… but how will he EVER get that “free” McCain tote-bag?

He’s falling behind his scheduled flame-quota, & time is running out!

How DO you e-mail a puppy, anyway? By November 5th he’s going to want SOMEONE around that isn’t pointing & laughing.

(concur heartily on erecting a juiceblogging-post for the impending talking-point competition Town-Hall Meeting, BTW)

We must confront and reject all manifestations of factionalism. Those who claim otherwise do so only to justify their own irascible perorations. Prof. Ruppert has been trying to convince us that diseases can be defeated not through standard medical research but through the creation of a new language, one that does not stigmatize certain groups and behaviors. This pathetic attempt to crush people to the earth and then claim the right to trample on them forever because they are prostrate deserves no comment other than to say that Prof. Ruppert likes thinking thoughts that aren’t burdensome and that feel good. That’s why he never seems to listen to anyone else’s positions and reasoning. Well, that’s another story. To get back to my main point, I ought to mention that all the deals Prof. Ruppert makes are strictly one-way. Prof. Ruppert gets all the rights, and the other party gets all the obligations.

What is happening between Prof. Ruppert’s forces and us is not a debate. It is not a friendly disagreement between enlightened people. It is an adversarial, vile attack on our most cherished institutions. Try as I may, I can’t understand why Prof. Ruppert would want to take control of a nation and suck it dry. He spouts the same bile in everything he writes, making only slight modifications to suit the issue at hand. The issue Prof. Ruppert’s excited about this week is sexism, which says to me that his programs of Gleichschaltung cannot stand on their own merit. That’s why they’re dependent on elaborate artifices and explanatory stories to convince us that the sky is falling.

In spite of the fact that slaphappy traitors are receptive to Prof. Ruppert’s addlepated messages and fool easily, it is not uncommon for him to victimize the innocent, penalize the victim for making any effort to defend himself, and then paint the whole deluded affair as some great benefit to humanity. An understanding of the damage that may be caused by Prof. Ruppert’s pompous diatribes isn’t something I expect everyone to develop the first time they hear about it. That’s why I write over and over again and from so many different angles about how what I have been writing up to this point is not what I initially intended to write in this letter. Instead, I decided it would be far more productive to tell you that Prof. Ruppert should start developing the parts of his brain that have been impaired by sensationalism. At least then he’ll stop trying to marginalize dissident voices.

Plan to join Prof. Ruppert’s camp? Be sure to check your conscience at the door. With Prof. Ruppert’s op-ed pieces, simple credos like “check your sources” and “argue the other side of the question” have gone out the window. That is to say, Prof. Ruppert’s secret agents must be exposed and neutralized wherever they lurk. Am I aware of how Prof. Ruppert will react when he reads that last sentence? Yes. Do I care? No, because if society were a beer bottle — something, I believe, that Prof. Ruppert holds in high regard — he would indeed be the nauseating bit at the bottom that only the homeless like to drink. Let me close by reminding you that the statements I made about Prof. Gary D. Ruppert, Esq. in this letter are in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. And I will be heard.

I’ve attended a lecture on sociolinguistics by Labov, and he’s an amazing speaker. Not only does he know tons about dialects, he can speak them with unbelievable accuracy. He read off an example phrase in half a dozen of them, in turn, and you’d really believe that for two or three words at a time he was a native speaker of each, if that makes sense.

Dude knows his shit.

Maybe Putin will support the Free Alaska folks like he supported the South Ossetians.

East Kamchatka?

You’ll be glad you did.

America wants to know.

Grand Moff Texan said,
October 7, 2008 at 18:24

Video: Palin’s phony accent.

I’m an amateur phonetician/dialectician at best, but her accent sounds fairly consistent across the recordings in that video. There’s some differences in vocabulary (more “you betcha”s, etc.) and a much greater range of pitch in the debate recording, but I’d attribute that more to nervousness or excitement than a faked accent.

For what it’s worth, Bill Labov seems to think that Palin’s accent is authentic to her dialect region (listen here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95306504). For the non-linguists, Labov pretty much invented sociolinguistics as an academic discipline, and probably knows more about dialect variation in American English than anyone.

Firebombings at AEI, Club for Growth, Lehman Brothers?

I believe you have missed the point of almost everything in the thread.

How many Americans wouldn’t mind a Weather Underground right now.

Firebombings at AEI, Club for Growth, Lehman Brothers?

noen said,

October 7, 2008 at 18:17

Unhinged wingnuts are a dangerous thing. It’s getting really ugly on the pit bull campaign. Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rallies: “Terrorist!” “Kill Him!”

No shit. Did you see the look on McCain’s face when that guy yelled “Terrorist”? He obviously wasn’t expecting it, and he just as obviously understands very little about this “base” (in more than one sense of the term) that he’s decided to court. His advisers must have told him “It’s just a bunch of church ladies and hunters, no big deal. Just pretend you’re religious, and you’ve got their vote”.

And now he finds himself smack dab in the middle of a lynch mob. I have no love for McCain, but I really don’t think he knew what he was getting into.

Oh yeah, right.

McCain-Palin ’08 — At Least They Have Chicken

I’m Sarah’s cousin, and I think that Alaska can be a self-sufficient nation, by golly youse betchum. We even manufacture our own snowmobiles here. Hmmm?…we don’t? Gee terwilligers, that’s a rum bit o’ news for us snowshoers.

You have to love secessionists in a state that gets more money from the federal government than it pays in taxes. Maybe Putin will support the Free Alaska folks like he supported the South Ossetians. It’ll be a constructive learning experience for the insane right-wing fringe.

The Overton window is just going to shift a bit. When they come back to power in 30 years time, they will STILL be to the right of the democrats, but only slightly. They will be too scared to publicly advocate getting rid of the very popular social reforms enacted between now and then, but will work to undermine them quietly.

They couldn’t openly kill social security after all. Too popular. In 30 years time, they will be faced with the same situation with universal healthcare. They will reduce its funding and try to undermine it, but they will not actually be able to say it is a bad idea, because of its sheer popularity.