Looks like ol’ Chris Muir is still getting in trouble over there. Case in point: This recent effort:
Above: Original Day By Day strip
Let’s do what we do best — i.e., help provide solutions:
Above: Enhanced Day By Day strip
Yay, all better!
…Although, maybe a better procedure with these Gaggle strips is just to add frickin’ punchlines to them:
See, that’s not genius work or anything, but…
Okay, wait a sec. That method doesn’t fit with the spirit of the strip at all. Hang on:
There. It needed a certain, you know, gratuitous incoherency.
It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another wokka-wokka-wokka-hoo-hee-hoo column from Charles Krauthammer. There’s lots of good stuff here, but this is particularly juicy:
Maliki is not just weak but unreliable. Time is short. We should have long ago — say, when national security adviser Stephen Hadley wrote his leaked memo last November about Maliki’s failure — begun working to have this dysfunctional government replaced.
Even the French foreign minister, upon returning from a recent fence-mending trip to Iraq, called for Maliki’s replacement. (One can discount his later apology as pro forma.) Such suggestions are often denounced as hypocritical and contrary to democracy. Nonsense. In a parliamentary system, a government serves only if it continues to command confidence.
But, like, if, uh, we’re “working to have his dysfunctional government replaced,” and not the people who have been elected by the Iraqis, isn’t that a de facto coup? And how are we going to force the Iraqi parliament to have a no-confidence vote?
Does anyone imagine that Maliki enjoys the confidence of the majority of Iraqis? If he does not, parliament, representing the people, has the perfect right to vote no confidence and bring down the government.
And then? Rather than seek a new coalition as a shaky substitute, the better alternative is new elections. And this time we must not repeat the mistake of election by party list, a system almost designed to produce warlord leadership and unstable coalitions.
New elections. Lovely. Everyone loves those picture-perfect purple finger moments. Makes everyone feel warm’n'fuzzy about waging a pointless war that’s ruined millions of lives. Just as long as the Iraqis vote for someone we approve, is all. And to do that, we’ll likely have to ban every legitimate candidate save Allawi and Chalabi.
Democrats, can you please, please, please, please get us out of this? I’m tired of watching my country slowly commit suicide. Thanks.
‘A Time for Grace:
America needs unity in dealing with Iraq. That means the president must lead.’
Above: Quit taking the paper years ago
Quiddity over at Uggabugga asks:
… saying that there is little progress in Iraq, is a stab in the back. Right?
Let’s go ask Dan Riehl.
Playing Politics With Terrorism And War
While Hillary Clinton continues to take some flak for playing politics with terrorism, will there be a sound about the obvious playing of politics concerning war, given these quotes below from a WaPo article on the leaking of a draft GAO report designed to undermine support for the war in Iraq? And isn’t leaking potentially classifiable material before it has an opportunity to be classified basically as criminal as leaking it after the fact?
So yes, in Dan’s America, it doesn’t matter whether information is actually classified or not: If it’s potentially classifiable, it’s a criminal act to leak it. And since negative information about the war is never value-neutral, but is ‘designed to undermine,’ such a leak is also a moral crime, and a stab-in-the-back (i.e., a dolchstoss).
…That is, if the information treasonously makes Republicans or their programs look bad. Otherwise, you know, ‘free speech.’
Here’s how Dan brings it home (emphasis his):
The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.More likely said government official feared recent polling and reporting suggesting a general increase in support for our efforts in Iraq.
Cowardly saboteurs are forever scheming, etc.
From the Larry Craig arrest tape:
Craig: “I sit down, um, to go to the bathroom and ah, you said our feet bumped. I believe they did, ah, because I reached down and scooted over and um, the next thing I knew, under the bathroom divider comes a card that says Police. Now, um, (sigh) that’s about as far as I can take it, I don’t know of anything else. Ah, your foot came toward mine, mine came towards yours, was that natural? I don’t know. Did we bump? Yes. I think we did. You said so. I don’t disagree with that.”
Sergeant: “Okay. I don’t want to get into a pissing match here.”
Indeed not! Then again, who doesn’t love a challenge?
Via Newsbusters.
I think the strip is actually getting better. It’s less driven by bizarre non-sequiturs than it used to be.
Dear Red Sox,
All you had to do was not get swept by the Yankees this week. That’s all you had to do. And now you’re going to get swept. Jesus Christ, I hate you. I hate you all.
Above: A.O. Spades
Bonus Shorter Ace Of Spades HQ:
An Open Letter of Sorts to New Orleans:
That they never really learn (dadun-dun duh-duh)…
[...]
I confess that I have a much greater tolerance for these sorts of creative approaches to national sovereignty and democratic change when I have any confidence the puppeteers have a clue what they’re doing. But, that said, it would seem Mr. Allawi may be the coming man to continue Iraq’s democratic revolution.
(Via.)
Yes, yes; I know. I’m an asshole and a purist, what with my insistent refrain that ‘it’s the Imperialism, stupid.’ Yes, Marshall is an excellent reporter. Yes, he is anti-Bush. Blah-blah-blah. I’m just saying: That’s not nearly enough. Marshall confirms that while he may never be pro-war again in a time of a Republican presidency, he’s still willing to play neocongames if the puppeteers identify as Democratic (which, with foreign policy centrists like Obama and Clinton in the running, is a likely scenario). So, while it’s great that our Serious Liberal Journalists are now — after all that’s happened — suspicious of crusades that might be instigated by, say, Bill Kristol and Max Boot, they’ll still be up for those instigated by, say, Ivo Daalder and John Ikenberry. In other words, they’re against silly imperialism, but still more than open to ’smart’ imperialism. Yeah, goody goody.
John “Chicken” Hawkings at Right Wing News has licked the Andy Capp’s Hot Fries dust from his fingers for some serious typing.
Above: “Red Six standing by…”
A Public Bathroom Is Not A Gay Pick-Up Bar
Amazingly, Larry Craig’s arrest has prompted more than a few people to come out and imply or outright say that you should be able to legally use public bathrooms like a gay pick-up bar.
As in, to get a low-key drink at a place with a witty bartender and Amy Winehouse on the jukebox? Put us down for that! (It’s all been trending upward in the airport-men’s-room arena since the changing tables started appearing.) What follows, though, is two quotes from Garance Franke-Ruta and Slate’s Jacob Weisberg saying that tapping your foot in a certain way in a bathroom doesn’t, in fact, seem to be against the law. But Hawkins is flummoxing onward like a steam train made of angry veal, and will not be stopped by puny words.
What? Is the cop supposed to have let Craig into his stall so that he could whip his Johnson out in the middle of the public bathroom? Because obviously, that’s where it was going. He was sending what is, apparently (I have no idea what foot signals gay men use to show interest in bathroom stalls and don’t want to know) a sign that he wanted sex from the officer. That’s not much different than handing a prostitute her fee in my book and we accept that as being good enough for an arrest.
As to Garance Franke-Ruta’s assertion that turning a public bathroom into a dating service is fine by her, all I can say is that she’s morally retarded. There’s a time and place for everything and a public bathroom in an airport is neither when it comes to sex.
‘When it comes to sex’ is becoming a long wait indeed for Hawkins, but it’s good to know that he can still be philosophical about it.
Upcoming at Right Wing News:
“A Gay Pick-Up Bar Is Not a Public Bathroom!”
“A Public Bathhouse Is Not a Private Gay Bedroom!”
“A Pirate Barroom Is Not A Public Gay Bed Bath And Beyond!”
“My Gay Pickup Truck Isn’t Your Private Snickers Bar!”
“Blixa Bargeld Is Not a Public Gay Hiccup Room!”
Like something else we can think of, he can milk this for a long time.
Above: Hewitt
Rebuilding New Orleans: A Continuing Mistake
Above: Southern culture on the skids
Bonus Shorter Confederate Yankee:
Dennis Prager explains what he’s learned in his attempts to understand leftist positions:
Many people who hold them are personally decent, some very much so — yet they hold positions that I believe increase cruelty (e.g., advocating withdrawal from Iraq); increase criminality (e.g., more lenient attitudes toward punishing criminals); hasten the decline of Western society (e.g., pushing multiculturalism); and undermine liberty (e.g., expanding government, passing more and more laws, taking away ever larger percentages of citizens’ money).
Gosh, when you lay it out like that, I feel grateful for Prager’s generous assessment of my personal decency.
They also panic easily (e.g., heterosexual AIDS in America, carbon dioxide emissions leading to global catastrophe); and the further left one goes, the more morally confused they are (e.g., the inability to label the Soviet Union an “evil empire”; the exaggeration of America’s flaws — it is sexist, imperialist, racist, homophobic — and the undervaluing of its virtues).
If I were a prayin’ man I’d get down on my knees and thank God that I live in a country that allows me to hold such dangerous viewpoints and express them publicly.
A lot of countries wouldn’t grant me that luxury, y’know. I mean, not during a time of war.
Above: The Dead Kennedys in the studio, recording a song from the ‘In God We Trust’ EP
Jeesh. Who would’ve imagined that there was a professional-quality video of the entire session?
I’m going to rise above a certain resistance and say something.
Apropos Megan McArdle (and including Matt Yglesias and Andy Sullivan, et al., in this thoughtstream):
We’re a gang of idiots, no doubt. We’re roisterers on the Internet who make fun of people.
But we’re idiots who hunted, and bought, and treasure copies of the Atlantic Monthly from the 1860s (and copies, from the 1920s, of the Mencken-edited American Mercury, and the Nathan-edited Smart Set). Our enthusiasms are different: Retardo is more into the ’60s Partisan Review thing, while I’m more into finding fragments of James Branch Cabell, for instance, in tiny lit-mags before and after the war. But none of us has any money, and this is part of what we do simply because we care.
Addressing the people above: What you’re doing matters to us, and it ought to matter to you as well. If it doesn’t, someone is going to say something.
It’s a tragedy if it has to be an Internet comedy blog.
That’s all I want to say right now.
[Gav out]
If you haven’t seen the video of Miss Teen USA South Carolina Lauren Caitlin Upton trying to answer why most Americans can’t read maps yet, you really should. It’s quite possibly the most shockingly idiotic thing I’ve watched since the last time I saw Bush on TV:
Now, there’s a very simple explanation for why most Americans can’t read maps: because we’re a stupid nation full of stupid people with a stupid popular culture.*
How can we test this thesis? Well, we can watch poor Ms. Upton’s video over and over again. Or we can read Paul from Wizbang Blog, who blames Ms. Upton’s stupidity on… (wait for it!)… LIBBRULS!!!
At the risk of taking something utterly mindless and irrelevant way too seriously, I felt the need to revisit the case of Miss Teen USA South Carolina Lauren Caitlin Upton who had what will probably go down in history as the most extreme blonde moment in history.
In a way, she’s a victim. Any fair look at her answer shows she got mired in liberal taking points.
Pageant questions for the last 30 years are just fluff designed to extract from the young girl her liberal qualifications. So young girls practice spouting liberal buzz phrases, no matter the question.– Because looking good isn’t enough to win a beauty parent, you must have the proper liberal credentials, or there’s no sparkly tiara for you!
First we came for the public schools… then we got hold of the entire media… then we took over the CIA, the State Department, the Justice Department and every piece of the federal government that hasn’t been overrun by Bush cronies for the past seven years… and now, in our most dastardly plot yet, LIE-berals have conspired to subvert America’s teen beauty parents pageants. Yes, once we get a bunch of beautiful-but-not-so-bright young women to spout our talking points, we will have all the pieces in place to legalize gay marriage and impose Sharia law!
McArdle again. Good cripes, there used to be beauty and laughter in our lives:
A commenter responds to my last post thus:
People don’t have a right to money from society simply because they have gotten sick.
I disagree. Now what?
Well, obviously, at some level we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.
But it raises some interesting questions. Why do you disagree? If we should give money to sick people regardless of need, is it because being sick sucks and we’re giving people bonus payments for having sucky things happen to them? If that’s the case, why don’t we give people bonus payments for, say, being really ugly, or being severely socially awkward, both of which seem at least arguably worse than, say, having chronic asthma.
Also, bonus payments to elite Upper West Side, Ivy League people who are really stupid.
I’m just thinking out loud here.
(Payday at the Atlantic is Thursday, IIRC.)
See, the problem with reading all of this right-wing honk and blat every day is that, for instance, I came across this item a little while ago, and realized that I’m no longer intelligent enough to make fun of it:
Call Darwinists ‘Slime-Snake-Monkey-People’ Author Urges Christians
Merited Ridicule May Shame Them into Accepting Evidence in Greek Art for Genesis EventsANNAPOLIS, Maryland, August 21 /Christian Newswire/ — Solving Light Books announced today the release of Robert Bowie Johnson Jr.’s new book, “Noah in Ancient Greek Art,” featuring 27 ancient images of the Greek version of Noah. The book details Noah’s role in Greek art as a known historical figure in relation to whom the artists were able to depict, and boast of, the rapid growth of their contrary spiritual outlook, exalting man, instead of God, as the measure of all things.
In his previous book, “The Parthenon Code: Mankind’s History in Marble” (a 288-page hardback now translated into Greek and French), Mr. Johnson presents abundant evidence that ancient Greek art preserves a record of humanity’s origins matching the Genesis account, but from an opposite viewpoint- that the serpent enlightened, rather than deluded, the first couple in paradise.
“In Greek art, we find detailed, consistent portrayals of the early Genesis themes including: the ancient garden, the serpent-entwined apple tree, the first family, Cain killing Abel, the Flood, and the successful rebellion against Noah after the Flood. Greek artists made the gods look just like people because that’s who they were-our ancestors. Socrates himself referred to the gods as such,” Mr. Johnson said.
The author devotes the final section of his new book to explaining why mainstream scientists, academics, and journalists remain oblivious to the true significance of Greek art. “Their ruling paradigm is Darwinism, a closed-minded, anti-Creator mindset which compels them to ignore or deny any evidence which tends to validate the Book of Genesis. Viewing Greek art as what it truly represents — human history — painfully contradicts their pompous evolutionist speculation. That’s why they must blindly insist that ancient Greek vase-painters and sculptors spent their entire lives portraying nothing more than myths,” Mr. Johnson stated.
To shock the Darwinists out of their denial of the overwhelming evidence in Greek art for the reality of Genesis events, the author urges Creationists to refer to evolutionists as what they imagine they are-”Slime-Snake-Monkey-People.” Mr. Johnson, who holds a general science degree from West Point, also suggests that since Slime-Snake-Monkey-People insist they evolved over millions of years through a countless series of random mutations, Christians should also refer to them as “mutants.”
My brain is standing by the bus stop wearing a little hat and carrying a little suitcase with a shirttail hanging out of it.
