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.