Friday, August 18, 2006
SoaP
Okay, Snakes on a Plane.
Allegory for a post-9/11 (and, now, post no-gel-bras-in-flight) America?
Or pre-election propaganda to ratchet up fear (on the heels of the British terror scare) in time for the midterm elections, thus ensuring 2 more years of tax cuts for rich Hollywood producers?
Discuss in comments.
Allegory for a post-9/11 (and, now, post no-gel-bras-in-flight) America?
Or pre-election propaganda to ratchet up fear (on the heels of the British terror scare) in time for the midterm elections, thus ensuring 2 more years of tax cuts for rich Hollywood producers?
Discuss in comments.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
from Eschaton comments section
You know conspiracy theory paranoia is running high when some dude in Atrios' comments section has the same basic theory about the JonBenet nattering that I do:
My friend's thought is that the dude who confessed just wanted to get the heck out of Thailand, if only for awhile (flown over on Nancy Grace's private jet, natch ... suddenly Ms. Grace rockets back to prominance!).
Hey, so, did they ever figure out what happened to Lieberman's Web site on Election Day and Election Day Eve?
Speaking of Lieberman, John Gibson is a douche:
You know how Lieberman keeps trashing the Democrats and excessive partisanship, but never (still) seems to have the strength to go after the Republicans? And how he always seems to end up having jocular conversations with the likes of Don Imus and Sean Hannity? Just remember the above quote from Gibson, seethe, and do whatever you can to get some Democrats elected.
NBC Nightly News tonite devoted
30 seconds to the court that ruled
Chimpy's warrantless wiretaps were
unconstituional, and four minutes
to the Mystery of Jon Benet.
My friend's thought is that the dude who confessed just wanted to get the heck out of Thailand, if only for awhile (flown over on Nancy Grace's private jet, natch ... suddenly Ms. Grace rockets back to prominance!).
Hey, so, did they ever figure out what happened to Lieberman's Web site on Election Day and Election Day Eve?
Speaking of Lieberman, John Gibson is a douche:
I called [those who supported Ned Lamont] the Pol Pots of the far left, the Khmer Rouge. I said they wanted a mountain of skulls. People said I was being excessive.
Perhaps, but no more excessive that the braying lefties screeching at any war supporters, I thought.
You know how Lieberman keeps trashing the Democrats and excessive partisanship, but never (still) seems to have the strength to go after the Republicans? And how he always seems to end up having jocular conversations with the likes of Don Imus and Sean Hannity? Just remember the above quote from Gibson, seethe, and do whatever you can to get some Democrats elected.
Friday, August 11, 2006
I just learned that the word "gullible" isn't in the Microsoft dictionary
Okay, I'm gonna link to him.
Is Sully really this gullible?
This is some serious lying flat-out racist tripe this woman is spewing. Flat-out horrifically racist. And clearly full of shit. How do we know she's full of shit? Go to her Web site and one of the first things you read is:
I may not know much about the intricacies of the Lebanese Civil War, but I do know that my BS detector went haywire when she had the nerve to call Lebanon "the only Christian country in the Middle East." Umm, no. It's a country with the highest percentage of Christians, but that percentage is below 50%, as it was back in 1975. It was RULED by Christians back then, but that's not the same thing.
And also, she said she was taught in Lebanon that all Jews were bad and Israel must be driven to the sea. But who in the world "taught" her this? The Christian government she grew up with? Her Christian parents? Someone in the bomb shelter she lived in for 7 years? Some government official in charge of a failed state in the middle of a civil war?
Finally, the idea that a Jew would automatically be hanged just for setting foot in an Arab hospital is another lie. It's definitely not a pretty situation for Jews in Muslim lands, and hasn't been for some time. Anti-Semitism is a serious business. But a few Jews do live in Arab lands and obviously are able to receive medical care (as could a tourist, diplomat, or journalist).
Andy, however, prefers not to question any of the motivations of our young heroine. Instead, he uses it as a platform to spew some halfwitted tripe about how Israel is "in a different category of morality" from her enemies. The most amazing, completely unironic part, is when he says:
Umm, Andy? Your Lebanese Christian is a bigot. The entire GOP has a distorted religious certitude. Israel has given war criminals free passes. And George Bush is still president, proving that when it comes to tolerating the torture of prisoners, we're right up there with the best of them.
Overblown moral rectitude is easily the stupidest way to proceed in this war of ideas. "Look, could you guys please stop blowing us up? Don't you realize that we're BETTER than you?"
Is Sully really this gullible?
Here's testimony from a Lebanese Christian that is worth remembering today:
"I was raised in Lebanon, where I was taught that the Jews were evil, Israel was the devil, and the only time we will have peace in the Middle East is when we kill all the Jews and drive them into the sea.
"When the Moslems and Palestinians declared Jihad on the Christians in 1975, they started massacring the Christians, city after city. I ended up living in a bomb shelter underground from age 10 to 17, without electricity, eating grass to live, and crawling under sniper bullets to a spring to get water.
"It was Israel who came to help the Christians in Lebanon....
"I knew for fact that, if I was a Jew standing in an Arab hospital, I would be lynched and thrown over to the grounds, as shouts of joy of Allah Akbar, God is great, would echo through the hospital and the surrounding streets."
This is some serious lying flat-out racist tripe this woman is spewing. Flat-out horrifically racist. And clearly full of shit. How do we know she's full of shit? Go to her Web site and one of the first things you read is:
I am a victim of the Lebanese civil war, which was the first front in the worldwide Jihad of militant Islam against the only Christian country in the Middle East.
I may not know much about the intricacies of the Lebanese Civil War, but I do know that my BS detector went haywire when she had the nerve to call Lebanon "the only Christian country in the Middle East." Umm, no. It's a country with the highest percentage of Christians, but that percentage is below 50%, as it was back in 1975. It was RULED by Christians back then, but that's not the same thing.
And also, she said she was taught in Lebanon that all Jews were bad and Israel must be driven to the sea. But who in the world "taught" her this? The Christian government she grew up with? Her Christian parents? Someone in the bomb shelter she lived in for 7 years? Some government official in charge of a failed state in the middle of a civil war?
Finally, the idea that a Jew would automatically be hanged just for setting foot in an Arab hospital is another lie. It's definitely not a pretty situation for Jews in Muslim lands, and hasn't been for some time. Anti-Semitism is a serious business. But a few Jews do live in Arab lands and obviously are able to receive medical care (as could a tourist, diplomat, or journalist).
Andy, however, prefers not to question any of the motivations of our young heroine. Instead, he uses it as a platform to spew some halfwitted tripe about how Israel is "in a different category of morality" from her enemies. The most amazing, completely unironic part, is when he says:
[O]ur values are what will win in the long run — because they reflect a deeper truth about human dignity than the poisonous doctrines of distorted religious certitude and bigotry. That's why we must never — never — tolerate torture of prisoners; that's why we should never sacrifice the rule of law; that's why we should never give civilian politicians a "get-out-of-jail-free" card for war crimes. And that's why we should support Israel now, more than ever.
Umm, Andy? Your Lebanese Christian is a bigot. The entire GOP has a distorted religious certitude. Israel has given war criminals free passes. And George Bush is still president, proving that when it comes to tolerating the torture of prisoners, we're right up there with the best of them.
Overblown moral rectitude is easily the stupidest way to proceed in this war of ideas. "Look, could you guys please stop blowing us up? Don't you realize that we're BETTER than you?"
Thursday, August 10, 2006
in the meantime...
No desire to link to either of them, but Andy Sullivan posted today strongly agreeing with the National Review's Stanley Kurtz that basically says we're completely screwed w/r/t the Middle East until (1) we preemptively go to war against Iran or (2) we fight it out with Iran ... NUCLEAR style.
The only difference between Kurtz & Sullivan is that Kurtz thinks Muslims are absolutely implacable:
while Sully thinks Muslims are only really, really, really implacable but possibly can save themselves, but until they wake up and smell the coffee, a whole lot of them are gonna, sniff, die:
In other words, this is gonna hurt you more than it's gonna hurt me.
[Actually, there is one other difference, and that is that Sullivan talks about the "Arab Muslim" world, while Kurtz talks about the entire Muslim world. Of course, Iran is primarily non-Arab but hell, why quibble when the POINT is that they are backward and have no legitimate claims, and we are forward and care about human life, so let's [sniff] get back to warrin'.]
The only difference between Kurtz & Sullivan is that Kurtz thinks Muslims are absolutely implacable:
Compromise and settlement have been ruled out from the start by a pervasive ideology, an ideology that is a product of the underlying inability to reconcile Islam with modernity.
while Sully thinks Muslims are only really, really, really implacable but possibly can save themselves, but until they wake up and smell the coffee, a whole lot of them are gonna, sniff, die:
Until the Arab Muslim world lets go of its refusal to embrace modernity and its rigid, honor-bound defense of the most extreme version of Islam, we will have to fight a long grueling war, in which I fear some nuclear or WMD exchange is inevitable.
In other words, this is gonna hurt you more than it's gonna hurt me.
[Actually, there is one other difference, and that is that Sullivan talks about the "Arab Muslim" world, while Kurtz talks about the entire Muslim world. Of course, Iran is primarily non-Arab but hell, why quibble when the POINT is that they are backward and have no legitimate claims, and we are forward and care about human life, so let's [sniff] get back to warrin'.]
Monday, August 07, 2006
partisanship
Memorandum
To: Pro-Lieberman Pundits
From: Jonathan Kelley
Date: August 7, 2006
Re: Blaming Ned Lamont & his supporters for the death of bipartisanship & comity in politics
Have any one of you hacks ever had a word to say about the complete lack of a hint of a peep of dissatisfaction from ANY Republican on the K Street Project, the exclusion of Democrats from conference committees, middle-of-the-night votes, right-wing Bush appointees, or basically the entire Gingrich/DeLay style of governing?
Ever?
Like, once?
To: Pro-Lieberman Pundits
From: Jonathan Kelley
Date: August 7, 2006
Re: Blaming Ned Lamont & his supporters for the death of bipartisanship & comity in politics
Have any one of you hacks ever had a word to say about the complete lack of a hint of a peep of dissatisfaction from ANY Republican on the K Street Project, the exclusion of Democrats from conference committees, middle-of-the-night votes, right-wing Bush appointees, or basically the entire Gingrich/DeLay style of governing?
Ever?
Like, once?
