If you’ve been laughing at wingnut stupidity on blogs for awhile, you may recall the SadlyNaughts’ righteous mockery of an idiot who misread the sign below as “Sasquatch Israel:”
Said moron wrote an indignant post based on his misreading of the sign, in which he accused the sign holder of purveying anti-Semitic, eliminationist rhetoric by implicitly denying Israel’s legitimacy with the comparison to Bigfoot.
Sure, it’s a stretch. But wingnuts bloggers don’t live in the Eden of low hanging fruit in which we lefties frolic. They frequently have to manufacturer causes for outrage. Why just yesterday, Power Tool John Hinderaker conjured a mythical creature known as an anti-Israel politician in the United States of America:
Elizabeth Warren is a heroine to many liberals, who hope she will challenge Hillary Clinton from the left. Even apart from the concept of anyone being to Hillary’s left, this seems bizarre to me. [hahahahahahaha – Ed.]
[snip]What does it take to be a left-wing icon in today’s America? There are multiple elements, but one requirement is a visceral hostility to Israel. That hostility was on display when Warren appeared at Tufts, I believe earlier today. A member of the audience said:
Eva Moseley, I’m not a student, I’m not an alumnae, but was in faculty life. I was also a Holocaust refugee and I’m extremely concerned that Jews don’t do to another people what was done to them.
This received thunderous applause, in the midst of which Warren responded, “I think that’s fair.”
And that’s it, kids: Sasquatch Israel! Never mind that Warren staunchly defends America’s <3 BFF 4EVER relationship with Israel, voting in favor of sending Israel hundreds of millions of dollars during its recent dustup with Hamas and defending the occasional errant bombing of schools and hospitals on the grounds that Hamas uses the Palestinian population as human shields. Nope, Hillary Clinton is the leftiest lefty who ever lurched leftward, and Elizabeth Warren is a shrill anti-Semite who wants to grind plucky lil’ Israel beneath her cruel Fauxcohontas moccasin. Yep, these people are crazy.
Baud
Kerning is fundamental.
Chyron HR
My favorite part when Israel went to the Colony of the Slippermen and got his willie cut off.
debbie
Bet the guy’s against Common Core. Wouldn’t want standards in our reading classes, would we?
Tommy
@Baud: Very happy to know somebody else knows what kerning is.
greennotGreen
@Tommy: Everybody knows what a kerning is, from the story of the National Guard documents that proved Bush Jr. had retired from the Guard as a kerning.
Belafon
Watch out, you Warren supporters, if something bad happens in the world, she might decide a military response is what is needed.
/sarcasm
MattF
I tried to add a link to a little comment mocking Mr. H, and now I’m in spamland, I think. FYWP.
SteveinSC
Well as the Beatles once crooned: “Let me whisper in yoh-rear.”
Felonius Monk
Haven’t bothered to read anything from the Ass Rocket for awhile. Some things never change. His self-fellating Ass Ballistics are still pretty bad (i.e., way off target).
Sherparick
They are insane with a purpose. And it works as they control the Congress and may put one of their tools in the White House. This guy is just feeding the tribal beast so as to work up good moment of “HATE” for both Elisabeth Warren and Hilary. Hate and resentment is what the Right does real well.
History also teaches that if you don’t want the crazies to take over the Government, you have to take them seriously. I am afraid that over the last 250 years, crazy people have constantly been taking control of Governments (Robispierre and his clique, Jefferson Davis and his clique, the German Imperial General Staff, Lenin and Stalin, Hitler, Mao, (I might add Dick Cheney) etc. All literally batshit crazy individually and collectively and willing to slaughter the world for the “cause.”)
raven
I was having coffee this morning with a couple of friends who had never met. One is an education prof and the other is a masseuse/seamstress. I introduced them and the seamstress asked the prof “oh, I wanted to ask someone like you why they don’t teach cursive?” The prof had just finished reading essay assignments from her students basically asking them to write to Bill Ayers abut why the wanted to teach. Whoa, not the right question for the seamstress to ask! “I’m dealing with the deep seated racism that these students have and you want to know about cursive???? Whoo hoo, great way to start the day.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Is Hinderaker crazy? Stupid? Manipulative? Cunning? Evil? All of the above at various times?
I have no idea, but what he writes, usually, is nonsense with a purpose.
Chris
Is it just me or does that kind of idiocy actually empower more left wing tendencies? After all, if you’re going to get clobbered as an antisemite/a communist/an appeaser no matter how far backward you bend to accomodate the freaks, there’s no reason to keep bending over backwards.
Cervantes
@raven:
My opinion (not that you asked for it): If the “education prof” were true to her title, any good-faith question from the masseuse/seamstress would not have been amiss. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure Bill Ayers would agree.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: I vote crazy and stupid, where “crazy” = “detached from reality.” I get the feeling that he truly believes the crap he writes, which is the source of my “stupid” vote. I suppose it could be an act, but I don’t think so.
danielx
Peak wingnut is an ideal to be striven for, but never achieved.
Note: Assrocket is still around? I thought he’d hung up his blogging hat after emitting his never-to-be-surpassed encomium to the vision and brilliance of George W. Bush. I recall thinking at the time that this conspicuous display of conservative tongue-bathing was a little over the top even by wingnut standards. By 2005 Dubya had already been accused of many things, mostly deservedly, but brilliance was never one of them.
HR Progressive
@Chris: This only works if you heed said advice to do so. “The Left” told Obama for years to ignore any notions of being “bipartisan” with Republicans who wanted only to destroy and deny his Presidency, and he patently ignored it because he thought he was right and “we” were wrong.
Also, I’m sure that 27% of people thoroughly enjoy the idea of beating up Elizabeth Warren because Sasquatch Israel
Betty Cracker
@raven: I just had a long discussion with my old granny the other day about cursive. She’s outraged that it’s no longer taught, and I was defending the discontinuation of cursive instruction. Neither of us changed our minds.
Bob
And there is this, mediaite.com/online/newsbusters-fails-to-grasp-chris-hayes-girl-talk-reference/
Belafon
@Betty Cracker: Computers have eliminated the need for cursive. I think they should teach kids shorthand.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’m with you. Cursive is a waste of time.
raven
@Cervantes: It was early in the morning and the prof did follow up with a more gentle explanation.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Not saying it’s an act, not saying his education (Dartmouth, Harvard Law) makes him a good person.
But re “stupid,” consider this award (with this selection process in mind).
Maybe “demented” is the right word for such a person.
Cervantes
@raven: Glad to hear it, thanks!
Tommy
@Betty Cracker: I am old enough I was taught cursive. That special lined paper. I write every day. A legal pad of paper and pencil is not more than a few feet of me at any time. But I don’t use cursive. In fact the only time I use cursive is when I write a check, which is a rare thing these days. I have almost forgotten how to do it.
Baud
@Chris:
The real world has a lot of people in between the partisans, and they also influence how people behave.
Hal
Signage wise I’m still a fan of half breed muslin. I think you can get it at Joanne fabrics.
wonkette.com/402743/typical-florida-person-creates-years-best-campaign-sign
Belafon
@Tommy: I haven’t used cursive since the 9th grade, which was 1984, and we spent a huge amount of childhood learning it. My kids are still having to learn it, but I really do think it’s useless.
Schlemazel
Damn you for forcing me to know that assrocket is still pumping bilge into the world. Time magazine’s ‘blogger of the year” had receded into a well deserved obscurity & I was happy thinking maybe he just fell off the face of the earth or maybe his high-power law firm got tired of him pissing away billable hours whoring for the GOP & fired his assrocket out into the street. The image of him living under a bridge on I-94 near downtown Minneapolis made me smile & now you have taken that away from me!
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes:
Stupid is as stupid does. — Forrest Gump
raven
@Tommy: When I went to the National Archives to research the destroyer my dad served on in WWII they brought out a big cart full of documents. Some of the manila folders had his “handwriting”on them. It was actually print because he, and I, had awful handwriting.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Even where it is no longer taught, I find that, even today, some kids see cursive handwriting as a “grown-up” badge and aspire to learn it. Maybe it depends on what they see their parents or other adults doing — and sometimes it’s just a phase they out-grow.
But never mind that and shorthand and so forth, voice-recognition may render even typing relatively slow, old-fashioned, and superfluous. We shall see.
Betty Cracker
@Schlemazel: Our local fishwrap features a columnist who occasionally refers to Butt-Ballistics as a font of wisdom. If I have to suffer, so do you.
Schlemazel
@Betty Cracker:
I stopped taking the daily here just for reasons like that.
debbie
I couldn’t figure out why Ohio Republicans have been suggesting that Ohio Democrats will need to get rid of the Democratic chairman, Chris Redfern, if they ever want to recover from the disaster that is Fitzgerald.
This comes out this morning, and I think I’ve been witnessing some proactive misdirection (at least in the GOP’s collective mind):
dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/09/17/kasich-administration-suarez-emails.html
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
I know, people keep telling me that (for some reason).
But remember, this particular stupid person, John Hinderaker, was able to lead a campaign that took Dan Rather’s scalp — and put an end to his career. If it pleases anyone to think of Hinderaker as “stupid,” well, that’s fine, but I think it misses something.
OzarkHillbilly
Some more right wing stupidity via the beloved Mr. Pierce, Chuck Norris-
Obama isn’t the first to have a foreign policy of blissful appeasement and too-little-too-late interception. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did it with the Nazis. President Gerald Ford did it with communists. President Jimmy Carter did it with the ayatollahs.
Follow the link for the fist/fisking.
Tommy
@raven: That is very cool. The National Archives rocks. I did some research there along with the Library of Congress for my thesis and was stunned by the service. I joke, and it isn’t a joke cause it is true, that for years the Library of Congress was my local library.
Now I come from a family of letter writers. None of us, generations back, use cursive.
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly: I can just imagine what Charlie did with that pearl of wisdom.
MomSense
I’m pretty sure that Hinderaker is a moran but honestly the people who see any kind of dissent on Israel as heresy must never have read Hebrew scriptures. There are soooo many examples of the prophets being incredibly scathing in their criticism. It seems to me that Mosely is part of an honorable and ancient tradition and has earned the right to speak her mind and be heard.
Schlemazel
@Cervantes:
Assrocket did not do that, he was merely the conduit through which turdblossom excreted his ratfuckery.
But I take your point.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: A dumbass ginned up a howling mob of half-wits, and a panicky corporation ceded to their demands. Dog bites man. No genius required.
But seriously, I’m not alleging that Hinderaker has a sub-80 IQ or is developmentally delayed in the clinical sense: I’m saying he believes many things that are demonstrably false and often displays an inability to engage in critical thought on the topics he chooses to address on his blog. In short: stupid!
Cervantes
@MomSense:
Au contraire, mon amie. The usual suspects are already calling Moseley a fake Holocaust survivor. Why? “Because she and her family moved to New York in 1939.”
Of course, the notion that only approved Holocaust survivors — or even only Jews — get to criticize Israel is … nothing but anti-intellectual clap-trap.
Ronzoni Rigatoni
@Belafon: I’m with you there. My boss, a female lady and our local’s Chapter President, was the only person I ever knew who could do shorthand. In every meeting with management it was like having a living tape recorder. Good times!
Schlemazel
speaking of stupid is:
Armpit hair fire causes crash that injures teens
ktvb.com/story/news/local/2014/09/17/hair-fire-crash/15794857/
relax Betty, this time it is not FLA! :)
MomSense
@Cervantes:
Wow. Hmmmmm WTF could possibly cause a Jewish family to move to NY in 1939????
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Well, sure, but Bill O’Reilly, and Luke Russert, and Chuck Todd, and Jonah Goldberg, and Joe Scarborough — these people and their peers make far more mistakes every day than Dan Rather ever made, and they do much more damage to the discourse than he ever did. When you lead a campaign that gets one of them fired, then I might feel better about agreeing with you!
Cervantes
@MomSense: Yes, I don’t know … maybe the bagels were better.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes:
different-church-lady
@Belafon:
And increased the need for typing. Which is the only thing I was taught in high school that I still use every day. We should get the kids started early.
I have some pretty spectacular penmanship in my arsenal. Screw the kids if they don’t want to follow — it will be my party trick.
different-church-lady
@MomSense:
No no no, you’re not a Holocaust survivor unless you stuck it out all the way to April 1945. Leaving before that just makes you a Holocaust dodger.
schrodinger's cat
I do most of my writing on the computer but when I need to think things out I like to write by hand. I have recently rediscovered my love for fountain pens, much more enjoyable than gel and ball point, hand writing also looks so much better.
ETA: Plus, have to use paper and pencil when working out math with symbols, greek alphabets and such.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: Maybe you’ll know this since you use fountain pens: Where can you get such a pen serviced these days? Would a stationery store have someone who could fix an old fountain pen or show a person how to fill it, etc.? I ask because I have my great-grandmother’s old fountain pen, and I’ve never been able to figure out how it works (how to fill it, I mean). Thanks!
MomSense
@different-church-lady:
And I think she correctly identifies herself as a refugee!
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: Have you ever seen the Art Brown catalogue… fountain pen pron. Pages and pages and pages of fountain pens. OMG, I just checked for their web site and found out that the shop has closed and went bankrupt. Truly sad news for someone who loved looking at some of the most expensive fountain pens in the world. (I have one fountain pen.)
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: What pen is it? Parker will service their pens if you send it to them, you need to send them a photo and they will let you know if they can fix it. There are also many enthusiasts who do this as a hobby, and they have spares and such and you can email them and find out.
I got a number of my old pens serviced when I was in India this May.
ETA: FWIW, the tiny shop was near Metro Cinema in South Bombay.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: No I haven’t, from your description, I am sure I would have loved looking at it.
PurpleGirl
@Betty Cracker: It looks like Fountain Pen Hospital is still in operation. They are in NYC. http://www.fountainpenhospital.com
My Goggle search term was “fountain pen repair” and it brought up a bunch of web site. Foundation Pen Hospital was the top of the list. I’ve never gone to their store but I’ve heard of them for ages. I have a fountain pen from my father that I keep thinking of getting repaired.
ETA: My one fountain pen is a Waterman,
Cervantes
@MomSense:
Not only that, it was Vienna that her family left in 1939.
Cervantes
@PurpleGirl: I second that. I’ve used their services for decades.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Did you see the photo series on NYT’s now defunct blog on India, IndiaInk comparing NYC and Bombay. It was wonderful.
Mike in NC
@danielx: I, too, assumed this moron had fallen off the planet.
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: No, I didn’t. Thanks for the link. I’ll look at it a little later.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Warren was a Republican throughout the 1990s. I don’t know where people get this “liberal savior” shit from.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m not sure what brand it is — don’t see any markings on it to indicate that. Here’s a picture of it:
Operating the lever on the barrel supposedly allows it to suck up ink through the tip, but it doesn’t work when I’ve tried that. I’m reluctant to send it anywhere because I’m afraid it’ll get lost. Guess I’ll have to wait until next time I visit a large city to have it looked at. Thanks!
schrodinger's cat
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Because she has been tough on the banksters, that’s why.
Scamp Dog
@PurpleGirl: Fahrney’s Pens is still in business, for all your fountain pen needs.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: You can replace the original with an ink converter, which you can buy from Amazon.
chopper
oh man, i forgot all about the SASQUATCH ISRAEL bit. that was hilarious! especially when the dude was all butthurt about SN! pointing out that he was an idiot, yet said he ‘still stood by what he wrote’.
what a moran.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes: Evil. Like all Rethuglican filth
@Cervantes: Jews who criticize Israel are automatically classified as “self-hating”, you know.
Cervantes
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
No, she stopped voting Republican after the Republicans finally took over the House in ’94 and she had a chance to see them actually wield power.
Do not ask me why it took her that long to see what had been obvious since the ’60s.
No idea what you/re talking about here, sorry.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Re “evil,” it’s a strong word but there are days when I am inclined to agree.
gene108
@HR Progressive:
The American form of government does not work well, when the Party out of power acts in bad faith like the Republicans have done.
Also you if you do not act in good faith with the opposition, even if they are acting on bad faith, you are being just as bad as them. It’s one of those situations, where even if the Republicans started the fight, you are neither helping matters by immediately jumping in nor are you making a good case for why you are better than them, rather than trying to work things out before escalating matters.
EDIT: Short version, Jimmy (Republicans) punches Johnny (Democrats). Johnny starts trying to clobber Jimmy immediately in retaliation. Jimmy was wrong. Johnny did not make the situation better.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Well, it’s not a Parker.
Does the lever feel “springy”? Is the ink sac intact? Have you confirmed that the nib is not gummed up or otherwise blocked?
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Another suggestion, dismantle it and wash it and then try to fill it with ink. It is possible that the old ink in it has dried and become gunky.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: The lever feels kinda creaky rather than springy. I have no idea how to take it apart to check the inc sac (it must come apart somehow, but there’s no obvious entry point). The nib doesn’t look gummed up, but it may be. I’m out of my depth with this pen, obviously!
Jeffro
@Belafon: Useless, yes. But the issue is sometimes useful for wingnut detection. Case in point: a couple years ago, a parent called me – an elementary school principal at the time – wanting to know why we weren’t doing more intensive cursive instruction.
Me: “Because it’s not a state or district requirement, and frankly, it’s not very necessary in this day and age.”
Parent: “But if you don’t teach cursive, how are my kids going to be able to read the Constitution? I guess that’s important anymore either?”
Me: “We have plenty of copies of the Constitution and study it quite thoroughly. They’re all printed in modern typeface, on paper – not parchment.”
Parent: “…”
Jeffro
Also, can I just say (a la Dave Barry): “Sasquatch Israel” is a pretty great name for an indie band!
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
If it belonged to your great-grandmother, can you estimate its age? Also, when you say it does not work … Does it take up any ink whatsoever? If it does take up at least some ink, then is the problem that it’s not writing? At all?
1. Would you rather have an intact keepsake or try to turn it into a working pen?
2. If the latter, then you can take some risks. Try to separate the parts by unscrewing the top away from the bottom — that is probably how they separate.
3. I bet John Hinderaker could figure it out. Socrates and them, too.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jeffro: Thinking, period. Something wingnuts do not ever do.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
My grandfather was very much into fountain pens, as they were something from his younger days. He got me bunch, when I was in high school.
From what I remember, you unscrew the bottom of the pen and stick the nib into the bottle of ink. There should be a mechanism to “suck” the ink into the body of the pen through the nib.
Here’s a youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=Jt-_q7RqmLE
catclub
@gene108:
Accurate version: Obama directs his Attorney General to investigate and prosecute any cases of illegal torture that occurred under the previous administration. This is considered Uncivil and Partisan behavior that poisons the well for cooperation (ha!) with the GOP.
gene108
@Betty Cracker: @schrodinger’s cat:
From what I recall, there are not a lot of moving parts in a fountain pen, i.e. the devices are not very complicated.
I think trying to clean it out would be a good idea.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: My mom thought it was about 100 years old when she gave it to me a few years ago, but she wasn’t sure. She personally knew about it from 1960-ish onwards and was under the impression back then that it was already an old pen.
It doesn’t suck up any ink at all and it fact makes a rattling noise if you shake it, which probably means there’s dried up crap in it. I’d rather hang onto it as a keepsake than accidentally break it, so I guess I’ll just put it back in the drawer until I can find a fountain pen refurbisher. Thanks, all, for your suggestions.
JustRuss
Just want to say that’s a marvelous bit of writing. Wish it wasn’t so true, I’m getting tired of having so much damn fruit.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Could mean that. Could mean the spring or ink sac has dislodged or broken, and parts are rattling about.
Yes, if it is a hundred years old, it could be somewhat fragile.
There aren’t good refurbishing options in Florida as far as I know. You could ship it insured to New York. Assuming they can deal with it, they’d send you an estimate in the mail. You’d pay them; and four weeks later you’d have it back.
In any event, good luck.
[Actually, I think there is a Montblanc store in Tampa. If the pen happens to be a Montblanc — possible as they’ve been making pens for nearly a century — they might recognize it and be willing to look at it for you. On the other hand, even if it is a Montblanc, given its age, they might just refuse to work on it.]
Not Adding Much to the Community
@raven: Quality of handwriting aside, it was probably printed because that’s how they taught it in Navy Basic Training (at least when I was in, circa 1985). When you wrote a log entry in Boot, it had to be meticulously printed (there were instructions on how to draw each letter). The point being, of course, to teach recruits to print everything they wrote for maximum legibility. Cursive was reserved for my signature, which degenerated into a quick scrawl by the time I signed a billion fucking documents after enlistment.
MikeJake
Sasquatch Israel should be a tag.
Mnemosyne
@Belafon:
Wait, seriously? You haven’t written a note on a Post-It or signed a birthday card since 1984? Or do you print everything if you need to write something down?
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: That’s what I took it to mean. I haven’t used cursive since sixth grade either, aside from my signature, which is an illegible — though artistic! — scrawl. I always print.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
That’s so weird to me. It takes longer to print. I have terrible handwriting, but I write in cursive because it’s faster.
Paul in KY
@Belafon: I use cursive whenever I write a letter or thank you card to someone.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Check the kerning on that font, please.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: It takes longer for me to write in cursive than to print. I can print quickly and legibly. Don’t know if it’s just practice or preference.
SFAW
@gene108:
Well, if Jimmy says “Gee, if’n I take a whack at Johnny, he’s a-gonna hit back, and he hits hard, and it hurts! Maybe I shouldn’t punch him in the first place,” then maybe it did make the situation better.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Me, too. Plus my cursive is so-so, at best, so if I want to read my notes later, printing is the way to go (for me).
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Still weird to me. Are you left-handed or right-handed?
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: Ambidextrous but mostly write with my right.
Mike G
There should be a “Sasquatch Israel” tag for batshit-paranoid rightard criticism of things that don’t exist.
http://www.unhaggle.com/Lexus-Canada/
Once I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get 4 emails with the same comment. Is there any approach you may remove me from that service? Thanks!