Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

All hail the time of the bunny!

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Second rate reporter says what?

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

This blog will pay for itself.

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The Winners, And The Next Competition

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The winners from our competition for the dumbest thing said by a politician in 2008:

#3: Sarah Palin- “Ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up the economy- Oh, it’s got to be about job creation too. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions.”

#2: John McCain- “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.”

#1: Sarah Palin- “We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.”

Overall, not very surprising results, especially considering the partisan nature of this crowd. Having said that, there really is a reason McCain/Palin lost, and it wasn’t media bias. You can see the entire poll here.

***

Now for the inside baseball stuff. Since we are fond of backslapping and self-congratulatory wanking here, I present to you the poll of the funniest thing said by commenters in 2008. The entries are:

Krista:

You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.

And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a fucking astronaut now, does it?

Michael D.:

Ahmmm, I’m a ghey, and I wouldn’t do anything with the words “Cruise” and “Hugh Hewitt” in it.

Of course, with all those social conservatives in one place, it’ll probably sound like Riverdance in the bathrooms.

JasonF, with the Auto Industry as a Play. A sample (and really, read the whole thing):

ACT THREE

UAW: I have fulfilled my end of the deal by building the automobiles that you have asked me to build.

BIG THREE: Oh no! I am undone! My automobiles are no longer competitive due to my years of poor planning and poor judgment!

MITT ROMNEY: This is all UAW’s fault!

And, our final entry, Tbone with Hillary Clinton’s Tuzla War Journal, a fictionalized version of the sniper fire incident (and again, click the link for the whole comment):

It was a simple mission, they had told me – get in, shake a few hands and mouth a few platitudes, get out. Simple. Yeah.

Things had started going wrong while we were still in the air, and only gotten worse from there. So here we were, pinned down, choking on the acrid tang of cordite and the heady scent of human blood. The mission was even simpler now: survive. Whatever the cost, survive.

There was a grunt and a clatter of equipment as Sinbad threw himself down at my side. Sweat glistened on his bare arms, and I could see tendons contracting and relaxing as he squeezed off bursts from his M14. The motion was hypnotic, like a snake about to strike. Perhaps, when all this was over-

No. Concentrate. Focus on the mission. Survive.

A shout from my left drew my head around. Sheryl Crow, guitar still strapped to her back, had taken cover behind a pile of decaying corpses. Her once-lustrous hair, now limp and stringy, was held back from her eyes by a dirty red headband, and her slim nostrils flared, seeking air free of the funeral taint permeating the airfield. Still, I saw a fierce exultation in her expression that I knew mirrored my own.

[poll id = 6]

Have fun.

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Whatever Is Fastest

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There is your answer, Democrats:

Thwarted by President Bush in their efforts to expand federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are now debating whether to overturn federal restrictions through executive order or by legislation when they assume full control of the government this month.

Both President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have made repealing Bush administration restrictions announced in 2001 a top priority. But they have yet to determine if Mr. Obama should quickly put his stamp on the issue by way of presidential directive, or if Congress should write a permanent policy into statute.

The debate is not academic. Democrats who oppose abortion say such a legislative fight holds the potential to get the year off to a difficult beginning, even though the outcome is certain given solid majorities in both the House and the Senate for expanded embryonic stem cell research.

Executive order. Just get it done.

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Umm, Actually

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So Greg Sargent is leaving TPM and starting up a new blog venture at the Washington Post. This has the usual suspects up in arms at Red State:

I’m sure Greg Sargent is good at what he does, but I’m also sure the Washington Post would not even consider hiring someone directly from the right-of-center blogosphere.

Actually…

I wonder where the Washington Post hired him from? Had to be some pinko commie left-wing rag, since we are assured that the WaPo would never hire a right-winger. Let’s check:

Ben Domenech is a co-founder of RedState, the web’s leading Republican community blog. He began his career as a political journalist covering Capitol Hill, writing for numerous publications and working as a contributing editor to National Review Online. After 9/11, he abandoned the journalism field for a taxpayer-funded life and was sworn in as the youngest political appointee of President George W. Bush. Following a year as a speechwriter for HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and two as the chief speechwriter for Texas Senator John Cornyn, Ben is now a book editor for Regnery Publishing, where he has edited multiple bestsellers and books by Michelle Malkin, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Hugh Hewitt….

DOH! Fail.

*** Update ***

Looking through the comments, I would like to point out that the point of this post was to mock the notion that the media would not pick a right-of-center pundit (someone at Red State saying that in this case was as silly as if Michael Goldfarb or someone else from the Weekly Standard whined that the NY Times would never hire a conservative), not to provide a forum to crap all over Ben and re-visit the plagiarism scandal.

He made a mistake, and I remember defending him at the time. I disagree with him on a lot of things, and he has said some stupid and offensive things (but probably not as many as me), but he was always nice to me, and I think is at heart a decent person, so please stop it. I hate pile-ons, and I hate the notion that because someone made a mistake, their life should be ruined. That just isn’t cool.

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More Good News

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I hate it when they use the “D” word:

From Australia, to Asia and Europe and the United States on Wednesday, the message in the latest economic reports was clear: manufacturing continued to slump amid the worst slowdown since the Great Depression.

In the United States on Friday, a crucial measure of manufacturing activity fell to the lowest level in 28 years in December. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said its manufacturing index was 32.4 in December down from 36.2 in November.

“Manufacturing activity continued to decline at a rapid rate during the month of December,” said Norbert J. Ore, chairman of the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. This index was at the lowest reading since June 1980 when it was 30.3 percent.

“This report indicates that the U.S. economy was on even weaker footing than commonly believed as 2008 came to a close,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR. “Moreover, the signal from the export orders index is that the rest of the world is right there with us. Hardly a signal for economic recovery anytime soon.”

As expected, the dow is… up 200 points.

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An Early Contender For the Wingnuttiest Remark of 2009

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I didn’t pay attention last week when Marty Peretz seemingly lost what was left of his mind, but in a post attempting to downplay the suffering in Gaza, he blurted out the following:

Arabic is a language easily taken to exaggeration and hyperbole. The easy use of the word genocide is an instance of this Arab habit. There is no genocide in Sudan but there is in the Strip. Sorry, I had it in reverse. This lying also extends to details that can be quickly checked by reporters who don’t. Would you not think that, with the hysteria about starvation, you’d see some bloated bellies on the TV? Instead, you see healthy children and strong young men in the rituals of resistance.

And sneakers. You have to look closely at the sneakers, seemingly new and, of course, costly.

Yes. We must look at their sneakers.

Now if, in fact, the aid that Peretz lists is actually in place, this is objectively a good thing, but I have no way of verifying it. Other reports would seem to suggest that things are far worse than Peretz would let on.

But what stands out is the shoe remark. That is not something that would be uttered by someone with a clear and rational perspective, and is instead the kind of gibberish you would expect from people suffering from the fevered irrationality of pure hatred. Especially in light of reports like this:

Eight Palestinians were killed on Friday, including five children in the ongoing Israeli intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip for the seventh consecutive day, doctors and witnesses said.

Palestinian witnesses and medics said that in the most recent Israeli airstrikes carried out on Friday afternoon on a house east of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, three children were killed and eight civilians wounded.

I wonder what kind of shoes they were wearing, because if they were new and costly, they probably had it coming.

I can not say this enough- it is untenable for Israel to live under constant rocket and mortar attack, and it is undeniable that the attacks have skyrocketed in recent months. It is also morally reprehensible for these attacks to be launched from schools, mosques, and hospitals, and the use of human shields is disgusting, and Hamas is now reported to be urging the continuation of suicide bombings. Having said that, I can not figure out how the answer is to just blow up said human shields and make dismissive comments about the suffering of innocents and snide remarks about their tennis shoes.

Nothing good is coming of this.

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Hangover Helper

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A little late now, but this (via Matt) agrees with my own college experience. I drank a huge pitcher of water every night that I drank heavily and can’t remember even one time that I woke up with a hangover. I remember getting up to piss a lot, but after a night of drinking that happens anyway.

Another bit of useful know-how that I picked up empirically is that you can fix the spin-dizzy feeling by spinning twice in the reverse direction. My wife, a neuroscientist with experience in balance, scoffed on the grounds that nobody had ever published on that topic. Naturally Dr. Mrs. F. was amused when someone did publish that result something like six months later.

***Update***

I can see how people associated the second part with booze, where in fact I meant the dizzy feeling that you get after actually spinning around a lot. Sober spin-dizzy comes (in part) from the inertia of the fluid in your semicircular canals, which you beat by making the fluid stop faster than it otherwise would. Drunk dizzy happens for more fundamental neurobiological reasons. The only practical way to fight that is to know your personal line between happy times and being nursed by a patient friend.

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