Big Zombie Apocalypse 2013

250 Grand Is Still Big Money Anywhere

Good on Lawyers, Guns & Money for spotlighting this as the year ends: the truth that no matter where you live in the United States, $250,000 is a buttload of income and you are sure as shit fucking rich.  In the midst of all the political nonsense regarding the struggle to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and continue to redistribute the wealth upwards, the political and media establishment are doing their damnedest to promulgate the big, big lie that an income of $250,000 is somehow middle class.  That is pure, farm-raised bullshit.  The median income is $26,000 and the median household income is $49,000.  250 grand is a boatload of income, and the L,G&M crew deserve kudos for helping to spread that uncomfortable little fact against the wishes of the ruling class and their well-paid servants.  If you make that kind of money and don't have the good sense to understand how your income compares to that of a couple of hundred million working Americans, well, don't forget to go fuck yourself on your way to the suicide booth.

Runaway Cat

Gay Marriage In Maine

Marriage, on the whole, is a pretty ugly, archaic institution that is usually not contemplated too deeply by the folks who dream of marriage, weddings, happiness, companionship, family, and all that other bullshit.  I mean where's the fun in remembering you or your beloved's traditional role as property in a marriage agreement?  Slavery's only fun in play behind closed doors between two or more consenting adults if you are into that sort of kink.  On the other hand, modern marriage is an important guarantor of legal rights and has other real benefits both explicit and implicit.  The fact that teh gays in the United States cannot choose to enter into a legally-recognized marriage in every state is a pointless and petty discrimination and vindictive cruelty against one of reactionary America's arch-enemies, so when individual states do the right thing and make gay marriage legal, I am way more psyched than I know I should be.  It is a small but so very flamboyant bit of progress toward a just and free society.  Plus, now that we have the gay marriage, we can all look forward to the wonderful and very profitable new frontier of gay divorce.

Al Sharpton Can Fix The NRA

Rev. Al Sharpton can do a great thing for America: he can fix the NRA.  Quite simply, he should make NRA membership the biggest focus of his grass roots organizing and community activism.  Through his excellent and entertaining television show and National Action Network, Rev. Al can promote the benefits of NRA membership by minorities and urban residents, groups who are wildly underrepresented in the NRA in 2013.  Those benefits will be to change the focus of the NRA itself.  If the NRA's membership be doubled or tripled with an influx of non-white members, the organization could be made into a true advocate for gun safety and for the Second Amendment.  That is not an easy task, but it is not complicated.  With the NRA neutralized as a domestic terrorist organization and morphed into a grassroots advocacy group, the political dynamic of guns and race in America can be changed.  Facing up to our history is an integral part of saving ourselves from senseless gun murder.

Political Song for Joe Arpaio to Sing

One Year Ago Today

obama-clinton beats romney-coburn?

jesus, robert reich, or as i used to call him when he was on pbs, the half-pint economist, has been quite compelling on some of the economic and social developments recently, especially around the occupy movement and shit, but gods frakking damn, he has a heinous clinton-philia blind spot.  about the only way you could find a bigger asshole than the senator from citibank joe biden to put in the veep spot would be to add a fucking clinton.  why not skip the clinton by marriage and go whole hog and put that cocksucker bill in there?  we don't give a fuck about the constitution around here anymore, so let's rock! 

virag's movie reviews: captain america (2011)

i was surprised how much tommy lee jones was in the movie.  otherwise, i didn't see the point; a 10-minute animated webisode thing would have done just as well as a promo for the next movie with robert downey jr. and all the rest of those idiots in it.

Higgs and Dawkins

I certainly get that Peter Higgs might not get Richard Dawkins' enthusiasm for bashing fundies, atmo.  Obviously, Dawkins is a skilled media personality and quite a bit younger than Higgs; Higgs probably is not frisky enough to go around looking for arguments the way Dawkins does, but I can't help but think that Higgs would have been better off keeping his criticism of Dawkins to himself or perhaps finding a better way to express it.  Both scientists should be on the same side and not be dumb enough to fall into the divide-and-conquer trap.

The General Knows Crapo

The General knows The Bishop.  I'm sure those two could do a hell of job leading a gladiator party at Larry Craig's place.

Even Thatcher Could Have Been Worse

It's pretty easy to believe that the vile, wrinkly cunt Margaret Thatcher was just about as nasty as any one human being has ever been and was as evil and destructive a political figure as blighted the post-war western world; she was a reprehensible, reactionary bitch who did everything possible to destroy British society, and it could not have been much worse.  The Guardian begs to differ.  The wide-ranging Tory plans to obliterate the British health and social welfare infrastructure is very much like what Clinton and then retard-Bush wanted to do as far as privatizing Social Security in the United States, though it is true the Limeys wanted to a shitload more all at once.  (Hello, Barack Obama.)  It is always the same: whatever changes benefit the majority must be won with blood and constantly defended against the power of the establishment.

Let Us Give Thanks For The Jets

Their sublime ghastliness and their multifaceted absurdity should comfort all of us during these difficult times.

Come On, Pilgrims

One Year Ago Today

mekons in the wild

i ran across a pretty neat little mekons thing.  it's always super cool to see the mekons out there. 

crumble cake

coming soon, to a nation near you, this kind of story will start to dissolve our society, and no amount of crappy no-name carbon bike shit will be able to arrest the bloody shitpile at the border.  depressed wages and desperate standards of living will not be mollified quickly once the problems spill out into the open, and only some sort of dangerous and disruptive radical realignment will ease the pressure.

mittens ruins 2012 in iowa?

if mittens wins iowa and then romps in new hampshire, he could ruin the entertainment quotient for the year on the third day.  we get much more gut busting fun if paul and santorum and the rest of the scuzzballs stick around for a while.

Digby & Son Unpack The Gun Culture Or Hullabaloo Versus The Guntards

Over on Hullabaloo, David Atkins does a nice job unpacking guntard culture and the deep-seated violence that surrounds race relations in America.  Our willful misunderstanding of the Second Amendment meshes well with entrenched racial fears to make the United States a uniquely paranoid and violent culture.  The guns make the killing way easy for every nut, hot-head, and guntard; without the guns the violence would not be anything close to as deadly.  Without the threat of deadly violence, the escalation of the police state would be seen for the atrocity it is.  Facing the gun violence will also help us face the racial component the guntard culture.  The 21st century is long past time for America to talk honestly about the reasons behind the violent white paranoia surrounding race, as Atkins discusses.  First remove the guns, then face the history and causes of the fear.  Without the first step, the second will not be possible.  Of course, that will mean that the culture itself is in danger of changing for the better; a lessening of rural white hatred toward the non-white Americans might allow a forging of alliances between the middle- and lower-class citizens of all races whose futures are united in every way, and who are only separated by the very convenient racial animus which makes white Americans in the lower classes so easily to manipulate against their immediate economic and social interests.  That wonderful possibility is a danger to the establishment, so don't look for much progress, or fewer guns, or less violence in American anytime soon.

Obama's Betrayal Should Not Be A Surprise

When Obama sells out his lower- and middle-class followers, it should not be any sort of surprise.  Obama, like Clinton, is a rock-ribbed right-wing ideologue, and he wants to be the President to finally achieve the dream of the right wing and cut New Deal entitlement programs so popular with and so helpful to the American people.  By law, Social Security cannot add to the budget deficit or national debt; making it a part of any budget negotiations is a plan by both Democrats and Republicans to help further the radical, hard-right social agenda preferred by Koch-Suckers and Pete Peterson and the rest of the cretinous Ruling Class.  The insane and unsustainable growth in health care costs were not addressed by Obama's health insurance reform plan.  In order to truly address that very real problem, the President and the nation as a whole would need to do what every single other decent country on earth has done and institute some legitimate form of national health care and in the process castrate the for-profit health care and health insurance industries.  That is obviously not going to happen; one prominent reason is that Obama and his administration are true conservatives, and the Oligarchy has no interest in reversing the 40 year tradition in the United States of unprecedented redistribution of wealth upward.  For now, fiscal and budgetary policies will continue to follow the right-wing outline with the President and the Democrats advocating for the traditional conservative agenda while the Republican teabaggers agitate for the most radical reactionary positions; in the United States the political middle is somewhere between hard-right and batshit crazy.

So Much For 12 Days

We suck so much worse than Australia, and we should be ashamed.  That fucking place is was a Limey penal colony for gods's sakes.  It's been more than two weeks, and while the political establishment in Washington sulks in order to protect the ostentatious privilege of the Oligarchs, the gun deaths proceed apace.  How many dead in these 15 days?  Hundreds.  Hundreds of Americans killed with guns who would probably be alive today if not for the gun.  America needs action, action to solve the problem by removing the guns, action which we will not get because America is a manifestly diseased and evil, violent culture.  There is far too much rank stupidity out there, with guntards puking up the lies they've been fed by their immoral puppetmasters, men who profit lavishly from domestic terrorism and murder.  The United States is not a strong enough society to stand up to their oppressors; the people do not understand the power and meaning of the Constitution; the citizens are too scared, too small, too cowardly to demand the right of liberty of a life free from oppression and violence.  Our deluded brothers and sisters would rather worship the tool of their own oppression than understand that the threat of violence destroy liberty.  Until we become better, smarter, saner, and braver people in the aggregate and understand the destructive role the plethora of guns plays in our lives, we will suffer and die needlessly and continue to worship the police state that has no interest in keeping us safe from senseless death at the hands of another American with a gun. 

One Year Ago Today

paging senator warren

watching scott brown lose his shit trying to beat elizabeth warren is going to be all kinds of good fun. 

caroline heldman hearts big ed shultz after all

on caroline heldman's site, i commented:

if you google ‘caroline heldman msnbc’ this post is right up there near the top. considering that you have been appearing with big ed quite regularly since you throat-punched bill o’reilly on his detestable o’reilly factor show a couple of weeks ago, you may want to update this post with something ambiguous about how big ed should probably have kept his show after all.

her embrace of big ed is interesting considering her blog post from may that said msnbc should fire ed schultz.   i guess she really really likes being on the tee vee, and o'reilly probably isn't going to have her back any time soon.

get this man a helicopter

atrios's helicopter schtick is more than just a joke.  his point is a good one: the money was printed and given out freely but only to a small group of americans.  the group, as it turns out, that caused much of the economic collapse in the first place.  had each american been given that $20,000 bill to spend as he or she saw fit, the benefits to the economy would have been much greater than the ones we got by keeping all the free money in the hands of the bankster assholes.

Homestyle

IRD Semi Stroker

I like original thinking, and I would have enjoyed having a chance to ride an IRD Semi Stroker in its natural environment and in its place in time.  IRD was thinking outside the standard mountain bike box for sure, and before the full-suspension stuff congealed, a weird little bike could pretend to have a niche.

Cocktails With Crapo

Why isn't this a bigger story?  Was he drinking at a gay bar with some closet-case Republican like Karl Rove, so it has to get buried?  Or maybe he was out getting drunk and diapered with pervert Senator David Vitter?  I don't really care about the DUI; it's just an unbelievably stupid mistake for a privileged Senator that luckily for everyone didn't involve a serious or deadly injury.  The bullshit, the hypocrisy, the inane fundamentalism though, that shit bothers me.  This asshole Crapo is a fucking stupid drunk.  He's also a liar, who pretends he's a Mormon-Jesus fearing true believer.  That should be an outrage to his people back in Idaho if they actually care about their purported religious morals and shit.  The assholes that run as holy rollers pretend they are better than other normal people, and when they are outed as sanctimonious hypocrites, they should be held to their stupid, self-described standard and run out of town.  After a bunch of these weasel bastards lose their stripes, well, just maybe fewer of our elected folks will pretend to follow the most idiotic of personal moral proscriptions, and the society will take a lame, baby-step forward. 

Way To Go Chicago

Thank you fucking jesus and the NRA!  Our violent, ignorant society is so much nicer with guns.  Imagine how long it would take to hit 500 homicides without guns!  It might be 10 years!  That would fucking suck!  No, wait, no it wouldn't.  It would be excellent. 

Markey's Senate Play

Is Markey trying to clear the field?  That would probably be a good thing for Markey and for the Democrats.  Markey himself is probably lighting a fucking candle to do his best to get a primary on the Republican side; that would be a great chance to watch all-American fuckhead Scott Brown get savaged and weaken Markey's eventual opponent.  I'm not sure he's going to be that lucky, but it is Massachusetts, so the Dems fucking this up should not be tolerated. 

Occupy A Target On Your Back

Another entry into the no shit file.  The occupy movement was a target of Obama's government from the very beginning.  Any true populist movement would be a huge danger to the ruling class.  Unlike the hilariously astroturfed and Koch-sucking Teabaggers, who were simply the pathetic useful idiots of the American Oligarchy, the Occupy Movement presented a legitimate alternative to the status quo in 2012 America, and as such, that movement became an enemy of the political establishment.  Had real, dynamic leaders properly grown and lead the movement beyond its grass-roots support, they clearly would have been targets for assassination.  The establishment's early efforts effectively derailed the movement, and it neutralized popular media coverage obviating the need for a more focused plan of government violence.  Since Occupy was allowed to whither on its own, the violence against the movement was much less public and much less personal than assassination.  The usual program of police violence and media propaganda was more than enough to undo a movement that was not robust enough to grow beyond establishment control.  Perhaps a few lives were indeed saved by Occupy's failure, but hundreds of millions of people lost.

What Exactly DOES Josh Marshall Know?

Come on, dude.  Can anyone really be that much of a mush-headed pussy?  I guess so, since we know he's not doing what he actually could do to help America's children be safer.

One Year Ago Today

santorum leaves a mark in iowa

rick santorum is doing his best to whip up iowa politics into an indelible froth during the last week before the caucus.  the santorum surge could well leave a mark all over the state next week. 

war whores

hard to find good help these days, i guess.  this is indeed good mojo for the wackjob ron paul and another slap to the little woman in the race by the big dumb republican men's club.  the republican's are a-hatin' on the mormon and a-hatin' on the woman, so why would those sorts of folks want anything to do with 'em exactly?  idiocy loves company.

backward ass motherfrakkers

although it is no better in the united states where we have religious nutjobs openly running for president with the support of scads of dumbfuck hicks and cynical oligarchs along with millionaire jerkoff charlatan god-botherers  like pat robertson running around loose everywhere, it is fucking scary to see just how stunted we are as a species all over the fucking place.  for all the talk of advancement and civilization and democracy and equality, humans are ignorant and nasty fuckers.

Finagle A Hagel

It is just fanfuckingtastic that Chuck Hagel has the proper enemies, but he is still a Republican being considered for a top post in a newly reelected Democratic administration.  That is a political miscalculation.  It is a form of enabling the worst of the worst reactionary teabagging assholes and diminishing the Democratic Party brand at a time when the President's party will be facing traditionally difficult political realities in the run up to the 2014 mid-term elections.  Much in the same way that Obama fucking with electoral politics in Massachusetts because of his own mishandling of the Susan Rice situation may lead to a party-damaging loss of a Democratic Senate seat, the nomination of Hagel would help reinforce the narrative that the Republican Party is somehow well-suited to management of defense and military policies.  At the same time it also helps create a narrative that Republicans are an actual functional political party that deserves a place in modern society and not a pack of crazed and ignorant violent primitives.  Obama is an excellent campaigner and protector of his own political fortunes, but he is an absolute disaster as leader and strategist of the party that delivered him to the White House.

One Year Ago Today

bill maher vs. eric bolling?

jesus.  bill maher vs. eric bolling is kinda like a midget vs. a plankton.  or a midget vs. plankton.  maher is pretty much a clown, but compared to eric bolling, maher looks like mark twain.  bolling is just a fucking zero, so the jeebus-tebow-bolling team is pretty much not even able to take the field in that rhetorical donnybrook against the stunted master-of-wit bill maher.  

eric bolling:

 

can't you do better than ron paul?

really, you gotta do better than ron paul.  is he really all that good stuff?  is he really the stalwart man of principle, constitutional defender, non-interventionist, small government, anti-war, liberty hero racist, self-promoting nutjob asshole?  watching him twist in the wind over his racist newsletter and pretend he's not at all familiar with that topic makes him seem just like every romneyesque weasel politician out there, so i have exactly zero confidence that ron paul would be a flawed hero for liberty and the 99% on many important issues.  you gotta go do better than ron paul.  he's a clown almost identical to all the other clowns out there.  better than obama?  of course, but romney would be better than obama, so that's a pretty fucking low bar.  on the other hand, maybe all good americans now have the best reason of all to vote for ron paul.

candide yams

all this gay rick perry shit is pretty fucking hilarious even if i don't believe it at all.  but really, who cares?  gay perry is just as useless as straight perry, and just as fucking ignorant.  the gay rick perry stuff has been floating around for years, but no evidence has ever popped up, so there's no sense getting into a frothy mess over outing another pathetic republican closet case.  

iowa ugly

it looks like hurricane ron might be plowing into iowa next week.  the little bastard might pull it off, and that will cause a shitload of short-term image problems for the republican party.  he can't and won't ever win the nomination, but his victory in iowa followed by a romney romp in new hampshire will pretty much clear the table for mittens.  after that, somebody's gonna have to get a fucking wash 'n dry for all the ron paul acolytes who'll spend the next six months blubbering about the unfairness of the system.

flushing big ben

soon, one of our most useless senators, big ben nelson, will be nothing but an historical skid mark.  really, he has been a pustule on the ass of democracy as long as he's been in government, so bye-bye dickhead.  if the democrats need that sort of man in their caucus, they have already lost.  

american m-16

i really like the ride of mountain bikes with sub-16 inch chainstays.  the original eastern woods bikes, along with a few others including the american m-16--and lamely ripped-off by gary fisher years later--pushed the envelope for short chainstay frames.  unfortunately, the details on the american were not quite right.  for one, the aluminum tubing made clearance even more of an issue than the short-stay steel frames.  in addition, the american didn't use a longer front center like most of the designs did, so the wheelbase got a little short for real technical and high-speed riding.  the eastern woods geometry, with short rear and longer top tube and shorter stem, was my favorite mix.  the american needed a few tweaks, but it was an interesting frame and i'd love to be able to get a custom version with the proper long top tube and shorter seat tube; that would make a ripping bike.  hate the fucking name--uzzi anyone?--but i'd get one anyway.  another time machine mission, i guess.

Political Song for Senator Mike Crapo to Sing

Grumpy Cat Thinks The Starbucks CEO Is A Koch-Sucking Moron

Asshole.

As if the shitty, overpriced coffee wasn't bad enough. 

Wanted: Unemployed, Volunteer Guntards To Hang Around School Playgrounds

The super geniuses at the NRA have the bestest plan ever to put a phalanx of creepy, unemployed, highly-armed guntards in every school in America to expose their guns and more than likely their genitals to the children in order to make Wayne LaPierre and a few other psycho douchenozzles feel better.  It's not going to help the kids though.  Any gun in the school makes the kids less safe, and the shiftless gun nut becomes the most likely cause of a gun problem shooting at any particular school.  Plus, the sort of scary, violent losers that LaPierre's call will attract are just the sort of pervs you usually find in the bushes by the playground exposing themselves to 2nd graders and offering them candy.  It's probably time to send little Wayne packing to a place where his ideas can be appreciated.  Like Syria.

The Popenfuhrer Stops By With A Fuck You For The Holidays

His Unholiness checks in with a message that would be mainstream at the dawn of 1013.  In 2013 however, it makes the Popenfuhrer sound like a nasty, senile homophobic clown, leading a pack of ignorant fucks.  Hating the gays is purely mundane for fundamentalists of every stripe; the Catholics have a special relationship with atrocity that makes boring old homophobia seem quaint.  Fearing gay marriage or anything big gay will leave the haters behind eventually; right now their ignorance is pathetic and annoying.  Soon enough a majority of civilized people will embrace civil rights and human rights for teh gay and for everyone else; history is moving and sad little men like the Popenfuhrer can't hold that back now.  The real threats to humanity are the same ones we faced before that asshole spoke up this time, and no marriages are on the fucking list.

Political Song for Asa Hutchinson to Sing

One Year Ago Today

newt fails to deliver again

this gingrich divorce stuff should be so much more hilarious than it is.  gingrich is so played out that even his creepiest evil only warrants a minor notice at this point in history.  that's too bad, cuz gingrich really is one of the most vile men to ever soil our existence; he's just suffering from overexposure. 

class warfare is the new black

this sort of talk is going to become much more prevalent in the coming days/years.  the failing economy and cultural striation likely will cause catastrophic failure of the civilizing forces in our society.  sooner or later, no carbon race bikes, internet sleaze, or yo la tengo hanukkah shows will be enough to keep 'em down on the farm.  the big lie about america will no longer be believed by enough of the assholes to keep the peace.  then it gets weird and not in a good way.

matt taibbi is shrill

good for him.  he's turning into a foul-mouthed paul krugman, which is a good thing in every possible way. 

this must be what a ron paul xmas is like

paranoid, racist frothing insanity is what christmas at ron paul's house must be like.  really, japan is secretly trying to take over the world?  really?  well, they suck at it, because the old fashioned way works tons better: build a shitload of aircraft carriers and submarines and planes and cruise missles and then bomb the fuck out of and/or occupy the places where the oil and other shit is.  plus if japan tries any bullshit, they'll be all kinds of fucked.  felice navidad, tojo.

Wrap Yo

In The Drunk Tank

One Year Ago Today

the man upstairs checks in

on 24 december, this tells you everything you need to know about tee-blow and his buddy upstairs.  the bills.  the fucking buffalo fucking bills.

The Chris Kvale Experience

Biciak has a nice writeup on Chris Kvale.  Lugged, steel framebuilding has never been better than it is today, and Mr. Kvale is one of the best there is.

Pitchforking Yo La Tengo

Pitchfork on YLT.  Good warm up for the new stuff coming out in the spring.  In a thousand years, Yo La Tengo will probably be considered one of the most interesting artistic endeavors of the otherwise almost totally pointless and unlamented human race.

Obama Strikes The Match For America's Self-Immolation

Either Obama is a brain-damaged buffoon who doesn't understand a thing about how the economy works, or he is doing exactly what he wants because he wants to fuck up the lives of more of the 99% in order to redistribute even more of their wealth up to the ruling class.  At this point, I don't think it should really be much of a question.  No matter what his brain-dead apologists say, Obama has been a solid, reactionary conservative his entire political career.  The establishment and their apparatchiks share the same goals and values whether they have a D or an R after their names.  Obama works 24/7 to serve and strengthen the oligarchy; if he did not, he never would have been allowed to become President.  The only thing that might slow his work are the actions of the few center-left elected Democrats and the outcry from reliable Democratic voters who happen to be part of the 99%.  That's not all that likely, as Obama has been forthright about furthering his agenda in every negotiation with the Republican side of the party. 

What Is Going On Out There In Democratic Apparatchik Land?

Is something going on out there with the rock-ribbed conservative entry-level Democratic establishment?  Both Talking Points Memo and DailyKos are getting pushy over this "subscription" thing, almost as if they need the money.  I don't get it, and I sure as hell don't believe it.  Those sites are purportedly the biggest Democratic political websites out there, and both of them are big fucking spenders with huge, well-paid staffs.  That doesn't jive.  They can't be relying on advertising and "subscriptions".  The money has to be coming from deep in the political establishment, or else why would the "founders" of those sites spend so much money on them?  You can't spend money you don't have, and unless you are an idiot, you don't spend money that you don't think you'll have next week and next year.  Something is up, and I get the feeling this is part of an effort to keep the voters in line as the bedrock of the society disintegrates, and the true nature of the political establishment and both parties becomes more and more clear.  Perhaps the establishment thinks that getting the peeps on the internets to literally buy into the establishment is a way to keep them in line.  Maybe the people won't support the politicians, but they will support their apparatchiks and internet propagandists.  I can't believe those guys really need the money, so something else behind this nonsense.

Saab Is Dead, But This Driver Is Alive!

SaabsUnited has the heartwarming story of a 2007 9-5 that got run over by a lumber truck in Sweden.  He was stopped behind one truck when the lumber truck decided to test the Saab's safety cage.  Fan fucking tastic.  That the driver walked away from the crash on his own is pretty fucking incredible considering what the car looked like when both trucks got done with it.

Blue Screamers

"Someone To Talk To"

Now Can We Finally Agree That The Current NRA Is A Terrorist Organization?

After NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre's demented breakdown yesterday, are we finally ready to admit that the NRA as it is currently constituted is a terrorist organization?  The question is not new, but in the aftermath of Newtown, it is as important as ever, and key in getting some actual change in gun control and gun violence in the America.  In the United States, the NRA is an industry lobby for the gun manufacturing industry; the focus is not gun safety or representing the individual citizen.  The work of the NRA makes Americans more likely to die from violence; until the focus becomes safety, the NRA will continue to terrorize the United States. The NRA is an front for the killing industry, not hunting, not defense, not constitutional rights.  If the debate on gun control is to move forward, the truth about the NRA should be a primary topic.  Wayne LaPierre and his cadre must be removed from power at the very least if we are to have any hope of progress.

Jesus, General, It's The End Of The World

Rep. Gohmert could do worse if he decides to leap out of the closet.  The General is like a ray of sunshine on a grim winter's day.

Confidence Men & Woman

One Year Ago Today

concept album

awww. this is wicked cute.  good for them.  good for the navy for being cool with it, too.

the beauty of the season

oh, this is just fantastic.  hypocrites getting hung out to dry by their own foibles is the true miracle of the season.  whoever initially came up with the idea to apologize to that assclown amy koch because she couldn't keep her legs closed is a fucking genius.

what's the opposite of sex positive?

this might be it.  ayn rand and stinky, sweaty monkey boning is one of the most unappetizing images in history. 

chewing on a boehner

boehner got chewed up and spit out by the whore parade in washington.  i don't get it; somebody musta been a very good boy cuz that moron boehner handed obama the best present he could have dreamed of.  ineffectual doesn't even begin to describe just how stupendously boehner blows at being speaker.

This Is At Least As Bizarre and Inappropriate As Shane MacGowan Singing "Fairytale Of New York" As A Duet With His Mother

The Shaggs' hella-strange thing; apparently that's the father and brother of the Wiggin sisters on vocals.

Obama Wants To Cut Social Security

Obama does not care that Social Security doesn't add to debt.  He wants to cut it.  Regardless of what the vile and asinine Obama fluffers say, he has always wanted to cut the programs that help poor, sick, and old people.  There are alternatives, good, progressive alternatives that Obama could be pursuing if he was interested in helping the economy and bettering the standard of living of all Americans, but he is not.  Instead, he's giving in to the reactionaries and conservatives because he shares their goals and their values.  It is who he is: a rock-ribbed conservative.  Obama's not a shitty negotiator; he's doing everything he can do to make sure he gets what he wants.  When he tanks the economy and brings pain and suffering to many in order to deliver wealth to the ruling class, he's just getting the job done for his masters.

12 Days

It took Australia 12 days to pass strict gun laws after a mass murder.  What will happen here in the United States?  Probably nothing at all.  The political will does not exist to save lives.  Moral authority doesn't exist in America.  All the good people who want to stop the murders will fail because the political leaders are not leaders at all; the true rulers will never agree to change.  We are fucked.

Purposely Dirty Friendly New Friends

Four Dead In Pennsylvania Today; How Many Since Newtown?

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck the NRA.

I Hate Obama Fluffers

She's no Wayne LaPierre, but Imani Gandy is a fucking moron anyway.  She's one of the most disgusting Obama fluffers out there and is willing to accept any right-wing atrocity as long as it Obama doing it.  Obama has been advocating for cutting Social Security since before he was president!  Only a pampered, secure dipshit like Imani Gandy could agree that a benefit cut for the poorest, most vulnerable senior citizens is no big deal.  Fucking moron.  Without such brainless enablers, Obama would not be as big a fuckup as he is.  I've said it before: Barack Obama could kill and eat Imani Gandy's child, and she would support the President's right to cannibalism and would contend it was the best thing ever. 

Guntard Wayne LaPierre Is A Bigger Threat To Democracy Than Bradley Manning

Wayne LaPierre is the face of evil; he should be imprisoned awaiting all appropriate charges, and Bradley Manning should be released.  How many more murders will we let LaPierre and his cabal endorse.  Change the law, change the NRA, and change America for the better.

Don't Believe The Reactionary Liars: Mentally Ill People Never Shoot Anyone With Guns They Don't Have

It is not the sickness, no matter how serious the sickness is, nor how truly rare it is.  It's the fucking guns.  No sick fucker can shoot up a school or a post office or an NRA meeting if they can't get their hands on a gun.  As much as the fuckwads at the NRA and Fox News and the Republican Party want to pretend it is something other than guns, it is all about the guns themselves.  If we get rid of the high-capacity magazines and the semi-automatic pistols and the military-style rifles, we will destroy the ability of almost anyone to stage a mass shooting and kill dozens of people at once.

One Year Ago Today

virag's movie reviews: red white & blue (2010)

what a movie!  it ended up on my dvr somehow, and i watched it the other night when i should have been working.  not really an american movie though it was filmed in austin because the director is some limey and the lead actor some other kind of dirty foreigner, this is a lovely little slice of all-american family values regardless.  it looks like it cost about a hundred and fifty dollars to make, and i mean that in the best possible sense.  the film actually resorted to creative storytelling, skillful, considered acting, and claustrophobic cinematography to cook up an engrossing and intense cinematic experience.  i must have a high tolerance for violence because i did not find the film overly violent, and it was certainly not at all gory in the sloppy and childish taratino/rodriguez 70's-homage sense.  the gore was mostly internal and fairly subtle considering the subject matter.  i liked the movie.  amanda fuller and the lead guy did a really nice job.  it's a good film and worth checking out if you love america. 

second amendment remedy

pretty obvious little piss take regarding the second amendment remedies for the occupy movement here on counterpunch.  the well-armed second amendment remedies in the class war are probably not as far off as you would hope.

virag's movie reviews: stealth (2005)

what the hell?  somebody paid money to make this?  did they read it?  was there even a script?  and what the fuck were joe morton and sam shepard doing in that fucking thing?  wow it sucked.  really, it was just awful; no idea where the money went.  the effects were reanimated battlestar galactica quality at best.  maybe the actors all got huge salaries.  i knew an air force veteran who loved it.  one of the worst ever.

Before We Run

John Boehner Officially Sucks More Now

He couldn't even get the votes for his own bill.  What a maroon.  Is he the worst speaker in history?  Will he lose the big job in the next Congress?  Will the teabaggers take their balls and go home?  We may never know the answers to these questions, but tune in next time for another thrilling episode of Bullshit or Not?

One Year Ago Today

fuso max

interesting little fuso max custom frame from dave moulton's blog.  i like the color combo.  apparently light metallic purples are xtra-spiffy on lugged max frames.  he really nailed the seatstay attachment; it looks super smooth.  old-timey max fork uni-crown, too.

blood on the tracks

when things turn to shit, i think many people will be horrified by the level of chaos and violence suddenly pervading our society.  reading this, though, should disabuse anybody hoping wistfully for the possibility of a peaceful and comfortable solution to the problems in the united states.  there is so much dangerous ignorance and downright evil spewed by those assholes; it can't be excused.  they are the most privileged and pampered people on earth.  the impending revolution will be a bloody one, but really, it needs to be.  the rot in our oligarchy is killing everyone and only radical intervention will save us.  the suffering will be legion but there is probably no way to avoid that now.  no matter what happens, the scores will be settled and blood will baptize a new civil war.  after a generation lost to upheaval and drowned in bloodshed, the survivors will have an opportunity to engender a more just society.

flaccid clown car crackup

speaker boehner's clusterfuck is great for obama's political future, but the short term could be very difficult for many americans.  the tax cut is pretty much bullshit, 20 bucks a week, maybe, but represents a political bear trap for folks like scott brown.  the medicare reimbursement issue threatens to put more pressure on seniors and doctors but that will take a while to work through.  the unemployment, though, that gets ugly on the very first day.  figure that long-term unemployed folks, in their second year without much income, are pretty much barely there, and if you cut off their meager unemployment benefit, well, they're fucked.  the personal toll, stress and privation, is an inexcusable tragedy that will quickly spread into the community.  that unemployment insurance is the best stimulus for the local economy; it's too small to contribute to savings and every cent of it gets spent immediately, so every jerkoff on the chamber of commerce, every bank and landlord, every car repair shop, grocery store, bar, pharmacy, liquor store, meth dealer and streetwalker should be screaming bloody murder and shoving a red-hot coulter all the way up the asses of that dicknose boehner and every one of those teabagger jerkoffs in the house.  i guess that would be a great stimulus for fireplace poker manufacturers as well.  buy american, motherfrakkers.

Jim Boeheim, Okay, Nice Job

I'm sorta shocked he didn't try to walk it back today, but he stood firm, so good for him.  What he said was nothing earth-shattering, but he took the opportunity while the attention was on him to say something almost subversive about guns and gun violence in America.  The guy's a fucking basketball coach for Christ's sake, but he's more of a man than most of our elected politicians. 

Update: This guy, too.  Another coach freaked out; watch Obama rotate on his own thumb long enough that folks like Coach Kelsey lose their nerve and go back to being obedient teabaggers and guntards Republicans.

Charlotte Allen: This Is What Teh Stupid Looks Like

National Review and Charlotte Allen, a toxic slurry of batshit inanity.  Bravery and big, giant hairy metaphorical balls were over that school in Connecticut last Friday.  The principal and the school psychologist charged the shooter; that's undeniable bravery, a remarkable act of courage probably beyond what many people would be capable of doing regardless of their physical size or style of reproductive organs.  The teachers and other staff saved lives because they kept their heads under threat of imminent death and hid children, shielded children, or removed children from the line of fire.  That is fucking amazing whether you have tits or not.  If you've never seen real mass panic or never seen people in command loose their shit at just the wrong time, then you probably don't can't appreciate what the people in that school did that day to keep those kids alive in an absolutely horrific and terrifying scenario.  The staff of the Sandy Hook School proved they were as brave and decisive as anyone who ever faced death while doing their jobs and protecting innocents.  And anyone as fucking offensively stupid as Charlotte Allen needs to shut up and let the rest of us deal with the problems we face.

Stupid:

Brave:

Beyond Miraculous: Piers Morgan Serves A Purpose!

Morgan pretty much skull-fucked a frothing guntard on his show, actually calling a liar a liar on the tee vee!  That almost never happens, and good for Morgan.  Piers Morgan is a repellent, Murdochian slime ball, but in this one instance, he is on the side of the angels.  Who fuckin' knew he had it in 'im?

Probably A Good Time To Cross The University Of Rhode Island Off Your List

The rightwing retard machine is cranked up trying to get a URI professor and Lawyers, Guns & Money blogger fired because he rightly called for the strict public censure of Wayne LaPierre as LaPierre is an evil scumsucking bastard who deserves to be removed permanently from the American discussion.  URI crumbled from the outset, proving that UMass Boston might be a better choice for your academic adventures.  Don't support pussies.

Are You The NRA? You Should Be

I am the NRA.  I essentially didn't have a choice, and it seemed like a reasonable necessity at the time.  Before now I was never really frisky enough to fuck with the guntard rank and file.  That's different now.  Tipping point and shit.  The NRA is the problem.  You can change that.  If all of us become active members, we can change the course of that axis of evil and force the murder industry to start another trade group.  Join the NRA.  Read the bullshit they send you and get involved.  If enough of us get in there and become active, we can destroy them from the inside and make Michael Moore the next president of the NRA.

Guntards

Guntards.  Excellent.  Sr. Papa is on target.  Get it?  On target.  Guntards.  On target.  Get it?

One Year Ago Today

arthur fortune sucks

as seen on l,g&m, titanic asswipe arthur fortune does his part for union busting at yet another shitty airline.  i can't help but think that after 40 years, every working man and woman in america should be eager to join a union, and if they remain anti-union that they are truly too stupid to live and are in fact holding the entire species back.  unfortunately, the american political culture has always been less than vigorous, so representation for labor in our goverment and society has always been stunted.  still, we need to be responsible for our own well-being, and anyone in the 99% who is against universal union representation is ignorant and short-sighted at best but is much more likely simply an absolute fucking worthless cockbag.
update: bad guys win.  everyone loses. 

ron paul's friends

america's patriot warrior, general jc christian, is all over the fine fine folks who are rock-ribbed supporters of rep. ron paul.  in reality, paul is a nasty, black-hearted little troll, and the only reason he does not get roasted on a daily basis for his insanity is that he quite possibly the last person north america who could actually get elected president of the united states.

flaccid boehner

who's gonna be the next speaker?  since it is now obvious that boehner has completely lost control of his caucus, one of those creepy little fuckers is probably going to need to knock him off if the republicans retain control of the house.  his pissboy mitch mcconnell made that deal boehner asked for, but he couldn't get his own moron chorus to line up behind it.  he's maybe the worst speaker ever, after gingrich of course. 

t-boned

we can all pray that yesterday's game will put an end to the tebow nonsense, despite what goofy old phil simms had to say.  tebow played like shit, as did the whole broncos team.  apparently jeebus can't work a decent miracle against the varsity. 

north korea's renaissance

hey!  good luck with that!  it's amazing that that crazy bastard was only 69 when he died?  odd, cause these nutty little fuckers in nutty little countries seem timeless.  if the kid takes over and live a nice long north-korean life, then he will be quite the frothing crackpot by the time he kicks off.  i'd really like a chance to find out what north korea is really like these days, free of the western bias.  it's probably not great but also not at all like you see on american tee vee.  regardless, i'm sure hitchens was good and drunk and waiting to yell at dear leader when he showed up in hell. 

newt's joyless insanity

gingrich is every bit as bugfuck insane as bachmann, cain and paul, but gingrich, like paul for the most part, is a nasty, joyless insanity, poorly designed to provide maximum entertainment.  paul's gold standard is loony, and his racism is as vile as david duke's or haley barbour's, but paul is a fringe of a fringe of a fringe candidate.  newt, on the other hand, was playing at the top of the shitpile, until recently.  for all gingrich's crazy talk, like arresting judges or enslaving children or blowing donald trump on live tee vee, he never performed with the joyous verve that squeaky michele bachmann or aging horndog herman cain brought to our shameful national freakshow.  gingrich comes across a humorless turd who can't even be bothered to smile when he's turning his trick.

Al Sharpton And The Central Park Five

Excellent job by Al Sharpton keeping the tragedy of the Central Park Five on the tee vee.  He was on that way back when, and now that he has his own show, he is able to do some good.  Sharpton is truly one of the great American stories.

Rick Snyder Still Sucks

And he's an asshole, but he is just bright enough to understand that if had not vetoed the more-guns-in-schools bill, being run outa town on a rail after being tarred and feathered would have been just about the best outcome for which he could have hoped.

Good Gun Idea From The Rudepundit

Have the FBI put a halt to background checks for gun purchases.  That would be a hale and hearty fuck you to the gun nuts and stupid assholes and more importantly would keep lots of dangerous weapons away from the next mass shooters; a great idea if the Obama administration is serious about gun control. 

Look At The Fucking Moron Nikki Haley Appointed To The Senate

She tried really hard to find someone dumber than Jim DeMint.  Probably not possible, but she did manage to rock the whole Uncle Tom thing that DeMint obviously couldn't manage.

Don't Believe The Hype: A Stupid Movie Or A Pointless Video Game Never Killed Anybody

Guns kill lots of people, though.  The NRA pushback is going to be to talk about entertainment and media and not about guns.  (You can already see it on Fox News today.  Their talking points are coming straight from the NRA, I'm sure.  Fox News and Teabagger Nation are just as much a part of the Great American Retard Machine as the NRA is.)  Anyone who accepts that framing is a dangerous fool who is not to be trusted.  Australia has our movies and our video games.  The UK has our movies and our video games.  Ireland has our movies and our video games.  What they don't have is mass shootings, because they don't have guns.  In those places, violent crime is not deadly crime the way it is in the United States.  The difference is that the UK and Australia had mass shootings and immediately removed the deadly weapons from the society and stopped mass shootings 100%.  Video games and movies don't kill people.  Guns kill people.  Until the United States gets the deadly weapons out of the society, we will continue to have mass shootings.

The Smarter Part Of Lynyrd Skynyrd Died In That Plane Crash

Tiny Step Forward In Ireland, With A Smidge Of Hope For The Future

Ireland is taking the smallest possible step toward becoming a civilized nation.  For fuck's sake, even Mick doctors are supposed to preserve the life of the mother, so it is up to the Irish government to clarify this for the Dr. Paddies who may have knocked back one too many Murphy's at lunch.  Let's pray they take the opportunity to join the 21st fucking century sooner rather than later.

Some Of The Dumbest People On Earth React To The Connecticut Shooting

The Serotta Forum, of course.  As per usual, 'reasonable' pushback against rank and dangerous asshattery amounts to a useless, uninformed or misinformed, and cowardly position--for the most part; there are some good, well-meaning people there, I'm sure, but with the huge coterie of pampered, paranoid, racist nuts ala Nancy Lanza on that forum, you would need 500 bikin' Chomskys to get the stench of dangerous dipshit off there--while the huge reactionary and paranoid douchebags go nuts.  Well, I hope each and every one of the gunnut assholes who believes in the right to 'protect' themselves learns first hand how the guns you own are more likely to kill you than protect you--without actually dying because that would be a mean thing to say, and I'm sure someone loves those vile, cretinous fuckwads and would miss them or something, and because after Newton Newtown, I think that we have finally (maybe, just maybe) had enough gun murders that even those idiots would be a loss.  Assholes.  Stupid, fucking, ignorant, dangerous assholes.  I hope the Feds take all their guns.  I hope Obama sends the New Black Panthers to collect the guns from those paranoid assholes, and I will do a little happy dance while they cry.  But the funny thing is, they will be safer and their children will be safer, even if they are too stupid to realize it.  If you really wanna protect the house from blacks or immigrants or bears or zombies, shotgun is the best choice.  The New Black Panthers won't be taking those from you pissed-your-pants little crackers.  Semi-auto handguns, military weapons and the semi-auto clones, well, those will be gone. 

Update: We have a winner for biggest asshole the Serotta forum: prize pig cocksucker.

Nancy Lanza: Another Victim Of Her Own Guns

Nancy Lanza, pampered whack job and gun nut, is sadly a typical victim of gun violence; she was killed by the gun she owned.  Unfortunately, her guns also killed dozens of others, many of them children.  If you own a gun, carry a gun, or keep one in your house, you are the person most likely to be killed by that very gun.  Ms. Lanza apparently was a very sad and frightened woman, but all her guns didn't keep her alive.  Much like Jovan Belcher's girlfriend and the victims of all the other shootings: if the perpetrators had not had guns, everyone who died in the shooting would likely be alive today.  Guns kill.  Sick, sad people with guns kill.  Sick, sad people without guns have a hard time killing themselves and cannot easily kill others before they come to their senses.  The difference is the presence of the gun.  Get rid of the gun, and you will get rid of most of the the most deadly violence.  The time has come to save children from gun violence.  The time has come to save people like Nancy and Adam Lanza from gun violence.  Get rid of the guns.  Honor the Constitution, honor the Second Amendment, and confiscate or buy back every handgun and every other semi-automatic designed-to-kill-humans-quickly weapon in the United States.  Protect the right of every American to keep and bear firearms for official militias--and for hunting and sport shooting since this is the 21st century.  The gun nuts and the survivalist assholes can go fuck themselves.