Tonight's Dinner

Gram OBrien's chili with carne recipe. With some higher octane added...

sure, people will bitch. but they'll also bitch with cash.

Rob Miller, Joe 'You Lie' Wilson Opponent, Raises $75,000 In One Night - Rob Miller - Zimbio

One thing is sure though: it really, really helped his opponent Rob Miller. The South Carolina Democrat had already attempted to unseat Wilson in 2008, but came a few votes short. Now, following Wilson's moment, Miller has already raised $75,000 and counting from progressives who want to unseat Wilson.

here's where we see the ultimate stupidity in wilson's outburst. it worked on me too. after palin was picked as mccain's VP, i did something i had never ever done: i donated money to a politician. to "the other guy". because in a two party system, the people i'd say are most reasonable end up framing it as the lesser of two evils. but when that greater of two comes out with some serious shit? man you swing the other way fast. especially when the example comes so stark! in a speech where a guy is calling for cooler heads and manners, to have someone heckle him with the exact opposite!? it don't get much better. and you get the added benefit of the more reasonable majority of society starting to get sick and tired of the bullshit.

and "joe" wilson just gave his opponent $75 grand. and counting.

you can debate the issue of "decorum". seems to me he pretty clearly crossed a line that has not been crossed before. i mean, code pink is one thing. but a member of congress? man, that's fucking classless. more so than any argument you could think of to call my adjective classless. or even , dare i say, veep cheney's similar comment. the guy's an ass. i'd rather not have him in congress. but i don't think he should be removed. i think he should be mocked.

this is my main problem with "populism". because inevitably the population will get in over its head, and make an ass of itself. the problem i see is, more and more, the population refuses to recognize that instant. and they push further. i fucking hate it when people say "i'm not a doctor but..." or insert whatever highly trained profession. because it means they're about to say something they're completely unqualified to say, but for some reason have convinced themselves it's still a valid observation. hell, i'm sure sometimes it is. but to me it just sounds like "hey, i'm not a surgeon, but if I were doing your brain surgery..." maybe you've hit on a valid technique? but you should probably shut the hell up.

anyway. honestly, i think team obama saw this fact a while ago. and they gave it a little nudge. held back on the "full plan" push. instead, chose to push some buttons. this seems very "rahm" to me. he got a LOT of great ad fodder. scenes where a sea of republicans sat on their hands when everyone else applauded the sentiment of people not dying because they couldn't afford it? genius. see rove's genius was in the organization it took to focus a message of telling you what was wrong with his opponents. they're evil. whatever. but here we see operation "give 'em rope". i'd say it has the propensity to last longer. because it doesn't take any effort to sustain.

'original' loganberry my balls

You're no Aunt Rosie's. But you'll do. You'll do...

Sleepy Pup.

Ridiculous dog, is ridiculous.

DFH Sahtea.

Whoooooooaaa. That's fucking fantastic. With chai!

that book meme

i suppose i may as well...

Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15-ish friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose.

1. the stranger - albert camus
2. god is not great - chris hitchens
3. catch-22- joseph heller
4. no exit - jean-paul sartre
5. the trial - franz kafka
6. the metamorphosis - franz kafka
7. thus spoke zarathustra - friedrich nietzsche
8. wittgenstein's poker - edmunds & eidinow
   
9. the commitment - dan savage
10. nineteen eighty four - george orwell
11. masquerade of the red death trilogy - robert weinberg
    
12. dragonriders of pern trilogy - anne mccaffrey
    
13. robot city trilogy - isaac asimov
14. on marriage and morals - bertrand russell
15. the elegant universe - brian greene
    

so there ya have it. i seem to be a tad heavy on the existentialists...

people who, being kept alive by modern science and "safety features", are negating evolution:

WorldNutDaily:

Is this really smoking gun of Obama's Kenyan birth?

no. no it is not. no you crazy fucking, irrational, couldn't critically think your way out of a wet paper bag, fucktards.

watch as i disprove this in two seconds: the "certificate" says it's (a) from obama's birth in 1961 and (b) from the republica of kenya. however britain owned kenya until 1963 when it became the Dominion of Kenya, and then in 1964 became the Republic of Kenya.

math fail. please go kill yourselves before you procreate, thanks.

update: apparently there's a "security watermark" on the document. in, of course, dutch. because that makes sense. and it is alleged to read:

NOTICE: This image is a work of parody and political commentary. It is not a genuine government document. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. A certified copy of his birth record is freely available online. If you thought this was Obama’s real birth certificate, a “smoking gun” proving he’s not a natural-born citizen, then congratulations. You are an idiot. I made this from scratch. It is completely fake, and no document from Kenya or the United Kingdom resembles it. Obama’s president, and will be for the next 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 years. Get used to it.

ha! that's marvelous.

updater: seems that one with a dutch watermark was a different fake. however now the creator of the one without the dutch on it has come out with more pictures of the document and how it was faked. i think this is the death of the birthers, at least in the media. now they'll go the way of the JFK conspiracy theorists...

how awesome are internet polls?

Poll to insert random slogans in civic spaces : Pharyngula

There's a poll, of course

i bounce over PZ's blog here and there. i started during the whole dover board of ed. thing. because he occasionally has some good stuff on religionist movements...

which brings us to this poll. a religionist movement AND the awesome broader topic of retarded unscientific internet polls. the reason i enjoy PZ and polls is that he has a pretty huge audience. and, well, they're kind of angry. in a way. and rather mischievous. so when PZ is alerted to a stupid poll online, well, all he has to do is mention it on his blog, and his readers go and completely fuck it up.

take this one, for instance, about the town of kissimmee in florida considering putting "in god we trust" on a new city logo. in an excellent example of "push polling", by a newspaper, mind you, the choices for the question "Should Kissimmee add "In God We Trust" to its official city logo?" are, and i quote:

• Yes. It's a patriotic move, just as the commissioner said.
• No. It discriminates in favor of monotheistic religions.
• I don't know. What's wrong with leaving it the way it is?

notice how they've decided for you why you have chosen yes or no.

welp, at the time of PZ's posting it was 53% yes, 35.5% no. by the time i got there? 4.4% yes, 88.2% no! HAAAHAHAHA. wow. that's marvelous. now, i'm sure the orlando sentinel is going to look at these results and toss them out. which is why things like this are stupid. here we have a ridiculously obvious example of why it's unscientific. and lopsided. but what about when it's not so ridiculous? why would you ever trust the result? what if the local churches mobilized and the sunday sermon was about how people need to go and vote, for jesus? which, i totally would not put past them.

it's just another way for people to find their own proof of whatever they want to think. that's all. and it's really funny when you screw with it.

reason to dislike the current incarnation of republicans, number 5478325697482395

: the thune amendment.

S.Amdt. 1618: To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to allow citizens who have concealed carry permits from the State in which they reside to carry concealed firearms in another State that grants concealed carry permits, if the individual complies with the laws of the State.

understand, that what this is stating, is that there would be a FEDERAL law that outweighs any STATE law on the subject.

i.e., the opposite of what all the republicans say they're all about.

and all (R)s except voinovich voted for it.

wait, what?

azcentral.com blogs - AZ/DC Blog: McCain, Brewer defend Kyl on stimulus

Kyl maintains this year's stimulus law isn't working as advertised and argues that taxpayers shouldn't have to stay on the hook for money that hasn't been spent or won't be spent until years from now.

On Monday, four Obama Cabinet secretaries sent letters to Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asking if she, too, wanted to shut off the spigot of federal stimulus cash.

“I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote to Brewer. “However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to the state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know.”

McCain shot back on Tuesday: “I strongly support the comments of Senator Kyl and call on the administration to retract its threat against the citizens of Arizona."

so, lemme get this straight: kyl says stimulus is not working, lahood says 'ok, let me know if we should stop giving you money', mccain says 'kyl is right that it's not working and how dare you threaten to take away the money that isn't doing anything'?

man that guy is gone.