From flackette:
“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting”
Alas, it seems that the Kindle has backed up my colon!
Category: religion and politics
Church and State should be separate in the body politic, but never in individuals.
Tire swinger
Reading the comment rage on this article makes me smile. Michael Scherer’s career strategy is not a good one. But a piece of political vocabulary passed me by. 🙁
“What’s wrong, Mikey? The White House won’t provide you with a tire swing, like Uncle John did?”
—donovong comments on Swampland
and
“DougJ, I think the simpler explanation is that Michael Scherer is a ‘Tire Swinger,’ and he’s still pissed that Obama rumbled his man McCain in the election.
“Look back at Scherer’s loveletters to McCain during the 2008 campaign season, and you’ll start to see a pattern of resentment against the “new guy” reformer that Obama was perceived as.”
—cfaller comments on Balloon Juice
Does anyone know what this means? It probably has something to do with this:
In any case, it’s an amusing image, even if I don’t understand how it got from there to here.
Continue reading about Rush-Obama game theory after the jump
The Internet is for Porn
This summary of “Red Light States: Who buys adult entertainment” is too good not to share.
One wonders if AT&T and Comcast should not be lobbying more sexual repression.
BTW, the title of this article comes from this Avenue Q mashup:
How much for that Mary Jane?
A friend sent out this article about legalizing (and taxing) pot in California.
I must confess, that I’ve never smoked a joint in my life. It’s strange because I used to steal nitrous tanks in college and I have inhaled—one cannot live in San Francisco and not inhale that on a daily basis. I went through half my life confusing the smell of patchouli and pot and I needed a friend to explain to me that chronic was a type of weed. My only claim to fame is one year we lost a lot of cases in high school debate running a legalize marijuana plan.
So it is not surprising I had to ask a friend how much an ounce would cost. The answer is between $20-$50 an eighth. This puts the $50 an ounce tax at about a 13% tax.
Continue reading about Comparing MJ to tobacco and other state issues after the jump
Dustbin of history
“Couldn’t care less about George Bush, he’s just a gutless spoiled brat asswipe that belongs in the dustbin of history. A Wiki entry a hundred years from now beginning with ‘GW Bush elected 43rd president of the United States. WTF were they thinking?’”
—Tsulagi on Balloon Juice
I found this quote amusing.
One interesting thing I’m noticing from that thread is that I can now agree with the points both sides are making even though I reserve my opinion on the matter. That’s how I used to be feel about politics back in the 80’s and early 90’s.
Even though my opinions were wrong then, it’s nice to feel that being wrong is an option.
After all, we learn by being wrong.
The next one against the wall
One of the most enjoying things is reading the comments to the columnist Tom Friedman in the Times. As many of you, that one-man libertarian junket is a pet peeve of mine. But recently he’s been taking a lashing on the blogs and not an column goes by where the top rated comments mention his stupid views on the Iraq War and his World-Is-Flat-But-Wealth-Never-Is for years now. They’ve figured him out and they won’t let go. Recently, I was sent this humorous takedown from the co-author of Get Your War On.
Stick a fork in Freidman, because he’s done.
So when I read this shit from MoDo that begins:
On 9/11, President Bush learned of disaster while reading “The Pet Goat” to grade-school kids. On Tuesday, President Obama escaped from disaster by reading “The Moon Over Star” to grade-school kids.
(Yes, that’s right. This New Yorker equating the murder of 3000 innocents in her city and subsequent use of it for political partisanship and a war which shredded the constitution, killed hundreds of thousands, and bankrupted the country with a few nominees who were delinquent on taxes. Believe it or not, this is the high point of the article.)
All I have to say is, “Fuck you. You’re next.”
Shinseki appointed head of the V.A.
Eric Shinseki, a former chief of staff of the Army, Japanese-American and first Asian American four-star general, Hawaiian and wounded Vietnam Veteran, has been appointed to head the Veterans’ Administration on National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
Here is what he said to Congress just before the Iraq War:
Sen. CARL LEVIN (D), Michigan: General Shinseki, could you give us some idea as to the magnitude of the Army’s force requirement for an occupation of Iraq, following a successful completion of the war?
Gen. ERIC SHINSEKI, Army Chief of Staff, ’98-’03: In specific numbers, I would have to rely on combatant commanders’ exact requirements, but I think–
Sen. CARL LEVIN: How about a range?
Gen. ERIC SHINSEKI: I would say that what’s been mobilized to this point, something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground force presence.
…
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, Deputy Secretary of Defense: It’s hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army. Hard to imagine.
THOMAS WHITE: All of us in the Army felt just the opposite, that there was a long history of that being absolutely true, that the defeat of the Iraqi military would be a relatively straightforward operation of fairly short duration, but that the securing of the peace and the security of a country of 25 million people spread out over an enormous geographic area would be a tremendous challenge that would take a lot of people, a lot of labor, to be done right.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ: In short, we don’t know what the requirement will be, but we can say with reasonable confidence that the notion of hundreds of thousands of American troops is way off the mark.
It wasn’t about the war, it was about the peace. And Eric Shinseki was right.
Heavenly bound, earthly good
Quote from the comments on an article on pro-Gay backlash on Proposition 8:
“Some people are so heavenly bound, they’re no earthly good.”
Continue reading about Clarifying a previous article after the jump
Elane Photography
A friend of mine, a colleague and excellent photographer who happens to be a defense-of-marriage person posted a status update that erupted into a firestorm of comments on Facebook. His claim was that people like me are “intolerant” of his beliefs.
To those people, I might say disagreement is not intolerance. I’m not asking you to change your beliefs, I only hope that you be tolerant to others theirs. As for the bible, it says many things about marriage, some of which you’d be hard pressed to defend now. Some of “the other side,” you know, love us some scripture too. 😉
But more interesting than that rehash would be the part I find fascinating. In the course of the comments he brought up an interesting case that apparently has been making the rounds:
A same sex couple in Albuquerque asked a photographer, Elaine Huguenin, to shoot their commitment ceremony. The photographer declined, saying her Christian beliefs prevented her from sanctioning same-sex unions. The couple sued, and the New Mexico Human Rights Commission found the photographer guilty of discrimination. It ordered her to pay the lesbian couple’s legal fees ($6,600). The photographer is appealing.
Hmm, at first blush, I side with the photographer. But then a little thought breaks it all apart.
Continue reading about The first amendment defense after the jump
Voting in America
California is the swingiest of swing states. In recent memory, two Republican presidents were governors here. Now it is bluer than the balls of all those fratboys voting for Sarah Palin. Even though the Presidential election in this state is a foreground conclusion, you still get a lot of mail
Election mailers
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach, San Francisco, California
Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, Canon 500D diopter
1/80sec @ f/2.8, iso 360, 28mm (28mm)
Especially egregious is the phone book the city of SF gave me. Not that the California ballot measures were that thin either. Luckily, I had a stomach flu this morning, so I had time to read and research this stuff.
Election Packet
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach, San Francisco, California
Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S, Canon 500D diopter
1/80sec @ f/2.8, iso 320, 32mm (32mm)
There was no line at my polling place. It was next to Trader Joe’s.
My polling place
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach, San Francisco, California
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1
1/200sec @ f/4, iso 80, 6.3mm (28mm)
Yes, I voted for “That One.”
Yes, I’m voting for “That One.”
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach, San Francisco, California
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1
1/30sec @ f/2.8, iso 80, 6.3mm (28mm)
After I scanned in my ballots, I grabbed an “I Voted!” sticker. At the street corner an old lady noticed me holding it and thanked me.
I’ve never been more proud to be living in America.