On the whole of TEH INTERNETS, is there anyone who is more consistently stupid than Sal Cordova? January 31, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Science, wingnuts.1 comment so far
Don’t answer too quickly: I’m really serious. I don’t think Jonah Goldberg, FtK, or even K Lo can compete. What say my readers?
(I offer as evidence his most recent posts: A, B, C, D)
[Oh, and Sal: I appreciate that you approve of my description of the flood. Now would be a good time for you to stop plagiarizing my description of it. Kisses! -EB]
Wall Street Logic: January 31, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in economics, News and politics.add a comment
Taking billions in taxpayer money to bail Wall Street out for its terrible, destructive choices: Capitalism.
Telling failing banks that they can’t use that money to provide huge bonuses for failure while taxpayers and shareholders suffer? Socialism.
I vote we bring back the stockades for these people. Given their crimes, I don’t feel it would be either cruel or unusual.
Steele in as RNC Chair January 30, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, race, wingnuts.add a comment
I guess the GOP should can be proud that they picked an African American man instead of Katon Dawson, a man who admits that his opposition to desegregation started his political career. On the other hand, it took them multiple ballots and Blackwell dropping out to get there, and then it was still a close thing.
So the good news for the Republicans is they managed to avoid picking a candidate who would have (rightly) made them look like bigoted idiots. The bad news is that the barely managed to do that.
Not that this fixes the massive problems that the GOP has with black and latino voters–and with basically everyone but rich straight white men, for that matter. But they have managed to avoid being the subject of national mockery on this point, even if they did make their new chair have to desperately defend himself against the charge of being a (gasp) moderate:
“I’m proud to say I’m a conservative, have been, always will be,” Steele told CNN earlier this month. “So this notion that I’m a moderate is slightly overblown, and quite frankly a lie.”
So there’s no fear that anyone sane will be rising to power in the GOP any time soon: moderates continue to flee its ranks, and wingnuts continue to consolidate what power still remains.
No wonder the GOP is hoping we have another depression: it’s their only forseeable way back into power at this point.
Superbowl Prediction January 30, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, sports.4 comments
Steelers 23-17.
…which, oddly, is the prediction I heard Jay Mariotti make, even as I was in the process of finishing this post.
My Superbowl plan is to have a couple friends over, and eat food prepared with green chile. What’s yours?
What the hell was PETA doing giving Michael Vick “tests” anyway? January 30, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Animal Rights, bigotry, News and politics, PETA.2 comments
Apparently, shortly after Michael Vick pled guilty to charges related to his dog-fighting ring, he responded to a PETA test.
Now, I’m not interested in what Vick said, given that it’s hard to imagine that everyone involved wasn’t doing this for their own reasons (in Vick’s case, salvaging something of his career and public image; in PETA’s case, publicity for PETA). What does interest me is why the hell PETA is given respect on this or any other issue. Simply put, they have no credibility. Real animal rights activists think PETA are scumbags, as does anyone with even a cursory knowledge of their positions.
PETA is a misogynist, anti-animal group. They argued that all of Vick’s dogs should be destroyed (yes, that’s these dogs) and even that pit bull breed should be eliminated. PETA’s version of animal rights is absolutely sick. If you love animals, PETA is your enemy.
I can think of no group less qualified to say if Vick has learned his lesson than PETA. They responded to Vick’s revolting actions by being revolting themselves. They masquerade as a reasonable animal rights group, while pursuing an evil, anti-animal, anti-woman, anti-human agenda.
Having them give Vick such a test, and trying to get them to endorse a Vick PSA about animal cruelty is bad enough. And even worse, now they have the nerve to demand Vick be tested for mental disorders, since they have declared themselves the arbiters of both sanity and animal welfare.
PETA should have no say in Vick’s case. They should not be given a public forum. The only appropriate response to them is scorn.
NOTE: Michael Vick’s actions were beyond abhorrent. I wish he’d been given a harsher sentence, and if he spent the rest of his life cutting animal rights PSAs, it would not be nearly enough to atone for his crimes. But for PETA to present itself as the arbiter of his fate (and even more for them to claim some special knowledge of the psychology of dog fighting) is so overwhelmingly disgusting as to beggar belief. I honestly feel sick.
The good people at PETA should go fuck themselves, and leave animal welfare to the people who actually care about it.
Obama forces abortion on white women, says political cartoonO January 29, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, reproductive rights, wingnuts.20 comments
Editorial cartoon depicts Obama forcing a white woman to have an abortion
Let’s see: racist, sexist, anti-choice, and makes light of torture. That’s pretty impressive for one cartoon.
[h/t]
Arguing about reproductive rights January 28, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in bigotry, Morality, reproductive rights, wingnuts.25 comments
Over at the (soon to be renamed?) United States of Jamerica, Jamelle and beeveedee have been putting forward good-faith arguments about abortion, and while there has been some legitimate discussion, they’ve also had more than their share of trolls arguing in bad faith. In one thread, I made the rookie mistake of feeding the trolls.
I’m bringing this to your attention for two reasons: first, if you’re reading this blog, you should really also be reading Jamerica, and also to highlight this comment (emphasis mine):
Dude, an early first trimester abortion is hardly an unrecognizable blog of cells. This may help you sleep at night, but at 13 weeks, that creature looks very very human. You’re welcome to your beliefs as far as being pro choice, and certainly some even celebrate the barbarism that is abortion, but don’t let yourself believe that an early 2nd trimester abortion is just a blob, it’s a fairly well differentiated developing body of a creature of the species homo sapiens.
It is of course, unintentionally telling that anti-choicers are so concerned about when a fetus appears to be human, and yet can’t be bothered to muster up any concern for the women who they would force to give birth. Their argument goes that any sperm + egg (and this is a generous interpretation on my part) is a human life, and therefore women should be required to remain pregnant against their wills. They will happily suggest that aborted fetuses are murdered women, as one of the commenters does, while showing from their every argument their complete disdain for adolescent and adult women who, in their view, are far less valuable than the developing fetus inside them.
It’s this position, along with so many anti-choicers contempt for family planning, that gives lie to the idea that most anti-choice activists* are interested in protecting human life, not controlling women’s bodies.
*I’m talking about the hard-core blog trolls and “Concerned Women”/”Focus on the Fetus” types, not your average person who hears horror stories about late-term abortions and gets creeped out.
How to write a wingnut post January 26, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, wingnuts.add a comment
1) Write a post which makes no claim, but clearly implies or endorses one. Use of the words “heh” and “indeed” are optional.
2) Wait until someone with critical thinking skills calls you on it.
3) Update your post claiming you’ve been misunderstood. Resolutely refuse to clarify what you meant.
Congratulations. You are now Ann Althouse a wingnut blogger! Keep it up and you’ll no doubt find a home at a (relatively) prominent wingnut blog or thinktank.
Bye bye, Bill January 26, 2009
Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics, wingnuts.add a comment
William Kristol’s latest column in the NYT, is, as you would expect, useless drivel from the man who, in his eagerness to defend the disasters of the Bush administration, has been wrong about everything. His column is generally forgetable, where he both suggests President Obama’s inauguration marks the end of a conservative era stretching back to 1980, and yet also suggests Obama’s speech is “implicitly conservative,” a conclusion at which he arrives by blindly claiming that, against all evidence, it is conservatives who wish to protect the founding documents of the country and who believe in personal responsibility. After eight years of Bush, a more reasonable person might have been ashamed to peddle such bullshit. But not Bill Kristol.
So why am I bothering with Kristol’s latest, predictable and entirely unremarkable, column?
This is William Kristol’s last column.
No doubt the Times will muck this up by hiring someone almost as embarrassing as Kristol to replace him. But unless they’re hoping to hire Jonah Goldberg, they’d be hard pressed to do worse.
Buh-bye, Bill! Enjoy wingnut welfare. I’m sure the Discovery Institute and the Heritage Foundation still have openings.
