Right to not be offended - Smeared!

Now this has to be the most succinct expression of why there is no such thing as "offensive" material. Phillip Pullman wrote a book entitled The Good Man Jesus and Scoundrel Christ. When asked if, for example, Christians might be offended by the title, here is Pullmans' reply, in totality:

Yes.

It was a shocking thing to say, and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended.

Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if they open it and read it, they don’t have to like it. And if you read it and dislike it, you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write to me — You can complain about it. You can write to the publisher. You can write to the paper. You can write your own book.

You can do all those things, but there your rights stop.

No one has the right to stop me from writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, or sold, or bought, or read.

And that’s all I have to say on that subject.

The video is here:

The Progressives tendency to shoot themselves in the head.

This is a great essay that speaks to the great danger that the Left's lack of cohesion can lead to its downfall, just as the Left's abandonment of Carter in the 70s led to Ronald Reagan (and you thought Bush was bad).

We on the left have bad cohesion, a horrible media presence dictated by the Republicans, and a general lack of genuine passion. Its amazing that we won anything in the last election cycles! But we can lose just as quickly, namely in the upcoming House elections.

Do I sound angry?

I am really angry. And it is things like this that really get me going.

Mark Thoma is an economist and one of the best out there. And the article linked to above pisses me off. Really, Obama, this is your Waterloo. It's not the stupid fucking republican assholes. Really, all of them are irrelevant in their crapulence. After 8 years of "GW", Obama turns out to not be the Democrat that was needed for the job. In fact, I cannot think of any that would be the Democrat for the job. Bunch of spineless ignorami.

And Tim Geithner, where the fuck are you? You are bought and sold, that's where. Fuck you and the golden parachute you will get when your ass is canned or Obama is run out on the rails. As Thoma remarks, this is your baby now. I hope you choke on it.

Damn. Now I am depressed. Pikers.

*DEEP SIGH* Obama, you have nary a year to wake up and smell reality. Clear the mushy, middle of the road bullshit out from between your ears and DO something.

Please?

Geek review of Palin's book

Is here. An excerpt:

To my chagrin it didn't start out well. I thought well at some point this has to get better. But guess what it doesn't! There's nothing at all about dex rolls, dps builds, searching for traps, sneak attacks, assassins, +4 daggers or anything!

Heh.

What Gin and Tacos said

The Intertubes are filled with sites that have not had my eyeballs grace its home page. So I love it when I come across a site (a blog no less) that is interesting and funny while also being thoughtful.

Gin and Tacos is my new favorite friend. I am especially enamored with his posts on Ayn Rand whose banality and utter horseshit shoveling deserves all the epitaphs one can muster. Rand's writing makes me want to rip my cerebral cortex out and embrace the bliss of only having autonomic nervous system function. So I put Atlas Shrugged down, into a fire, after having two German Shepherds eat it and then burning the offal. And yes, its offal.

Did I mention that I do not like Ayn Rand?

A quote from a post:

Two new biographies of [Ayn] Rand have been released, Goddess of the Market by Jennifer Burns and Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne Heller. Both are ably parsed in this outstanding review by Johann Hari. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. In short, the biographers provide all of the evidence I’d ever need to support the hypothesis that Rand was Ted Bundy with a bigger vocabulary and enough self control to avoid crossing the line into serial killer territory herself.

I ain't paying for your boner any longer!

Digby makes exactly the right analogous argument against the Stupak coat hanger amendment to the House health care bill: if you won't pay for my partner's abortion, I ain't paying for your boner! So there.

My new Fave Band: Katsen

A new semi-regular feature where I link to new bands and the singles that move me.

The maiden voyage band is Katsen. 80s synth pop with heavy percussion and lots of melodic synths.

Here is a single off of their latest called Let's Build A City
And here is a cover of the Pixie's Cactus (my favorite off of Surfer Rosa, in my estimation the BEST album from Alternative music in its scope and influence). Of course, Katsen's version falls well short of The Pixies but you gotta give them an E for effort.

You can stream the album from Lala.

Obama and Veteran's Day - why I voted for him

Those more cynical then myself (and if you know me, I am pretty damn cynical), might think that Obama's campaign rhetoric of hope and change was merely trifling, false promises. But after reading this, I remember now why I voted for the man.

Obama has been criticized by Republicans for taking too long on Afghanistan and for not being duly hawkish on Iraq. But they forget that only someone who knows that the only way to honor the dead is to minimize how many soldiers die should make the decision to send others to die. And soldiers should only be sacrificed while reaching lofty goals worthy of the sacrifice in the first. Obama understands this: he bears the burden of all those soldier's death, no matter how "noble" one may thing the death is.

I myself might add: death knows no nobility. Even when done as a sacrifice, someone is still gone from the living. I am reminded of a quote from Full Metal Jacket in one of the voice overs from Joker: "The dead only know one thing. It is better to be alive." I do not think this diminishes the sacrifice. I just wonder if, even given the sacrifice, we would be better off that the author's friend, and veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, might have not died as they did at all...

Thanks to TPM.

Comments

I have seen the first spamming of the comments so I am going to try measures to stop it, including captcha and moderating them. So everyone can be assured that the next time they do not comment on one of my posts, they can.

Long time, no see.

Yeah, I am still alive. Obama is still president (though not for lack of threatening). And other clever things I might say.

I am going to start an experiment of pushing people to my blog from Facebook. Heh, Ben A Ricker, super-genius.

It is a new day

Change has come:

When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right. What's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy.

Thanks to TPM.

Pie.

I like Pie. It has come.

One reason I voted for Obama

Very early in the campaign (I think the primary, but cannot be sure), I heard that some talking head asked Obama what he would do if he became president. His answer? The first thing he would do would be to reverse every Bush change he could by Executive Order. And as Hilzoy notes, that is the first thing that Obama will do.

Wow, Obama's victory was a landmark election.

Taxonomy of Philosophy

Here is an attempt at creating a taxonomy for academic philosophy (VERY analytic). David Chalmers explains some of the thought behind it. It has (obvious) areas that are stronger then others (Chalmers is heavy into philosophy of mind, so that area is much more detailed).

Fox goes to Deal before election ended?

I was in a bar with friends being appalled by the Rethuglican crowds booing over McCain who a day late, dollar short decides to be the man he once was...anyway, the channel jockey went to channel 30 here in STL (the Fox affiliate) around 10pm and lo and behold: it was Deal or No Deal! I about died laughing at the jackassery: did Fox "News" really just end for Deal or No Deal right about when the race was called for Obama?! Hah!

We need a better press corp.

Yes We Can!

Wow.

RSS This Site

If you really want to watch the polling landscape like I do, this is the place to fire up in the RSS reader every day. It shows Obama with 346.5 Electoral votes, well over the 270 mark needed for election. On the one hand, I really want that vote to come out that way. But on the other, no matter how the elections ends, I am fascinated to watch how the polls move compared to the final vote tally on 11/4. How good are we are polling?

Change is Coming

You can say what you want about who is the best candidate for president, but one thing, to me, is certain: Obama is the candidate of change. No one can reasonably hold, due to a plethora of empirical evidence, that McCain will not closely follow Bush's policies. This is, I think, central question: do you think that we need a change of leadership in the US from GW. I think the answer will come out as voters will want change and that this is the central reason Obama will win this election.

Here is some evidence that it is a slam dunk.

David Sedaris on The Undecideds

David Sedaris: the funniest long-form humorist alive (the funniest short-form humorist is the genius behind Fafblog). And here is his take on undecided voters:

I don’t know that it was always this way, but, for as long as I can remember, just as we move into the final weeks of the Presidential campaign the focus shifts to the undecided voters. “Who are they?” the news anchors ask. “And how might they determine the outcome of this election?”

Then you’ll see this man or woman— someone, I always think, who looks very happy to be on TV. “Well, Charlie,” they say, “I’ve gone back and forth on the issues and whatnot, but I just can’t seem to make up my mind!” Some insist that there’s very little difference between candidate A and candidate B. Others claim that they’re with A on defense and health care but are leaning toward B when it comes to the economy.

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

Thanks to Jender for the link.

Whaaasup!

A really funny return by the "Whaaaasup?" guys.