She’s not even Pamela Geller with tits.

I haven’t even read it yet but I already feel as if I’ve taken some hallucinogenic drugs.

I don’t base my entire worldview on works of fiction, because I’m not a conservative, but anyone who’s read the Harry Potter books at all knows the politics are… pretty freaking liberal.

Dumbledore laments the fact that giants and werewolves joined with Voldemort, saying that “we wizards have been mistreating them for ages and now we are reaping our reward” (can you say “chickens coming home to roost?”) Harry telling the tough-on-terrorism Minister of Magic that “some might say it’s your duty to check that people are really Death Eaters before tossing them in Azkaban.” Barty Crouch fighting fire with fire and being described as “as ruthless and cruel as many on the dark side.” Etc, etc, etc.

Best part, though, is the beginning of the sixth book, when the British PM’s expecting a call from “the president of a distant land” and referring to him as “that wretched man.” Too close for dog-whistles, Rowling switched to bullhorns.

Pamela Geller is really the shrieking harpy.
~

If you re-arrange the words “Dumbledore U Homo” you can spell Allahu Akbar!

Meanwhile…

…The “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” director told Newsweek that Voldemort reminds him of both Bush and Saddam Hussein: “They both have selfish interests and are very much in love with power,” he said. “Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people.”

And the political comparisions don’t stop there: “I read books four and five, and [Minister of Magic] Fudge is similar to Tony Blair. He’s the ultimate politician. He’s in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four.”…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/07/28/reel_life_july_28_2003_article.shtml

We may have stumbled on a whole new field for Rule 34: transgendered fictional character slash fic.

i fear that this time….which will be a first…i cannot bring myself to get off the boat…

OK, so, if the Harry Potter series is really about the Islamization of America, then why have the conservatives been demonizing it for the past 10 years (or has it been longer)? You’d think they’d want American children indoctrinated into Muslim-hate at an early age; instead they’ve been all Salem-witch-trials on Harry Potter. If he was a real person, they would have burned him at the stake long ago.

That’s nothing. Twilight is really about the War on Christmas.

What is Leave it to Beaver really about?

If he was a real person, they would have burned him at the stake long ago.

And water-boarded his owl.
~

The closing sentences are choice:

Even Voldemort’s enemies usually call him “He Who Must Not Be Named,” as if the euphemism will somehow make him less dangerous. The Ideology That Must Not Be Named has declared openly its intention to destroy our civilization, freedom, and way of life. It also has a name, and that name is militant Islam corporatism.

I fixxored it for him. But truly, with my substitution, could there be any more accurate description of our current state of affairs? “Maybe if we don’t mention income and wealth inequality, the peasants won’t revolt. Maybe if we pretend that the corporations and the wealthy won’t stop until they enslave us all, things will just reverse themselves on their own.”

That’s nothing. Twilight is really about the War on Christmas.

Plus, it clearly has an anti-Wolfite bent.

What is Leave it to Beaver really about?

Isn’t it obvious? Abortion.

Voldemort : GOP goobernator of Florida, Rick Scott

You make the call.
~

It’s either that or leader of a secret genital-maiming death cult.

Now that’s a noble 3/4 profile – the one on the left, that is.

They did the same thing to Tolkein: The bad guy of the day was Hitler, so Sauron must therefor be a metaphor for Hitler, and the orcs were the Nazis; no wait, the bad guys shifted to Russia, so Sauron was obviously Stalin, and the orcs were the communists. This even though Tolkein himself (who should know) insisted over and over again that his books were not intended to be symbolic of world events, and should be enjoyed for their own merits.

Later, the Evil Empire in “Star Wars” was co-opted to be a metaphor for the Soviet Union, to the point where Reagan used these terms for the Cold War, even though George Lucas repeatedly pointed out that the movies were really just space opera, adapted from the formula cowboy movies he grew up watching.

So now we have the new War On Muslims, so the Bad Guy in any work of fiction must somehow be twisted to be a symbol of militant Islam.

Yawn. how original

I’m sure Levinson used his magic wand while writing that screed single-handed.

EJACULATUS!!

The racial policies of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters make them obvious stand-ins for Hitler and Nazis despite the implications of Godwin’s Law.

There’s being aware of internet traditions and there’s understanding them.

When she takes a dump it’s about the struggle with Islam. The woman is peculiarly dedicated to her “struggle”— you know the kind of struggle that doesn’t require her to do anything but bitch about a quarter of the world’s population as if everything would be peaches if they just went away or converted to Baptist.

WooooooTooTheFingWoooooooooo!!!
.

if they just went away or converted to Baptist.

I think I’d be more worried if they converted to Baptist.

Plus if you read Harry Potter backwards it says “Al Gore is fat”. True Story.

LOL

What. The. Hairy. Assed. Fuck!

Given that Rowling is a leftwing Christian skeptic who promotes tolerance, I think she would probably consider Pam Gellar part of the forces of darkness.

The Ideology That Must Not Be Named has declared openly its intention to destroy our civilization, freedom, and way of life. It also has a name, and that name is militant Islam.

Whoa. I have NEVER heard this before!

I think she would probably consider Pam Gellar part of the forces of darkness.

Bellatrix LeEvenStranger

The main difference between Levinson and that ostrich?

Levinson hides his head up his ass to avoid seeing what’s right in front of him.

Behold the great Levinsonini… Watch in wonderment as he twists, stretches, contorts and strains to get things exactly wrong with his deranged, unfounded pretzel logic.

What an asshole.

Uh oh. I missed all the Islamic death-camps for Jews & teh Muslim panzers – is it because I don’t watch FOX NEWS?

Levinson’s trope whistles daintily past the graveyard of those all-too-embarrassing centuries when it wasn’t radical mullahs howling for a final glorious uprising to “destroy Jewry forever” … it was mainstream Christians.

No minor facet of the Crusades was a wish to make Jerusalem both 0%-Judeo & 0%-Islamo, but 100%-Jeebuso … I suspect more than a few of those chivalrous knights (if teleported to today) would ally with the radical eliminationist faction of Hamas in two shakes of a monkey’s arse.

I thought the only fantasy authors right wingers read was Ayn Rand.

If the Harry Potter series is really about the Islamization of America, then why have the conservatives been demonizing it for the past 10 years?

Consistency.

How does it work?

“Consistent” and “conservative.” So close together in the definitionary. So far apart in real life.

MARIO!1!1!1!

Levinson hides his head up his ass to avoid seeing what’s right in front of him.

This!

Puts me of a mind to the time when I stated to a coworker that the owner of the joint had to have a surgical procedure to install a window into his stomach so that lickspittle coworker_b could at least see where he was going.
.

I deny all knowledge of coworker__B.

Levinson hides his head up his ass to avoid seeing what’s right in front of him.

The other difference being that it’s a myth: ostriches don’t actually bury their heads at the first sign of trouble or something inconvenient.

Can the same be said of Levinson? Sadly, no!

I think we need Pinko Punko to weigh in on whether that is an ostrich or an emu.

Someone light up the Pink-Signal!

Making the flawless bechamel.

Everything the conservatards are fighting against as if they were an enormously increasing threat to their Precious Bodily Fluids™ today, all peaked in the 70s. They use the buzzword “The 60s,™” as Cerb pointed out yesterday, even though they really mean the 70s, because a certain piece of legislation passed in the 60s that is the real reason for their butthurt, but complaining about that isn’t fashionable, and anyway liberals are the real racists, yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.

You can just add this to the list. Islam in America peaked in the 1970s with the Black Muslims, and you know goddamn well that’s really what instills such fear in them. You think they’re really afraid of a few immigrants from Muslim countries who came here because they didn’t like it there? You think they want to change this country to be more like the one they left? Hell, before 9/11, most of them voted Republican! No, no, “Islam” is only a codeword for “Uppity Black Bucks Looking at Our White Wimminz, argghle, bargle, splooey!”

Hmm, this is guaranteed to be an over-long psuedo-intellectual masturbation piece designed to be “counter-intuitive” (i.e. balls out wrong before you even notice their complete lack of meaningful scholarship) and feature heavily the sad poetry of a conservative trying to act like those smart people they sometimes hear about.

Do I dare mango this bitch?

Okay, this is going to get a little long. I apologize in advance. MANGO POWER!

The success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is due largely to the fact that the story contains elements for sophisticated adults as well as teenagers. The latter can enjoy the magical creatures and battles between wizards, while older readers and viewers can relate to the very real historical events that apparently influenced Rowling’s writing. The series’ theme is anything but fictional because it happened once and it is happening again.

Hey, Harry Potter is popular! Or rather it was popular 10 years ago when we were busy screaming our heads off that it was demon-worshipping evil designed to get kids to stop reading the Bible (you know like we respond to most popular phenomena at the time). So now we need to do that conservative thing of trying to pretend a famous cultural artifact was actually a conservative thing so that we can pretend that conservatism is “cool, popular, and with it” and not the aging dinosaur that tends to fear and hate all culture. Not to mention it covers the unfortunate reality that conservatives don’t tend to make good creative endeavors. Just still liberal works and ignore everything liberal about them.

They’re still banned though, because of the witchcraft and all.

Britain’s experiences prior to and during the Second World War seem to have influenced Rowling’s writing significantly. Her characters believe that the First Wizarding War had ended the menace of Lord Voldemort forever, while the First World War was purportedly the war to end all wars. The First World War also maimed an entire generation of European manhood and made it psychologically impossible to contemplate another major war in Europe. Adolf Hitler relied on this paralysis to pursue his murderous agenda without serious opposition until 1939.

Yes, the books were entirely based on historical bad guy whose racial policies we will never look into beyond “he was a bad man who needed to be stopped” and not at all about all right-wing fascist organizations including…hey, those skinhead organizations that Geller keeps “palling around with” and supporting. You know the types of people who call for the death of homosexuals, the lower classes, and women, and other people Rowling felt herself part of or aligned with.

The racial policies of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters make them obvious stand-ins for Hitler and Nazis despite the implications of Godwin’s Law. (Rowling is in fact on record as saying that she modeled Voldemort with Hitler in mind.) The former regard only pure-blooded wizards — the magical world’s counterparts of Aryans — as equals. A “mudblood,” or a wizard with a non-magical parent, is to them an Untermensch (subhuman) whom they are free to abuse or even kill. The movies include Gestapo-like enforcers who bring people in for questioning about their genetic purity, and elimination if they do not meet the standards. The same agenda applies to Muggles or non-magical people.

There are no other people who share this view in the history of ever. Well, okay, maybe the bad guys du jour, but totally not any group of white people, certainly not those who find themselves aligned with the upper class and so the elements of the story that note the alignment of racist street muscle and corruption of official channels with the strong money and cultural backing of the “ultra-rich” dominant-group families.

But nope, only a critique of Hitler. Not at all a critique of conservativism and racism. Hitler is the only person who has ever acted like that.

Besides, our white, racist bigots trying to prevent immigration or full status of those we view as inferior, including looking down on people who “betray their races” and their demon-spawn offspring while talking about the purity of the country “under assault” by liberal policies are really nothing like the villains in the books.

I like to think that any movie I choose will definitively prove everything I say. Harry potter proves that magic ISREAL and that Brits can’t talk very good.

Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge is meanwhile the obvious counterpart of Neville Chamberlain, as he flat-out refuses to contemplate the idea that Voldemort is still alive let alone planning another war. Fudge, like Chamberlain, has to leave office upon being proven wrong at a horrific cost. Albus Dumbledore, who recognizes Voldemort as a threat from the outset and is ridiculed as a result, is the counterpart of Winston Churchill: one of the few prominent Britons who perceived a threat from Hitler’s activities. Dumbledore’s Army and/or the Order of the Phoenix bear a remarkable similarity to Special Operations Executive: Churchill’s Secret Army.

And here we get the real reason for all the Hitler comparisons. To a conservative, WW II had one villain, and his name was Neville Chamberlain for showing the world the pussy weak cowardly surrender tactics of liberal do-gooders who didn’t understand that what the world needs is endless face punching!

Forgetting of course that Neville Chamberlain and every other “no, what we need to do with the Nazis is align with them, surrender to them, let them be” fuckwad were the Conservatives of the time. And it made perfect sense, fascism was seen as a strong counter to the workers getting all uppity about their rights and the worrying threat of communism. As such the right-wing organizations of every country where 100% pro-Hitler and promised to wreck shit up if we entered the war “on the wrong side”.

All the “Wolverines” style asskickers were liberals, whether they be icons like FDR, Churchill, or that nutjob Stalin, or the list of many many actual “Wolverines” types fighting the underground fight in the occupied territories (and incredibly aiding the opening of the Western Front by their actions, not to mention rescuing prisoners of all types).

But of course, if they could turn Hitler into an atheist mystic instead of a bigoted Christian, then surely turning the villains of WWII into the heroes and the heroes villains is simply all in a day’s work. Of course Chamberlain was a big liberal villain of anytime liberals note that wholesale invading some place over conservative delusions is insane and counterproductive and nothing like stopping Hitler, what with the only delays there being mostly based on the Conservative powers of Europe not necessarily seeing him as a bad guy.

The last movie features a scene in which Harry Potter sneaks into enemy-occupied Hogwarts, whereupon a student transmits a special weather report: “Lightning has struck!” The message’s real-world counterpart was “John has a long mustache,” the message that told the French Resistance that the Normandy Invasion was imminent. It is almost surprising that the director did not then have the Order of the Phoenix show up in flying Higgins Boats, but perhaps that would have been too obvious.

And the fact that all but one branch of the French Resistance were made of communists and the one that wasn’t was Charles deGaulle’s, who was the man that got the US to really invest in France-bashing with his refusal to allow Western Europe become a vassal state to the US just because the US showed up at the end of the war and thus sustained the least casualties and got the most credit.

Also, for an article supposedly about how Harry Potter’s all about those filthy Islamic mudbloods, you seem to be really stuck on divorcing Harry Potter from any modern contexts and rooting it firmly in the past. It’s almost like the books you are trying to claim hit a little too close to home and so you need to intellectualize them two levels away so they can’t hurt you anymore.

The comparison of Voldemort to Hitler can be taken only so far because the First World War was not started by Nazis or even by Imperial Germany.

Yeah, it’s almost like my comparison is transparent bullshit to set up “liberal appeasers who won’t support our invasive wars of choice are the real Hitlers” and the books weren’t set up as a period peace, but rather a timeless warning about racism and the evils it can support.

What is far more important is the parallel between the denial in Rowling’s stories, the denial that preceded the Second World War, and today’s denial of the menace of Islamization.

Well, of course, that minor aspect that got you going all WW II would of course be the only thing important to you. And it wouldn’t at all be a plot device to show “the adults who could most easily fix this aren’t believing the kids, so it’s up to the kids to solve it”. You know, like almost EVERY OTHER KID’S BOOK ON THE PLANET! Nope, like all literature, it’s about why we should support endless war. The writing on my toothpaste tube? Support for endless war. The static on the television? Support for endless war. The voices in my head? Yes, of course, the endless war must start now, I must don my hooded cloak and cull the unbelievers!

This makes Harry Potter a good teaching tool for teenagers and young adults. It’s a fictional story, but it is also the story of something very real that took place more than 70 years ago as well as things that are happening in the world today.

See, it happened 70 years ago, in a way that draws absolutely no parallels to anything other than our “Hitler du jour” and the people we want to slaughter wholesale for bigoted and evil reasons.

It is definitely not a screed against racism and the type of right-wing personality that leads them to eliminationism and the support of dangerous lunatics and otherwise supporting cults of personality. Hey, Pamela Geller, “saint of the anti-Islam movement”, didn’t see you there, directly riling up Anders Breivik.

Great. VS linked me to Althouse.

Now I gotta go soak my hard drive in bleach. Modem too. Warn a fella, wouldja??

SOR-RY.

it’s how she rolls, John. She probably learned it from Substance.

Shorter Levinson: I shit my pants when I think of Muslims, and I also shit my pants when I think of fictional evil wizards, so evil wizards of Muslims. QED!

Also, is it just me or is WordPress even more fucked up? I blame Mullah Voldemort.

Dolores Umbridge is among the more memorable villains of the series. She threatens to punish any student who talks about Voldemort, and she punishes Harry Potter for insisting that he has returned. Umbridge’s real-world counterparts abound in European countries, universities, and even the U.S. Government.

Dolores Umbridge? You mean the obvious stand-in for abusive conservative schoolmasters, the ones who believed that punishment, whether corporal or psychological was inherently necessary to get “proper students” compared to more liberal teaching methods that promote community and group-learning (i.e. like the model Harry adopts when he runs his secret class)? And yeah, kinda echoes a debate between liberals and conservatives in Britain on whether or not the liberal methods would lead to “unruly and disruptive children” who would not “respect their elders”.

Yes, let’s see where you go with this.

They punish or ridicule as an “Islamophobe” anybody who depicts militant Islam as a menace to Civilization.

MOMMY! They’re calling us mean names, make them stop oppressing us mommy. We’re not bigots, just because we want the mudbloods, to die, we’re not, we’re not, we’re not.

Also, here’s where we start getting that trademark wingnut “I want to look smart, but I have no idea how scholarship works” writing. Dolores Umbridge punished people for saying things, conservatives are “punished” (by other people expressing their rights to comment on other people’s free speech) by not everyone giving them a blowjob every time they speak. Don’t you see the parallels?!?

Danish Member of Parliament Jesper Langaballe for example pled guilty to hate speech for saying accurately that rape and honor killings are frequent among Muslim families. “Under Danish jurisprudence it is immaterial whether a statement is true or untrue. All that is needed for a conviction is that somebody feels offended.”

Okay, I need to share the wingnuttery being cited. It’s Danish MP Jesper Langaballe writing an insane ramble in the bigot press wherein he refers to himself entirely in the third-person and talking about the oppression he faces as if he was Nelson Mandella going to prison as martyr to the cause of hating anyone with brown skin.

It’s one of the most whacked out conspiratorial insane bit of wingnut nutjobbery I’ve seen in a while (I know!) as would be expected from what is essentially the Danish Nazi Party (the Dansk Folkeparti).

Quick context, they’re getting some blowback by Danish hate speech laws for you know, all their hate speech, including arguing that every Muslim man is raping his daughters, but no wait, they don’t rape their own daughters, because they’re too busy beating and killing those, so they rape their brother’s daughters.

Also apparently, since the opposite of “every muslim man rapes his daughters” is “no muslim man rapes his daughters” and there are undoubtedly a handful of muslims who rape their daughters, that means he can’t be argued to have said untrue hate speech. In the same way that every Baptist man keeps their daughters in a cage in the backyard to use whenever they are feeling rapey. What, it happened once, so you can’t say that my statement is untrue.

But seriously, if you have the stomach, it’s some seriously batshit horseshit.

Feel so………..dirty……………..

Whoa. The colors.

What is Leave it to Beaver really about?

D-KW’s mom.

In other words, it is illegal to speak even the truth in a supposedly free country like Denmark if it offends Islamic immigrants. The once-respectable Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has meanwhile joined the ranks of politically correct thought police and mind guards.

Uh no, it’s illegal to argue that every muslim is a child murdering, child rapist in the hopes of riling up the crazies in the country to start killing innocent Muslims. That’s because they aren’t quite the fetishists about free speech that we are here and recognize statements that are designed to demonize and incite violence against minority groups.

Is it a better system? It’s debatable, but it’s not like they’re bringing down the thought police. He could have easily said, “horrible practices like honour killings must not find purchase on Danish shores” and nobody would have blinked twice.

But since the real thing that’s freaking out the Danish Nazi Party is that their temporary bump is disappearing faster than they can say “godt snegl”, they’re trying to do a big show about how their unpopularity is caused by being muzzled by the mean old liberals rather than them being a batshit group of psychotics.

Also, I swear most of the right-wing groups in Europe are more about performing the evils of living in liberal Europe for Americans than they are not looking like nutjobs in their native land. Glad we’ve become the “fall back” position for the assorted nuts of Europe.

The Daily Prophet denounced Harry Potter as “the boy who lies” for testifying accurately that Voldemort murdered one of Harry’s classmates while ADL has similarly denounced Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) as Islamophobes. “The organization, led by Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, warns of the encroachment of Shari’a, or Islamic law, and encourages Muslims to leave what it describes as the ‘falsity of Islam.'”

Yup, really strongly shows your “unbending support for the freedom of speech” when all your examples of oppression are “people used THEIR freedom of speech to note that we were screaming bigots”! Make them stop, mommy, they aren’t allowed to do that. Only we are allowed to speak. They need to be made to shut up and listen and have no real reaction whatsoever to what we are saying other than violent agreement. Otherwise they are oppressing us.

And yeah, the Harry Potter metaphors are almost an afterthought. They called us bigots for being bigots, waa! They aren’t allowed. Oh right, I was trying to write that Harry Potter was all about our glorious struggle against the filthy mudbloods and the filthy mudblood-lovers. Um, Harry was called a liar for speaking the truth, and we’re called bigots for being bigots, see, perfect parallel!

What? The habit of the press, especially conservative press to demonize liberal truth-tellers, especially in Britain where tabloid journals with even less journalistic standards for truth can be the main sources for news for people? Um, nope, don’t know anything about that. The only source of oppression is conservatives being called bigots for saying bigoted things. That’s worse than 10 Hitlers. Hell, that’s the reason Hitler had to kill the Jews, one of them called him an anti-semite, and it so hurt his feelings, he had to commit genocide.

A phobia is an irrational fear of an imaginary danger.

COULDN’T RESIST COULD YA?!? Fuck, is it just me or does every “I iz smart, I know things, stupid libs” type post that a wingnut writes feature at least one of these “dictionary definition” syle fails?

Yes, dumbass, the dictionary does call it an irrational fear of an imaginary danger, but the laws of common usage and how that word has grown to have cultural meaning, means it now also refers to bigotry. Likely because the expression of your hates is always illogical, based on outlandish and impossible fears based on aspects that the people being feared don’t really possess en masse that makes it impossible to see the range of person involved.

Also, you are arguing that every single muslim person is a threat who must be eliminated and guarded against, especially “at home” where even if every single muslim in this country and Europe was a cannibalistic serial killer, they would still be hard pressed to make a meaningful impact.

This is the point where all I have to say in response is:

FUCK YOU!

Psssst, zrm…COME HERE.

I apologize in advance for my tendency to be “that guy” in such situations, but:

Forgetting of course that Neville Chamberlain and every other “no, what we need to do with the Nazis is align with them, surrender to them, let them be” fuckwad were the Conservatives of the time. And it made perfect sense, fascism was seen as a strong counter to the workers getting all uppity about their rights and the worrying threat of communism. As such the right-wing organizations of every country where 100% pro-Hitler and promised to wreck shit up if we entered the war “on the wrong side”.

I think you’re glossing over Churchill’s conservatism. The guy was a hardcore, racist, imperialist fucknozzle who believed in British Exceptionalism as surely as our righties today do in the American kind. There’s a reason why the Brits tossed him out on his ass the second the war was over. He wasn’t a complete asshole, and he and most Conservatives accepted things like universal health care in the postwar years because “the people had voted for them” (a quaint notion unthinkable in today’s GOP)… but otherwise, hardcore conservative.

You’re right about everything else, though. The fact that the hard right was the foundation for collaborator movements all over Europe is a big reason why they’ve had such a bad name since, and why far-right parties like the FN and BNP have such trouble breaking into the mainstream – it’s kind of hard to play the “we’re the most patriotic patriots ever” card when your legacy involves such a massive act of treason.

It’s also why no one in Europe is confused about whether fascism was left-wing or right-wing, by the way.

This video from Hamas says “we will annihilate the Jews,” speaks of becoming “masters of the world,” and later talks about “laying the cornerstone for the ruling of the world by an Islamic leadership.” The last ideology that talked about annihilating Jews and ruling the world meant every word it said, and it killed about forty million people (including about seven million of its own in the end) before the civilized world stopped it. It is beyond belief that a purportedly Jewish organization would enable and facilitate a similar agenda today.

Seriously fuck you, fuckers and your fetishization of Israel as if it stood for all Jews everywhere so that anyone who criticized Israel’s transition into what it always feared is Hitler himself.

Yeah, hard to believe that there would be Jews or Jewish organizations that would have as their agenda, the wiping out of Muslims. Oh wait, there’s you and Geller and your campaign to wipe Muslims off the face of the planet so that Germany can be safe of their drain on the economy…oh wait, sorry, was reading the wrong page, so that Israel can finally be “safe”.

Fuck, it’s pretty ballsy to say that when Israel is in the process of keeping a large amount of Muslims penned in, starved, and denied of rights, as settlers continue to steal what’s left of their land, invading international ships trying to bring food aid to the people being starved, and while the right-wing leadership of the country, i.e. the actual people running the country argue for the elimination of all of Israel’s neighbors, ideally with US running the proxy war.

And I’m not even going to get into the nutjobs we had running the Afghanistan and Iraq wars who saw it as the “Next Great Crusade” and were hoping to “convert or kill” the “Muslim threat”.

But yeah, it’s the muslims who are the eliminationist threat.

Or maybe, it’s the right-wingers in all of these religions, who see the others as threats to be eliminated and preach the evils of the minority race or religion to gain power in their native lands. You know, that inherently global threat that Rowling ACTUALLY was writing against, about how right-wing xenophobia is the bad guy, whether it be humans or wizards, whether it be based in Christianity, Islam, or Judaism. And so on.

And love how you’ve already dropped any pretense and have just gone full “muslims all need to die, be scared of muslims, Anders Breivik, if you’re reading this, break out of jail and kill some more kids”.

Maybe your inability to check your hate long enough to write some psuedo-intellectual hack piece might say more about whether or not you people are hate-filled lunatics than all the people calling you islamophobic bigots.

Dickwad.

Ok, going to skip the next paragraph of hate, it’s the same “cite their right-wingers to argue that they are all evil and must be killed along with the liberals who don’t see the threat” shit as always. And yeah, they haven’t stopped, even though that was the exact thing that got Breivik to shoot all those kids.

These are the scum of the Earth. Death Eaters preying on the blood of the innocent to support their search for the Hitler du jour entirely to try and keep themselves from being recognized as it.

I have no words to describe how without soul these people are.

I really don’t.

She probably learned it from Substance.

Just wait until I start making jokes about “The Goatse of Christmas Past”! Then you’ll know my corruption has been complete!

Let this nightmare mango end.

The Harry Potter series also addresses a widespread unwillingness to call the enemy by name. Even Voldemort’s enemies usually call him “He Who Must Not Be Named,” as if the euphemism will somehow make him less dangerous. The Ideology That Must Not Be Named has declared openly its intention to destroy our civilization, freedom, and way of life. It also has a name, and that name is militant Islam.

…

Fuck you.

No seriously, “ideology that must not be named”? It’s named all the fucking time. Even the “appeasing liberals” you hope the next Breivik will gun down call it Islam. Fuck, you were fucking complaining that people dared to tell the truth and call you “islamophobes” when you guys “told the truth” about the evil group of boogeymen entirely made up of Freddy Krueger clones.

I know, people laughing in your face about how your pissing you’re pants of a tiny minority group living in the countries you’re terrified in and who world-wide mostly live in second-to-third world hellholes constantly fought over by the bigger powers and internal dictators for its single major resource. It must feel like they must be dismissing the secret you know so strongly and they’ll totally get their comeupance, like when the n***ers were given rights and went on those white woman raping sprees…oh right, well, when feminists won those rights and started harvesting the penises of Real American men…no, wait, like when we ranted about Vietnam being the domino piece that would cause the whole world to go communist and so we sacrificed thousands of American children into a big giant death pit, until the kids managed to create an entire youth movement around not getting slaughtered like rats…

Fuck!

But seriously, we’re talking about it just fine. It’d be more like if Voldemort was a crazy guy at a bus stop, and you were like, he’s a dark wizard who will destroy all the humans, and we were like “no, he’s just some poor homeless guy who needs some help” and you started arguing that crazy people should kill us for not understanding the inherent threat of dark wizard princes.

Or you know, trying to wipe out a race of “lesser beings” and their “appeasers” in the name of the strong “proper” cultures of civilized people “under attack” by liberal policies not seeing the true threat of watered down cultures “infected” by mudbloods.

To conclude, fuck you.

Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge is meanwhile the obvious counterpart of Neville Chamberlain, as he flat-out refuses to contemplate the idea that Voldemort is still alive let alone planning another war.

A little appeasement might have gone a long way in 1914.

World War II happened because nobody wanted a war.

World War I happened because everybody wanted a war.

I want to be as articulate as Cerberus when I grow up which isn’t likely as I am now 50.

Chris-

Whoops, good catch. Okay, yeah, there was one conservative guy on Team Good Guy and as you say, he was out of there the second it was all over.

Also why he seems to be the main guy focused on by conservatives and most people. Hmm, we need a conservative hero to show why standing up for war, hurrah is always a good thing. Hmm, those were all villains, those were all liberals…well, there’s Stalin, but he’s history’s number two monster. Hmm, guess we’re screwed- No, wait, Churchhill, he was conservative. Okay, let’s just pretend that Chamberlain was a liberal instead of a fellow conservative and WE HAVE NARRATIVE.

To be fair, I fell into the same trap, assuming that Churchhill was either liberal or less conservative, because I assumed that the replacement would be of a different party, rather than it being more like Ford replacing Nixon after his resignation.

But yeah, it seems like Europe made sure to remember who was supporting the Nazis and who was fighting them, whereas we allowed it to become the war that Christian conservatives won over liberal appeasers and an atheist pagan who was probably a secret liberal way too easy in our rush to be part of the “Superpower Showdown, this week only on SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY” with the big Russian bear.

Probably what allowed our right-wing to retain so much power after WWII and hence why we’ve staggered in our growth these last 70 years, whereas Europe found themselves catching up and surpassing us culturally.

I always just figured they wanted a WWII leader to idolize and god forbid it be FDR.

Hmm, do I dare check out the Breivik’s in the comments?

Yes, how true, even in the U.S. Government, with by far the very heaviest concentration being in the U.S. Military and at the Grand Mega Mosque of Dhimmitude once better known as the Pentagon. And, of course, more and more no doubt at the Central Intelligence Agency, probably soon to be called the Central Islamification Authority now that Imam David “Holy Qur’an” Petraeus is in charge there. Well, at least they can still call themselves by the same old CIA call letters.

What. The…

I need a shower. Now.

(must get clean, out out, damn spot)

One second…

Petraeus is now “villain of the week”? What, because he isn’t cock-punching Obama hard enough for the wingnuts?

No, wait, don’t want to know. Jesus, Bellatrix LaStrange wasn’t that crazy. One more demonstration that real life is way more fucked up than fiction.

Just wait until I start making jokes about “The Goatse of Christmas Past”!

Strangely enough, somewhere on a dead machine I have a version of this that is red and green with sparkles.

This is true Mr Kong. We never should have got into WWI and we waited to long to enter WWII. Conservatives were wrong on both accounts. You can look it up.

Strangely enough, somewhere on a dead machine I have a version of this that is red and green with sparkles.

How festive! Is it too late to change my xmas cards?!

Yes, how true, even in the U.S. Government, with by far the very heaviest concentration being in the U.S. Military and at the Grand Mega Mosque of Dhimmitude once better known as the Pentagon.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it when wingnuts talk about the military, because most of them know NOTHING about it. In fact, the Pentagon is lousy with Evangelical Christians.

Major Kong-

That, too, but it’s more like this article. They knew that Hitler was the major league bad guy, and since they are the good guys (because they are the right tribe fighting against the wrong tribe and good guys are always against bad guys even when historically they weren’t because they were also the bad guys and are always the bad guys like the fuckers that they are) they must have been with the good guys and so warp the narrative until they have a way that it shows their current behavior shows them in alignment with historical or fictional good guys (which doesn’t really matter and WW II only matters as much as fiction, because it’s been so mythicized).

So yeah, they totally are Harry fighting the Death Eaters (instead of obviously the Death Eaters), the hobbits fighting Sauron, Wolerines against the Soviets, and of course, the Allies against video game Hitler.

And since conservative heroes are limited and pro-conservative messages even more so in that war, it becomes all about how Churchill cock-punched Chamberlain for being a pansy and then rode his balls down Hitler’s throat screaming USA USA USA and demonstrating why invasive war is always the best strategy (and why that wasn’t what was appeased, rather whether people got into another war based on someone else invading a sovereign allied territority or hope that the right-wing warmongerer wasn’t crazy enough to try and go full Supervillain and…).

Hmm, almost like the real lesson was that if a right-wing nutjob wants to invade, they’ll keep invading until guerilla armies, domestic resistance, or the rest of the countries having enough of their shit stops them.

Obviously, this means endless support for an endless war of global conquest in the name of a “good” empire like America.

Also, kill the miserable cretins who belong to a minority and disrespected religion, somewhat related to its connection to minority rights activism and religious baggage.

The fact that the hard right was the foundation for collaborator movements all over Europe is a big reason why they’ve had such a bad name since, and why far-right parties like the FN and BNP have such trouble breaking into the mainstream – it’s kind of hard to play the “we’re the most patriotic patriots ever” card when your legacy involves such a massive act of treason.

On could argue that this, combined with poor public education, is why the American right-wing gets so much play out of the left-wing being the true monsters.

Because, y’know, it was the Democratic Party that were the real racists during the Civil War, and the then the Civil Rights Era and then something something, years later, Robert Byrd. So /obviously/, the Democrats were the treasonous ones. Pay no attention to the Stars ‘n Bars at every Republican rally.

Just wait until I start making jokes about “The Goatse of Christmas Past”!

There’s a comment on the “Scat Santa” post over at our joint that this reminded me of…the comment right after YOURS, vs.

But yeah, it seems like Europe made sure to remember who was supporting the Nazis and who was fighting them, whereas we allowed it to become the war that Christian conservatives won over liberal appeasers and an atheist pagan who was probably a secret liberal way too easy in our rush to be part of the “Superpower Showdown, this week only on SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY” with the big Russian bear.

That’s because the war experiences of America vs continental Europe were literally oceans apart. For America, WW2 was a Great Patriotic War, in which the entire country had to come together and send our armies Over There to defeat a Foreign Horde. There’s essentially no political overtones – Roosevelt could’ve used the war as a partisan hammer to smash the Repubs, but chose not to, so it’s pretty much the least controversial war ever. America remembers the war as a time of generic patriotism and togetherness, which makes it easy for the right-wing to co-opt the myth today.

On the other hand, if you were French, Belgian, Dutch, Italian, or even German – I’m not even going to touch the Eastern Front, because the West really was a bed of roses compared to that – WW2 was right at home, and in many ways it was a civil war, with political factions aligning themselves as fascist or Allied. Unlike Americans, their enemies weren’t comfortably removed by an ocean, dressed up in foreign uniforms and heiling in a foreign language: their immediate enemies were their own countrymen.

When the battlefield is your own country and the two sides are your own political factions, it’s a little harder to forget that the backbone of the Patriotic Resistance were the communists, the socialists, the Social-Democrats and all these other socially unacceptable types, while the backbone of Vichy was the hardcore conservatives who were willing to sell out their country to anyone as long as that someone promised to help them smash the liberals, the left and the un-French minorities polluting Our Sacred Heritage. Sure, De Gaulle said that No One Collaborated, and I suspect the same happened in other countries, and everyone went along with it for the sake of reconciliation and reconstruction, but that doesn’t mean they forgot.

Ha! I did not leave the boat. But looking at the mangoes that others have harvested, Levinson I presume has missed this completely. Which serves as further and definitive proof that Harry Potter is all part of the Big Hollywood, islamofascistlibrulsocialest agenda!

Levinson’s trope whistles daintily past the graveyard of those all-too-embarrassing centuries when it wasn’t radical mullahs howling for a final glorious uprising to “destroy Jewry forever” … it was mainstream Christians.

word

…but the Joos have Isreal now, and we send them money and wish them the best so that those infidels can convert or be destroyed along with the rest of their heathen nation, when Jesus comes to get us— the REAL chosen ones–and take us to our glorious reward in the —- Jesus? Jesus?!!! Can’t you hear me??!! Jesus fucking H. Christ— Why am I still here??!!!

Ok, enough of this high-minded political claptrap. Someone has to hear about my shitty, shitty day.

It all started when I went out to start up the car, and noticed it listing perceptably to the passenger side. I had noticed the front passenger tire being a little low a month ago and had aired it up a few times since. So I figure, the tire’s low again. Start backing up, and it doesn’t feel right…turns out it’s completely flat. My next door neighbors have a compressor/jump starter machine, but they’re at church still. So I wait for them to come home, go get the machine, start airing up the tire to take it up to Firestone, and then notice that it’s got all these weird gouges in the sidewall. I can hear air escaping as soon as it’s aired up. But still, the Firestone’s less than a mile away, so I figure no problem getting there with it. My neighbors tell me to give them a call if I need a ride – they’re going to leave shortly but will be glad to swing by and give me a lift home if I need it.

So, as I had predicted, no problem getting up to the Firestone. The problem is, the minute I walk in the door the guy at the counter says “sorry we’re full up and can’t get to you today” and I say, “ok, fine, but I’m going to leave it with you then because it will go flat again within the next 15 minutes.” He says, “I’ll get with you in a minute” and dashes into the shop, where he fiddle-farts around for the next 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I desperately need the phone book so I can call my neighbors for a lift. By the time jerkwad comes back and gives me the phone book, they’ve already left. So now, I get to walk home. In the rain. Did I mention it was raining? Hard? It was. So I get the umbrella out of the car and start walking. Wouldn’t be that big of a deal if not for the rain and for the fact that I’m not wearing my walking shoes.

In any case, 20 minutes later I was back home, damper but otherwise no worse for the wear, other than the fact that I’m going to have to buy a new fucking tire. It had plenty of tread left on it, too. Fortunately the walk home is only about half the distance of what I’ve been walking daily for the past couple of months; when I was still smoking, it would have been a major ordeal getting back up the hill to my neighborhood.

Ho ho fucking ho. I guess everyone’s going to get a card that says, “your present is on the front passenger side of my car.”

Making the flawless bechamel.

Recipe?! I’ve been hankering after the no-pre cooked spinach lasagne bechamel from the Moosewood cookwood. Just enough to buy the book. I already have the Moosewood vegetable cookbook.

NOT enough to buy the book or i wouldn’t be asking

Sounds like Jennifer needs a stiff drink. Here, a very dirty martini. Relax.

Chris:

That’s because the war experiences of America vs continental Europe were literally oceans apart. For America, WW2 was a Great Patriotic War, in which the entire country had to come together and send our armies Over There to defeat a Foreign Horde.

Makes you wonder if any military leader today would have the guts that Admiral Nimitz did, to ignore the feint on the Aleutians, and allow Japanese occupation of actual North American territory, to send all his resources against the Midway task force, thus effectively winning the war before it was six months old. Really, to ask the question is to answer it. Publicity stunts like the Doolittle Raid would be the order of business nowadays, I assume.

Your bechamel will get closer to flawless as you use better milk. Raw milk is ideal because of the way milk’s chemistry is changed by pasteurization. Even if it is too rich it can be watered with stock. Next best would be some kind of organic whole milk or half & half. Ordinary unsalted butter is OK. Cake flour is better than all-purpose which is better than bread flour. Bechamels made from the various skim milk products are wan and retiring.

To go a little further into one of the mangos Cerebrus bravely fetched,

The First World War also maimed an entire generation of European manhood…

How the fuck, pray tell did the first world war (which, I believe, does not need to be capitalized because the “first” is simply a modifier for the concept of world war and not a formal name, such as “World War I.” Perhaps she’s thinking that you should capitalize all concepts that you embrace madly in your never-ending quest to sound like the smart person in your head, however little evidence there may be that it is manifest in a world other than your own little haunts on the internet.)— how the fuck did WW I “ruin” the “manhood” of Europe? It’s safe to assume that all those men who were cut down in their prime did not lose their dicks, but even if they had, they would not have lost their manhood because they still would have been adult males.

Why is it so hard for conservatives to understand that words have meanings and that the dictionary and thesaurus are their friends— friends that are right at their fingertips on the internet they spend so much time of their time on warning all their friends not to forget to worry about all the imaginary threats in their head because then they might make the mistake of relaxing and having a good time as if life were something to enjoy and not an endurance contest fraught with danger and the ill-intent of everyone who doesn’t think exactly like them and the cowardly morons they identify with?

Thnx, El Manquécito. Methinks I can get unpasteurized milk at one of the places I shop.

Thnx right back wiley, it’s all your fault I disassembled our gas range top and cleaned it to a fare-thee-well.

Speaking of unsalted butter…when I had a part-time inventory job 35 years ago, unsalted butter was always in the freezer case. Nowadays it’s right next to the regular salted butter in the dairy case. Did they chlorinate it in the interim or something?

Petraeus is now “villain of the week”? What, because he isn’t cock-punching Obama hard enough for the wingnuts?

I know how WTF this sounds, but there’s a fair amount of conservatives who believe the CIA was/is full of liberals and actively working to undermine George Bush/whatever conservative is in town at the moment. Not just among lunatic militia types, but establishment conservatives too.

As for Petraeus, well, it’s common knowledge that the military, while full of Brave Patriotic Soldiers, is being castrated by Political Correctness (you saw this sentiment come out in droves after Fort Hood). I’m not at all surprised that some conservatives have chosen to turn Petraeus into one of the Evil Politically Correct Extremists Undermining Our Military. He’s not the first career soldier or even the first general they’ve done it to (Shinseki, Zinni, etc).

Makes you wonder if any military leader today would have the guts that Admiral Nimitz did, to ignore the feint on the Aleutians, and allow Japanese occupation of actual North American territory, to send all his resources against the Midway task force, thus effectively winning the war before it was six months old. Really, to ask the question is to answer it. Publicity stunts like the Doolittle Raid would be the order of business nowadays, I assume.

I think you’re right. Hell, the entire Iraq War was basically one giant publicity stunt.

Heh, the politicians of today would never even consider entering a war if the odds of us winning were lower than 500-1.

Actually, I shouldn’t have called the Doolittle Raid a “publicity stunt”. That trivializes an idiotic prank that resulted in the killing of at least 200,000 Chinese for suspected aiding of downed airmen who didn’t make it all the way to Kuomintang territory.

Pam puts it all in context:

The message’s real-world counterpart was “John has a long mustache,” the message that told the French Resistance that the Normandy Invasion was imminent.

Yes, in “The Longest Day” and “Red Dawn” (except for the French stuff…buncha fags anyway). But I guess it isn’t a big surprise that she took her history lessons at the movies.

I know being inconsistent and full of shit is conservative SOP, but the time between “ZOMG MOVEON.ORG TALKED SHIT ABOUT PETRAEUS, THEY’RE TEH NEW TOKYO ROSE !!!!!” and “Petraeus is a towelhead-loving pussy” has to be one of the quickest turnarounds I’ve seen in my lifetime. (I’m excluding the very concept of the federal government being infallible and all-benevolent on 1/19/2009 and becoming creeping fascism on 1/20/2009, of course.)

OK, so, if the Harry Potter series is really about the Islamization of America, then why have the conservatives been demonizing it for the past 10 years (or has it been longer)?

They lost the war against Harry Potter, now they are trying to co-opt it, just like they keep trying miserably to do with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

B^4-

Yup, if it’s good, then they will try and destroy it, and if they can’t, they’ll claim that it was theirs all along.

Because once something has been universally acknowledged as a “good thing”, then it needs to belong to the right tribe who always support what was good.

This of course fails consistently in the face of the tribe who has already gotten used to being universally against the former demon and so strongly resist the attempts to make them glorious tribal leaders.

For instance, MLK’s takeover hasn’t been foiled by media sources recognizing reality or willingness to acknowledge him as a strong liberal, but rather due to the conservative base being unwilling to play along with that n***er commie being lionized as a member of their tribe.

I for one am very sad that Cain has dropped out of the race. Where else am I going to find entertainment like Women for Cain or the natural follow-up Men for Cain?

The Harry Potter series also addresses a widespread unwillingness to call the enemy by name. Even Voldemort’s enemies usually call him “He Who Must Not Be Named,” as if the euphemism will somehow make him less dangerous.

This is probably one of the stupidest statements and most belabored analogies in the whole rancid heap. Displays a monumental ignorance of the subject matter of the books. The Harry Potter series is about magic and magicians. One of the most widespread magical beliefs in the world, and particularly Europe, is that names have power and that to speak them is to invoke that which is named. Stupid fuck should not be allowed to comment on toaster pastries.

“men for Cain” is beyond hilarious. Do click.

One of the most widespread magical beliefs in the world, and particularly Europe, is that names have power and that to speak them is to invoke that which is named

“Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!”

alternately, “Hastur! Hastur! Hastur!”

Stupid fuck should not be allowed to comment on toaster pastries.

The breakfast that shall not be named!

“men for Cain” is beyond hilarious.

Women for Cain is hilarious only because it was not intended to be a parody but was actually launched by the Cain campaign just a couple days before they folded.

Never mind the flip-flop on Petraeus—the real gift that kept on giving for the right wingers was Colin Powell* First he was a stealth liberal undermining the Bush administration, then “How dare you traitors doubt anything he said at the UN!”, then “We can’t be racists because Obama caused us to lose our shit…look! Colin Powell!”, then “See, you loony libs, there are black conservatives, which proves you’re the real racists !!!1111!!!!”

*Fuck, am I glad he’s out of the news lately and I don’t have to listen to people pronouncing “Colin” “colon” every goddamn day!

and I don’t have to listen to people pronouncing “Colin” “colon”

You just knew that the country was in big trouble when it’s three most powerful politicians were Bush, Dick and Coloin.

The message’s real-world counterpart was “John has a long mustache,” the message that told the French Resistance that the Normandy Invasion was imminent.

Now in MY real world, the actual message was

the first stanza of Paul Verlaine’s poem “Chanson d’automne”

You can look it up.

Semi-OT, I just learned that Newt’s doctoral thesis in history discusses the Belgian Congo and has its conclusion support of the colonizers. I already knew he was scum, but this is a new, 40-year-old low.

Semi-OT, I just learned that Newt’s doctoral thesis in history discusses the Belgian Congo and has its conclusion support of the colonizers. I already knew he was scum, but this is a new, 40-year-old low.

You shouldn’t be so harsh on scum, old boy.

You can look it up.

Or just watch “The Longest Day” and actually pay attention, Pam.

Newt’s doctoral thesis in history discusses the Belgian Congo and has its conclusion support of the colonizers.

Damn. You got a citation for that? Not that I don’t believe you, it’s just that’s the sort of car wreck you really have to rubberneck at for yourself.

One source. I’m not mango-hunting this one.

Yeah, nobody ever said “Tora, tora, tora!” either…but remember: Reagan proved deficits don’t matter movies are the same as real life.

The original, for anyone with a mental-deathwish.

Newt’s doctoral thesis in history discusses the Belgian Congo and has its conclusion support of the colonizers.

Wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not at all. Remember Dinesh D’Souza and “the roots of Obama’s anti-colonial rage?” Those guys are absolutely in love with the old European colonial empires. They brought Christianity and civilization and intelligence to the poor benighted natives, doncha know.

(Which kind of directly contradicts their claim to hate social engineering, but it’s always different when it’s happening to These People).

N_B, I wouldn’t read that for anybody’s money, but Dayum! Of all the colonial powers, with the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Germans to choose from, he decides to defend the Belgians?! The absolute worst of the lot? I thought my opinion of him couldn’t get any lower, but guess what? I was wrong!

I couldn’t resist reading Newt’s conclusion. In part: “The Belgian colonial record left no one guilty and no one innocent. The Belgian leaders had virtually absolute power. By 20th century standards they used it benevolently although without foresight.”

Scum.

Someone called texasinafrica over at Philosopher’s Stone (N__B’s first link) comments “The key issue in my view is that Gingrich was dealing not so much with the effects of Belgian education policy on the Congolese but rather with the success/failure of Belgian policy itself in terms of the colonial experiment. Still, he reaches some rather alarming conclusions about how hard the Belgians tried. The Belgian education system in DRC was atrocious; it allowed only 4th-6th grade educations for the vast majority of citizens and left the country completely unprepared for post-colonial success.”

Even according to his own horrible premise, he still fucked up the facts. Calling him scum is an insult to scum everywhere.

My apologies to scum. I meant no offense by linking you to Newt.

Does he even realize the distinction between the period after the Belgian government took over the colony from King Leopold’s Company and the period before? The period after makes them the worst of the colonial powers; the period before beggars belief.

Quick: someone hook up a generator to Joseph Conrad’s corpse. The spinning will power the entire EU for days.

I knew Harry Potter with tits, Harry Potter with tits was a friend of mine. Lunatic, you’re no Harry Potter with tits.

Oh, that Newt thesis is just a treasure trove.

Here are two goodies I came up with in just one completely random dive-in.

[A Belgian official] was adamant that Negroes could be educated, a position some White Americans would dispute both then and half a century later.

Especially when they’re Republicans in charge of determining how much big-city schools can spend on attempts at this education.

If you ever wondered whether Newt dreamed of a world where he could enjoy Wife No. 2 or 3 without the inconvenience of getting rid of Wife No. 1, wonder no more:

[A missionary’s] definition of adultery was Christian and therefore monogamous. Yet the very basis of some African societies was polygamy. Eliminating the incredibly complex family relationships meant destroying the essence of tribal stability in many regions of Central Africa.

One of the most widespread magical beliefs in the world…

Hence the saying, “Speak of the devil…” (and he enters).

A missionary’s] definition of adultery was Christian and therefore monogamous. Yet the very basis of some African societies was polygamy polygyny. Eliminating the incredibly complex family relationships meant destroying the essence of tribal stability in many regions of Central Africa.

Fixed that for him. You betcher ass if it had been polyandry, Newt would have wanted them to beat it out of them darkies!

I’m not mango-hunting this one.

That’s as close as I’d ever want to get to boating into the heart of darkness. Newt makes for a pussy Kurt, though, doesn’t he?

If you ever wondered whether Newt dreamed of a world where he could enjoy Wife No. 2 or 3 without the inconvenience of getting rid of Wife No. 1, wonder no more

And this is precisely why all those holier-than-thou Republican men are such incredible hypocrites when they start yammering about how Islamic polygamy is anti-woman and blah blah blah. On the other hand, come to think of it, unlike Muslim polygamists, Newt seems to show no inclination whatsoever to keep his wives around after he decides he wants another one; in his view, they’re more or less disposeable. Hey, Republican ladies, don’t you love being human kleenex? (No, I’m not talking about this guy…)

Newt makes for a pussy Kurt, though, doesn’t he?

He still believes in exterminating the brutes.

Has anyone yet said “Azkaazkaazkabanistan?” If not, you really should have. I shan’t be arsed to read the thread, you see.

The Ho decided to make Bienenstich, thus he is monopolizing the kitchen. I’ll throw together some chintzy (but delicious) chicken thigh concoction later. We juts topped up the cute little jars of (soon to be) preserved lemons that will be our Xmas gifts to his coworkers. That means I have to make the “Moroccan chicken” and write down what the fuck I did so we can supply a recipe to use them along with the lemons themselves.

Also, please remember, in these troubled times when there is a war on Christmas, to keep the Saturn in Saturday.

Also, please remember, in these troubled times when there is a war on Christmas, to keep the Saturn in Saturday.

And don’t forget that “Happy Holy Days” is anti-religious! We rabid anti-catholic fundagelicals insist on “Christ’s Mass“, thank you very much!

Oh I just can’t help myself.
in re “holiday trees”:

Jeremiah 10:2-4

2: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3: For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4: They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Look, if you wanna fuck a tree you gotta keep it in place. Those things are squirmy!

I knew Harry Potter with tits, Harry Potter with tits was a friend of mine. Lunatic, you’re no Harry Potter with tits.

Hey, now, you’re confusing Harry Potter with tits with Harry Potter with fake tits. GET IT STRAIGHT!!!

Heh, Harpy Pouter…

there’s a fair amount of conservatives who believe the CIA was/is full of liberals

Also a growing opinion regarding the Pentagon – & little wonder.

CIA says dubbleplusnodamgood things like: people mess shit up hard when you keep denying them their basic human rights or scamming them out of their land & life savings for too long … or: cravenly whoring heavy-duty weapons out to insane fascist kleptocracies can have nasty consequences.

Also, both the Pentagon & the CIA have released warnings to the public that climate change is shaping up to be deadlier than all the wars America has ever fought in, combined … to the point of additionally warning that aspects of its deadliness may be humanly insoluble.

I am now eagerly awaiting the Pentagon’s “Free Teh Weed, Go Vegan & Off Teh Pigs – For America’s Future” national security proposal.

They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

They must have had Republicans around even way back then, that would explain why they had to nail down their gold and silver.

…keep the Saturn in Saturday…

You mean Saturn the timekeeper? Saturn the Cosmic Fist Up the Ass if you don’t attend well to your duties? I’m about ready to worship Kali during business hours, but giving up Saturday to the taskmaster…pbbbt.

jim said,
December 5, 2011 at 5:45

Right… any professional community (e.g. one whose obligations to doing their job well, which implies obligations to the facts) is suspect to them because they can’t be sure of its blind devotion, even if most of the people in it lean towards their politics.

Hence the rise of parallel communities of politically vetted “experts” whose job is to say that what the party says is correct (think tanks and conservative media play a huge part in this), and hence the repeated attempts to politicize the shit out of these agencies by naming your cronies at the top (Rumsfeld at DOD and Porter Goss at CIA, during the last administration).

You mean Saturn the timekeeper? Saturn the Cosmic Fist Up the Ass if you don’t attend well to your duties? I’m about ready to worship Kali during business hours, but giving up Saturday to the taskmaster…pbbbt.

Well, whatever Saturnus’ function was in the original Roman religion, by the Interpretatio Graeca, he corresponded to Kronos, who castrated his father, married his sister, and devoured all his children as soon as they were born. Beat that, Islamocommiegaybortionistas!

Also, the period that he and his sister ruled the world, before Zeus escaped being eaten and grew up to force him to disgorge all his siblings, is called “The Golden Age”. So there!

Kronos, who castrated his father, married his sister, and devoured all his children as soon as they were born.

His neighbors said he was a quiet man.

Well, whatever Saturnus’ function was in the original Roman religion, by the Interpretatio Graeca, he corresponded to Kronos, who castrated his father, married his sister, and devoured all his children as soon as they were born.

Takes a lot more than being broody, dark and quiet to be labeled “saturnine”, or it should.

The fascists have hated the CIA for over 55 years. Until Bush the Lesser gutted and neutered it, the CIA was always the voice of reason when they would start hyperventilating about what first the Soviet Union and now the Terrists were capable of. Ever since they poo-pooed the right wing’s overinflation of Soviet military capabilities, and then built the U-2 and proved it, the wingers have hated them, and since Francis Gary Powers didn’t chomp on his suicide capsule, they’ve considered them actual traitors instead of Useful Idiots™ for the International Communist Conspiracy™.

Of course, when Bush saddlebroke the CIA, the wingnuts didn’t get the memo. Par for the course….

Ever since they poo-pooed the right wing’s overinflation of Soviet military capabilities, and then built the U-2 and proved it…

Yes. You may have noticed that Bush the Lesser stocked his cabinet with Team B.

the Grand Mega Mosque of Dhimmitude once better known as the Pentagon.

o,0
~~

That’s…

I…

I mean…

It’s just…

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

———–

Is this clown saying that because somewhere in our decade long War To Fuck Up Islamic People we have not actually nuked the entire Middle East into a series of glowing glass craters that the Pentagon has somehow been taken over by Mind-Slaves-Of-Allah?

I…

But…

Oh, fuck it.

designed to be “counter-intuitive”

You have to push…

if you wanna fuck a tree you gotta keep it in place. Those things are squirmy

Insert “slippery elm” joke here. Also woodcuts.

to keep the Saturn in Saturday Saturnalia.
Smut Fixing Agency, at your service.

If your smut needs fixing, maybe you should buy it some rubbers.

Insert “slippery elm” joke here. Also woodcuts.

So, that’s why those aspens quake…

It’s either that or leader of a secret genital-maiming death cult.

Now, just because I call the girls Bitsy and Wanda, and my special place something that you perverts will never hear, doesn’t mean I’m in some sort of “death cult.” Lots of people have names for their junk. Why, my dear, departed Frank called his “Clark” after that Superman fellow. Elvis himself had a…

What’s that?

Oh.

Never mind.

Where else am I going to find entertainment like Women for Cain

Wonkette’s twist on the logo is priceless.

Do not trust SMcG near the pussy willows.

Okay. Men for Cain = win.

Adam Carolla
New York, NY

Herman Cain’s penis is like a raccoon in a dumpster.

Adam Carolla
New York, NY

Herman Cain’s penis is like a raccoon in a dumpster.

Ha! He just called Herman Cain a ‘coon! You libs are the real racists!!

Just filling in for Pennis.

They did the same thing to Tolkein: The bad guy of the day was Hitler, so Sauron must therefor be a metaphor for Hitler…….

Sidebar, but on re-reading LotR again recently, i found myself coming down on the side of Sauron, at least his army’s were multi-ethnic, and all he wanted was for Mordor to be left in peace. Gondor, the elves and all that shit were racist monolithic races that wanted everyone to fit into the racial stereotypes of the past! Long live Sauron and the Free Mordor Alliance!!

Semi-OT, I just learned that Newt’s doctoral thesis in history discusses the Belgian Congo and has its conclusion support of the colonizers. I already knew he was scum, but this is a new, 40-year-old low.

How the fuck is that even possible!!! any linky?

OK, read the rest of the thread……

That trivializes an idiotic prank that resulted in the killing of at least 200,000 Chinese for suspected aiding of downed airmen who didn’t make it all the way to Kuomintang territory.

There were strategic consequences:

Despite the minimal damage inflicted, American morale soared when news of the raid was released. Stinging from the attack on Pearl Harbor and Japan’s subsequent territorial gains, it was important for the American public to know that a successful military response had been undertaken.[32]

The raid also had a strategic impact, though it was not known at the time: It caused the Japanese to recall some fighting IJN units to the Japanese Home Islands for defense. Its main aircraft carrier task force, spearheaded by five large, fast carriers—with its best naval aircraft and aircrews—under the command of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, had inflicted serious losses on the Royal Navy and merchant shipping during the Indian Ocean Raid, steaming as far west as Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for air raids on British shipping and Royal Air Force airfields there. Following the Doolittle Raid, Nagumo’s force was recalled to Japan, removing all pressure from the Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean.

The Imperial Japanese Navy also bore a special responsibility for allowing an American aircraft carrier force to approach the Japanese Home Islands in a manner similar to that of the IJN fleet to Hawaii in 1941, and likewise it escaped undamaged.[N 5] The fact that rather large twin-engine land-based bombers carried out the attack served to confuse the IJN’s high command about the source of the attack. This confusion and the conclusion that Japan itself was vulnerable to air attack strengthened Yamamoto’s resolve to capture Midway Island, with the attempt to do so resulting in the decisive IJN loss at the Battle of Midway.[33][34]

“It was hoped that the damage done would be both material and psychological. Material damage was to be the destruction of specific targets with ensuing confusion and retardation of production. The psychological results, it was hoped, would be the recalling of combat equipment from other theaters for home defense thus effecting relief in those theaters, the development of a fear complex in Japan, improved relationships with our Allies, and a favorable reaction on the American people.” —General James H. Doolittle, 9 July 1942[11][35]

That idiotic prank probably influenced the Japanese approach to civil defense, which turned out to be not only totally inadequate in response to the firebombing of Tokyo, but perhaps enhanced the effect of the firebombing on the population.

Hell, Chancre Jack probably lost twice as many men fighting the Communists during the war, not that he was noted for his military prowess, outside of his own propaganda.

Kronos, who castrated his father, married his sister, and devoured all his children as soon as they were born.

His neighbors said he was a quiet man.

Always kept to himself, but was always looking at his watch…

Hey Actor, goin’ back a couple of threads here………..

Yes, the 18th St. dojo isn’t really a newbie kind of dojo but you’re not really a newby guy…………….they don’t spoon feed you.

My eventual wife had a couple of black belts before she started working out there- yes, everybody gets together in one room and practices moves but the “newbies” can hang toward the back and the sensei spends as much time and care with them as with the more advanced types.

I can’t recommend it highly enough……………………

Your wife has a black belt? That is badass.

Major Kong’s “I really don’t want to pay 20 euros for lunch at the hotel restaurant sandwich”

1. Walk to nearest mini-market.

2. Procure 1 packet of serrano ham, 1 jar apricrot jam, 1 double-cream brie, 1 packet of plastic knives

3. Stop by boulangerie and get 1 fresh baguette

Optional – Eat half of baguette with apricot jam for breakfast

4. Slice remaining baguette in half with plastic knife. Add serrano ham. Top with brie. Slather generously with apricot jam.

c’est magnifique!

The plastic knives can also be used to mug people to obtain Euros.

Thnx right back wiley, it’s all your fault I disassembled our gas range top and cleaned it to a fare-thee-well.

So, what I hear you saying is that I’m a very good influence on you already. Glad to hear it, El. I’m also a very good and accomplished Zen counselor. Just tell me your problem and I’ll fix you right up.

I take my good influences in extreme moderation.

…keep the Saturn in Saturday…

Call the cops because this has just been SHTOLEN. Though I think I’m going to go with Thor…

Hey, kids, there’s a new thread.

The fascists have hated the CIA for over 55 years.

Even more than that.

All the way back in World War Two, J. Edgar Hoover never got over the fact that Bill Donovan’s OSS rather than his FBI had been put in charge of foreign intelligence and covert ops. He spent the entire war trying to undermine them in any way possible, among other things by claiming that the OSS was completely infiltrated by commies… and his campaigns contributed quite a bit to the final decision to shut down the OSS after the war.

During the Red Scare, McCarthy similarly attacked the CIA as being part of the global communist conspiracy (easy to do since the organization was just starting out, still doing a pretty shitty job and easy for the Reds to mislead and counter).

After the 1960 election, Nixon, God knows why, became convinced that the CIA had rigged the election for Kennedy, and nursed a grudge against them for his entire life, which is why he had Kissinger keep them on a tight leash.

Reagan was probably the least hostile to the CIA, at least in theory. But in practice, his DCI, Casey, was the guy who started ideologically purifying the department, to the point that whenever he disagreed with his analysts, he’d rewrite their conclusions and give that to the President: “the CIA’s intelligence was in many cases simply Bill Casey’s ideology,” the Secretary of State observed at the time.

And then, of course, you’ve got Bush. Ignored the CIA when he first came into office. Then, pressured the shit out of them to draw the conclusions he wanted about Iraq’s WMDs (to the extent of ordering Director Tenet to write a memo saying there was “no inconsistency” between their views and what the President was saying in public). Then, when it all blew up in their faces and Tenet resigned, he seized the opportunity to send in Porter Goss to ideologically purge the organization in a way that dwarfed what Casey had done in the Reagan years.

And there you have it. In a nutshell, wingnuts aren’t wrong when they say that our security agencies are hampered by oversight from incompetent, corrupt, ideologically motivated bureaucrats and politicians. It’s just that the vast majority of these people have come from them.

Yes, the 18th St. dojo isn’t really a newbie kind of dojo but you’re not really a newby guy…………….they don’t spoon feed you.

I made a mental note to check them out. I was looking at the 39th street one (Aikido of Manhattan) a) because it’s only $100 a month, unlimited classes, and b) it’s a few blocks from work.

I’m looking because as I get older, I’m finding I suffer a lot of soft-tissue injuries…tendons, mostly…so I want some low impact exercises that complement the strength training I’ve been doing. My gym has classes, but they tend to be high energy, and the yoga and pilates classes all look overcrowded.

So naturally, I think back to my aikido days and think….hmmmmmm…

Thanks, man. I’ll check into it

Your wife has a black belt? That is badass.

Big effin’ deal. My ex had the stilettos to match.

…Bellatrix LeEvenStranger…

Polythene Pam: One part Rita Skeeter, two parts Sybil Trelawney, three parts Bellatrix Lestrange, shaken and stirred.

By the way: I know someone who knew someone (now deceased) who knew Rowling as a child, and per my friend, this person — who admittedly was a bit eccentric and tended to see things and connections that didn’t necessarily obtain — apparently thought that of all the characters, Dolores Umbridge was the HP character that was most closely based on a real human of Rowling’s acquaintance. Most of the other characters were apparently bits and pieces of several teachers all jammed together, but she was a very real, and very nasty, piece of work, per my friend’s late informant, who allegedly had chills of recognition on the neck reading the passages where Umbridge was prominent.

Obviously, Dumbledore was a stand-in for Churchill, because everyone knows that he was in a secret sexual relationship with Oswald Mosley… oh, wait.

WIR SIND FEDERND FEDERND FEDERND FEDERND SPA? SPA? SPA? SPA? SPA?