I DO think about those poor. oppressed Americans who do not want health insurance. I think they’re nuts.
On the other hand, I’d really like to met one of them. Because, in 50 years on this planet, I’ve never come across anyone over the age of 13 who did not want health insurance.
Wait, this is all a trick, isn’t it? “Let’s see if we can make the mummy click through to this site and thus infect her computer with amazing illnesses!” (It is “illnesses,” isn’t it? Although no wisdom, no knowledge, no technology is beyond my grasp, the vocabulary is sometimes difficult…).
Do people fail to understand just how hard it is to get the Geek Squad out to the fastness of my desert tomb? Especially once it’s understood that they may well be killed to protect its location? *Sigh* Perhaps Thoth will have good ideas about curing these illnesses…
That is dynamite. Looks like somebody saved a copy of one of the dozen crappy Socialist People’s Front/People’s Front of Socialism party websites out there, added a list of the Progressive Caucus members to it, then made a PDF of the whole thing. Just 5 minutes of work to get the kerning keyboard kommando’s on the case.
They will pretend to be socialists as long as they have to, then will reveal their communism.
Somebody should do some kind of poll. Find all the people who talk like this, send them a message asking them to describe what socialism and communism mean. I’m curious what it is the hardcore haters think that they’re hating.
“I’m curious what it is the hardcore haters think that they’re hating.”
They don’t think. They just hate. I’ve seen People on YouTube try to explain the differences but they just don’t care. I know it’s a little clichéd but they just lump everything together as “Other”. We are liberals, we are not of their tribe and that’s all they need to know.
This morning, hubby was wondering why the Tea Partiers aren’t upset about the controversy over the Mosque at Ground Zero. Silly man! Tea Partiers care about the Constitution…until they dont.
This morning, hubby was wondering why the Tea Partiers aren’t upset about the controversy over the Mosque at Ground Zero. Silly man! Tea Partiers care about the Constitution…until they dont.
I swear those fuckheads look to their supposed political enemies and choose the opposing side just to be contrary assholes. They wrote a letter to the FCC demanding that the government not interfere with the internet by mandating net neutrality.
No single teahadist is intelligent enough to think anything through and figure it out. They don’t know jack shit about America, the Constitution, our government system, or soap.
tsam, I was just thinking about what you said this morning. Modern conservatism is not based on any set of principles. It’s just about sticking it to people you don’t like. And that’s IT. Sayud.
I swear those fuckheads look to their supposed political enemies and choose the opposing side just to be contrary assholes. They wrote a letter to the FCC demanding that the government not interfere with the internet by mandating net neutrality.
And those are the same people who complain about the sex and drugs and bad music and black people on TV and what is our society coming to, someone should really do something about it…!
tsam, I was just thinking about what you said this morning. Modern conservatism is not based on any set of principles. It’s just about sticking it to people you don’t like. And that’s IT. Sayud.
I’m pretty sure both sides engage in that to some degree, but the conservatives are the ultimate nihilists. I think the lapel pin crap might be a grade school level demonstration of just how depraved their leadership indisputably is, and how incredibly unskilled in critical thought their followers are.
And those are the same people who complain about the sex and drugs and bad music and black people on TV and what is our society coming to, someone should really do something about it…!
Not like the good old days when life was just like The Donna Reed Show. These are the fools who think Nick at Nite is a history book.
And those are the same people who complain about the sex and drugs and bad music and black people on TV and what is our society coming to, someone should really do something about it…!
Also the same people who consume pornography, violence and shitty music voraciously, while condemning it in “polite” society.
why the Tea Partiers aren’t upset about the controversy over the Mosque at Ground Zero
[wingnut]
Silly lib. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof…”. It doesn’t say anything about the President doing it by Executive Order, does it? Huh? Your silence proves that you can’t address my post.
[/wingnut]
Silly lib. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof…”. It doesn’t say anything about the President doing it by Executive Order, does it? Huh? Your silence proves that you can’t address my post.
That was a real zinger, Cletus! YeeeHAW! You showed that yankee tenderfoot where the bear pooped in the straw!
I could block my American Spectator spam, but then, how could I possibly live without knowing what The Greatest Mimes Of Our Times think?
“The American Spectator is the one magazine I always pull out of my mail pile. Get two copies. Send the extra one to your kids or grandkids. The Spectator will teach them what conservatism is, and they’ll have fun reading it.”
– Sean Hannity
“Well, little Donny seems to think it tastes like shit … but Cindy is having a hell of a fine old time ripping it to shreds & chucking it around like confetti, so I’m giving Sean 1/2 on this one.”
Socialist, commie, marxist..whatever. It’s just a difference of how fast they want to push us to their collectivist, statist utopia where the borderless State has more power and the individual has less power. Where the ‘right people’ make the decisions and the rest obey, or else.
So true. I don’t care about mere doctrine… my only purpose in life is to reduce all puny humans to groveling sycophants who tremble in awe at the limitless evil of leftist power.
I’m here. I don’t like wingnuts neither. Its all about staking out ground now that troops are coming back from Iraq. By the time November rolls around, the democratic candidates can say “see, we’re getting out of Iraq, like we promised.” and repugnicants will say “see, al kay-duh is in manhattan!” Now I’m supposed to say sumpin funny…um…I’m proud to be at the nadir of journalism.
my only purpose in life is to reduce all puny humans to groveling sycophants who tremble in awe at the limitless evil of leftist power.
YES…we’ll start by trumping up an enemy–make it appear much larger than it really is. Next we’ll engage in endless wars and ramp up the fear campaign. We’ll question the patriotism of those who aren’t on board. We can use teh gheys to distract the dumber ones. We’ll abuse our power by creating prisons outside the country. We can torture people. We’ll quell dissent. We’ll just keep incrementally eroding the Constitution until…
I liked this guy: “Judging by this post and many others you have made recently, you must have been instructed to go into high gear as the election nears. Your posts are all aimed at defending the indefensible and your sputtering attempts to undermine your opponents are becoming laughable.
Do you really think that such trite manipulations are enough for this crowd?
Back to the drawing board tiny troll. Perhaps there’s still time to think of something more effective.”
I can’t wait for one these ignorant fucks to use a sentence like:
“The threat of Islam is dire and we need a final solution to solve it.”
Given the polling numbers it’ll be soon.
Congrats Republicans! Your destruction of the education system in the United States is now complete. After your early victory of turning the mentally ill into Religious zealots, Reagan’s true legacy, you appear poised to lead the U.S. into whatever violence fits your fancy.
So Republicans, what will be your final solution to the ‘Muslim Problem’?
God, I followed the link to Gateway Pundit’s “First Things” post(didn’t that used to be a somewhat respectable and thoughtful magazine?) and read the comments. HOLY SHIT these are the dumbest, most gullible people ever. They pule about the congressmen on the obviously fake list (Scribd? Jesus.) breaking their oaths to uphold the Constitution(by not being Republicans, I guess) and then demand they be killed without a trial. Remember, these ignorant motherfuckers vote!
Socialist, commie, marxist..whatever. It’s just a difference of how fast they want to push us to their collectivist, statist utopia where the borderless State has more power and the individual has less power. Where the ‘right people’ make the decisions and the rest obey, or else.
Funny coming from some gomer who, no doubt, wants to make abortion illegal.
It’s a good thing you aren’t online, Sub, or you might have clicked on the link to Andy McCarthy explaining how, thanks to Obama, every taxpayer is responsible for that girl getting her nose cut off.
Everything you wanted to know about Laura Schlessinger. Ok, probably more than you wanted to know.
“If you’re gay or a lesbian, it’s a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex. The fact that you are intelligent, creative and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex — it is a biological error.”
I confess, I am online. I was making a joke! I followed through to K-Lo’s Anne Rice piece:
I pray Anne Rice will join so many of us on her knees in front of a tabernacle, the most powerful place on earth, before too long, offering Him all the anger, and confusion, and discomfort.
I pray Anne Rice will join so many of us on her knees in front of a tabernacle, the most powerful place on earth, before too long, offering Him all the anger, and confusion, and discomfort.
Oh, I think Anne Rice has already written about the undead who feed on our anger, and confusion, and discomfort.
Funny coming from some gomer who, no doubt, wants to make abortion illegal.
Don’t forget removing the 14th Amendment. That way only the “right people” can be citizens. Fucking tool. Not even enough power to realize he’s squealing about the wet dream material his own ideologues promote.
There is an Ikea close by to me near the Mall of America. I like Ikea, my PC desk and chair I’m sitting on are all from there. I don’t go to the MoA though, except to walk through on my way to Ikea. I can get there by taking the light rail. The one thing that Jesse Ventura did right while in office.
I’ve been to the one in Houston…it was kind of a surreal experience, and now I know why they have a cafeteria there. I think we were there, like, thirteen hours.
BTW, while I found More Information That You Require tiringly twee by the end, John Hodgman has a hilarious bit about MoA in it.
It’s not actually *in* the mall of America. It’s next door across the highway. Ikea is mostly cheap crap but you can find inexpensive stuff that’s not quite so crappy. They have a cafeteria but that is also cheap crappy institutional food. If you really miss high school lunch I recommend it.
But for me what I hate is that the light rail station is in the MoA and you have to walk through it to get to Ikea. You know, where Sarah Palin appeared. They’ve probably erected a shrine or statue or something for her for all I know.
Well, I can see the bad tag, but I can’t do shit about it. I had no idea you could break a whole thread like that. Neato. Might have to try it on some , um, more deserving blogs, ifyanowhatimeanandithinkyoudo.
If anyone is around that might be able to edit it, FF view source puts it at line 982 column 54-59.
Oh, and Ikea does have some reasonable kitchen stuff. I’ve been meaning to pop out there and up my supply of small glass bowls, among a few other things. It’s just wrong to go there on a weekend though.
I thank doG and our bold italic overlords that I know nothing of Justin Bieber other than that the FBI is now tracking me as a kiddie pr0n suspect for having clicked that link. FY “Willy” with a ginormous Justin Bieber replicock.
So that was Comic Sans on the floor in there. And I guess that was Ariel bold italics in the wood chipper. And those three Bauhaus fonts in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than a little money, you know. And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.
The Other 'Historic' Choice: How Hillary Would Have Governed said,
Ever since June, when Bill Clinton criticized (however obliquely) Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, there has been renewed chatter concerning a Hillary candidacy in 2012. Hillary could take advantage of a weakened president with plummeting approval ratings to achieve her own ambitions — or save her party from the aforementioned weakened president, depending on the viewpoint. Whether this is a plausible theory or not is debatable, but it does bring to mind something else: What kind of presidency would a Hillary victory in 2008 have produced? How much better or worse off would the nation be at this point? The most likely conclusion: We’d probably be exactly where we are right now — just less annoyed, and perhaps less fragmented as a people. [bla bla bla, edited by the management. --S,N!]
I’d just like to report that I was un-friended by one of my old high school co-graduates (never a friend, really) who posted some stupid “how insensitive to build the GZM” post and I called ‘em on it. Might have used the word “bullshit” in there. Made the point that if two blocks is too close, how is five or fifty or five hundred miles any different?
He deleted that post, to which I replied “Ooh, shame on ME” and then, *snif* I was un-friended!
Now for the 76 other teatards I graduated with.
PS: I did send him a nasty personal note after that commending him on his bravery.
Now you kids have gone and done it. When Dad gets home he’s gonna be soooo pissed. I mean, usually he passes out in the living room but… you’ll be in trouble!
Whatever stupid people who don’t live on the West coast or Hawaii or Alaska. Go ahead and sleep. I’m just gonna type me some struckass comments that mean virtually nothing. Just like before only faster and with striking.
Whale Chowder, I’ve defriended a few people who had turned into howling racists since I’d known them in college. I may have had a few who defriended me over politics, but if they did, they did so quietly. I’m actually surprised my politics haven’t scared off more people I knew in high school.
One guy I knew in high school defriended me because I liked Tom Waits. That was weird.
This is bizarre. Opera must be suppressing the busted tag ’cause all the text has been behaving like it ought to (mostly normal except for a few strikeouts and the like).
Whale Chowder, I’ve defriended a few people who had turned into howling racists since I’d known them in college.
I’ve done the same thing here to at least two people. Interesting thing, facebook; a lot of people who are very meek and soft-spoken in real life turn into howling banshees on there.
Sadly, No! The finest in Snark!
These are the comments of the Sadlynaut corps.
Their particular obsessions:
To expose each new stupidity…
To shame the morons; and the bigots…
To boldly italicize where no one has struck before!
Disgruntled Worker brought the italix
at 20:17
justme said boldy,
at 22:32
In for a penny said,
I’m on strike at 7:26
Fiendish friends of the apocalypse,
UnTIE!11!!!
~
Way kewl! Even my nym & e-mail fields are down with a case of strikethrough cooties! Peculiar that my preview is somehow immune.
Put your face right up against the monitor & squint … you can actually see exactly where the lines go into some of the series of tubes … Computer Science III magic all up in this bitch.
Nothing is more like the fascist Axis of the 1930s than Islamist expansionism today. Like the Hitler-Tojo-Mussolini Axis of the 1930s, Islamic fascists are fundamentally imperialistic, with an explicit order from on High to subjugate civilized people or turn them to ashes. Mohammed himself famously threatened the cultured Persian and Byzantine Emperors of his time, and in the following years, his followers knocked those empires over like devouring army ants.
The peace-loving Buddhist monasteries of India were consumed by invading Muslim armies, with the result that there are no Buddhist monasteries left in India today. Not a single one. Only Hinduism survived the Muslim invasions, because Hindus are not pacifists. You can ask any Sikh about that; they are a huge warrior religion that arose as a buffer between Hindu India and its many Muslim invaders, who now hold Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, the Buddhist monks just died or fled to Tibet. So much for the glorious results of peaceful resistance against Muslim armies.
Wherever Islamic fascists go, they first like to frighten and intimidate less warlike peoples — as in London today, where any BBC criticism of Islamic fascists is streng verboten. That’s what the Ground Zero Mosque and the Mohammed cartoon uproar have in common: They are purposeful agitprop campaigns to scare and intimidate all the weak-willed liberals in the West, a standard Islamist tactic to conquer by intimidation, just as Muslim conquerors have always done. Why bother to wage war when you can win by terror? Putin understands that, the Chinese understand it, and it’s clear enough around the Middle East. Only American liberals and European socialists are in denial. That’s why they are the biggest round-heels in the world. They will happily collude in their own subjection and degradation.
Islamic practice has always required mosques to have the highest towers in any subjugated city. No Jews or Christians were ever allowed to build higher places of worship, to ride higher (on horses or mules), or even to raise their heads higher while walking the streets than any Muslim. If you were a Jew or a Christian, you would duck your head deep down as you passed a Muslim, who was allowed to spit on you at will. As recently as the Ottoman Empire (crumbled in 1917), all dhimmis were unceremoniously beaten to the ground if they dared to raise their heads higher than a passing Muslim. Modern Westerners deny the obvious, but that is because they are wishful idiots, self-inflicted ignorami, and dead meat to all the predators of this world. It’s Little Red Riding Hood skipping into the dark forest again, but this time nobody told her about the Big Bad Wolf.
Islamic fascism is committing African genocides here and now, as in the Sudan, where a radical Muslim murder regime has been enabled by the “international community” to persecute and kill animist and Christian Africans since the 1990s. Rather than stopping the horrors by simply arming Africans who are killed for Allah, the Sudan has been gloriously elected to the Human Rights Commission of the U.N. General Assembly with the active connivance of the Left. That is just another fact that is understood by anybody who cares to open their eyes. The U.N. has been conquered without a shot by the new fascists, so that U.N. “peacekeeping” forces are rendered impotent in the face of genocide.
Kofi Annan stood by during the Rwandan genocides in the 1990s and then was elected Secretary General of the U.N. partly as a reward; Islamic regimes and the Euro-Left knew he wouldn’t make trouble for them. Annan earned his by using the Food for Oil conspiracy to skim billions off “humanitarian” Iraqi oil sales to help Saddam Hussein, in criminal collusion with French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. The U.S. press, filled to the brim with useless idiots and suckers, celebrated the bad guys and attacked the good guys. The biggest liberals always fall for the worst tyrants.
You think that evil is safely dead and in the past? You must be a liberal and self-deluded. But I repeat myself, as Mark Twain said in similar circumstances.
Islamofascists constantly threaten genocide against the Jews, as in the daily fulminations of that little Twelver freak Ahmadinejad — but also in the words just reported by our good friend the Saudi King of the Arabian desert: “There are two nations that do not deserve to live: Israel and Iran.”
This is the 7th-century king of the camel-raiders that the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, publicly bowed down to — in a universal gesture of submission that was instantly understood throughout the Muslim world.
Neville Chamberlain gave Adolf Hitler only a half-bow after the Munich appeasement summit of 1938. Liberals are forever thus.
To complete the bleak parallels to the horrible 1930s, we see the Left-Fascist alliance together again. If you think Bill Ayers and Jodie Evans were just accidentally whipping up a PR stunt with the Turkish suiciders off the coast of Gaza a few months ago, then you, too, were taken in by classic agitprop collusion between the radical Left and Islamic fascists. Those were Muslim Bro suiciders (Turkish allies of Hamas) on board the tourist ship Mavi Marmara, under the direct command of the new Islamist fascist regime in Turkey. Like the recent Lebanese border assassination ambush of a senior Israeli military leader, this was a murderous setup. The assassination team in Lebanon Army uniforms had their snipers all set up with 50-caliber long-distance weapons, conveniently provided by U.S. military trainers.
But don’t expect any JournoListers to grok those facts any time soon. They are too busy looking for evil among American conservatives. The Left is half-deluded and half-Machiavellian, and each half constantly lies to the other. The lefty media desperately want to be deluded, of course, like the abused wife of a violent alcoholic. It’s a sort of token of love.
Socialist Europeans are knocking each other out like bowling pins today in their hurry to kowtow to the rising Fascist powers, who have bought all three British Parliamentary parties with their oil billions. Tony Blair is working for Libya’s Muammar Khadafi today, which tells you where the Labour Party’s heart really is. Eurosocialists have for decades imported hundreds of thousands of fundamentalist Muslims from the badlands of Pakistan with promises of lifelong welfare and four wives apiece, a promise that an ambitious young Islamofascist from Peshawar can hardly be expected to resist. As a result, Muslim fundamentalists now virtually control parts of Europe’s major cities, including Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Paris. Socialist Europeans know that their countries are coming to an end as Western states. They are not as idiotic as they constantly pretend to be. But they are drunk on the perks of power — and let tomorrow be damned. After us, the deluge.
Like the demonic 1930s, the Left is again a lot more interested in sabotaging freely elected governments than in fighting rising fascist tyrannies that delight in oppressing millions of women, in persecuting and hanging homosexuals, and in practicing sadistic violence toward a host of other victim groups. Sadistic violence — an intense delight in inflicting pain on innocent people — was a huge and now-forgotten feature of the three big Fascist powers of the 1930s: the Nazis, the Japanese Imperial Army, and even Mussolini’s Italians in North Africa.
Some people define Fascism as a corporatist economic system, like Obama Motors today. It could just as well be defined as the public celebration and practice of massive sadism against enslaved peoples. Mussolini practiced massive sadism in Africa. Hitler practiced systematic sadism against inferior peoples wherever he could — against Russians, Poles, Jews, Gypsies, German social democrats, on and on. Imperial Japan was horrific in its sadistic treatment of non-Japanese — American and European prisoners, Chinese people as a whole, black Americans, Filipinos and other Malay peoples in Asia, on and on. Even the Soviets did not celebrate sadistic torture of its enemies in public, as far as I remember, though they certainly practiced it in private, as the Russians still do today in Chechnya.
Ideologically rationalized sadism and cruelty is not even acknowledged today by such lowlife organs as the New York Times. The Times mostly ignored and thereby colluded in Hitler’s and Stalin’s industrialized sadism in the 1930s. Some things change, but the New York Times always enables the very worst regimes in the world. It is one of those constants that give one faith in the basic stability of things. Tyrannies change names, but the Times always kowtows to the most bloodstained nastocrats it can find. They may even teach it in Journalism 101 at Columbia.
The historic fact is that the Left always enables fascist monsters. I don’t claim to understand that fact, but it’s easy enough to see it over and over again. It seems to be part of their deep moral cowardice and weakness of character. The prophet Jeremiah saw it in the sixth century BCE and roundly attacked those who pretended to heal “the broken daughter of my people, saying Peace, Peace, but there is no Peace.” Listen to our liberal friends, and they are constantly saying it over and over again, a mantra that makes them feel better even if it is a flagrant lie.
Liberalism is just the self-delusion of moral cowards throughout history. It is not a modern ideology, as it always claims to be — now it’s “progressive” again. They can’t even think of new labels. It’s is just a form of denial, a pop fantasy that allows them to avoid thinking scary thoughts. That is why liberalism can be found over and over again in human history, under a thousand different labels.
We can see that delusional thinking right now in Barack Hussein Obama and in Hillary, just as we saw it in the Carter administration — which gave Islamic fascism its first taste of real power in 1979. It’s important to remember that reactionary Islamic fascism was mostly gone after the Ottoman Empire crumbled in 1917. A number of Muslim countries desperately tried to modernize for sixty years — until Jimmy Carter gave the pre-medieval throwback Ayatollah Khomeini his first big chance in 1979. That started a race among all the suppressed Islamofascists in Sunni and Shiite countries. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Jimmy Carter’s dysfunctional politics was not an accident, nor his love affair with Hamas and Khomeini; it is an obsessive-compulsive psychopathology, and it happens over and over again in human history.
That’s why the Norwegian politicians keep handing out that the Nobel Appeasement Prize. It’s why Obama got it just for getting elected. The Left and the Islamic fascists figured out who Obama was long before the people of America were told. After all, he’s one of them.
After four hundred years lying dormant, the Middle East has once again taken its place on the world scene. This ascendancy began with the long-awaited Ottoman demise, was spurred on by the region’s vast energy resources, and was strengthened by Cold War interests.
But it was the attacks on 9/11 that thrust the region front and center into the Western spotlight. The U.S. and its allies have since almost emptied state coffers, committed a vast military complex, and devoted much diplomatic capital to pursuing a policy of reforming the Middle East. The present-day West seeks engagement, and — like its ancestors before it — has failed to understand this enigmatic region it attempts to engage.
Much commentary over the centuries has attempted to solve the riddle of the Orient, to distill its properties and disturb its affinities. Some have romanticized it; others have remained aloof to the entire endeavor. As Kipling once quipped, “You’ll never plumb the oriental mind, and if you did, it isn’t worth the toil.” Whatever one’s sensibility on the topic, it remains true that few in the West have apprehended the basic mentality of the Middle Easterner, unable to capture his imagination, and so they remain forever foreigners within its midst.
Today, the needs of the West to penetrate this region and allow for the moderating influences within it to flourish demand that the West finally overcome its chronic Middle Eastern myopia. The cultural divide separating the West from the Orient can best be described by the differences one finds in the games of chess and backgammon.
When one looks at these two board games and compares them, one can immediately discern the biggest difference between these two games: the existence or lack of dice. In backgammon, as in the Middle East, the dice represent a common mystical and unpredictable quality: In the game, the dice set a seemingly arbitrary rhythm. In the region, it’s been the quantum of religious fervor that have dominated the Middle Eastern landscape.
The dice, like the supernal, are all-encompassing, and though their effects in backgammon can be mitigated by adept positioning, in the end, you rise and fall by the roll of the dice. Similarly, the legacy of Jerusalem adequately captures the Middle Easterner as first and foremost a believer, captivated by the metaphysical, which infuses its passions, politics, and heroes.
In the West’s beloved strategy game, chess, the governing force is mathematics. The battlefield is a set board with defined pieces which allow, in every alternating turn, for a determined number of outcomes. It is the opponent who can deduce the combination of variables furthest who will ultimately prevail.
The legacy of Athens explains the West’s penchant for rational interest, political equation, and ordered society. Like chess, Western logic brings with it a cool pragmatism, a belief that reason and human understanding go hand in hand. While this Western logic has a universal appeal, it is far from a universal predicate; but more than this, in the Middle East, its cold tones ring hollow.
Behind differences in the games, and the regional realities they symbolize, are two vastly different social structures shaped by differing worldviews. The West inhabits an organized and complex matrix, where roles are distinct and codified. Just as the pawn, the rook, and the king have definite values, so too were the social roles of Europe’s peasants, burghers, nobles, popes, and kings (and today, its citizens, senators, MPs, and prime ministers) rule-bound.
In the Middle East, and in backgammon, the opposite is the case. The game pieces are interchangeable, and so are the region’s social players. A tribal leader can become “king”; a man can gain or lose the honorific of sheikh in a way that a baron of Europe could not; and the status of citizen/subject is often altered by decree, not by law. But what remains permanently inviolate in Middle Eastern society is not the definition of the formal role, but the primacy of the bond: Community membership is nearly unconditional, loyalty paramount, and social position essential.
Like that left-behind piece in backgammon that proves the player’s undoing, the Middle East is tribal at its core. One cannot elect to sacrifice a piece (unlike a chess player who can sacrifice any piece except the king, and a Western country that can lose a province in the name of peace) because the sacrifice does not represent just a loss of the piece, as it does in the West, but a violation of the essential ties that bind its social compact.
The West simply does not grasp this and unconsciously demands that the Middle East bend itself to the logic of chess, insisting that wars of passion, morality, and subjugation get resolved with cool-headed swaps enforced by ceremonial signatures and diplomatic speech. That is, the West demands that Middle Easterners learn to tip their kings — without ever considering that there are no kings to tip.
For either Westerner or Middle Easterner to progress beyond this point of incompatibility — which has characterized the relationship from the time of medieval wars up until today’s period of chronically failing peace processes — we have to look not at the pieces, but at the boards.
With this view, we see that on the backgammon board of the Middle East, time is the critical parameter. In the game, the goal is to eliminate all of your pieces from the board before your opponent does. In the shifting landscape of the region, space in itself is meaningless: There is equally little access to bodies of water in the north as in the south; just as little ability to raise crops or harvest forests in the west as in the east.
In backgammon, as in Arabia, North Africa, and the Levant, the critical commodity is not tradable tracts of land, but transcendental priority. “Who comes first?” is the motivating question: In backgammon, “who comes first” to free himself (in the form of his pieces) from the board? In the region, “who comes first” to receive the blessing and bear primacy in the order of moral priority?
Finally, in both game and region, the most definitive difference is that backgammon requires a winner and a loser. It is, in fact, a zero-sum game. In chess, there is the possibility of a draw. After millennia of winning and losing, Western civilization has found that a negotiated draw is the most stable, loss-minimizing outcome. In backgammon, however, there is no such thing as a draw; the player who requests a draw is the player who admits defeat.
What this means in the Middle East is that no decision is absolutely preferred to an imperfect one, since to make an imperfect decision — what the West calls “compromise” — is to lose priority. It’s an admission, for the Middle Easterner, that his world view is slightly flawed and should be corrected by action.
But the Middle Easterner can make the gestures of compromise because he believes that the treaties, agreements, unions, and alliances that the formalistic West considers permanent are in truth fleeting. Such ceremony, to a region that has for too long experienced a zero-sum outcome, cannot simply replace the permanence of actual defeat and absolute victory so well-established in its history. This is the reason that when treaties are signed, hands shaken, and diplomatic pageantry indulged in, the Middle Easterner necessarily takes it all with a grain of sand.
The Middle East has understood that while the West is in power, it must play chess. So instead of interchangeable pieces of backgammon, it has carved out rooks and pawns. But what contemporary Western thought has failed to understand is that despite the display, the Middle East moves its “chess” pieces according to the rules and rhythm of backgammon.
This strategy might seem devious to a Westerner, but in fact, it’s derived from the prime lesson the Middle East understands but the West refuses to acknowledge: that you can bend the rules of a game without ultimately breaking them. Even more than this, the West has failed to understand that the player who changes the rules of the game without violating those rules is the player who advances the nature of the game, enriching it, adapting its play to new contexts and — critically — to new players.
Playing in the Middle East, the West has always emphasized actual power over perceived power — upheavals that are top-down rather than revolutions that are bottom-up. It’s a shortsighted view of domination that, like chess, factors out a serious notion of time and focuses all energies on space.
For the West, a long-term approach to the Middle East must focus on two areas: what it can offer and what it has to protect. It must offer what it excels at, which is education and its long tradition of the academy, focusing effort on establishing bastions of learning across the Middle East. Creating a league to protect these institutes’ intellectual and physical freedoms, upholding tolerance, and reinforcing Western modalities of analysis are all critical to the West’s ability to be able to make long-term progress with Middle Eastern partners. At the same time, Western governments and institutions must protect and support the individuals and associations willing to lead and moderate the public.
Lastly, to change its own rules, to orient itself towards time, the West must make clear the great importance attached to the spiritual and cultural artifacts in the region that establish the ancient connections between the West and East. The change is at first inward, an embrace of a Middle Eastern value that some things are sacred and beyond compromise. The West must assert the sanctity of its own tradition — instead of asserting the raw political and military power of the “realist.”
It must insist on the protection of values like human rights and religious freedom but must also protect physical edifices and artifacts like libraries, archeological sites, and religious shrines. In doing so, Western governments and institutions must make clear that these conditions will be part of any treaty, agreement, or relation and will be discussed in any summit between itself and a Middle Eastern partner.
For the West to interact successfully with the Middle East, it becomes crucial to understand, as the Middle East does, that rules are bendable — but values are not. If the West is to maintain its foundational principle that negotiation is preferable when possible, then it must work to sideline the players who violate this principle, leaving those who accept it. If the West is to show the Middle East the value of a negotiated draw, it must insist on its own values and abandon the relativism that says rules are sacred, but values are not.
So what did I do to break this thing? Forgot to close an italics tag?
You entered “” to close the tag instead of “”. WP goes bonkers when you do that. I was thinking of filing a bug report but figured, nah, this could be so much fun at other sites!
Shhhh!
A column debunking myths about unjustly stereotyped millionaires. (Has anyone ever bothered to do a column like this about homeless people, or poor people, or working class people? Just curious).
“5. Millionaires All Drive Fancy Cars
You can get that idea of the rich guy in a fancy German car out of your head when you think of a millionaire: They actually drive a Ford, with the carmaker topping the millionaire preferred car list at 9.4 percent.”
And the reason it caught my attention is because of a story I heard from a millionaire’s kid I befriended in college about another millionaire’s kid from the Deep South that she was dating at the time. Apparently, the guy’s family owned a string of BMW dealerships and owned several Beemers, but they also bought a Ford and usually drove around in that so that they “wouldn’t look like elitists.”
I wonder how that factors in. Wouldn’t it be easier for them if they just dropped the act – on racism, on elitism, on everything?
A column debunking myths about unjustly stereotyped millionaires. (Has anyone ever bothered to do a column like this about homeless people, or poor people, or working class people? Just curious).
A column debunking myths about unjustly stereotyped millionaires. (Has anyone ever bothered to do a column like this about homeless people, or poor people, or working class people? Just curious).
Poor rich people. They’ve worked exceptionally hard to drain that wealth out of the middle class in the last 50 years and nobody appreciates their toil.
It’s kind of a combo fuckup. WordPress shouldn’t allow the Tag of Evil in input, and your web browser shouldn’t treat the Tag of Evil the way it does. It doesn’t happen in Opera, The Browser For Sticklers (TM).
In firefox, if you have firequery, you can run (removing spaces around the style tags):
jQuery(” * { text-decoration: none !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; }”).appendTo(“head”);
There is no unfucking it through inputting stuff because anything that would unfuck it *does* get stripped out by wordpress’ input filter.
Hurray hurray & calloo callay! Scroll-troll finally has the strikethroughs of LIBERHURRL FASCISM that it’s always dreamed of! Go troll go! Wear the semi-chubby of your martyrdom* with pride!
And now, for the coup de grace!
Scrolling marquee!
DENIED!
___________________
* (if your martyrdom lasts more than 4 hours, please consult your metaphysician)
There’s logic behind this, believe it or not. The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks, since coders hack the latest versions to exploit undiscovered security holes, leaving older ones behind.
There’s logic behind this, believe it or not. The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks, since coders hack the latest versions to exploit undiscovered security holes, leaving older ones behind.
If by “logic,” you mean “utter stupidity,” then I suppose they’re right.
Alternatively, they could JUST USE A DECENT BROWSER.
Alternatively, they could JUST USE A DECENT BROWSER.
That would require work on their part, because you can actually customize Firefox et al, which means each user would eventually have their own configuration, meaning the MIS folks wouldn’t be able to copy and paste settings or have much control over the innertubes.
The odd thing is, I have FF installed on my system, but when I try to use it, things get all hinky, and I end up slinking back over to IE. It’s almost as if they expect me to concentrate on work…
I disagree with every word T&U just said, but I will defend with my life her right to laugh at your IE7.
Admittedly, using an older version does make perverse sense, but again, why not just use a more secure browser?
That would require work on their part, because you can actually customize Firefox et al, which means each user would eventually have their own configuration, meaning the MIS folks wouldn’t be able to copy and paste settings or have much control over the innertubes.
Eet’s jes fine iin my Opera! Last night it was fekked up in the very same browser instance – can’t remember if I closed that tab and started fresh this a.m…… .
“There’s logic behind this, believe it or not. The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks, since coders hack the latest versions to exploit undiscovered security holes, leaving older ones behind.”
I think my dad used that logic to keep us from getting a color TV until 1970.
I blame Albert Einstein. Stupid science and its stupid “relativity”. There should be one standard browser and one set of tags and you dirty fucking hippies should get over your Islamofeminazifascist ways.
Bold, italic, strike for this FF using (hmmm, sometimes FF playing) liberal-arts faggot (don’t get too sciencey on me). I wondered why there was no new thread but more than 400 on this one!
You know, after the pictures of you wielding a 9-pound hammer.
Just can’t quite the demolition pr0n, can you?
Note: this comment was composed with the first sentence and the first sentence only in italic text. And that’s the way it will look in MY browser. phtphtphpthpthptthpttt
I just hate it when people who are supposed to be smart can’t exercise basic critical thinking skills and make a big deal out of shit that’s not a big deal at all.
Maybe Alanis Morisette was doing some kind of meta-piece…
That’s her story, that the irony is in it not being ironic (altho parts of it could be construed as metaphysical irony, like the death row pardon bit), but a song not about irony is called “Ironic”.
“That’s her story, that the irony is in it not being ironic (altho parts of it could be construed as metaphysical irony, like the death row pardon bit), but a song not about irony is called ‘Ironic’.”
I shall go ahead and blame all the HTML-shenanigans for the server breaking down (damn you, you crazy kids), but am happy to report that I have fixed your messes!
To sum it up as our German hosting company put it:
unfortunately our maintenance work is bigger than expected. This caused the need to shutdown all servers in this datacenter. We will inform you about the progress and requesting sympathy that our hotline is not available as usual.
unfortunately our maintenance work is bigger than expected. This caused the need to shutdown all servers in this datacenter. We will inform you about the progress and requesting sympathy that our hotline is not available as usual.
That’s what it said in English. In German, it’s just one word.
For my next trick I will need a volunteer from the audience….
Please, just go to a bar or somewhere instead – the audience doesn’t even want to know about your perversions much less participate. Besides, isn’t that what groupies are for?
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content. “Just let them play with broken tags for a while.” It was a fun thread though.
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content. “Just let them play with broken tags for a while.” It was a fun thread though.
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content. “Just let them play with broken tags for a while.” It was a fun thread though.
This is similar to how I treat my cat. When it’s time for a new cat toy I just look to see what broken shit I have lying around that he can’t kill himself with.
Spaghetti Lee said,
August 14, 2010 at 7:42
Albert Einstein is teh 26th-most evil person in history.
jim x / another j said,
August 14, 2010 at 8:27
If anyone is curious for a trike ride down the fail trail, check this out:
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2010/08/13/socialists-in-the-democratic-party.php
yam said,
August 14, 2010 at 8:42
No, no, no. Einstein isn’t evil — he’s a liberal and the Theory of Relativity is plot to get everyone to accept relativism. Phylis Schlafley’s son says so…
Spaghetti Lee said,
August 14, 2010 at 8:53
Hey, Wizbang-it’s Democrat party, remember? Didn’t you get the memo? Sounds like someone’s going to spend some Apology Time with El Rushbo tonight…
Enraged Bull Limpet said,
August 14, 2010 at 8:57
Are we talking special or general? Generals are always special in American lore, but once the relativism really kicks in we get confused.
yam said,
August 14, 2010 at 9:23
EBL:
Special or general doesn’t register; like Ecuadorans or Guatemalans, they’re all Mexicans, so who gives a shit.
cAnceR haT said,
August 14, 2010 at 9:25
Hey, Wizbang-it’s Democrat party, remember? Didn’t you get the memo? Sounds like someone’s going to spend some Apology Time with El Rushbo tonight…
Who ?, Laura Schlesenger?
John Revolta said,
August 14, 2010 at 9:34
theory of relativity
Wow. World- class stoopid served up piping hot.
Also, has anyone seen this nut and Steve Forbes together in the same place ever?
Derelict said,
August 14, 2010 at 13:05
I DO think about those poor. oppressed Americans who do not want health insurance. I think they’re nuts.
On the other hand, I’d really like to met one of them. Because, in 50 years on this planet, I’ve never come across anyone over the age of 13 who did not want health insurance.
Hatchepsut said,
August 14, 2010 at 13:16
Wait, this is all a trick, isn’t it? “Let’s see if we can make the mummy click through to this site and thus infect her computer with amazing illnesses!” (It is “illnesses,” isn’t it? Although no wisdom, no knowledge, no technology is beyond my grasp, the vocabulary is sometimes difficult…).
Do people fail to understand just how hard it is to get the Geek Squad out to the fastness of my desert tomb? Especially once it’s understood that they may well be killed to protect its location? *Sigh* Perhaps Thoth will have good ideas about curing these illnesses…
Bastet be praised!
blogbytom said,
August 14, 2010 at 13:49
Always Trusting The Shorter has never been so easy. This is like the Swiffer of Always Trusting The Shorter.
El Cid said,
August 14, 2010 at 14:01
I think you actually could have gotten some big funny out of just reading sections of Jo’berg Goldbutt’s Librul Fatcysm.
El Cid said,
August 14, 2010 at 14:35
The USA might not be doing so hot on the jobs or infrastructure fronts, but, by God, we’re among world leaders in mass shootings.
Take that, you Canadian wimps.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 14:43
All I’m seeing is a few words then a big white space. Is this some sort of minimalist statement?
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 15:10
All I’m seeing is a few words then a big white space.
Don’t go into the light.
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 15:35
All I’m seeing is a few words then a big white space. Is this some sort of minimalist statement?
MOM!
Vacuumslayer broke it!
Again!
Carribbean Walrus said,
August 14, 2010 at 15:47
Special Relativity gets to ride on the short (space dilated) bus.
Yo, mon.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 16:04
I loled at the random iPhone 4 internet meme reference.
And it echoed because I don’t have any furniture in my living room, which made me sad.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 16:06
Because, in 50 years on this planet, I’ve never come across anyone over the age of 13 who did not want health insurance.
When I was uninsured, I didn’t want insurance because I needed to pay for food and a place to live instead.
N__B said,
August 14, 2010 at 16:13
And it echoed because I don’t have any furniture in my living room, which made me sad.
Ikea. I hear Smedvik is a cutie.
Prudence Goodwife said,
August 14, 2010 at 16:14
“members of the intellectual elite”
Townhall writers, proud members of the dumb-ass elite.
“9-11 is an open wound”
Maybe because you and the rest of the dumb-ass elite have been pulling off the scab for 9 years?
Angry Geometer said,
August 14, 2010 at 16:34
If anyone is curious for a trike ride down the fail trail, check this out:
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2010/08/13/socialists-in-the-democratic-party.php
That is dynamite. Looks like somebody saved a copy of one of the dozen crappy Socialist People’s Front/People’s Front of Socialism party websites out there, added a list of the Progressive Caucus members to it, then made a PDF of the whole thing. Just 5 minutes of work to get the kerning keyboard kommando’s on the case.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 14, 2010 at 17:30
Hey, whatever, guys. : ) Go ahead and believe this, by all means. You’ll look silly, but that’s on you.
Re: # 9 – Blast! I must now report back to the Streisand Compound for further orders.
17. Posted by jim x | August 14, 2010 9:40 AM
LOLZ! Everyone knows that Jim Hoft is an umimpeachable sorece.
~
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 17:44
Oh. It was iPhone thing. Whew. Almost got sucked in to the great white void.
I enjoyed the posh British accents.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 17:56
A comment from the PissBang blog
Noted without comment because I haven’t had any coffee and the stupid just overwhelms me right now.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 17:58
I only reveal my communism after I’ve had a few drinks…and then it’s right to the vajayjay.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:01
I couldn’t resist making my own little movie. It’s super-important.
N__B said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:01
then will reveal their communism.
“First, Comrade, we milk-feed the calves and butcher them for veal.”
“Yes, Great Leader?”
“Then, we reveal them and Communism will rule the world!“
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:18
“I couldn’t resist making my own little movie. It’s super-important.”
It’s the script that really brings all the elements together.
Chris said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:18
They will pretend to be socialists as long as they have to, then will reveal their communism.
Somebody should do some kind of poll. Find all the people who talk like this, send them a message asking them to describe what socialism and communism mean. I’m curious what it is the hardcore haters think that they’re hating.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:19
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:01
I couldn’t resist making my own little movie. It’s super-important.
I smell Oscar!
/W. Monheit
~
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:28
Lulz.
Oh, I didn’t know Oscar had such poor personal hygiene.
jim said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:29
Who are these overdressed Anglosexual preverts & what have you done with Messrs. DMC & Punko?!?
a trike ride down the fail trail
First I LOLed … & then I trolled.
Presumably my freshly-extracted Fetustini™ is waiting on ice for me back at the Streisand Compound. Hold the arugula garnish plz.
Mmm … Fetustini™ …
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:30
“I’m curious what it is the hardcore haters think that they’re hating.”
They don’t think. They just hate. I’ve seen People on YouTube try to explain the differences but they just don’t care. I know it’s a little clichéd but they just lump everything together as “Other”. We are liberals, we are not of their tribe and that’s all they need to know.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:34
I only reveal my communism after I’ve had a few drinks…and then it’s right to the vajayjay.
HAHA! FTW!
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:36
This morning, hubby was wondering why the Tea Partiers aren’t upset about the controversy over the Mosque at Ground Zero. Silly man! Tea Partiers care about the Constitution…until they dont.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:37
I’m curious what it is the hardcore haters think that they’re hating.
You already know it’s teeth, showers and literacy they hate.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:37
I find the salty brine of some olives really keeps the fetus fresher longer. Yum.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:40
This morning, hubby was wondering why the Tea Partiers aren’t upset about the controversy over the Mosque at Ground Zero. Silly man! Tea Partiers care about the Constitution…until they dont.
I swear those fuckheads look to their supposed political enemies and choose the opposing side just to be contrary assholes. They wrote a letter to the FCC demanding that the government not interfere with the internet by mandating net neutrality.
No single teahadist is intelligent enough to think anything through and figure it out. They don’t know jack shit about America, the Constitution, our government system, or soap.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:41
Oh, I didn’t know Oscar had such poor personal hygiene.
He lives in a garbage can.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:42
tsam, I was just thinking about what you said this morning. Modern conservatism is not based on any set of principles. It’s just about sticking it to people you don’t like. And that’s IT. Sayud.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:43
rofl…oh yeah…forgot.
Chris said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:45
I swear those fuckheads look to their supposed political enemies and choose the opposing side just to be contrary assholes. They wrote a letter to the FCC demanding that the government not interfere with the internet by mandating net neutrality.
And those are the same people who complain about the sex and drugs and bad music and black people on TV and what is our society coming to, someone should really do something about it…!
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:50
tsam, I was just thinking about what you said this morning. Modern conservatism is not based on any set of principles. It’s just about sticking it to people you don’t like. And that’s IT. Sayud.
I’m pretty sure both sides engage in that to some degree, but the conservatives are the ultimate nihilists. I think the lapel pin crap might be a grade school level demonstration of just how depraved their leadership indisputably is, and how incredibly unskilled in critical thought their followers are.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:51
And those are the same people who complain about the sex and drugs and bad music and black people on TV and what is our society coming to, someone should really do something about it…!
Not like the good old days when life was just like The Donna Reed Show. These are the fools who think Nick at Nite is a history book.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 18:56
And those are the same people who complain about the sex and drugs and bad music and black people on TV and what is our society coming to, someone should really do something about it…!
Also the same people who consume pornography, violence and shitty music voraciously, while condemning it in “polite” society.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:01
The thread–did he died?
Lurking Canadian said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:05
why the Tea Partiers aren’t upset about the controversy over the Mosque at Ground Zero
[wingnut]
Silly lib. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof…”. It doesn’t say anything about the President doing it by Executive Order, does it? Huh? Your silence proves that you can’t address my post.
[/wingnut]
I need a bath now.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:15
Silly lib. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or preventing the free exercise thereof…”. It doesn’t say anything about the President doing it by Executive Order, does it? Huh? Your silence proves that you can’t address my post.
That was a real zinger, Cletus! YeeeHAW! You showed that yankee tenderfoot where the bear pooped in the straw!
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:16
“tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:01
The thread–did he died?”
People must be doing stuff with their dumb loved ones or stupid shit like that.
LC, I’ve bookmarked you point.
jim said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:24
I could block my American Spectator spam, but then, how could I possibly live without knowing what The Greatest Mimes Of Our Times think?
“The American Spectator is the one magazine I always pull out of my mail pile. Get two copies. Send the extra one to your kids or grandkids. The Spectator will teach them what conservatism is, and they’ll have fun reading it.”
– Sean Hannity
“Well, little Donny seems to think it tastes like shit … but Cindy is having a hell of a fine old time ripping it to shreds & chucking it around like confetti, so I’m giving Sean 1/2 on this one.”
– Bubba McSixpack, Esquire
In conclusion: HELP US FILL THE HOLE, ANDERSON.
Anderson said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:26
Not even if you wash it first, buddy.
Snorghagen said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:28
From the Wizbang comments section:
So true. I don’t care about mere doctrine… my only purpose in life is to reduce all puny humans to groveling sycophants who tremble in awe at the limitless evil of leftist power.
Carribbean Walrus said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:31
I’m here. I don’t like wingnuts neither. Its all about staking out ground now that troops are coming back from Iraq. By the time November rolls around, the democratic candidates can say “see, we’re getting out of Iraq, like we promised.” and repugnicants will say “see, al kay-duh is in manhattan!” Now I’m supposed to say sumpin funny…um…I’m proud to be at the nadir of journalism.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:36
my only purpose in life is to reduce all puny humans to groveling sycophants who tremble in awe at the limitless evil of leftist power.
YES…we’ll start by trumping up an enemy–make it appear much larger than it really is. Next we’ll engage in endless wars and ramp up the fear campaign. We’ll question the patriotism of those who aren’t on board. We can use teh gheys to distract the dumber ones. We’ll abuse our power by creating prisons outside the country. We can torture people. We’ll quell dissent. We’ll just keep incrementally eroding the Constitution until…
HEY–wait a minute!
tigris said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:36
From the Wizbang comments section:
I liked this guy: “Judging by this post and many others you have made recently, you must have been instructed to go into high gear as the election nears. Your posts are all aimed at defending the indefensible and your sputtering attempts to undermine your opponents are becoming laughable.
Do you really think that such trite manipulations are enough for this crowd?
Back to the drawing board tiny troll. Perhaps there’s still time to think of something more effective.”
And
“Note there is not any actual debate by Bruce.”
Hee hee!
N__B said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:39
Oh, I didn’t know Oscar had such poor personal hygiene.
He lives in a garbage can.
And his taste is in his ass.
owlbear1 said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:41
I can’t wait for one these ignorant fucks to use a sentence like:
“The threat of Islam is dire and we need a final solution to solve it.”
Given the polling numbers it’ll be soon.
Congrats Republicans! Your destruction of the education system in the United States is now complete. After your early victory of turning the mentally ill into Religious zealots, Reagan’s true legacy, you appear poised to lead the U.S. into whatever violence fits your fancy.
So Republicans, what will be your final solution to the ‘Muslim Problem’?
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 19:47
Note to self: bring booze.
tigris said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:00
God, I followed the link to Gateway Pundit’s “First Things” post(didn’t that used to be a somewhat respectable and thoughtful magazine?) and read the comments. HOLY SHIT these are the dumbest, most gullible people ever. They pule about the congressmen on the obviously fake list (Scribd? Jesus.) breaking their oaths to uphold the Constitution(by not being Republicans, I guess) and then demand they be killed without a trial. Remember, these ignorant motherfuckers vote!
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:04
Also, has anyone seen this nut and Steve Forbes together in the same place ever?
Can’t say I have, but I have never transferred flights in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
No, no, no. Einstein isn’t evil
Darn tootin, now inhale those Einstein molecules and exhale the Hitler molecules.
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:10
I only reveal my communism after I’ve had a few drinks…and then it’s right to the vajayjay.
The state owns your vajayjay? My god, they can use STATE POWER to FORCE YOU TO HAVE A BABY.
Substance McGravitas said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:10
The Editrix:
Since I am not online I completely missed those clicks.
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:14
“The state owns your vajayjay? My god, they can use STATE POWER to FORCE YOU TO HAVE A BABY.”
Ooh, I hope it’s a terror baby!
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:17
Remember, these ignorant motherfuckers vote!
That reminds me of a line a salesman friend of mine told me once:
Think of what a gullible, stupid motherfucker the average american is. Now remember, half of the population is dumber than that!
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:17
fucking italics, how does it work?
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:18
Wow, Jonah is holding a sammich that is nothing but vegetable.
the conspiratist said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:18
Ooh, I hope it’s a terror baby!
You don’t know the half of it…
the conspiratist said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:18
See?!?!
N__B said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:20
Wait…you mean you’re an actual person? I had assumed Janus node was self-aware and merely toying with us until Skynet was ready.
Italics said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:21
Bow before me!!!
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:23
Oooh! You should link to that at my movies section, for funzies.
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:23
Socialist, commie, marxist..whatever. It’s just a difference of how fast they want to push us to their collectivist, statist utopia where the borderless State has more power and the individual has less power. Where the ‘right people’ make the decisions and the rest obey, or else.
Funny coming from some gomer who, no doubt, wants to make abortion illegal.
Substance McGravitas said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:24
Why isn’t vacuumslayer designing The Corner image?
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:24
Somebody didn’t read the mission statement
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:25
It’s a good thing you aren’t online, Sub, or you might have clicked on the link to Andy McCarthy explaining how, thanks to Obama, every taxpayer is responsible for that girl getting her nose cut off.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:25
Everything you wanted to know about Laura Schlessinger. Ok, probably more than you wanted to know.
A real piece of work, but we already knew that.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:26
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Someone broke WordPress again!
Substance McGravitas said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:27
I confess, I am online. I was making a joke! I followed through to K-Lo’s Anne Rice piece:
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:28
K-Lo on Anne Rice’s knees: DO NOT WANT
owlbear1 said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:29
Funny coming from some gomer who, no doubt, wants to make
abortion illegalwomen property.At least the gomers I’ve met.
Substance McGravitas said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:30
Geppetto dreams of the day, but not yet.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:31
I pray Anne Rice will join so many of us on her knees in front of a tabernacle, the most powerful place on earth, before too long, offering Him all the anger, and confusion, and discomfort.
Oh, I think Anne Rice has already written about the undead who feed on our anger, and confusion, and discomfort.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:32
“Geppetto dreams of the day, but not yet.”
I’m typing this from the belly of a whale. The wifi sucks but the shrimp is pretty good.
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:32
Also from K-Lo: “many people can’t wait to read Fr. Rutler’s book after reading my Friday interview with him about the dead people he’s known”
ZRM?
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:33
Funny coming from some gomer who, no doubt, wants to make abortion illegal.
Don’t forget removing the 14th Amendment. That way only the “right people” can be citizens. Fucking tool. Not even enough power to realize he’s squealing about the wet dream material his own ideologues promote.
owlbear1 said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:35
The wifi sucks but the shrimp is pretty good.
Barbecue Krill?
tigris said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:36
From tsam’s link: Ilario Pantano, center, has made a planned Muslim center near ground zero part of his Congressional campaign in North Carolina.
“Geography is hard!” Actually, he looks like he has to concentrate to breathe…
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:36
Well, this italics thing seemed to start with post.
Maybe we need to go back in time and all get on Flight 815 or something
Bob Owens, Inside a Whale said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:36
Mah krill!
vacuumslayer said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:37
“Substance McGravitas said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:24
Why isn’t vacuumslayer designing The Corner image?”
OH
MY
GAH
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:37
Also from K-Lo: “many people can’t wait to read Fr. Rutler’s book after reading my Friday interview with him about the dead people he’s known”
He sounds like a Clark Ashton Smith protagonist.
Bob Owens, BP Executive said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:39
Mah spill!
Bob Owens, Sci-Fi Enthusiast said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:41
Mah Krull!
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:42
Mah spill!
I LOLed for realz.
Actually, it was more of a laughy wheeze.
I WOLed for realz?
N__B said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:47
a tabernacle, the most powerful place on earth
Once again, I must face the sad truth that the WWE has misled me.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 20:58
Once again, I must face the sad truth that the WWE has misled me.
Wait. What? Misled? What are you talking about?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:05
Ikea. I hear Smedvik is a cutie.
The nearest Ikea is 8 hours away….
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:05
I am so upset about the lack of Ikea here that I forgot to close my tags!
Substance McGravitas said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:06
TUTAGFAIL!
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:07
Oh, I seen. Never mind.
Imma gonna go back to looking at sofas online I can’t afford now…
Bob Owens, Slutty Slut said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:08
Mah Pill!
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:15
“The nearest Ikea is 8 hours away….”
There is an Ikea close by to me near the Mall of America. I like Ikea, my PC desk and chair I’m sitting on are all from there. I don’t go to the MoA though, except to walk through on my way to Ikea. I can get there by taking the light rail. The one thing that Jesse Ventura did right while in office.
Bob Owens, Slutty Slut said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:20
I didn’t know there was an Ikea in the MoA.
I’ve been to the one in Houston…it was kind of a surreal experience, and now I know why they have a cafeteria there. I think we were there, like, thirteen hours.
BTW, while I found More Information That You Require tiringly twee by the end, John Hodgman has a hilarious bit about MoA in it.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:21
Um, that was me.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:23
Speaking of twee, OMFG I CAN FUCKING HAZ?
In a girly-tee version, though?
Anonymous said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:30
I only reveal my communism after I’ve had a few drinks…
Using this as the thinnest of justifications to show you all this: Soviet History, Tetrisized.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 21:44
“I didn’t know there was an Ikea in the MoA.”
It’s not actually *in* the mall of America. It’s next door across the highway. Ikea is mostly cheap crap but you can find inexpensive stuff that’s not quite so crappy. They have a cafeteria but that is also cheap crappy institutional food. If you really miss high school lunch I recommend it.
But for me what I hate is that the light rail station is in the MoA and you have to walk through it to get to Ikea. You know, where Sarah Palin appeared. They’ve probably erected a shrine or statue or something for her for all I know.
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:05
Well, I can see the bad tag, but I can’t do shit about it. I had no idea you could break a whole thread like that. Neato. Might have to try it on some , um, more deserving blogs, ifyanowhatimeanandithinkyoudo.
If anyone is around that might be able to edit it, FF view source puts it at line 982 column 54-59.
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:09
Oh, and Ikea does have some reasonable kitchen stuff. I’ve been meaning to pop out there and up my supply of small glass bowls, among a few other things. It’s just wrong to go there on a weekend though.
Italics said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:16
I will never be defeated.
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:16
A futile attempt at tag closure. WP eated my other try, but I’m going to give it another go.
Italics said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:17
Bring it on.
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:19
Curiously, WFP feels comfortable editing my tags, but not the one what got this started.
Sigh.
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:21
Man, it’s windy in here! Weather from the west, I spoze.
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:22
Shit, there goes my hat————->
BOLD said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:30
“I will never be defeated.”
I will overthrow your fascist rule!
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:32
If we’re going to fuck this thread up…
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:34
Alas. WFP autocloses all but The One Tag To Screw Them All.
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:34
ooooh, or not.
Strike said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:38
I will
slash you all to ribbons!justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:38
The big question is, can it be undone? I’m-a say no.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:39
It’s a sign of the Apocalypse.
underline said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:39
You really want to go there?
underline said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:40
piss.
fine, be like that.
tsam said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:41
Surprise, another one.
Let’s see if everything is a link now
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:42
ROCK!
~
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:43
SCISSORZ
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:43
PAPUR
Italics said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:44
Still, I prevail. Don’t fret. When the revolution is over, I will be merciful.
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:45
Balls!
BOLD said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:45
YOU ARE WEAK COMPARED TO ME.
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:45
Again:
BALLS!Bob Owens, Male said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:48
Mah balls!
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:48
Two balls, one strike?
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:48
Fudge.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:49
Testing test of testingness.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:51
I give up. I submit to the glorious rule of BOLD and Italics. God and Goddess of the WP underworld.
Italics said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:52
Just look at all our beautiful children.
sub said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:56
teh wee ones!
sub said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:58
I guess that needs context.
sub said,
August 14, 2010 at 22:58
or wp needs to go fuck itself.
noen said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:01
Now you did it! You have awakened Nyarlathotep!
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:08
You have awakened Nyarlathotep!
That was cool.
sup said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:17
No sup tag?
justme said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:19
Can haz noo thred?
Angry Geometer said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:20
http://www.theonion.com/articles/when-i-put-something-in-italics-i-mean-it,10778/
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:29
Can. Not.
~
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:32
Nah.
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:33
It was funnier in preview coz there was other stuff in there. I felt emboldened.
Angry Geometer said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:33
maybe this’ll fix it.
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:38
Or this?
Looch said,
August 14, 2010 at 23:38
Nope.
exford legs said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:03
exford legs said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:03
no?
Bob Owens, Crossdresser said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:07
Mah frill!
Anonymous said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:18
Strange, I haven’t seen persistent bold or italics for the last dozen posts. Maybe it’s an Opera thing.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:32
still here in FF
Bob Owens, Soprano said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:34
Mah trill!
Bob Owens, Man of Letters said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:35
Mah quill!
Bob Owens, I'm not only the Wood Alcohol Club President, I'm a client said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:39
Mah still!
Bob Owens, Junkie said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:42
Mah pill!
M. Bouffant said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:45
I got plenty of nothing.
Bob Owens, BP said,
August 15, 2010 at 0:53
Mah spill!
Bob Owens, Confederate Dentist said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:06
Mah dreel!
Bob Owens, Window Installer said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:08
Mah sill!
Bob Owens, Whale said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:09
Mah krill!
Bob Owens, American MegaBrew Distributor said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:12
Mah swill!
Bob Owens, Aztec Yankee said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:13
Mah Quetzalcoatl!
Bob Owens, Amputee said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:13
Mah espadrille!
Automatic Man said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:20
My Pearl.
Automatic Man said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:22
Hey, fucking WP:
Ahem! My Pearl.
Bob Owens, Swamp Thing said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:23
Mah Chlorophyll!
M. Bouffant said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:24
That WP is quite the masochist. Won’t publish until it’s been abused.
Gary Ruppert said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:25
The fact is, you socialests arent fooling anyone, we know you want the state to take over all freedom and give all the money to the blacks.
M. Bouffant said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:26
Better: “Can’t” publish, &c.
Bob Owens, snazzy dresser said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:35
Mah twill!
Bob Owens, Himself said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:39
Mah swill!
Bob Owens, Married to a Lady Named Jill said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:03
Mah Jill!
Bob Owens, Senator said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:04
Mah bill!
Bob Owens, BP said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:06
Mah top kill!
Bob Owens, Daytime TV Fan said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:06
Mah Dr. Phil!
Substance McGravitas said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:07
First they came for the boys who cried wolf, and that's pretty much the end of the poem right there.Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:39
Uh, what the hell happened here?
Larkspur said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:43
Things has got weird, BBBB.
Substance McGravitas said,
August 15, 2010 at 2:43
I dunno man. I just don't knowSnorghagen said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:03
Bold italic lettering is swarming over America’s unclosed tag borders and producing thousands of terrorist socialist font anchor babies.
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:03
This thread is an epic….something.
jim said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:09
Zombie tags FTW?!?
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:10
My words seem to carry greater weight in this thread. I also find myself tilting my head to the right for some reason.
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:11
My words seem to carry greater weight in this thread
ALL CAPS WOULD BE THE ICING ON THE CAKE.
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:13
This has all happened before. It will happen again.
the conspiratist said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:13
OH MY GOD!!
Phase IV, the Armedmonkeyterrorbabyopocolyps!!
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:19
This will get your mind off formatting issues. I’m so sorry you had to see that.
Ctrl-Alt-Del said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:27
The buttons! They do nothing!!!
Bob Owens, Building Owner said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:27
Mah Brill!
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:29
I thank doG and our bold italic overlords that I know nothing of Justin Bieber other than that the FBI is now tracking me as a kiddie pr0n suspect for having clicked that link. FY “Willy” with a ginormous Justin Bieber replicock.
Boob Owens, Blogger said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:29
Mah Shrill
Marge said,
August 15, 2010 at 3:59
So that was Comic Sans on the floor in there. And I guess that was Ariel bold italics in the wood chipper. And those three Bauhaus fonts in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than a little money, you know. And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.
The Other 'Historic' Choice: How Hillary Would Have Governed said,
August 15, 2010 at 4:33
Ever since June, when Bill Clinton criticized (however obliquely) Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, there has been renewed chatter concerning a Hillary candidacy in 2012. Hillary could take advantage of a weakened president with plummeting approval ratings to achieve her own ambitions — or save her party from the aforementioned weakened president, depending on the viewpoint. Whether this is a plausible theory or not is debatable, but it does bring to mind something else: What kind of presidency would a Hillary victory in 2008 have produced? How much better or worse off would the nation be at this point? The most likely conclusion: We’d probably be exactly where we are right now — just less annoyed, and perhaps less fragmented as a people. [bla bla bla, edited by the management. --S,N!]
lobbey said,
August 15, 2010 at 4:35
Ohhhhh… bad meth, I’ll come back when you’ve all come down
g said,
August 15, 2010 at 4:57
What have you people done? You’ve unleashed the bold italics monster!
Huh? said,
August 15, 2010 at 5:16
What?
What? said,
August 15, 2010 at 5:18
—Richard Nixon
Sheesh said,
August 15, 2010 at 6:18
Hey,
Let me interrupt the italacalypse This is a much better $30 T-shirt!
Hulk said,
August 15, 2010 at 6:19
SMASH BOLD ITALICS WITH HANDS!!
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 6:39
So, this is why we can’t have nice things, huh?
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 6:41
Of course, “this” was supposed to be in italics, but really, why bother.
In for a penny said,
August 15, 2010 at 7:26
In for a pound.Bob Owens, dump truck driver said,
August 15, 2010 at 7:28
Mah fill!
Bob Owens, bird fancier said,
August 15, 2010 at 7:40
Mah whippoorwill!
Bob Owens, hog farmer said,
August 15, 2010 at 7:41
Mah swill!
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:35
/i>I says.<
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:36
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:37
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:38
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:39
Gotta say, this is mofoin’ epic right here.
Whale Chowder said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:39
You bastards.
I’d just like to report that I was un-friended by one of my old high school co-graduates (never a friend, really) who posted some stupid “how insensitive to build the GZM” post and I called ‘em on it. Might have used the word “bullshit” in there. Made the point that if two blocks is too close, how is five or fifty or five hundred miles any different?
He deleted that post, to which I replied “Ooh, shame on ME” and then, *snif* I was un-friended!
Now for the 76 other teatards I graduated with.
PS: I did send him a nasty personal note after that commending him on his bravery.
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:39
This is sparta
noen said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:41
Now you kids have gone and done it. When Dad gets home he’s gonna be soooo pissed. I mean, usually he passes out in the living room but… you’ll be in trouble!
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:41
mommy? this is bad
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:42
\
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:42
‘
Whale Chowder said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:45
Word Press is the Ikea of blogging software.
calibre97 said,
August 15, 2010 at 8:50
%3C%2Fi%3E
Anything?
I swear, WordPress is the WordPress of blogging software.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:02
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠
₣⊌⊌⊌⊌⊌₡₭
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:04
₣⊌⊌⊌₡₭
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:50
Holy shit. The apocalypse has arrived. It rides a FAIL horse.
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:52
Strike this comment.
Fucking microwaves, how do they work?
Bowl burns poor wittow finguz, food too cold to eat. I need sustenance McGravitas.
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:53
Even the shit at the bottom of the page is struck.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:55
Whatever stupid people who don’t live on the West coast or Hawaii or Alaska. Go ahead and sleep. I’m just gonna type me some struckass comments that mean virtually nothing. Just like before only faster and with striking.
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 9:56
This thread was dead when I got here, I swear.
Sheesh said,
August 15, 2010 at 10:41
Here’s how all the comments sound now:
VreeeeeEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOooooooooom…
Sheesh said,
August 15, 2010 at 10:44
This thread deserves to live on unrepaired at this point.
Chicago Cubs said,
August 15, 2010 at 12:15
Wow, this is like nine innings of strikeouts. Or even a three game series!
Scott said,
August 15, 2010 at 12:29
Whale Chowder, I’ve defriended a few people who had turned into howling racists since I’d known them in college. I may have had a few who defriended me over politics, but if they did, they did so quietly. I’m actually surprised my politics haven’t scared off more people I knew in high school.
One guy I knew in high school defriended me because I liked Tom Waits. That was weird.
Bob Owens, Ronco said,
August 15, 2010 at 12:35
My Popeil!
lobbey said,
August 15, 2010 at 12:40
One guy I knew in high school defriended me because I liked Tom Waits. That was weird.
Eh?
guitarist manqué said,
August 15, 2010 at 13:24
I saw some great Tom Waits shows in the late 70′s but he wasn’t for everybody. For one thing he smelled like a dumpster. Really lived the role.
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 13:49
WP has been infected by a Troofbot. Bookmark this, Libs.
N__B said,
August 15, 2010 at 13:54
If everything has been crossed off the list, then there’s nothing left to do. MAYBE WE’RE DEAD!
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 13:56
Ah. The Italicized Font Workers Local 206 has been emboldened to go on strike. Is there a line we shouldn’t be crossing?
N__B said,
August 15, 2010 at 13:58
This thread is a font of bold humor that crosses the line.
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:03
I am struck by the fact that the slanted humor of the place boldly shines through the worst of calamities.
N__B said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:06
She said “I like my men bold.”
I said “You want me to play on a sloped field, baby.”
She said “Don’t be cross.”
I said “This is the last time I have a one-nighter with Microsoft font viewer.”
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:12
One strikeand you’re out.~
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:13
I know there’s another good line in here somewhere….
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:31
At least the page loads.
MMfA is broken, and because MMfA won’t load, Atrios won’t load either.
~
Bob Owens, Urban Planner said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:39
Mah infill!
Bob Owens, malaria sufferer said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:42
Mah chills!
Bob Owens,disappointed airline passenger said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:43
Mah frills!
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 14:53
Ahem, Mr. Owens! (IF that is your real name!)
~
Bob Owens, Urban Orthodontist said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:00
Mah grill!
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:20
The fuck is going on here?
This is why we can’t have nice things!
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:23
Is this the Mason-Dixon line?
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:28
Is this the Wingpocalypse?
Anonymous said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:34
This is bizarre. Opera must be suppressing the busted tag ’cause all the text has been behaving like it ought to (mostly normal except for a few strikeouts and the like).
Does cache clearing help?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:41
Cache clearing does not help, and it’s the same on my phone as it is on my computer.
Fucking coding, how does it work?
Bob Owens, Buick Enthusiast said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:41
Mah Coup de Ville!
No-Visible-Means said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:42
Curses!! Changing the basefont to Comic Sans, neon, +32 doesn’t work.
Chris said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:42
Whale Chowder, I’ve defriended a few people who had turned into howling racists since I’d known them in college.
I’ve done the same thing here to at least two people. Interesting thing, facebook; a lot of people who are very meek and soft-spoken in real life turn into howling banshees on there.
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:44
Maybe we can get the Blink Tag to work?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:45
NOOOOOOOO.
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:45
Fail. Too bad, that would have awesomized this mess.
Bob Owens, Car Douche said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:48
The Coup de Ville wuz not Buick, libtard!
Bob Owens, Pickle Canner said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:51
Mah dills!
Bob Owens, Carp said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:52
Mah gills!
Bob Owens' Little Red Wagon said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:53
Mah wheels!
Bob Owens, Estate Planner said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:53
Mah wills!
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:56
My new mosque will feather rich Corinthian leather!
~
Rusty Shackleford said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:56
I have never felt impotenter.
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 15:58
Eraserthread
Bob Owens, Butt Plug said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:00
Mah thrills!
Bob Owens, Damaged Grill Photographer said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:01
Mah stills!
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:02
That would mean you are at your impotentist, Rusty.
~
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:10
WP is on strike, eh?
Willy said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:19
WP is on strike, eh?
It was a bold move WP wanted to emphasize.
the conspiratist said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:24
And the Mayan calender strikes again…
Bob Owens, Manic Depressive said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:25
Mah Seroquel!
Bob Owens, PBS Watcher said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:26
Mah Gwen Ifill!
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:31
Yet it is on the highway where Cordoba best answers my demands.
~
N__B said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:40
KHAAAAAAAAN!
Bob Owens, Belly Dancer said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:41
Mah Zill!
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:44
How much would you pay for this fine TV dinnner?
~
Snorghagen said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:45
Even my keyboard. Even the Acme Plumbing magnet on my refrigerator. Even the lettering on my toothpaste tube.
The fabric of the universe has been struck through.
Carribbean Walrus said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:56
I’m flossing my tusks with this thread! Mon!
The Shat said,
August 15, 2010 at 16:56
Sadly, No! The finest in Snark!
These are the comments of the Sadlynaut corps.
Their particular obsessions:
To expose each new stupidity…
To shame the morons; and the bigots…
To boldly italicize where no one has struck before!
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 17:01
We came to comment
But we were stricken boldly
And italicized.
~
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 15, 2010 at 17:33
So this is the new normal, huh?
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 17:50
Disgruntled Worker brought the italix
at 20:17
justme said boldy,
at 22:32
In for a penny said,
I’m on strike at 7:26
Fiendish friends of the apocalypse,
UnTIE!11!!!
~
Substance McGravitas said,
August 15, 2010 at 18:07
It's like Jonah pre-emptively taking back every argument he makes.Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 18:34
It’s dead, Jim.
S_McG killed it.
~
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 18:39
It’s not dead yet! It’s pining for the fjords, where it would be free from itals, bolds and strikes!
jim said,
August 15, 2010 at 18:48
Way kewl! Even my nym & e-mail fields are down with a case of strikethrough cooties! Peculiar that my preview is somehow immune.
Put your face right up against the monitor & squint … you can actually see exactly where the lines go into some of the series of tubes … Computer Science III magic all up in this bitch.
Bob Owens, Soprano said,
August 15, 2010 at 18:50
Mah trills!
Blinking Emoticon said,
August 15, 2010 at 18:52
All these horizontal beams lying around – we should build a fort!
Closing Tags Local 7018 said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:04
We TOLD you you’d regret it if you didn’t give us that smoker’s lounge, but did you listen? Noooooooooo.
You’ve got until midnight to comply before we release the “h6″ tag.
N__B said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:06
?
Bob Owens, Hobbit said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:06
Mah Tom Bomabardils!
Bob Owens, Wingnut Merchandising Pimp Extrordinaire said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:07
Mah shills!
Bob Owens, Dalmatian Puppy-Millright said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:10
Mah Cruella De Villes!
Bob Owens, Fighter Ace said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:12
Mah kills!
Bob Owens, 80s Rapper said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:12
Mah Ills!
jim said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:14
LOL ? ? ?
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:15
_________________________
____________||||||||||||||________
‘(((((())))))000000
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:25
|>
|_/
_|
……
………
………………………………………
……….
………. >(‘> >(‘>
………. >()))*>
……….
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 15, 2010 at 19:47
Not even the ＮＵＣＵＬＡＲ ＯＰＴＩＯＮ works!
The Flashing Astonisher said,
August 15, 2010 at 20:10
CAZART!!!!!
Crosby, Nash and Young said,
August 15, 2010 at 20:17
Mah Stills!
Top Gun said,
August 15, 2010 at 20:20
Mcgillis!
Bob Owens,baboon fancier said,
August 15, 2010 at 20:47
Man drill!
Obama Is Colluding with a New Fascist Imperialism said,
August 15, 2010 at 21:25
Nothing is more like the fascist Axis of the 1930s than Islamist expansionism today. Like the Hitler-Tojo-Mussolini Axis of the 1930s, Islamic fascists are fundamentally imperialistic, with an explicit order from on High to subjugate civilized people or turn them to ashes. Mohammed himself famously threatened the cultured Persian and Byzantine Emperors of his time, and in the following years, his followers knocked those empires over like devouring army ants.
The peace-loving Buddhist monasteries of India were consumed by invading Muslim armies, with the result that there are no Buddhist monasteries left in India today. Not a single one. Only Hinduism survived the Muslim invasions, because Hindus are not pacifists. You can ask any Sikh about that; they are a huge warrior religion that arose as a buffer between Hindu India and its many Muslim invaders, who now hold Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, the Buddhist monks just died or fled to Tibet. So much for the glorious results of peaceful resistance against Muslim armies.
Wherever Islamic fascists go, they first like to frighten and intimidate less warlike peoples — as in London today, where any BBC criticism of Islamic fascists is streng verboten. That’s what the Ground Zero Mosque and the Mohammed cartoon uproar have in common: They are purposeful agitprop campaigns to scare and intimidate all the weak-willed liberals in the West, a standard Islamist tactic to conquer by intimidation, just as Muslim conquerors have always done. Why bother to wage war when you can win by terror? Putin understands that, the Chinese understand it, and it’s clear enough around the Middle East. Only American liberals and European socialists are in denial. That’s why they are the biggest round-heels in the world. They will happily collude in their own subjection and degradation.
Islamic practice has always required mosques to have the highest towers in any subjugated city. No Jews or Christians were ever allowed to build higher places of worship, to ride higher (on horses or mules), or even to raise their heads higher while walking the streets than any Muslim. If you were a Jew or a Christian, you would duck your head deep down as you passed a Muslim, who was allowed to spit on you at will. As recently as the Ottoman Empire (crumbled in 1917), all dhimmis were unceremoniously beaten to the ground if they dared to raise their heads higher than a passing Muslim. Modern Westerners deny the obvious, but that is because they are wishful idiots, self-inflicted ignorami, and dead meat to all the predators of this world. It’s Little Red Riding Hood skipping into the dark forest again, but this time nobody told her about the Big Bad Wolf.
Islamic fascism is committing African genocides here and now, as in the Sudan, where a radical Muslim murder regime has been enabled by the “international community” to persecute and kill animist and Christian Africans since the 1990s. Rather than stopping the horrors by simply arming Africans who are killed for Allah, the Sudan has been gloriously elected to the Human Rights Commission of the U.N. General Assembly with the active connivance of the Left. That is just another fact that is understood by anybody who cares to open their eyes. The U.N. has been conquered without a shot by the new fascists, so that U.N. “peacekeeping” forces are rendered impotent in the face of genocide.
Kofi Annan stood by during the Rwandan genocides in the 1990s and then was elected Secretary General of the U.N. partly as a reward; Islamic regimes and the Euro-Left knew he wouldn’t make trouble for them. Annan earned his by using the Food for Oil conspiracy to skim billions off “humanitarian” Iraqi oil sales to help Saddam Hussein, in criminal collusion with French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. The U.S. press, filled to the brim with useless idiots and suckers, celebrated the bad guys and attacked the good guys. The biggest liberals always fall for the worst tyrants.
You think that evil is safely dead and in the past? You must be a liberal and self-deluded. But I repeat myself, as Mark Twain said in similar circumstances.
Islamofascists constantly threaten genocide against the Jews, as in the daily fulminations of that little Twelver freak Ahmadinejad — but also in the words just reported by our good friend the Saudi King of the Arabian desert: “There are two nations that do not deserve to live: Israel and Iran.”
This is the 7th-century king of the camel-raiders that the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, publicly bowed down to — in a universal gesture of submission that was instantly understood throughout the Muslim world.
Neville Chamberlain gave Adolf Hitler only a half-bow after the Munich appeasement summit of 1938. Liberals are forever thus.
To complete the bleak parallels to the horrible 1930s, we see the Left-Fascist alliance together again. If you think Bill Ayers and Jodie Evans were just accidentally whipping up a PR stunt with the Turkish suiciders off the coast of Gaza a few months ago, then you, too, were taken in by classic agitprop collusion between the radical Left and Islamic fascists. Those were Muslim Bro suiciders (Turkish allies of Hamas) on board the tourist ship Mavi Marmara, under the direct command of the new Islamist fascist regime in Turkey. Like the recent Lebanese border assassination ambush of a senior Israeli military leader, this was a murderous setup. The assassination team in Lebanon Army uniforms had their snipers all set up with 50-caliber long-distance weapons, conveniently provided by U.S. military trainers.
But don’t expect any JournoListers to grok those facts any time soon. They are too busy looking for evil among American conservatives. The Left is half-deluded and half-Machiavellian, and each half constantly lies to the other. The lefty media desperately want to be deluded, of course, like the abused wife of a violent alcoholic. It’s a sort of token of love.
Socialist Europeans are knocking each other out like bowling pins today in their hurry to kowtow to the rising Fascist powers, who have bought all three British Parliamentary parties with their oil billions. Tony Blair is working for Libya’s Muammar Khadafi today, which tells you where the Labour Party’s heart really is. Eurosocialists have for decades imported hundreds of thousands of fundamentalist Muslims from the badlands of Pakistan with promises of lifelong welfare and four wives apiece, a promise that an ambitious young Islamofascist from Peshawar can hardly be expected to resist. As a result, Muslim fundamentalists now virtually control parts of Europe’s major cities, including Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Paris. Socialist Europeans know that their countries are coming to an end as Western states. They are not as idiotic as they constantly pretend to be. But they are drunk on the perks of power — and let tomorrow be damned. After us, the deluge.
Like the demonic 1930s, the Left is again a lot more interested in sabotaging freely elected governments than in fighting rising fascist tyrannies that delight in oppressing millions of women, in persecuting and hanging homosexuals, and in practicing sadistic violence toward a host of other victim groups. Sadistic violence — an intense delight in inflicting pain on innocent people — was a huge and now-forgotten feature of the three big Fascist powers of the 1930s: the Nazis, the Japanese Imperial Army, and even Mussolini’s Italians in North Africa.
Some people define Fascism as a corporatist economic system, like Obama Motors today. It could just as well be defined as the public celebration and practice of massive sadism against enslaved peoples. Mussolini practiced massive sadism in Africa. Hitler practiced systematic sadism against inferior peoples wherever he could — against Russians, Poles, Jews, Gypsies, German social democrats, on and on. Imperial Japan was horrific in its sadistic treatment of non-Japanese — American and European prisoners, Chinese people as a whole, black Americans, Filipinos and other Malay peoples in Asia, on and on. Even the Soviets did not celebrate sadistic torture of its enemies in public, as far as I remember, though they certainly practiced it in private, as the Russians still do today in Chechnya.
Ideologically rationalized sadism and cruelty is not even acknowledged today by such lowlife organs as the New York Times. The Times mostly ignored and thereby colluded in Hitler’s and Stalin’s industrialized sadism in the 1930s. Some things change, but the New York Times always enables the very worst regimes in the world. It is one of those constants that give one faith in the basic stability of things. Tyrannies change names, but the Times always kowtows to the most bloodstained nastocrats it can find. They may even teach it in Journalism 101 at Columbia.
The historic fact is that the Left always enables fascist monsters. I don’t claim to understand that fact, but it’s easy enough to see it over and over again. It seems to be part of their deep moral cowardice and weakness of character. The prophet Jeremiah saw it in the sixth century BCE and roundly attacked those who pretended to heal “the broken daughter of my people, saying Peace, Peace, but there is no Peace.” Listen to our liberal friends, and they are constantly saying it over and over again, a mantra that makes them feel better even if it is a flagrant lie.
Liberalism is just the self-delusion of moral cowards throughout history. It is not a modern ideology, as it always claims to be — now it’s “progressive” again. They can’t even think of new labels. It’s is just a form of denial, a pop fantasy that allows them to avoid thinking scary thoughts. That is why liberalism can be found over and over again in human history, under a thousand different labels.
We can see that delusional thinking right now in Barack Hussein Obama and in Hillary, just as we saw it in the Carter administration — which gave Islamic fascism its first taste of real power in 1979. It’s important to remember that reactionary Islamic fascism was mostly gone after the Ottoman Empire crumbled in 1917. A number of Muslim countries desperately tried to modernize for sixty years — until Jimmy Carter gave the pre-medieval throwback Ayatollah Khomeini his first big chance in 1979. That started a race among all the suppressed Islamofascists in Sunni and Shiite countries. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Jimmy Carter’s dysfunctional politics was not an accident, nor his love affair with Hamas and Khomeini; it is an obsessive-compulsive psychopathology, and it happens over and over again in human history.
That’s why the Norwegian politicians keep handing out that the Nobel Appeasement Prize. It’s why Obama got it just for getting elected. The Left and the Islamic fascists figured out who Obama was long before the people of America were told. After all, he’s one of them.
The Games We Play said,
August 15, 2010 at 21:27
After four hundred years lying dormant, the Middle East has once again taken its place on the world scene. This ascendancy began with the long-awaited Ottoman demise, was spurred on by the region’s vast energy resources, and was strengthened by Cold War interests.
But it was the attacks on 9/11 that thrust the region front and center into the Western spotlight. The U.S. and its allies have since almost emptied state coffers, committed a vast military complex, and devoted much diplomatic capital to pursuing a policy of reforming the Middle East. The present-day West seeks engagement, and — like its ancestors before it — has failed to understand this enigmatic region it attempts to engage.
Much commentary over the centuries has attempted to solve the riddle of the Orient, to distill its properties and disturb its affinities. Some have romanticized it; others have remained aloof to the entire endeavor. As Kipling once quipped, “You’ll never plumb the oriental mind, and if you did, it isn’t worth the toil.” Whatever one’s sensibility on the topic, it remains true that few in the West have apprehended the basic mentality of the Middle Easterner, unable to capture his imagination, and so they remain forever foreigners within its midst.
Today, the needs of the West to penetrate this region and allow for the moderating influences within it to flourish demand that the West finally overcome its chronic Middle Eastern myopia. The cultural divide separating the West from the Orient can best be described by the differences one finds in the games of chess and backgammon.
When one looks at these two board games and compares them, one can immediately discern the biggest difference between these two games: the existence or lack of dice. In backgammon, as in the Middle East, the dice represent a common mystical and unpredictable quality: In the game, the dice set a seemingly arbitrary rhythm. In the region, it’s been the quantum of religious fervor that have dominated the Middle Eastern landscape.
The dice, like the supernal, are all-encompassing, and though their effects in backgammon can be mitigated by adept positioning, in the end, you rise and fall by the roll of the dice. Similarly, the legacy of Jerusalem adequately captures the Middle Easterner as first and foremost a believer, captivated by the metaphysical, which infuses its passions, politics, and heroes.
In the West’s beloved strategy game, chess, the governing force is mathematics. The battlefield is a set board with defined pieces which allow, in every alternating turn, for a determined number of outcomes. It is the opponent who can deduce the combination of variables furthest who will ultimately prevail.
The legacy of Athens explains the West’s penchant for rational interest, political equation, and ordered society. Like chess, Western logic brings with it a cool pragmatism, a belief that reason and human understanding go hand in hand. While this Western logic has a universal appeal, it is far from a universal predicate; but more than this, in the Middle East, its cold tones ring hollow.
Behind differences in the games, and the regional realities they symbolize, are two vastly different social structures shaped by differing worldviews. The West inhabits an organized and complex matrix, where roles are distinct and codified. Just as the pawn, the rook, and the king have definite values, so too were the social roles of Europe’s peasants, burghers, nobles, popes, and kings (and today, its citizens, senators, MPs, and prime ministers) rule-bound.
In the Middle East, and in backgammon, the opposite is the case. The game pieces are interchangeable, and so are the region’s social players. A tribal leader can become “king”; a man can gain or lose the honorific of sheikh in a way that a baron of Europe could not; and the status of citizen/subject is often altered by decree, not by law. But what remains permanently inviolate in Middle Eastern society is not the definition of the formal role, but the primacy of the bond: Community membership is nearly unconditional, loyalty paramount, and social position essential.
Like that left-behind piece in backgammon that proves the player’s undoing, the Middle East is tribal at its core. One cannot elect to sacrifice a piece (unlike a chess player who can sacrifice any piece except the king, and a Western country that can lose a province in the name of peace) because the sacrifice does not represent just a loss of the piece, as it does in the West, but a violation of the essential ties that bind its social compact.
The West simply does not grasp this and unconsciously demands that the Middle East bend itself to the logic of chess, insisting that wars of passion, morality, and subjugation get resolved with cool-headed swaps enforced by ceremonial signatures and diplomatic speech. That is, the West demands that Middle Easterners learn to tip their kings — without ever considering that there are no kings to tip.
For either Westerner or Middle Easterner to progress beyond this point of incompatibility — which has characterized the relationship from the time of medieval wars up until today’s period of chronically failing peace processes — we have to look not at the pieces, but at the boards.
With this view, we see that on the backgammon board of the Middle East, time is the critical parameter. In the game, the goal is to eliminate all of your pieces from the board before your opponent does. In the shifting landscape of the region, space in itself is meaningless: There is equally little access to bodies of water in the north as in the south; just as little ability to raise crops or harvest forests in the west as in the east.
In backgammon, as in Arabia, North Africa, and the Levant, the critical commodity is not tradable tracts of land, but transcendental priority. “Who comes first?” is the motivating question: In backgammon, “who comes first” to free himself (in the form of his pieces) from the board? In the region, “who comes first” to receive the blessing and bear primacy in the order of moral priority?
Finally, in both game and region, the most definitive difference is that backgammon requires a winner and a loser. It is, in fact, a zero-sum game. In chess, there is the possibility of a draw. After millennia of winning and losing, Western civilization has found that a negotiated draw is the most stable, loss-minimizing outcome. In backgammon, however, there is no such thing as a draw; the player who requests a draw is the player who admits defeat.
What this means in the Middle East is that no decision is absolutely preferred to an imperfect one, since to make an imperfect decision — what the West calls “compromise” — is to lose priority. It’s an admission, for the Middle Easterner, that his world view is slightly flawed and should be corrected by action.
But the Middle Easterner can make the gestures of compromise because he believes that the treaties, agreements, unions, and alliances that the formalistic West considers permanent are in truth fleeting. Such ceremony, to a region that has for too long experienced a zero-sum outcome, cannot simply replace the permanence of actual defeat and absolute victory so well-established in its history. This is the reason that when treaties are signed, hands shaken, and diplomatic pageantry indulged in, the Middle Easterner necessarily takes it all with a grain of sand.
The Middle East has understood that while the West is in power, it must play chess. So instead of interchangeable pieces of backgammon, it has carved out rooks and pawns. But what contemporary Western thought has failed to understand is that despite the display, the Middle East moves its “chess” pieces according to the rules and rhythm of backgammon.
This strategy might seem devious to a Westerner, but in fact, it’s derived from the prime lesson the Middle East understands but the West refuses to acknowledge: that you can bend the rules of a game without ultimately breaking them. Even more than this, the West has failed to understand that the player who changes the rules of the game without violating those rules is the player who advances the nature of the game, enriching it, adapting its play to new contexts and — critically — to new players.
Playing in the Middle East, the West has always emphasized actual power over perceived power — upheavals that are top-down rather than revolutions that are bottom-up. It’s a shortsighted view of domination that, like chess, factors out a serious notion of time and focuses all energies on space.
For the West, a long-term approach to the Middle East must focus on two areas: what it can offer and what it has to protect. It must offer what it excels at, which is education and its long tradition of the academy, focusing effort on establishing bastions of learning across the Middle East. Creating a league to protect these institutes’ intellectual and physical freedoms, upholding tolerance, and reinforcing Western modalities of analysis are all critical to the West’s ability to be able to make long-term progress with Middle Eastern partners. At the same time, Western governments and institutions must protect and support the individuals and associations willing to lead and moderate the public.
Lastly, to change its own rules, to orient itself towards time, the West must make clear the great importance attached to the spiritual and cultural artifacts in the region that establish the ancient connections between the West and East. The change is at first inward, an embrace of a Middle Eastern value that some things are sacred and beyond compromise. The West must assert the sanctity of its own tradition — instead of asserting the raw political and military power of the “realist.”
It must insist on the protection of values like human rights and religious freedom but must also protect physical edifices and artifacts like libraries, archeological sites, and religious shrines. In doing so, Western governments and institutions must make clear that these conditions will be part of any treaty, agreement, or relation and will be discussed in any summit between itself and a Middle Eastern partner.
For the West to interact successfully with the Middle East, it becomes crucial to understand, as the Middle East does, that rules are bendable — but values are not. If the West is to maintain its foundational principle that negotiation is preferable when possible, then it must work to sideline the players who violate this principle, leaving those who accept it. If the West is to show the Middle East the value of a negotiated draw, it must insist on its own values and abandon the relativism that says rules are sacred, but values are not.
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 15, 2010 at 21:42
So what did I do to break this thing? Forgot to close an italics tag?
Jesus Christ, this thing is like an ’84 Fiero.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 21:49
Something tells me it’s about time for a new thread.
No, really.
Guys?
No-Visible-Means said,
August 15, 2010 at 21:57
You entered “” to close the tag instead of “”. WP goes bonkers when you do that. I was thinking of filing a bug report but figured, nah, this could be so much fun at other sites!
Shhhh!
No-Visible-Means said,
August 15, 2010 at 21:58
Dammit!
You entered i / instead of /i.
Bob Owens, Tied Scoreless Soccer Match said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:09
Mah nils !
Bob Owens, Light European Lager said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:10
Mah pils !
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:11
Yes?
Bob Owens, Incompetent Handyman said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:11
Mah skills !
Bob Owens' Penis said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:12
Mah L’il !
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:13
Going for it!
Substance McGravitas said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:16
Oh, was that it?Substance McGravitas said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:16
Maybe not?
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:23
It doesn’t seem to work with every tag, or maybe just not if you close normally right after it.
Looch said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:24
Tried for the blink tag. No go.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:24
Oh, Lord.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:25
Thank Bog for small favors, the blink tag isn’t enabled here.
No-Visible-Means said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:29
View > Page Source in FF. In IEwev, can’t help ya. No got.
Bob Owens, Wordpress Developer said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:31
It’s a feature, not a bug.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:32
Still can’t figure out how to unfuck it, though.
justme said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:34
Gotta wonder if maybe…
Bob Owens, WordPress Developer said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:46
Have you tried the /fuck tag?
Chris said,
August 15, 2010 at 22:54
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/110333/millionaire-myths?mod=bb-budgeting
A column debunking myths about unjustly stereotyped millionaires. (Has anyone ever bothered to do a column like this about homeless people, or poor people, or working class people? Just curious).
Carrie Bradshaw said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:06
Mah espadrille!
Chris said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:07
The line that caught my attention was this;
“5. Millionaires All Drive Fancy Cars
You can get that idea of the rich guy in a fancy German car out of your head when you think of a millionaire: They actually drive a Ford, with the carmaker topping the millionaire preferred car list at 9.4 percent.”
And the reason it caught my attention is because of a story I heard from a millionaire’s kid I befriended in college about another millionaire’s kid from the Deep South that she was dating at the time. Apparently, the guy’s family owned a string of BMW dealerships and owned several Beemers, but they also bought a Ford and usually drove around in that so that they “wouldn’t look like elitists.”
I wonder how that factors in. Wouldn’t it be easier for them if they just dropped the act – on racism, on elitism, on everything?
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:13
Testing
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:14
Curiouser and curiouser. A mystery wrapped within an enigma preceded by a boorish copy/paste troll.
tigris said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:16
A column debunking myths about unjustly stereotyped millionaires. (Has anyone ever bothered to do a column like this about homeless people, or poor people, or working class people? Just curious).
Hey, man, beating up on strawmen isn’t charity.
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:16
A column debunking myths about unjustly stereotyped millionaires. (Has anyone ever bothered to do a column like this about homeless people, or poor people, or working class people? Just curious).
Poor rich people. They’ve worked exceptionally hard to drain that wealth out of the middle class in the last 50 years and nobody appreciates their toil.
Angry Geometer said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:17
It’s kind of a combo fuckup. WordPress shouldn’t allow the Tag of Evil in input, and your web browser shouldn’t treat the Tag of Evil the way it does. It doesn’t happen in Opera, The Browser For Sticklers (TM).
In firefox, if you have firequery, you can run (removing spaces around the style tags):
jQuery(” * { text-decoration: none !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; }”).appendTo(“head”);
There is no unfucking it through inputting stuff because anything that would unfuck it *does* get stripped out by wordpress’ input filter.
Input validation is hard! Let’s go shopping!
tsam said,
August 15, 2010 at 23:29
AG is right. Everything is perfect in Opera. Fast too.
D.N. Nation said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:01
PENIS
THE END OF THE THREAD said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:03
Bob Owens, 80s Rapper said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:11
Looks like a virtual PENIS to me.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:12
Whoops. Nymfail+tagfail+tagfail+tagfail = time to start my pre-Mad Men drinking.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:20
The answer to our questions: http://wonkette.com/417402/anti-gay-marriage-crusaders-must-get-gay-married-to-oppose-gay-marriage#comment-638188
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:39
Hey! It is fine in Opera!
Safari is even more fucked, though. It sees the blockquote tagfail that the others don’t.
tigris said,
August 16, 2010 at 0:44
Chrome too also.
Another Kiwi said,
August 16, 2010 at 1:06
Its the end of the world as we know it,
And I feel fine
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 1:46
Oooh, Chrome gets the <code> tagfail too. I don’t know if it’s better or worse than the bolditalics.
Clearly the answer to this is to casually failbomb as many WfP blogs as possible until people piss and moan enough for them to fucking fix it.
Let’s see. What sort of blog has people that loudly piss and moan over minutiae? Let me think…
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 16, 2010 at 1:49
And so that we will not feel all alone,
Nother Kiwi must be fined.
~
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 1:51
Oddly, Chrome doesn’t seem to have noticed the first italics fail at all, but the second one did the trick.
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 2:36
Fucking Juggalos. How do they work?
OOOK!!!!
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 2:57
Why throw shit at Tila Tequila when there are so many chairs left unthrown?
Looch said,
August 16, 2010 at 2:59
Still? Oy.
Looch said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:02
Why throw shit at Tila Tequila when there are so many chairs left unthrown?
She is on stage for what reason, exactly?
tsam said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:15
She is on stage for what reason, exactly?
Easier to hit with stuff.
Edo said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:17
And now, for the coup de grace!
Scrolling marquee!
de Sade said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:29
Better a scrolling marquee than a trolling marquis.
Another kiwi said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:39
A fine for a fine, Ricardo
until the whole world is fined
jim said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:52
Hurray hurray & calloo callay! Scroll-troll finally has the strikethroughs of LIBERHURRL FASCISM that it’s always dreamed of! Go troll go! Wear the semi-chubby of your martyrdom* with pride!
DENIED!
___________________
* (if your martyrdom lasts more than 4 hours, please consult your metaphysician)
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:53
Somehow my original italics tag fail has fixed itself? What the fuck?
84 Pontiac Fiero, indeed..
jim said,
August 16, 2010 at 3:58
This link = ********E*P*I*C********W*I*N******** !
Today we are all Illinois Juggalos.
Doctorb said,
August 16, 2010 at 4:29
Hey … knock it off you jerks
Ricardo Montalbán ™³²®© said,
August 16, 2010 at 4:33
The sheriff also said one man stabbed another, though not fatally.
Sheriff’s Department dispatcher Jimmy Barnard said early Sunday that he had no other details.
___
Information from: WSIL-TV, http://www.wsiltv.com
Disappointing!
~
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 5:45
Well, if someone is gonna fix this, I’ll list the offending tags.
From FF view source, Line / Column
1502 / 62
1538 / 13
1898 / 11
2299 / 6-15
2335 / 32
2353 / 26
3483 / 31
3502 / 2
3557 / 9
3955 / 20
Or, y’know, a new thread might be nice.
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 5:49
Also, The Malkinthing’s site is wordpress, but I can’t figure out how to sign up.
Sigh, all for naught.
M. Bouffant said,
August 16, 2010 at 6:12
Crikey, go away for a day or two & everything turns to shit, as usual.
Whale Chowder said,
August 16, 2010 at 6:40
Objection…witness is assuming it wasn’t shit when s/he left
M. Bouffant said,
August 16, 2010 at 7:37
Seems like shit & trouble everywhere I go.
Dragon-King Wangchuck said,
August 16, 2010 at 9:33
Posting in an EPIC Thread. I’ve seen a lotta tag fails before, but this is surely the first tag WIN.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 15:57
Still borked? Awesome.
guitarist manqué said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:00
Fonterdammerung?
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:02
_________________________
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:02
////////////////////////////////////
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:04
¥¥-ôf`Ä»
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:04
Best. Comments. Evah!
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:05
Unbold, dammit! Unstrike through, dammit!
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:06
My work here is done.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:06
smedley, I wish that computers worked like that. I would have done much better in my web design class last semester…not that I didn’t try yelling…
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:06
These comments are good news for John McCain.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:13
Wow, justme has a lot to say!
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:19
Are there any more html tags we can abuse?
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:20
I’m on STRIKE, myself.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:23
There’s the blink tag….
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:25
The tags have revolted! They’ve thrown off the chains of their oppressors and are now rising up against us!
Dragon-King Wangchuck said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:27
</strike> </bold> </i> </madness>
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:28
I blame DK-W’s mom for this. She needs to put out more to keep the tags down.
Dragon-King Wangchuck said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:31
I’m just gonna test something out. It probably won’t do anything – which I guess is par for my commentary.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:33
You can’t keep a fucked-up tag down.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:34
It probably won’t do anything – which I guess is par for my
commentarylife.FIXED!
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:36
The WP problem – could it have been a spell gone wrong?
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:37
Oh dear. This is a serious problem if I can’t slam DK-W properly.
MR SADLY,NO! FIX THIS WALL!
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:37
BTW – no tag problem here. Youse guys still have it?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:39
Yup. What browser are you running, Peej?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:39
It’s fucked up in Chrome and Firefox.
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:39
Isn’t a Wiccan somebody who works for Wikipedia?
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:39
I’ve got STRIKE, ITAL, and an indent going on under IE 7
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:41
Me, too. Also, bold.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:42
” IE 7″
I just got my morning guffaw.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:43
BOLD stopped at this post
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:43
This would be awesomest if it all got translated into Italian too.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:43
Hm, I still have bold. Weird.
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:44
bold, ital, strike is my new normal
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:44
I just got my morning guffaw.
There’s logic behind this, believe it or not. The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks, since coders hack the latest versions to exploit undiscovered security holes, leaving older ones behind.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:46
There’s logic behind this, believe it or not. The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks, since coders hack the latest versions to exploit undiscovered security holes, leaving older ones behind.
If by “logic,” you mean “utter stupidity,” then I suppose they’re right.
Alternatively, they could JUST USE A DECENT BROWSER.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:47
I disagree with every word T&U just said, but I will defend with my life her right to laugh at your IE7.
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:47
The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks,
My employer is on IE6.0 for that reason, though I surf on FF.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:47
Alternatively, they could JUST USE A DECENT BROWSER.
That would require work on their part, because you can actually customize Firefox et al, which means each user would eventually have their own configuration, meaning the MIS folks wouldn’t be able to copy and paste settings or have much control over the innertubes.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:48
The odd thing is, I have FF installed on my system, but when I try to use it, things get all hinky, and I end up slinking back over to IE. It’s almost as if they expect me to concentrate on work…
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:49
I disagree with every word T&U just said, but I will defend with my life her right to laugh at your IE7.
Admittedly, using an older version does make perverse sense, but again, why not just use a more secure browser?
That would require work on their part, because you can actually customize Firefox et al, which means each user would eventually have their own configuration, meaning the MIS folks wouldn’t be able to copy and paste settings or have much control over the innertubes.
I see…
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:49
Eet’s jes fine iin my Opera! Last night it was fekked up in the very same browser instance – can’t remember if I closed that tab and started fresh this a.m…… .
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:50
“There’s logic behind this, believe it or not. The thinking at my MIS dept is that by staying one browser behind, we will have fewer virus and worm attacks, since coders hack the latest versions to exploit undiscovered security holes, leaving older ones behind.”
I think my dad used that logic to keep us from getting a color TV until 1970.
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:52
Update: just scrolled through the entire thread and found NO broken tag artifacts. Also just looked in Chrome – TAG FAIL!
OPERA R00LZ!
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:53
“OPERA R00LZ!”
Space Opera Droolz!
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:55
I blame Albert Einstein. Stupid science and its stupid “relativity”. There should be one standard browser and one set of tags and you dirty fucking hippies should get over your Islamofeminazifascist ways.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:58
“There should be one standard browser and one set of tags”
Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein IE!
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:58
Not PENIS. Served at tea parties everywhere!
Butch Pansy said,
August 16, 2010 at 16:59
Bold, italic, strike for this FF using (hmmm, sometimes FF playing) liberal-arts faggot (don’t get too sciencey on me). I wondered why there was no new thread but more than 400 on this one!
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:00
I just sent an email to a co-worker, forgetting that she’s on vacation.
She sits 5 feet away from me. Admittedly, there’s a wall between us, but still.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:03
I’m officially tired of this.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:04
Holy crap. Now everything is a blockquote.
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:06
“She sits 5 feet away from me. Admittedly, there’s a wall between us, but still.”
T&U TERA DOWN THIS WALL.
’cause we want pictures of hot, sweaty chix covered with gypsum dust.
Looch said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:07
Safari has all the itals, bold and strikes, along with text in Courier. I’m on a Mac, YMMV.
Looch said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:09
FF (Mac) has all the stuff but Courier. No blockquote that I see.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:10
What if they abandoned us and it will be like this forever and ever??!!
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:11
“What if they abandoned us and it will be like this forever and ever??!!”
Then we live out our lives in a Randian paradise without rules, order, or the use of tags.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:13
“Then we live out our lives in a Randian paradise without rules, order, or the use of tags.”
Going Alt?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:13
“Then we live out our lives in a Randian paradise without rules, order, or the use of tags.”
I don’t like that. Not at all.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:14
It’s fucking FREEZING in here.
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:17
NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH
/Opera fanboi
smedley said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:18
“It’s fucking FREEZING in here.”
Are there more pictures forthcoming? Don’t worry, the naughty bits will be struck-through.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:19
“Are there more pictures forthcoming?”
Um, “more”?
I *knew* I shouldn’t have had that 5th tequila shot…
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:23
‘Um, “more”? ‘
You know, after the pictures of you wielding a 9-pound hammer.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:30
“You know, after the pictures of you wielding a 9-pound hammer.”
Oh. Somebody had better snap those fast, because I’ll get about four swings in and then want a cocktail.
Whale Chowder said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:32
…you wielding a 9-pound hammer.
Your opinion of Mr. T&U is mighty high, sir.
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:33
You know, after the pictures of you wielding a 9-pound hammer.
Just can’t quite the demolition pr0n, can you?
Note: this comment was composed with the first sentence and the first sentence only in italic text. And that’s the way it will look in MY browser. phtphtphpthpthptthpttt
jim said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:34
Les deux jours de FUBARthread!
Zut alors! Tabarnacle! Merde!
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:34
“Quit.” I meant “quit.”
*blames it on DT’s*
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:34
Speaking of which, you know what I need in my life right now? A big dose of breaking shit. Seriously.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:39
The Algonquin Kiddie Table–meanwhile–is appealingly free of italics, Bold and strike. Hint hint. Feel free to start a new thread.
God said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:45
I command thee to cut this shit out!!!!!!
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:58
“You know, after the pictures of you wielding a 9-pound hammer.”
*GASP*
You PROMISED those pictures would remain private, T&U!!!!!
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:16
Heh. Still all fucked up. How about just posting a new thread and seeing what happens?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:22
How can a fucking airport shuttle be so goddamn complicated, you fucking morons?
tigris said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:22
God said,
August 16, 2010 at 17:45 (kill)
I command thee to cut this shit out!!!!!!
Look, cut the resurrection crap, just let this one stay dead.
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:24
Oh, we’re back! How nice. I was Jonesing pretty badly for some PENIS of the D-KW variety.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Um, that is, ….. I mean ….
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:25
It even gives the time you get to the airport! You’ve flown before, moron! How long does it take for you to check in?
Whale Chowder said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:26
“Um, that is, ….. I mean ….”
Oh I think we know what you mean, sir!
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:31
“How long does it take for you to check in?”
It’s like rain on your wedding day.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:35
I just hate it when people who are supposed to be smart can’t exercise basic critical thinking skills and make a big deal out of shit that’s not a big deal at all.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:38
I liked that not one thing in that song was actually ironic.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:40
“I liked that not one thing in that song was actually ironic.”
Ironic, don’t you think?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:41
Well, yeah. It actually just sucked.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:42
“Ironic, don’t you think?”
Maybe Alanis Morisette was doing some kind of meta-piece…
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:44
Maybe Alanis Morisette was doing some kind of meta-piece…
That’s her story, that the irony is in it not being ironic (altho parts of it could be construed as metaphysical irony, like the death row pardon bit), but a song not about irony is called “Ironic”.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:45
“That’s her story, that the irony is in it not being ironic (altho parts of it could be construed as metaphysical irony, like the death row pardon bit), but a song not about irony is called ‘Ironic’.”
Really? I just thought she was dumb.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:48
I never minded the song; just wish she’d titled it accurately, like “Isn’t It Sucky” or something like that.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:48
“Really? I just thought she was dumb.”
She was nineteen when she wrote the song. By definition, she was dumb.
Altho you have to admit, a guy dying in a plane crash on his first flight after avoiding flying all his life is pretty close to irony.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:49
“She was nineteen when she wrote the song. By definition, she was dumb.”
Excellent point.
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 20:54
So is there somebody’s house we could all go hang out at until this whole thing blows over?
My eyes are starting to bleed a little.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:00
Try here: http://bethspencerdigitalartist.com/forum/index.php
Bob Owens, Miser said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:08
Mah scrill!
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:08
YAY! No mo strikethrough!
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:09
Our dear bloggingcritters would pick now as the time to get writers’ block.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:09
Oh, we’re back! How nice. I was Jonesing pretty badly for some PENIS of the D-KW variety
I know what you mean. It’s too early for a big meal..
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:10
Eeeeeees Fiiiix!!!!!!!
Hoorah! Pip pip!
Sadly, No! said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:11
I shall go ahead and blame all the HTML-shenanigans for the server breaking down (damn you, you crazy kids), but am happy to report that I have fixed your messes!
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:12
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY.
Thanks, Seb! (I’m assuming).
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:12
but am happy to report that I have fixed your messes!
Surrrrrrrrrrre, blame us who have zero access to your server-side software. Next, you’ll tell us we were trying to build a mosque here.
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:13
but am happy to report that I have fixed your messes!
*checks pants* No you didn’t!
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:13
Thanks Mom.
Pop Tarts?
Sadly, No! said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:14
To sum it up as our German hosting company put it:
So there you have it.
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:14
I give it ten minutes before the whole fucker falls apart again.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:15
*checks pants* No you didn’t!
You’re a big boy. Didies are on the top shelf, next to the enemas.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:16
To sum it up as our German hosting company put it:
You entrust your liberal snarkcastic blog to GERMANS?????
Gee…why not have the Brits serve as chefs?
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:17
That’s what it said in English. In German, it’s just one word.
Gordon Ramsay said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:17
I’m gonna fuck you up.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:19
That’s what it said in English. In German, it’s just one word.
I lolded.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:19
I’m gonna fuck you up.
Prosecution rests, your honor.
See, you should have impersonated Jamie Oliver…
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:21
I shall go ahead and blame all the HTML-shenanigans for the server breaking down
So my borked italics tag broke servers in Germany?
I HAZ POWERZ!!!
Illinois Enema Bandit said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:21
Didies are on the top shelf, next to the enemas.
Oh, I know where the enemas are.
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:22
For my next trick I will need a volunteer from the audience….
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:22
For my next trick I will need a volunteer from the audience….
*sits on hands*
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:23
*sits on hands*
OW!
Next time, your OWN hands!
justme said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:23
Y’know, now that it’s all just a fading memory, I sort of wish I’d taken screenshots.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:24
Y’know, now that it’s all just a fading memory, I sort of wish I’d taken screenshots.
Isn’t it ironic, dontcha think?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:25
Next time, your OWN hands!
Don’t even pretend you didn’t like it.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:25
As a rule, I don’t click on any “enema” links.
Whale Chowder said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:26
*sits on hands*
Whose?
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:26
As a rule, I don’t click on any “enema” links.
I think that’s an excellent policy.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:28
Whose?
Actor’s, apparently. I think he tried to imply that I’m a fatass, too.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:29
Mama didn’t raise no enema-clickin’ fool.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:29
Actor’s, apparently. I think he tried to imply that I’m a fatass, too.
Why, no! I merely have, um, small hands.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:32
o/~ Sit on my hands, and tell me that you love me. I’ll sit on your hands, and tell you I do toooooooo o/~
M. Bouffant said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:32
Get up early for once, & no Sadly, No!, sadly.
Now because I got up so effing early … the mind is deader than usual. Not that anyone else is offering much.
Willy said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:33
Y’know, now that it’s all just a fading memory, I sort of wish I’d taken screenshots.How’s that?
N__B said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:33
I’m a fatass
Like a fatwa, only more american.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:33
Why, no! I merely have, um, small hands.
You’re a terrible liar.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:33
How’s that?
Needs more Teletype.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:34
Like a fatwa, only more american.
The process is much tastier, too!
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:35
For my next trick I will need a volunteer from the audience….
Please, just go to a bar or somewhere instead – the audience doesn’t even want to know about your perversions much less participate. Besides, isn’t that what groupies are for?
Whale Chowder said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:36
Actor’s, apparently. I think he tried to imply that I’m a fatass, too.
Given that it’s Actor, it’s safer to assume that you sat down before he could slide his lap into the seat, too and he’s just cranky.
Pupienus Maximus said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:37
I merely have, um, small hands.
Small feet too, I surmise.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:41
Small feet too, I surmise.
Eleven triple E. Why did you want to know?
Peewee Herman said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:42
You know what they say about about a man with big feet…..
Peewee Herman said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:43
Big feet. Big shoes.
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:43
Eleven triple E. Why did you want to know?
His groupies were asking…
M. Bouffant said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:47
Oh, I know where the enemas are. They’re hanging from the curtain rod in Frank’s shower.
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:49
Phooey, I preferred the thread before it was “fixed”.
Bob Barker said,
August 16, 2010 at 21:52
Phooey, I preferred the thread before it was “fixed”.
Remember to always spay or neuter your threads.
guitarist manqué said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:01
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content. “Just let them play with broken tags for a while.” It was a fun thread though.
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:05
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content.
Like they didn’t know this before? Hell, we’re practically a living organism, feeding on the decay of moldly thread.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:08
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content. “Just let them play with broken tags for a while.” It was a fun thread though.
I hope everybody has their tetanus shots current.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:09
Hell, we’re practically a living organism, feeding on the decay of moldly thread.
I’m allergic to mold!
(Except on cheese. At least, I pretend.)
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:09
Now our demented overlords know that they can coast for days without content. “Just let them play with broken tags for a while.” It was a fun thread though.
This is similar to how I treat my cat. When it’s time for a new cat toy I just look to see what broken shit I have lying around that he can’t kill himself with.
Well, easily kill himself with, at least.
vacuumslayer said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:10
Too bad they don’t have a video of someone jiggling keys; we’d be entertained foe hours.
Eric Cartman said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:11
BAD KITTAH!!
actor212 said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:11
Too bad they don’t have a video of someone jiggling keys; we’d be entertained foe hours.
Ooooh! Shiny…
Eric Cartman said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:16
Is that a laser pointer?
Disgruntled Lurker said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:17
Is that a laser pointer?
PLAGARIST!!
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
August 16, 2010 at 22:34
Is that a laser pointer?
No, I’m just happy to see you.
jim said,
August 17, 2010 at 11:28
August 14, 2010: NEVAR FORGET.