience to tell a gay man, and a veteran no less, to his face that he should be a second class citizen because of what 'I believe'.

Exclusive Video Footage of #OccupyDC Planning Meeting

Drones & Groans has received exclusive inside video of the main planning body of the Occupy DC movement:

What Would You Do In The Vatican Library?

When I was a teenager, my parents and I went to Rome for a week and a half at the end of my summer break. It was a great end to a summer before the school year began again, and it was also a good time to get out of New York (this was during the 2004 Republican National Convention). Like all tourists, we went to the Vatican. My mother made sure to mail a few postcards in order to have them stamped with that Vatican stamp, and of course we toured St. Peter's Basilica. In there, they had set aside a small room for quiet prayer. I went in to take a look around, repeating the mantra "There is no god" under my breath. That was my snotty teenage act of resistance to the violent religious iconography around me. This was Tony Perrottet's:

This revamped library, I discovered, was even Wi-Fi-enabled, so I logged on to my laptop and did a Facebook update, announcing that I had penetrated the Holy See. 

At the age of 9, I was kicked off my home church’s team of altar boys because I couldn’t get the Mass choreography right. Now, something about being in the belly of the Vatican brought out the schoolboy in me. I logged on to youtube.com, and saw that even here in the Holy See, I could start streaming HBO’s raunchy series on the Renaissance Papacy,The Borgias: One scene labeled “hot sex” between Juan Borgia and Sancia looked promising. 

A friend emailed back: “I dare you to log onto youporn.com.”

I looked around furtively. I was sitting in the last row of desks. At the click of a mouse, up sprang an eye-popping scene of acrobatic copulation. 

Luckily, I’d remembered to mute my laptop.

An All Natural Cure For Impotence

Listening to Howlin Wolf is far cheaper than the little blue pill:

Proof That Legal Same Sex Marriage Is The Future Of America

A new Public Policy Poll shows increased support for same sex marriage, in Arizona of all places:

When you look at the age breakdown on this issue you can see where public opinion is headed: 48% of seniors think gay marriage should not be allowed, while only 39% think it should be. But among voters under 30, 57% think it should be legal to only 25% who think it should be illegal... 

72% of voters, including even 59% of Republicans, support some type of legal recognition for same sex couples either in the form of full marriage rights or civil unions.  Just 27% are totally opposed to any kind of recognition [emphasis added]

With numbers like that (and the demographic break down), this game is over. Arizona is of course not exactly the most liberal state in the union, but maybe some of that Goldwate-style libertarianism has stayed with them.

Excellent Explination For and Result Of Anti-Semitism

From Walter Russell Mead:

Countries where vicious anti-Semitism is rife are almost always backward and poor.  This isn’t, as anti-Semites believe, because the Elders of Zion are plotting to keep Uz-beki-beki-beki-stan poor.  It is because the inability to see the world clearly and discern cause and effect relations in complex social settings is linked to many other failures in economic and political life.  Anti-Semitism isn’t just the socialism of fools; it is the sociology of the befuddled.  The anti-Semite fails to grasp how the world works, and that failure condemns him to endless frustration.  Naturally, this is the fault of the Jews.

The same can be said of conspiracy thinking in general. It's a sign of anti-intellectualism, because it's the easy answer, one that does not require that much complex thinking.

That One Time Mitt Romney Was Arrested

The man with hair so in-place it looks plastic apparently really does not like park rangers interfering with his boat:

IN JUNE 1981, Romney and his family were about to launch their motorboat on Lake Cochituate, west of Boston, when a state park ranger alerted Romney, who was 34 at the time, that he risked a $50 fine because the boat’s registration number was painted over. According to news reports that emerged during his 1994 run for Senate, Romney believed that the number was partly visible, and, against his wife Ann’s advice, proceeded to launch anyway. “I figured I was at the state park with my kids,” Romney told The Boston Globe in 1994. “My five kids were in the car wondering why we weren’t going out in the boat, so I said I’d launch and pay the fine.” The ranger ordered him to shore, put him in handcuffs, and drove him, still in his wet bathing suit, to the Natick police station, where he was booked for disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped a few days later, the case was formally dismissed in February 1982 by Natick District Court, and the court file was sealed at Romney’s request. “He did not have the right to arrest me, because I was not a disorderly person,” he told the Globe.

Romney also once cursed at an 18 year old security officer directing traffic, but who hasn't? 

The Euro Zone Doomsday Machine Has Been Activated

Bear witness ladies and gentleman, because before your very eyes you will have a chance to see what unfolds as a European continent-wide system collapses. These implosions don't happen very often (Concert of Europe, Versailles, etc), so make sure to perk up your ears and focus your eyes for the coming onslaught. Unfortunately these sorts of collapses tend to end with rather big wars, but let's hope this one just ends in a massive world-wide recession. 
And what is this doomsday machine? The collapse of the Euro zone, which might happen as soon as December 9th: 

Unless European leaders agree on a political remedy for their sovereign debt crisis at a December 9 summit, and the European Central Bank then intervenes massively to support government bonds and European banks, the euro may start to unravel.
Foreign investors are already shunning euro area sovereign bonds, European banks are desperately trying to sell assets including bonds, depositors are withdrawing growing amounts from southern European banks, and interbank lending is freezing up, forcing ever more lenders to turn to the ECB for funds.

If plans for some sort of a centralized Euro bond system fails to be adopted, which considering the opposition it faces in Germany is highly likely, Europe will turn to those countries that are still solvent. 'Those countries' is however just another way of saying 'Germany', and there is not that much political support there for a bailout of the rest of Europe. They are already being screwed by the likes of Greece and Italy, and don't want to be played for fools any further. And if Germany doesn't pitch in? The most troubled nations, Greece and Italy, will be forced to default, a move that will drive all of Europe into recession. That's the beginning of the end of the Euro system, and it doesn't improve from there. 

God Bless C-SPAN: Watch Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader Yell At Each Other

C-SPAN won't let me embed, but you can watch here.

Gabrielle Giffords Should Resign For The Sake Of Her District

Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head on January 8, 2011. A sentence like that would normally serve as the end of a person's story. For Congresswoman Giffords, it serves as the beginning. Before that day, she was a rather unnoticed representative who had just won a third term. That most recent election did elicit some press coverage, as she had narrowly defeated a tea party backed Republican opponent. But that pales in comparison to the massive outpouring of attention following the shooting. The initial coverage was largely focused on Sarah Palin, of all people, for her group's use of a gun sight over Gifford's district. That attention was of no use in the end to liberals, since Palin's monumentally off-key response ("blood libel") resulted in the half-term governor's nascent presidential campaign committing suicide. Once the media attention was drawn back to Giffords there was to be no end to their fawning over her life, which continues to this day.

Gifford's life since being shot is indeed amazing. Not only did she live (no small feat unto itself) but she has over the past ten months or so regained the ability to walk and talk. It is a wonderful story of the perseverance of the human body, and of the mortal soul. And as if created by Hollywood screenwriters, she is married to an astronaut, always by her side save for the brief period that he was rocketed into space in the cause of scientific research. (Actually you can scratch that screenwriter reference - such a character would be deemed too cute and perfect, even by the current standards of Hollywood schlock) Gifford's physical journey has made for a wonderful story. When I had first heard that she had been shot I thought that if she didn't end up dying, she would most likely end up in some form of a vegetative state. But she has, I am happy to say, proven me very wrong. As the publicity from her husband's recent book tour can atest, she can not only walk on her own, she can also speak in a rudimentary way.

It is this recovery that brings me around to the main point. Since Giffords was shot on January 8th, the citizens of Arizona's eigth district have been without a voting member of Congress. Her personal story is both tragic and heroic, and mesmerizes us - but those citizens have been without a voice in our federal government's lower chamber. It is true that the rest of her congressional office has been humming with activity. People calling seeking information or help have been aided and directed in the appropriate direction. But the most basic duty, indeed the essential job, of a Representative is to vote, something that Giffords has been unable to do since January 7th (she did show up in the middle of the vote on the debt ceiling vote on August, but that was only to cast a simple 'aye' vote).

Gifford's recent media tour has shown that she is unable to speak in sentences longer than one or two words. Though she can process basic emotions - love of her husband, sadness for those who died on January 8th - it remains to be seen whether she can process the complicated details necessary to understand legislation. And if she cannot understand it, and more practically if her medical needs means she cannot be in Washington, DC, then she cannot vote. Therefore, she should resign. If she has recovered to the point where she could function as a Representative by the 2012 or 2014 elections, then she is free to present her case to the voters. I would strongly suspect that she still holds the seat because she has her doubts as to whether she could win reelection in 2012 were it not for the sympathy of the voters. Her margin of victory was thin in 2010 (138,280 to 134,124), and the nature of her district indicates that it would be just as thin if not thinner in 2012. However, if Congresswoman Giffords wants what is best for her constituents, she should resign and allow the Arizona governor to appoint a representative who is capable of being a voice for the eighth district in Washington.

What Being Gay In New York City Used To Be Like

From New York Magazine, July 1978:

The Ramble [in Central Park] has been in the public eye ever since the assault July 5 by a gang of anti-gay toughs who, at 9:30, just a little after dusk that Wednesday, went wading in with baseball bats, bashing any men they thought were gay. The dull thwack of bats hitting flesh and bone accompanied shouts of "faggot" from the all-white band of defenders of decency. Five men were hospitalized with serious injuries—including Dick Button, a former ice-skating star and now sportscaster...

Dick Morris Is A Soulless Whore

It is a strange person who is attracted to inner-beltway politics in Washington. Sure, some are drawn out of idealism and a desire to improve the world. But most are drawn by nothing more complicated than power. That would force most of us mere mortals to compromise our beliefs in the pursuit of that elusive power. For the inner-beltway elite, though, the process is simpler than that. They have no beliefs. No views on what role the government should play in the economy, or the what role the United States should play in the world. They simply nod their heads in agreement to what ever their party says is correct.That is how most get by in this town.

However, there is an elite of this beltway elite. Those clarified few for whom even party poses no hindrance in their pursuit of power. Example par exlelence: Dick Morris, the former President Clinton aide turned Fox News bloated talking head. He has graced us with his opinions on Newt Gingrich. Morris must think that Gingrich has some chance to grasp the ring of power, based on his frankly embarrassing level of ass kissing.

Morris spends no time in laying the flattery on thick:

As the debates accumulate, it becomes more and more evident that Newt Gingrich’s intellect, experience, articulateness and depth of knowledge elevate him to the top of the GOP field. Anyone should be happy to pay admission to watch him duel with President Obama in debate! ... Ever since the campaign started, Newt has always gotten in his own way. Now he has graciously stepped aside and let his creativity and intellect shine through. 

Yes, Newt has a great intellect, except for those moments when he's to stupid to let it shine through. Trenchant analysis there.

Want to See A Video Of Herman Cain Talking About Something He Knows Nothing About?

The ignorance of this man is simply stunning in its depth:

A Story That Only Politico Could Write

Politico, that Washington-centric naval guazing publication, always stands at the ready to run with the most innane political stories. Will Gray Hairs Doom Obama Presidency? Joe Lieberman Eats Lunch With McCain-Will He Become A Republican?


Today, we have this gem:

Obama has seen his approval ratings dip among virtually every demographic and ideological group of voters — and now he seems in danger of losing their kids, too... 

Back in 2008, 7-year-old Aron Mondschein from Ellington, Conn., wrote a letter to Obama as part of his class’s Flat Stanley project. When he got a response — complete with a picture of Flat Stanley in Obama’s Senate office — he got really excited about the election. 

“I think that it was the excitement that he was running for president, that he is African-American … that was a really big deal for my son; he felt that was important,” said Aron’s mom, Amy Mondschein. Aron, like most of his peers, has since tuned out. 

“If Obama were to set a new law that every boy 10 years old could have Legos, you know, for free, you’d be hearing about it. But right now, he’s kind of into his own things,” his mother said.

Seriously? This crap isn't worth the server space it takes up.

In Memory Of What Today Is Actually About

(No, not Spinal Tap Day)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow      Between the crosses, row on row,   That mark our place; and in the sky   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,         In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw   The torch; be yours to hold it high.   If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow         In Flanders fields.

-John McCrae

In Lighter News: Russian Rocket Uncontrollable, Might Crash With Full Load of Toxic Chemicals

Russian engineering always inspires:

The Russian Phobos-Grunt (Phobos Ground) mission, designed to send an unmanned robotic probe to the Martian moon Phobos and return to earth with soil samples, is in serious trouble after a seemingly successful launch on Tuesday.Russian engineers are struggling to communicate with the spacecraft, which has no bearings and is now stuck in low-Earth orbit, having failed to fire its engines on two occasions...Worse still, if Russian engineers fail to gain control of the probe and cannot launch into a higher orbit, the drag that it endures at its lowest orbital point will eventually cause it to crash back to Earth in an uncontrolled descent, carrying a nearly-full supply of toxic fuels.

That reminds me of my favorite story of inept Russian engineering. During the Second World War, several American B-29 bombers, the most technologically advanced in the world, made emergency landings in the Soviet Union after being damaged during bombing raids over Japan. The Soviets captured the planes and the crew, letting the personnel go after a year or two, though they kept the planes. The Soviets then decided to copy the B-29's down to the rivets and make their own versions, since that would be far quicker than designing a large bomber from scratch. Now, it's important to note that the key feature of the B-29 was that its cabin was pressurized, allowing it to fly higher and therefore further than other aircraft. That meant that the metal skin of the plane was critical, since it had to be thick enough to withstand the pressure.

In reverse engineering the plane, the Soviets ran into a problem: the metal skin was of a gauge measured in inches, while all Soviet steel came in metric increments. So there were no sheets of steel in the Soviet Union that exactly matched the American plane's skin. The two closest would have been just a little thinner, and just a little thicker. Fearing that a thinner skin would be too weak, they built their carbon-copies with the thicker skin. That meant that their version weighed several thousand pounds heavier. The Tu-4, what they dubbed their B-29, had the same dimensions, the same engines, the same fuel and bomb capacity (they even copied improvised repairs made to the American planes) - but weighed so much more that it had half the range as the original. They never realized that their planes needed a larger wing and more powerful engines. The Russians at their finest.

Eric Clapton Comments On Herman Cain

Ok, so it's technically Jack Bruce singing, and it's from 1967, but the song is prophetic nonetheless:

Hey now baby, get into my big black car
I want to show you just what my politics are

Follow Up On Gloria Allred

Having watched today's press conference containing the latest allegations against Herman Cain, I stick by my initial thoughts on Gloria Allred. Anything involving her is destined to become a circus, as the appearance if Howard Stern's producer can attest. Her line about Cain offering his own version of a stimulus package was crass and undermined the entire event. That being said, these allegations are very substantive. Ms. Bialek is not alleging that sexual harassment took place, but that a sexual assault took place. The fact that she is not suing and not seeking any money (from Cain or the media), adds further weight to her claims. I only wish she had chosen an actual attorney to represent her.

Is Gloria Allred Capable Of Staying Away From A Sex Scandal?

No, like a moth to a flame:

A new woman alleging sexual harassment by presidential hopeful Herman Cain will break her silence at a news conference with her powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred Monday afternoon in New York City

You can set your watch by how quickly she runs to a whiff of sex scandal. It's quite obvious that she doesn't actually care about the women involved, all she cares for is the attention. Allred just wants a press conference where she gets to stand next to a woman making an accusation that will get on the evening news. Her interest stops when she gets to the actual lawyerly business of a courtroom. Of course, she is not alone. Many have appointed themselves the official leader of some group under attack. For example:

With Apologies to Jesse Jackson
Get More: SOUTH
PARKmore...

Bonus Freddie King Awesomeness

Freddie King is the only man who can make a Gibson ES-335 look small. And in this video, you will notice that Freddie chose to go with his suit provided by Pepto-Bismol, matched with a shirt collar wider than he is.


Oh, and let's not overlook the lyrics. A sample:

I love the tip, I love the top, I love you better than a hog loves slop'Cause you're a big legged woman, with a short short miniskirt

Pure poetry.

Awesome Musical Performance Of The Day

I would usually not include Freddie 'Texas Cannonball' King in the running for greatest musical performance, if only to give others a chance. But this video of him performing "Ain't No Sunshine" is just a pure masterpiece. Aside from the music, his shirt collar is also a thing of beauty. If it started flapping I think he would get airborne.

Cain Trots Out Henry Kissinger

In what is fast becoming a cliche, a flailing idiotic Republican presidential candidate, clearly ignorant when it comes to matters of foreign policy, wheels out Henry Kissinger for the sake of a photo opp learning experience. How nice of Cain to decide that now is a good time to start learning about foreign policy.

(Via NRO)

The True Wrong Committed In The Cain Case

There is something about a political sex scandal that brings out the worst in our body politic. Our baser instincts get shifted into overdrive, and we all instantly become psychologists trying to delve into the mind of the man (always a man) on the hot seat. We inquire, or rather demand, to learn the most specific and intimate details of a public figure's most private life. It also gives us an opportunity to shed our core convictions in service of 'our side' against' theirs. You can contrast MSNBC's approach to the Anthony Wiener situation to the Cain situation; a man's private life should be private versus hey look at this new rumor!!! And for an example from the other side of the isle, see John Derbyshire saying, in reference to Cain, that sexual harassment does not exist, yet arguing a decade ago that he hated Chelsea Clinton because she didn't hate her father for his extra curricular activities (and say what you will about Clinton's dalliances, but no one disputes that they were consensual).


This brings us to our nation's current sex scandal, that of Herman Cain's. There is a detail that has been overlooked, which is still possible in our age of instant virtual punditry. But first a point of fact - the original case as laid out by Politico is indisputably true. That case, to review, is that two women, in separate instances, accused Cain of sexual harassment while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association. They received a payment, signed confidentiality agreements, and left for other employment. This case is not an accusation, it is a fact, as confirmed by Cain (after initially trying to pretend he didn't remember, a story which managed to last a few hours).

In a clear demonstration of partisan loyalty, Cain has not lost much support. Top conservatives have rallied to his side and his fundraising has skyrocketing in the last week. That will no doubt change in the days to come. Even if no more information surfaces, Cain's clear inability to deal with a situation he knew was coming is ample demonstration that he is manifestly unqualified to be the President of the United States. He had a decade to come up with a response to this case. God forbid he becomes President and is confronted with the news that China has sucessfully tested their first atomic weapon. And that doesn't take into account the question of if we, as a nation, want another sexual harasser in the Oval Office.

Now to the important issue of these two instances of claims of sexual harassment. They are all too typical of these kinds of allegations made against powerful men. Cain was a successful CEO, a man who had made a splash among conservative beltway insiders by taking on President Clinton directly over the later's health care reform proposal, and lead an important trade association. While leading this organization, he is accused, twice, of sexual harassment. The two women involved do not run to the press nor the prosecutor, but seek to handle the matter internally, motivated by some loyalty to their employer. And what results? The women are paid off, forced to sign an agreement by which they can't discuss the matter, and then shuffled out the door.

To recap: a powerful man is accused twice of sexual harassment, and the women harassed are the ones pushed out the door. What's more, Cain has for the past several days been all over the media violating his confidentiality agreement. He even had the nerve to question one of the woman's competency at her job. Yet the two women are still bound by their confidentiality agreement, and have to go begging to the National Restaurant Association in the hopes that they can come forward and tell their side of the story. This makes Cain a schmuck no doubt, but more importantly, it shows just how imbalanced our system of justice can be when the accused is a man of power.

NYC Has A 'Wilde Club' For Young Gay Writers, Why Can't DC Have One Too?

The New York Times, always with their finger on the pulse of the lives of young writers on the Lower East Side (but never, gasp, Brooklyn), exposes the hottest ticket in town for young gay (and incidentally, good looking) writers:

[Wilde Boys founder Alex Dimitrov] was also new to New York City, living on the Lower East Side with a college friend. He longed for a community of writers, and sought to create his own by e-mailing a half-dozen aspiring poets his age — some he knew, some he didn’t — and suggesting they discuss their work at a cafe. “I invited the cute gay poets right away,” Mr. Dimitrov said. “I sort of had a list of gays that I wanted to come, and some of them that I wanted to sleep with.” 

Young talent at it's finest. I firmly support the extension of this idea down the Northeast Regional tracks to Washington, DC (Acela is reserved for the writers who actually make money). And for those wondering, my interest in this is in no way related to a desire to meet gay men in DC my own age who are neither totally vapid nor those on career tracks so narrow that their only extra curricular readings are policy papers.

Where Are The Front Lines In The Defense Of Freedom?

Today they are in France:

The office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo was destroyed after the satirical paper put a drawing of Muhammad on the cover and jokingly named him its "editor-in-chief." No one was hurt.
Witnesses say a Molotov cocktail was hurled through a window, setting fire to the computer system and destroying the entire office. The paper's website was also hacked.

The image that some religious zealot was willing to kill over, by the way, was this:

Jon Huntsman's Father Isn't Helping Him

These sorts of comments do not endear the junior Huntsman to the Republican electorate:

"If he were running for president of China, he would have already won the election," his father said. "But he's had to come here and start from scratch."

Yes, he'd just sail into the leadership of a dictatorial autocracy. But for the whole 'convincing people to vote for him' element, Huntsman would be doing swimmingly. 


And just as important - why didn't his father have the courtesy to tack on an 'h' to his name?

What's The First Thing Al Sharpton Does In The Morning?

From Atlantic Wire:

I'm an early riser so I'm usually up by 5:30. I first open up my laptop to The Huffington Post, Politico, The Grio, The Root, Yahoo and News One. Then I google myself and google my civil rights group National Action Network. [emphasis added]

Should anyone be surprised that Sharpton starts his day by Googling himself?

This Is What Annoys Me About Fox News

I don't really care, as some do, about the political bias of Fox News. Claiming to be neutral is mildly annoying though. But what really bugs me is their claiming to stand in opposition to the 'mainstream media.' Witness this bit from Megyn Kelly interviewing Matt Block (of that awesome Cain video):

“Were you trying to appeal to, you know, folks who are out there, you know, living their lives, working the farm, working in Detroit, that kind of thing as opposed to the East and West Coast elite, people in media circles who shun smoking and, you know, sort of real American things?” [emphasis added]

Look, Fox News, you have to face that you're part of the media elite. You can't attack 'media circles' while in a TV studio located in a huge building owed by a multi-national media conglomerate. And you certainly can't attack those on the coasts while in front of a huge window looking out onto the middle of Manhattan. 

Herman Cain's Entry For The Strangest Campaign Ad Ever Award

From the strange (and most likely high) minds of the Cain 'campaign':

Solid entry into the weird campaign ad contest, but the winner for all eternity is still this gem from the Mike Gravel campaign in 2008:

Short Note To Anyone Calling Obama Weak On National Defense

Let us review the last few months in international affairs. Obama managed a complex and highly risky operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden, something that President Bush couldn't do in nine years. He also approved an operation to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, a man of small but growing operational importance, but great propoganda importance to al-Qaida.
Also, Obama used the United States' influence with Egyptian military leaders to push Mubarak out of power. Faced with a growing rebel movement in Libya which was confronted by the prospect of elimination by the Gaddafi regime, Obama backed an actually multilateral force to fight Gaddafi. It was a force that, most importantly of all, had the backing of numerous African and Arab governments. Today that decision has resulted in the killing of Gaddafi, a goal that President Reagan was unable to achieve by lobbing in a few missiles.
Added to the many terrorist plots that have been stopped by our law enforcement agencies, these events all form a strong riposte to anyone trying to argue that Obama is weak or an ineffective leader. Results matter.

Exclusive Video Footage of Attack on Gaddafi

Occupy Wall Street Isn't A Liberal Tea Party, It's A Modern Free-Silver Movement

Much digital ink has been spilled in the last few weeks trying to analyze the recent Occupy Wall Street Movement, and many have tried to understand them through the lens of the Tea Party. It's an understandable comparison, as many see similar motivations behind the protesters. But these two movements are not partisan mirror images of each other. The Tea Party is composed of the traditional Republican base, even if they're now more vocal than before. They care just as much about immigration and religion than they do the economy. If anything, what the Tea Party movement represents is an intra-party war, albeit one that the party elite have tried to co-opt, with mixed support (see: Bennett, Robert, Former Senator). For all their talk of fighting 'socialism', they seem infinity more obsessed with purifying their own Republican ranks.

Occupy Wall Street, though, is not an intra-party feud. They are not protesting Democrats, they are focusing on the financial and power elite in our country, a far more sensible target given the events of the last few years. They are not anti-corporation (despite the greatest wishes of conservative commentators who love to giggle and point out that the protesters are using products made by Apple, a huge corporation), but rather they are anti-corporate greed. They are anti-corporate power in our political system. Our nation's campaign finance laws still stop corporations from directly buying off politicians, but they can buy a campaign's victory. The politician can't get them to build him a second house, but he can buy all the adds he can find air time for with their money. What's more, those on Wall Street took our bailout money in a moment of extreme desperation, and then have the balls to complain about regulations that have only timidly began to corral investment firms' most egregious behavior. That, not an antipathy towards capitalism, is what is motivating these protesters.

Insane Blogger at Pajamas Media Thinks Occupy Wall Streeters are Nazis

Under the headline "Bizzare neo-swastika reminiscent of 'The Great Dictator' used as power symbol by OWS leaders", they point to this image:

...which is a hashtag. Not realizing this, or just engaging in some incredibly high-level sarcasm, they go on to say that it's just like the fascist symbol worn by Charlie Chaplin in the Great Dictator. Besides the fact that they look nothing alike (pound symbol vs. two sideways X's next to each other), does an association with Charlie Chaplin make anything sinister?
You can tell though just how desperately they want someone to show up with a swastika (though in fairness, if someone had showed up at a Tea Party rally with a noose, all the Huffington Post writers would have climaxed simultaneously).

Shocking Updates From Romney and Perry Campaigns

According to exclusive reporting from The Washington Fancy's David Epstein, Perry supporter Robert Jeffress has argued that only true followers of Jesus should be president, and Romney now supports civil unions in certain cases.
Drones & Groans will follow these stories as they develop.

For Some Reason, Santorum Does Not Like That SNL Put Him In A Gay Bar

I cannot fathom why Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Google) would not like to be in a "crowded gay bar in the Castro District":

New Hampshire radio station WGIR caught up with Santorum and asked him his thoughts about the skit. "We’ve been hammered by the left for my standing up for the traditional family and I will continue to do so," Santorum told WGIR's "White House Brief" show despite admitting that he had not seen the skit yet. "The left, unfortunately, participates in bullying more than the right does. They say that they’re tolerant, and they’re anything but tolerant of people who disagree with them and support traditional values."  Santorum added, "I welcome the criticism, go ahead. I'm going to stand up for the values that made this country great ..."

(via Atlantic Wire)

Just When I Thought I Could Go A Day Without Critizicing Martin Peretz

This man just keeps pulling me in. His most recent collection of words is on the subject of Elizabeth Warren, I think. It rambles a bit. His main point seems to be that he doesn't like her. She, apparently, is an elitist based on the fact that she's a Harvard professor. For the record, Peretz used to be an assistant professor there. And combined with his former editorship of The New Republic, Peretz has permanent membership in the elite.

He also says this of Warren:

Actually, Warren is a perfectly presentable woman, pleasant looking and handsomely dressed. She might not be noticed on the campus. But almost no one is noticed at 62 in these parts ’cept young ’uns. Or the nearly hundred year-old Sam Beer who daily sauntered quickly down Brattle Street to get to his office at Littauer. Except he’s dead now.

Aside from the words: "no one is noticed at 62 in these parts ’cept young ’uns" making no sense, this is just ridiculous.  Look Marty, I know you're new to the whole gay thing, but we don't actually spend out time bitching about women, much as lesbians don't go around saying how much men suck (all the time, at least). You should really drop the bitchiness, it's unbecoming a former Harvard professor.

Idiotic Political Punditry Of The Day - Right Wing Class Warfare Edition

For once, I have taken issue with an opinion piece written by someone other than Martin Peretz. Today's idiotic punditry comes from Politico, the girl-who-will-do-freaky-things-just-to-be-liked of the Washington journalistic scene. George Nethercutt, which as far as I can verify is his actual name, writes an angry screed against the bottom half of taxpayers who don't pay federal income taxes. (note there how I called them taxpayers, more on that in a minute). Here is his general argument:

Roughly 76 million tax filers, or 46 percent of the total, are expected to owe no income tax in 2011, according to the Tax Policy Center. The top 1 percent pays about 40 percent of all income taxes — which means 54 percent of all tax filers are “carrying” the 46 percent who pay nothing.
That’s fundamentally unfair. It has led, over time, to inequities and a dependency on government that is unhealthy for a free society. Forced dependency ultimately breeds contempt.

This man is either an idiot who does not understand how our tax and economic system works, or he thinks the rest of us are. Yes, approximately half of Americans do not pay federal income tax, but that is only saying something about federal income tax. There are other taxes. Indeed, there are no Americans, or even non-Americans in America, who pay no taxes. Every working person pays federal taxes - payroll, Social Security, Medicare. And everyone pays state taxes - property, sales, etc. So again - no one pays no taxes.

Honest To god Schmuck: Congressman Joe Walsh

I could easily enter into a discussion about how a politician's political stances affect their constituents, and the moral dimensions of how they wield that power. Indeed, it would be a stretch to say that a leader who would pull a reverse Robin Hood on the economy is a moral leader. But instead, I would like to talk about someone whose picture should occupy the space next to the entry for schmuck  in a Yiddish dictionary for what they've done in their private life: Joe Walsh.
Rep. Walsh, a tea-flavored freshman congressman from Illinois, is divorced and as part of that divorce proceeding, was ordered to pay child support. But the schmuck hasn't:

U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) says he hasn’t paid his court-ordered child support because he and his ex-wife reached a “verbal agreement” three years ago that he could stop paying her child support.
Laura Walsh says her ex-husband, elected to Congress last year as a leading voice of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, owed her $117,000 in child support and interest.
In a court filing in December, a month after he was elected, she said he stopped paying child support because, he told her, he didn’t have any money.

The current yearly salary for Congressman is $174,000 (source: TheCapitol.Net). Factoring in attorney fees, that should about cover it.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Stephen Fry Passes Judgement On The New iPhone

From the Guardian:

Siri, the high quality and ultra-fast camera, 30 fps 1080p HD video, globally available voice recognition and the introduction of two antennae (the phone seamlessly switches between whichever is getting the strongest signal) are features that make the 4S irresistible; what is more, the unchanged form means that a whole new range of covers and accessories won't be required.
In a sad, sad week for Apple, come a new phone and a new operating system that between them show the company still at the top of its game, still innovating, still implementing new technologies at a level of perfection and fluency that is only possible when you make, design and control it all: device, chip architecture and operating system.If you are tired of the upgrade race or feel you can't justify the expense, you at least have the knowledge that iOS 5 will transform your existing iPhone enthrallingly.

Breaking News: FBI and DEA Say Iran Tried To Assasinate Saudi Ambassador In DC

This is breaking from ABC:

FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a "significant terrorist act in the United States" tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C.Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials.

If true, this is marks and incredible escalation of antagonism on Iran's behalf. The murder of a foreign ambassador on a third nation's soil violates every protocol of international diplomacy every established. The logic behind this, if I may speculate, does make some sense. It's no secret that the Saudis view Iran as their enemy (and the feeling is mutual). It's also not much of a reach to say that the Saudis are our best allies in the effort to contain Iranian influence in the Middle East at the moment, and I am sure that we cooperate significantly on sharing intelligence. So if Iran wanted to strike out at Saudi Arabia, they'd do it on a third nation's soil, and the US fits the bill. It is also not without precedent. In 1976, Orlando Letelier, a political refugee from Pinochet's Chile, was assassinated using a car bomb in DC. (The State Department was about to send a letter to several fascist South American regimes to warn them against conducting assassinations on US soil, as the CIA already knew that Uruguay wated to target then-Rep. Ed Koch. Henry Kissinger told them not to send it. Letelier was killed less than a week later.)
This detail also strikes me as accurate: 

The Iranian-American, identified by federal officials as Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, reportedly claimed he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform," according to a person briefed on the details of the case. Counter-terrorism officials said they believe the cousin may be part of the special operations unit of the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds force.

If the Iranians were going to do this, they would be smart enough to act through a non-uniformed source, providing themselves with some level of deniability. But if I hesitate to take this at face value, it is because the FBI and DEA had acquired a habit of waving money around to see if anyone will say they want to commit terrorism. However, if true, we are entering a new, even darker and more serious, phase in our dealings with Iran.

What's Up With Qatar?

Hugh Eakin writes in the NY Review of Books about the increasing role that Qatar is playing in the Middle East. And a strange role, considering that they bankrolled the Libyan revolt while maintaining their absolute monarchy: 

The emirate was instrumental in securing the support of the Arab League for the NATO intervention back in March, contributing its own military aircraft to the mission. It also gave $400 million to the rebels, helped them market Libyan oil out of Benghazi, and set up a TV station for them in Doha, the Qatari capital. Following the conquest of Bab al-Aziziya, however, it became clear that the Qataris were deeply involved on the ground as well. Not only did Qatar arm the rebels and set up training camps for them in Benghazi and in the Nafusa Mountains west of Tripoli; its own special forces—a hitherto unknown contingent—helped lead the August offensive on the capital.[emphasis added] (Although Qatar’s military is one of the smallest in the Middle East, with just over 11,000 men, its special forces were trained by the French and other Western countries and appear to possess considerable skill.) The day the rebels captured Bab al-Aziziya, Mahmoud Jibril, the leader of Libya’s interim government, singled out Qatar for its far-reaching support, despite “all the doubts and threats.”

NY Magazine and Salon Publish (Almost) Identical Article At Same Time

Well this is embarrassing. The editors at both New York magazine and the War Room blog at Salon decided to write articles focusing on things about Chris Christie that the Republican base won't like. That in and of itself is not that terribly original, but when you make nearly identical bullet pointed lists, you start running into trouble.

From Steve Kornacki at Salon, 8:30 AM, the four main Christie diversions from party orthodoxy:

Immigration, gun control, abortion and Muslims

From Dan Amira at New York, second to the punch at 8:35 AM:

Illegal immigration, gun control, climate change, race to the top, Muslims 

This is not a case of plagiarism, clearly. Dan Amira could not have written a 1,200 word article in five minutes. But it is a clear example that when they want to be, political reporters can really be on the same page.

Fall! The Second Best Season Comes In (With A Rain Storm)

Fall! Oh how I welcome the coming of this season. Winter's my top pick (drink hot coco during a snow storm next to a fire and try to disagree with me), but Fall is always welcome to me. 

Fall is a transitional season, first and foremost. It ends the worst season (Summer) and leads to the best (Winter). Let's start with Summer. Summer is hot, humid and horrible. If you disagree, try going outside in Washington DC in the middle of August. There is nothing charming about your shirt becoming soaked with sweat in under five minutes. And that's not temporary. If you don't like the cold, the air doesn't stick with you once you've gone inside. But sweat does, and absent several daily showers, it doesn't let you forget how hellish the outside it.

Stephen Fry's Thoughts On Mitt Romney

In 2007, British polymath Stephen Fry took a trip through America, driving through all 50 states, sampling the local color for a BBC series and an accompanying book. One of the first state he visited was New Hampshire, where he experienced American presidential politics at its most grassroots. In the run-up to the 2008 New Hampshire Republican primary, he followed Mitt Romney around for the day. Here's what he experienced as Romney visited a supporter's house:

Proof That The Far-Right and Far-Left Aren't That Different

In case you needed more evidence that the political spectrum is a circle and not a line:

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) says he would consider putting the liberal congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in his Cabinet if he wins the presidency in 2012.  
Paul said his libertarian political philosophy helps him connect with some on the far left — including Kucinich, who shares Paul’s general anti-war stance.

Yea, that's a match made in heaven right there.

Guess What Martin Peretz Thinks Of Obama's Middle East Policy?

He's not a fan of course, but only Peretz can make the argument in his usual disjointed and illogical style.


We start off with the usual crap about how Obama isn't really fully American, a "president disconnected from his nation." Which is something, coming from an American who spends most of his year in Tel Aviv. 

Just How Harmful is Playing Football?

Dementia-symptom causing, and worse:

“There is something wrong with this group as a cohort,” Omalu says. “They forget things. They have slurred speech. I have had an N.F.L. player come up to me at a funeral and tell me he can’t find his way home. I have wives who call me and say, ‘My husband was a very good man. Now he drinks all the time. I don’t know why his behavior changed.’ I have wives call me and say, ‘My husband was a nice guy. Now he’s getting abusive.’ I had someone call me and say, ‘My husband went back to law school after football and became a lawyer. Now he can’t do his job. People are suing him.’ ”...When we think about football, we worry about the dangers posed by the heat and the fury of competition. Yet the hits data suggest that practice—the routine part of the sport—can be as dangerous as the games themselves. We also tend to focus on the dramatic helmet-to-helmet hits that signal an aggressive and reckless style of play. Those kinds of hits can be policed. But what sidelined the U.N.C. player, the first time around, was an accidental and seemingly innocuous elbow, and none of the blows he suffered that day would have been flagged by a referee as illegal. Most important, though, is what Guskiewicz found when he reviewed all the data for the lineman on that first day in training camp. He didn’t just suffer those four big blows. He was hit in the head thirty-one times that day. What seems to have caused his concussion, in other words, was his cumulative exposure. And why was the second concussion—in the game at Utah—so much more serious than the first? It’s not because that hit to the side of the head was especially dramatic; it was that it came after the 76-g blow in warmup, which, in turn, followed the concussion in August, which was itself the consequence of the thirty prior hits that day, and the hits the day before that, and the day before that, and on and on, perhaps back to his high-school playing days.

I had never been able to put a finger on the reason I could never become greatly interested in football, but I think Malcolm Gladwell's article comes damn close. Football is war writ small. And like war, it can be sometimes justified, but the goal is what justifies it. Subjecting yourself to serious and repetitive concussions for the sake of a ball isn't worth it. The game is just never ending (mostly because of the speed) violence. I've seen the effect that dementia can have, and trust me, earning a few million for a few years in your twenties is not worth the cost of forgetting your children. George Carlin was, as always, right in his preference for baseball.

New York Times Won't Mention A Gay Person Is Gay: Anderson Cooper Edition

Welcome to another entry in the hopefully limited series of New York Times profile articles about obviously gay men that never mentions their sexuality. Today's target is Anderson Cooper, in an article about his new show in the context of his personal life.

The context is important. It is silly to demand that a journalist mention the sexuality of everyone they write about, and in fact that would be a step too far. Would someone reading about Apple's quarterly profit report care to know that the new CEO is gay? No, and it would be irrelevant to the story. But a profile article, which is explicitly about a public individual's private life is a different matter. Alessandra Stanley, the author, must have been trained by Martha Graham, for the dancing she does around Cooper's sexuality is masterful. The premise of the whole article, its reason for existence, is that Cooper has a new talk show in which he divulges details about his private life, except one, which is never named. Hence him going on vacation "with a friend," and Cooper not explaining "who looks after his dog, Molly, when he goes off on assignment." Before Stanley gets anywhere near the painfully obvious subtext, she moves on to a strange comparison of Cooper and Glen Beck for no apparent reason other than their similar hair color.

You Can Be Too Close To The Lord

This is the danger of a custom license plate - not everyone understands your abbreviations as you do.

September Tenth In The Marble City, Ten Years Later

Here we are, ten years later. This year I’m in Washington, and not in New York as I was on that September 11^th. It’s been a week of memorials, remembrances and special editions (none better, I should add, than New York Magazine. I bought a subscription because of it). But in terms of flashing back to that time, nothing did a better job than the latest ‘serious’ but ‘unconfirmed’ threat. So how is the town feeling today? I went down to Dupont Circle and the White House to see for myself.

Apparently, China Loves Hitler

And they love him in a way that only China can:

Hitler’s Belly, a hit play currently touring China, answers the eternal question of what the world’s most notorious dictator looks like when portrayed by an overweight Chinese man pretending to be pregnant. It mixes snippets from Charlie Chaplin’sThe Great Dictator, old newsreel footage, slapstick with Chinese sensibilities, and an extended fart joke. As Hitler prepares to give birth, Chaplin—also a character in the play—wanders the bunker, impersonating Hitler to his underlings. Chaplin spars with Hitler, and then everyone raps. Genocide is not mentioned.

My Deep Philosophical Problem With Today's Martin Peretz Article

AS long time readers of this blog will know (all four of you), I really don't like Martin Peretz. It's mostly a philosophical and political problem, in that I personally believe that Arabs are also members of the human race. But hey, we all have our differences. The one thing I can certainly say about his articles is that they leave me something to say. Against them, generally. But today, I have an issue.

Intellectual Cat Fight Of The Day

Here's a classic, Gore Vidal vs. William F Buckley. Gore brings his wit and homosexuality, Buckley that ridiculous accent.
Let's get it on:

Bernard-Henri Lévy Speaks on Libya

The serial shirt unbuttoner, speaking on BBC's Newshour, said:

Libya is the first war that France wins since 1918

They did get their asses handed to them by the Germans again, other Frenchmen, Vietnamese, Algerians, and whiny middle class college students in the mean time. To say that France won the First World War though might be a bit of a stretch. Seeing how a generation of young men was almost wiped out, and all those permanently maimed from chemical warfare (and also laying the groundwork for the Nazi's rise to power), it's rather difficult to make a claim that anyone 'won' that war.
Except America. We definitely won that one.

Did Congressman Kucinich Try To Help Gaddafi Stay In Power?

From a report by Al Jazeera, documents found in Gaddafi's compound indicate that Rep. Kucinich had contacted representatives for Saif, one of Gaddafi's sons, seeking information to discredit the Libyan Nationa Transitional Council based in Benghazi.

It details a request by the congressman for information he needed to lobby American lawmakers to suspend their support for the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) and to put an end to NATO airstrikes. According to the document, Kucinich wanted evidence of corruption within the NTC and, like his fellow countryman Welch, any possible links within rebel ranks to al-Qaeda.
The document also lists specific information needed to defend Saif Al-Islam, who is currently on the International Criminal Court's most wanted list.