Occupy Sloganeering, But With A Major Zombie Stupid Mistake

Good article here on the importance of sloganeering and the Occupy Movement by Michael D. Yates.  Movements and slogans go hand in hand, and the art and the substance are of nearly equal importance, especially in today's media environment.

Yates fucks up big time with this though: "The cutoff yearly household income for the 1% varies, ranging from $380,000 using the Census definition of income to nearly double that using that of the Federal Reserve, which includes capital gains. In some parts of the country, $380,000 would qualify a household as rich, while in others it would not."

This is pure bullshit.  380 grand is big money anywhere, even in Manhattan where the median household income is around $70,000.  If you live in the most expensive neighborhoods in the most expensive cities and choose to make use of private schools and such, those are all choices that your very large income allows you to make.  If $380,000 doesn't feel like enough in Manhattan or Park Slope, you could live like a fucking king in Bridgeport.  It is all about choices, and you have a shitload more nice choices on $380,000 than you do on $38,000...or $19,000 per year.  Yates should know better than to fall for the zombie bullshit.

Way Less Embarrassing Than Michelle Malkin's Dancing

The silly haircuts on these stunted children of The Clash and U2.

Wait, That Dancing Asshole Was Michelle Malkin?

Holy shit.  I didn't realize that was her video.  Fuck.  Michelle Malkin has always been a loathsome little troll but watching that horrible dancing almost makes you feel sorry for that rancid cunt.  Almost.  Everybody is probably used to how shamelessly stupid she is, but the astronomically lame dancing and major-whiff attempt at "satire" come closer than most decent people would have believed possible to turning Malkin into something similar to a sad, sympathetic figure, like a Special People's Games last-place finisher or a member of the Bush family.

One Year Ago Today

talk me down

i gotta buy a kid's bike.  they're horrible.  my go-to bike-shop bike brand, kona, is just awful for kids.  the decent kona with the 24" wheels is a thousand fucking dollars.  not doing that.  no fucking way this kid is gonna have a nicer hardtail than me!  and the sub-$500 kona's are nasty.  jesus.  i think the specialized is the way to go, for the love of pete.  it looks like a real bike.  but i don't wanna do it.  fuck.

Reconstructing Scalia's White Racial Entitlement

Vile reactionary greaseball Antonin Scalia came out today in favor of America's rich history of protecting white racial entitlement.  Scalia was quite clear that he did not want to perpetuate the voting rights of non-whites, but he was all in favor of protecting the privilege of whites blocking minority voting.  Scalia is an asshole of titanic proportions, and anyone as outright stupid as he is has no business in any government office.  This should be electoral gold for the Democrats, though.  Let's see if they want to play hardball.

Intolerant Hart

Lynskey Silver And Zathras

As Zathras and I suspected, the geometry of the new Silver road frames is not great.  I kinda had the feeling that they didn't understand the serious road racing/road riding thing.  If they'd asked me, I would not have gone for the slack head angle type layout; I much prefer a steeper front and a shorter wheelbase.  Oh, well.  Really this is why Serotta could have done this right, but Serotta's fucking hopeless.  The Silver 650B hardtail is not great either; the 29er looks okay.  It has the best geometry of the frames, but I worry about the description of a "comfortable tubeset".  A flexible frame sucks, and a flexible titanium frame sucks worse.  Of course, the Lynskeys were never bike people, even back in the Litespeed days, but after 25 years you would hope they would have learned a few tricks.  Looks like a great price on a frame that could have just as easily been way fucking better than it will be. 

Ron Eldard Justified

Justified was slow to get rolling this season, but adding Ron Eldard has been all win.  These cable shows and their short seasons really benefit from the ability to add excellent actors for a relatively short commitment. 

One Year Ago Today

boulder six fifty bee

this is an interesting not-racing bike.  much to like here, even if it's not my off-pavement bag.

top gear fluffs the saab fanboys

top gear did a bit last sunday on bbc2 to give a little kiss goodbye to saab and a cheap thrill for the saab fan boys.  regardless, this was a decent episode, and bbc america should show all the top gears at full length. 

Seth MacFarlane's Onion Oscar Sandwich

First off, I'll say that no fucking way should The Onion have apologized.  That was fucking hella-lame.  Calling a nine year old girl a cunt is what we would describe as a high-risk comedic device; it turned out that it was not well-received, but fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.  The joke was about how shitty Hollywood is in general and not that a nine year old girl is actually a cunt.  If anything, they should not have made the joke in the first place.  The joke was planned, approved and posted; that was the mistake.  At some point, somebody should have decided that on the likely chance we will have to walk this back, let's not do it because walking it back will make us look like total idiots and like fucking pussies.  Let's be smart and save ourselves from a mistake.  They didn't and that is the problem.  The joke was funny.  People didn't get it/fucking idiots are idiots and humorless assholes are humorless assholes.  Now The Onion look like buffoons.  If they had just decided to skip the risky, almost unbelievably crude joke about a nine year old, they would have been golden.

Next, people got way over-offended by Seth MacFarlane's lame Oscar telecast.  It was sort of depressing to see lots of self-described liberals and feminists loose their shit over a millionaire's and billionaire's extravagant auto-fellation tee vee spectacle.  Over-thinking Seth MacFarlane is like over-thinking Quentin Tarantino.  MacFarlane is not exactly a comic genius.  He was hired to bring (some of) the Family Guy demo the broadcast, and he did.  To get all hissy about lame Hollywood comedy is really quite pathetic.  Did those easily offended souls ever see more than a couple Hollywood mainstream films?  Those things are often lame, sexist and offensive.  On purpose.  Hollywood is a shit machine.  It is a shallow, misogynistic circle jerk every day, not just on Oscar night.  MacFarlane's purpoted misogyny was not his own; it belonged to the people who hired him long before he was even born.  MacFarlane is not some edgy outsider hired to poke some stuffed shirts.  He has been in Hollywood for 20 years; he is the ultimate wannabe.  Plastic surgery and an album of threadbare showbiz standard songs are not exactly the signs of some free-thinking outsider.  MacFarlane has always wanted to be the adored dancing monkey, and the ratings have apparently given him his wish.  MacFarlane was not there to challenge the system; he was there to lovingly blow it, and at the Oscars he had his finest designer knee pads. 

Keith Ellison Just Cock-Punched Hannity

On Hannity's own show.  Jeez, that's gotta be embarrassing.  Too bad Ellison wasn't in the studio to reach out and just throttle Hannity once and for all. 

Too Bad Trayvon Martin Was Not The NRA

It could have been a lot different last year if Trayvon Martin had been aware that he should have been the NRA.

Holy Shit, Zathras! Check Out This Lynskey!

What's a Lynskey?  What's an Uggams?  Apparently a Lynskey is something Zathras has been waiting for.  I don't know what the details are on these yet, and the road frames look like slopey-toptube shit--and for road racing frames they probably won't come in enough sizes to make it work for an experienced road rider/racer anyway--but the hardtails could be fuckin' killer for the price.  A nice titanium hardtail for eleven hundred bucks is pretty sweet--and mountain bike riders don't have the expectation of 15 sizes between 48 and 63 centimeters so a four or five size range is pretty standard.  This is the kind of shit Zathras wanted for Serotta, only cheaper!  A cool Serotta hardtail would be a great second frame for someone with a big burly full-squishy bike who wanted a long-lived titanium hardtail, but it looks like Lynskey is ready to kill that market segment.  How the fuck is Lynskey doing it, and why couldn't Serotta lead on this?  Weird.  If the Lynskey frames sell, I would advise them to go with a level-toptube road frame just on looks alone.  Hey, I remember the semi-disposable Litespeed frames 15 years ago; they weren't the greatest ever, but they were pretty fucking good and lots of folks rode the shit out of them all over the place.  Lynskey might be onto something.  And this $1100 stunt might finally kill Serotta Bikes.  Paging Zathras!

Friends Of Hamas Fundraiser At 2013 NAHBS

I haven't seen any reports of the Friends of Hamas fundraiser at this year's NAHBS.  I was hoping to make it personally after I got the invite from Chuck Hagel's office, mostly so that I would have a chance at the fabulous door prizes but was already booked for a swing party at Ben Shapiro's place.  Shapiro's party wasn't that great--they usually are only okay--but seeing Shapiro in that latex assless Little Bo Peep costume inserting that giant Bibi buttplug is always a high point of my month.  Anyway, I hope that all the NAHBS pics are out soon.

One Year Ago Today

a century after bradley manning

bradley manning, his treatment, and the his place in the shameful history of 21st century america will be hot topics in a hundred years even though they are totally invisible now.  manning is clearly a hero of the hightest order, and his treatment by the murderous empire is a crime against humanity.  long after the fall, manning will be a prime example of the distance between america's purported ideals of freedom and liberty and its reality at the start of the 21st century. 

virag's movie reviews: 50/50 (2011)

seth rogen is a cancer in the colon of american comedy.  the other guy was okay, though.  and the girl was cute, even if the part was absurd.  i thought the destruction of the painting was horrible; even if the painter was a shallow, talentless person in the movie; to revel in the destruction of a piece of art in a scene that was a in itself was a shallow ripoff of office space's copier dance was a little too meta in a lame, soft-headed comedy.

what's the definition of a non-believer?

i think that full-of-shit crossed with teabagging asshole is a pretty good one.  if by some remote chance the standard jeebus-style of heaven and hell is correct, then this asshole from the acton institute and all his no-reading-comprehension butt-buddies are gonna be right up front in first class on the express train to hell.

Man Of Action

One Year Ago Today

is ron paul trying to buy his idiot son a spot on the ticket?

or possibly a cabinet post as secretary of galtian idiocy?  paul the elder can't have hopes of getting himself the second spot, but is it actually possible that rand paul could be a sufficient substitute for tom coburn?

Cracking Good Poverty!

Cracking good piece over at the Cracked website on the distant relationship between reality and the political establishment where poverty is concerned.  Besides being one of the great towering mountains of bullshit that encircle our tainted land, poverty, fear of poor people, and lies about them both are some of the best, most useful tactics the overlords employ to keep our society distracted from the many problems we face and their true root causes.  If the average working Jill out there is busy hating on some mythical nasty poor folks, she's not worrying about the people who are wrecking her life and her world on purpose.  Brilliant. 

DIY Cleats

This is a fabulous fucking idea done well.  It is so obvious once you see it work.  For some odd reason, I have a bunch of cleats for the old wood-sole Sidi shoes I wear, but clearly I will not be able to find them when one finally breaks, so this DIY solution could be the life saver.

WWE Is Smarter Than Glenn Beck

Obviously.  Having a couple of their actors make a video pissing on Beck's inanity was pretty fucking great too.  And I guess it is obvious that the WWE is also smarter than Linda McMahon.

Granderson Sez Ouch

Broken arm.  That sucks for Granderson.  Good thing he has the world's best health care plan...

All Of My Senses Working Overtime

One Year Ago Today

virag's movie reviews: the rum diary (2011)

the rum diary was a total surprise.  going in, i had no idea what a softhearted trifle johnny depp's labor of love would be.  i mean, it is hunter s. thompson after all, so if you had crafted your love letter in the style of your dear friend, the result should have been engaging and interesting.  casting in this wreck was very uneven.  giovanni ribisi and michael rispoli were excellent.  i'm not sure what ribisi was doing should be called acting in the purest sense of the word, but he turned in an entertaining performance that never quite became annoying.  rispoli's work held the film together; this could have been yet another time when some fool cast paul giamatti in this sort of role only to once again have giamatti destroy the film with his shameless, jackleg presence.  instead, rispoli was clearly an inspired choice, bringing real humanity to the film.  on the other hand, i had high, high hopes for amber heard in this film, absolutely none of which were fulfilled.  she's quickly proving she's as wooden and useless as january jones.  i was really expecting more, certainly different, from the rum diary as well given not only the source material but also the 50 years of the hunter s. thompson published and public experience.  perhaps depp was just too close to the author.

Radio Clash On The TV

If you were born in 1978, you probably missed this when it first aired.

The Unfortunately Named Truax Book

Instead of being a kick-ass mountain bike, back in 1994, Truax was quite possibly the world's worst children's book, a pathetic, Koch-sucking attempted refutation of The Lorax, sponsored by the cut-rate wood floor industry.  For realz.  The unfortunate "writer" of Truax, Terri Birkett, is very likely the equal of Rodney Cock Johnson, the world's worst author. 

One Year Ago Today

neil cavuto on the short list for biggest douche in the universe this week

bloated fox news cockbag and festering syphilitic lesion neal cavuto is campaigning hard today for 'the biggest douche in the universe this week' award with his koch-sucking bullshit heritage foundation talking points about half of the people in america paying no taxes.  he's either a full-on ocean-going retard or a lying fucker if he doesn't understand how the income tax fits in with the total amount of taxes paid by people living in the lower rungs of the 99% of americans.  of course, when the economy sucks and close to 20% of the workforce is unemployed or underemployed and wages have been falling for two generations, that's going to leave many more americans too fucking poor to pay income taxes each and every year.  if that cocksucker neal cavuto is really interested in more americans having skin in the income tax game, he should spend every second of this tee vee time pushing for universal union representation, and a higher and ever-increasing minimum wage, and living wage laws in the united states.  of course he doesn't, and he would never, ever support such things, so fuck him.  he's a lying, hypocrite scumbag and fox news propagandist asshole.

Inga Thompson Or Eddie B.?

Well...Inga Thompson smacks the world famous Eddie B. hard once again, this time on Steve Tilford's blog.  At the dawn of the Eddie B. era, cycling was nowhere in the United States, and the hard-nosed outsider had free reign to do pretty much whatever he wanted with and to the riders under his care.  Ms. Thompson has been speaking out consistently against the doping culture in American cycling and apparently won't be chatting with Eddie B. on Facebook any time soon.  Good for her.  

Another Facet Of The Bradley Manning Atrocity

This time, it's teh gays.  Or not the gays, I guess.  Interesting take though, and sadly obvious.  Teh professional gay organization are Democrats first and freedom fighters second, and Andy Thayer calls them out on it.  It's a horrible situation all over; this is just another sad facet.

Summerschool, Babe

One Year Ago Today

watching monica crowley, andrea tantaros and charles payne

watching these three absolute fucking idiots drool out koch-sucking talking points about economics is one of the most astounding tee vee comedy segments in human history.  could there possibly three other humans who understand less about economics or government than these three airheads?  it is truly very sad that they do not grasp that unemployment insurance and food stamps and social pensions are the best stimulus that an economy can possibly have.  direct cash payments to people who most likely don't have a surfeit of wealth and spending money will be pushed right out into the local economy and stimulate economic activity where it matters the most.  did one of those fucking brain-dead assholes just say that it wasn't the new deal that ended the great depression; world war two did?  jesus fucking christ, what was world war two you fucking dipshit?  a massive government stimulus program!  charles payne, andrea tantaros and monica crowley are an embarrassment to shit-eating teabagging primates the world over. 

bob mcdonnell gets an ultrasound probe stuck up his ass

damn, i guess that hurt.  major weasel douchebag and virginia governor bob mcdonnell is vigorously attempting to pull the that ultrasound probe out of his ass not because he suddenly became much more intelligent and much less of a fucking bastard, but instead because he wants to be mittens's vice presidential nominee.  it's not gonna help him, because romney's going to pick tom coburn.

the last saab car

saabsunited has exclusive pictures of the last saab cars ever, newly finished in trollhattan.  not the car i'd pick, diesel, convertible, but i do like the wheels and the color.

This Is A TV Clash

Frak You, Motherfrakker!

Toxic natural gas extraction is toxic.  Cuz science.  As much as the Koch-sucking liars--and lying cocksuckers--obfuscate for pay, they can't undo chemistry no matter how much time they spend on their knees.  At some point, we will have to understand that there's no free energy out there, and if we continue to use up all we can find as fast as we can, the extraction will get more dangerous and more expensive and more toxic as time goes on.  When the easiest oil and gas is gone, we do stupid shit like frakking to get it out.  Unfortunately, we missed our chance to change our consumption patterns and create a saner and safer world.  Oh, well, frak 'em if they can't take a joke.  Or if they die of cancer. 

Bill O'Reilly's Zero Information Bullshit, Today's Edition

$80,000 dollars in welfare for a single mom with two kids in Pennsylvania, according to O'Reilly.  Bullshit.  Unfortunately for Bill-o, he was too busy sucking his own cock on the tee vee to make his case.  One of the gems: 7 grand in energy-saving grants for your house.  Fine, but how does a single mom with two kids taking home less than three hundred bucks a week own a house?  Where would you get the down payment?  How could you have a $250 a month mortgage in 2013?  Even in Pennsylvania?  Even in Wilkes-Barre?  O'Reilly is a vile, hate-filled liar.  And a dumb motherfucker.

C. Thomas Howell On Southland

The best thing about this new season of Southland is the bump of C. Thomas Howell to the regular cast.  His nutty loose cannon character is lots of fun.  But wasn't he supposed to be retiring in the beginning of the show when it was still on NBC for a couple of days?

One Year Ago Today

grant petersen writes books

rivendell's grant petersen wrote a book, with a nice excerpt in the atlantic!  who knew.  good for him, and i hope it finds some new readers who might not be down with the grant and rivendell and his history.

if i wrote a book about rivendell, it would be called this is not an upgraded rb-1 and why the hell isn't it, exactly??

i'm sure the roadeo is very nice, but it is about a billion lightyears from what i would like to see in a sweet, steel production road racing style frame.  all-arounder style frames mean nothing to me, but a nice rivendell frame with the 1992 rb-1 geometry would already be living with me.

 

collapse with agency

considering the nuclear weapons, the abrupt change of state in palestine/israel will probably be one of the most dangerous political and diplomatic crisises anywhere in the world.  it is an unstable, unsustainable situation every day, buoyed only by the massive influx of american cash and the incredibly backward leadership in the surrounding nations, so when the collapse happens much will depend on the humanitarian wisdom of vast numbers of abused and oppressed people and the wisdom of western diplomacy that has been ineffectual for many generations.  if it gets fucked up, it could be as bad as anything that's happened in a hundred years.

Excellent Norco Truax Magazine Review

Dirt Rag, last year.  Can the Norco Truax be that good?  Is it a headtube gusset away from greatness, maybe a stylized 'N' or something to connect the top and down tubes at the headtube?  If they'd asked me, I would have gone with a 73* seat angle to go along with that gusset and probably would have decided to go with the cables anywhere other than the underside of the downtube, but jesus, those are firmly in quibble territory, especially considering the Truax is 1/2 of  the price of a Canfield One or the Knolly that doesn't exist or the other similar frames.  I can't remember when the last time I bought a bike shop bike, except for the kid bike last year.  I had a Bianchi road bike and a Diamondback mountain bike, but after that it was customs and framesets and shit.  Holy Christ, it has been a while since I've gone to mass-market land, but that Norco is a wicked fucking beast.

Is Jimmy Kimmel's Only Use Hating On Jay Leno?

I don't find Kimmel funny or anything.  In fact, he pretty much sucks at whatever it is he does.  Comedian?  Interviewer?  Having a late night show named after him, I guess.  Regardless, his distaste for Jay Leno is a wonderful thing to behold.  Far too few establishment folks are willing to shit on the snivelling no-talent Leno.  That's Kimmel's function!  He doesn't suck as much as Leno.  Leno is the worst ever.  Everything he does is horrible and derivative.  First Leno steals an idea, and then he ruins it because he is criminally incompetent.  Good for Kimmel for being willing to be honest.  On the other hand, David Letterman conducts a great interview when he wants to and has broadened the notion of what a chat show can be.

Sequester This

This is the worst possible time to be cutting spending--really even the military which should be cut by probably 75% once the economy recovers.  Given the obvious economic problems we face, crushing long-term unemployment rates and criminal levels of upward wealth redistribution, government spending should be increasing now.  The he-said, she-said political optics are cute if you are a well-fed Village Idiot or pampered millionaire establishment media TV star, but the rest of the country aren't quite loving life as much the swells these days.  We're fucked.  Those dopey assholes are fucked, too, but they can't actually see it yet.  The sequestration nonsense is not doing anything to help.

One Year Ago Today

it's the final countdown

the final countdown movie, so so much more watchable than that horrific tom cruise f-14 turd.  the sad thing is, this movie is as dumb as a rock, but it's okay.  i guess it is better because it is so much less effective as propaganda.  and katherine ross.

Tellin' Ida

Atrios Vs CBS? No Contest (CBS Loses)

First, Atrios writes a column.  Then, CBS shits the bed.  Really, can they be that stupid?  Of course they can.  That is why they are Village Idiots.  We're fucked.

Bill O'Reilly, Scott Brown, Herman Cain

Fox News gets dumber!  Shouldn't be possible, but Brown and Cain make O'Reilly even more of an idiot than he was before.  Poor O'Reilly, draft-dodging coward, son of a wealthy man, really believes he did everything without any help.  He is a preening, deluded shitball.  O'Reilly's been the beneficiary of the world's most pernicious affirmative action program: Roger Ailes' ruthless promotion of the world's ugliest ignorant sycophants and ass-kissers on Murdoch's propaganda network.  O'Reilly is the top of the heap.  Andrea Mackris, anyone?  Mrs. Bill O'Reilly and her cop stud, anyone?

One Year Ago Today

no one ever listens to poor zathras

the real future of serotta, if it has one?  the 3000 dollar stock titanium road racing frame.  i've said it before and i'll say it again.  if you have a (reasonable?) stock carbon road frame and a killer, uber-expensive aluminium racing frame, what's left?  the stock, titanium road racing frame.  not a fucking long-low, bullshit fender bike.  not some idiotic, old-man, high-headtube frame.  a real, tweaked, tight racing frame.  stock sizing only.  no stupid, thousand dollar, douchey flame paint jobs.  make (most of) 'em to order, but have the shit on hand to build and ship them pretty quickly.  use the top-shelf straight-gauge ti tubing, and make them ride like the best racing frames, and deliver them at a great price.  with their ludicrous and fucking obscene pricing structure, serotta is swirling around the bowl on their way out.  clearly their brain trust is a loser crew; if they don't adopt a racing mindset and use their titanium fabrication skills to their best use at the right price, it's adios motherfuckers.

if they really want to prove they have giant balls and want to be players in the racing-style bike game, serotta could also offer a stock steel racing frame and fork at ridiculously low price, sized just like the titanium racing frames, every cm from 48-65, perfect for people who know better and are on the tightest of budgets and want a proper-fitting racing frame that comes in more than 3 sizes.  or maybe those people have the serotta ti racing frame already and want a second frame but don't want to spend another three grand.  something.  serotta had better come up with something, and way back in ancient history they know how to make a world-class racing bike.

if the road and mountain frames start to make money, they could add cross to mix as well.  it sure sounds better than flushing your brand with dentist's bikes that nobody wants.

update: with friends like these...you are fucked if you are serotta.  i bet richard sachs is really, really happy he didn't decide to make sachs frames, inc. a bigtime factory 35 years ago...

Let's Really Raise The Minimum Wage

President Obama's call to raise the minimum wage was fine, just fine, but it did not go far enough.  The idea to index the minimum wage is a good start, but $9 is far too stingy.  Economists may argue whether a higher minimum wage or a really generous Earned Income Tax Credit type is better for the economy as a whole--see Krugman, Paul--but that argument really only begins to matter if the minimum wage in question is a fuck of a lot high than 7, 9, or 15 dollars.  As per his usual political proclivities, Obama lost the minimum wage battle before he even started by opening way too low.  But how high should we really be considering?  I said $13.50; that's still not a living wage, but the indexing will make for a better future.  Some experts came up with $12.30 as an economically painless increase.  That's an improvment over $9/hour, and almost as good as $13.50.  As the boom times continue for the wealthiest Americans and American businesses, now would be a great time to raise incomes for everybody.  The stimulus would benefit the economy as a whole and do a little to reverse the criminal wealth redistribution happening right now.  The optics are glorious; the minimum wage increase is popular.  The political issue is a winner, too.  Reactionary douchebags and pampered, ignorant teabagger types hate the idea, so everybody wins!

The World Is Crumbling Beneath Us

They (we) are too stupid to continue.  A bunch of pampered upper-middle class twits bitching about taxes is probably one of the most disgusting things on Earth.  We will deserve everything we get.  Extinction via killer asteroid would be a waste of a perfectly good asteroid.

Update: As the days go on, this thread gets dumber.  For the couple of decent folks trying to tell those cocksuckers that they are ginormous pussies and should shut the fuck up, the #1 and #2 despicable bastards are just too fucking dumb to get it, atmo.

One Year Ago Today

illegal rentboy sheriff dot com

you know, sheriff, there's only two things that come from arizona, queers and queers, so which one are you?

what the fuck is going on with these sick bastards?  whether it be a closet-case cardinal dolan, or child-rapist football coaches at the pennsyltucky vatican, or diaper-shitting whoremongering senators, america is up to its eyeballs in twisted hypocrites.  now the tough-guy, family-values sheriff is some sort of manipulative closet-case himself.   who ever woulda' guessed...

Is The Norco Truax As Kick-Ass As It Seems?

Awful name, shared with a Koch-sucking propaganda children's "book", but 180mm of travel, coil shock, and available as a frameset.  Is it too good to be true, especially for the price?  The geometry is okay, but I'd like a slightly steeper seat angle.  Still, when compared to the alternatives--I'm talking to you non-existent made-in-Taiwan Knolly Delirium, Canfield One, and Intense Uzzi--it seems like a kick-ass frame for a nice price.  There are no dealers around here, but kinda like the Scott kid's bike last year, I can beg an indulgence and get a deal done, I think.  Could be cool.  Or I could just keep overthinking this and not get anything.  (Eventually, I'm probably gonna have to buy a bike the shop actually sells...)

Maker's Mark Would Put A Manual Transmission In The Chevy SS

They had the good to sense to not fuck up their whiskey, and if Maker's Mark ran GM, they would probably figure out how to not fuck up their new car.

2014 Chevy SS With No Proper Manual: Time To Send GM To The Suicide Booth

The Saab fanboys are right about GM.  The senior management has to be some of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet.  Chevrolet decides to do something that seems cool: bringing back the Holden/G8 as a 2014 Chevy SS, but then even after the G8 debacle--no proper manual transmission available on all models, no high-output twin turbo version of the Saab-derived V6, no AWD option, general incompetence--GM goes and does it all over again!  The new car will not have a proper manual transmission option, even though the Holden version has it.  Fucking morans!  Seriously, it's time to do away with GM's serial idiocy.  To the suicide booth with them! (Exact change, only.)

Today, Maryland

The world's most popular college basketball team.  Today.

Adventure Pets

One Year Ago Today

cognitive dissonance or kos bullshit?

if you read this daily kos marcos post--which i rarely do; except as a list of links and a welfare program for entry-level democratic establishment apparatchiks, daily kos lost all relevance sometime in early 2003--you see a prime example of what may be actual cognitive dissonance but is more probably bullshit when it comes to his purported support for 'fighting liberals' that suddenly morph into 'fighting democrats'.  that's the tell.  the daily kos crowd, the establishment 'left' blogs have nothing to do with liberal causes or left-wing philosophy.  instead the are all about promoting democrats and electing democrats, not liberals, not socialists, not progressives, not populists or anyone who is not completely loyal to the democratic party establishment.  the (relatively) big left wing blogs are not left wing at all because the democratic party is not at all left wing; as obama has proven over and over again, the democrats are rock-ribbed establishment, wall-street conservatives with as much of the proper fealty to the oligarchy as the reality-based republicans.  so when all these folks talk about electing democrats--how'd that big push for stephanie herseth work out, marcos?--they are gathering up as many of the left-leaning interweb-americans to the conservative democratic party cause as they can.  not a bad deal for the oligarchs.  money well spent. 

democrats pullin' it for romney

oh, yeah, baby, the democrats in congress and barack obama are doing their bestest to destroy any reason to vote for obama or congressional dems this year by acting like fucking morons and adopting all of the 1%-favored economic austerity policies with a wink and a smile.  with all the bullshit in this tax and unemployment deal, the rock-ribbed conservative democrats are again showing their true colors and pulling the lever for republicans this year.  digby is right.  cutting the unemployment insurance is a terrible idea.  terrible because it hurts the unemployed people and terrible because it hurts the economy and the population as whole by removing stimulus money!  all these assholes--republican and democrat alike--want to do is punish the poor and unemployed and continue to redistribute the wealth of the nation up to the 1%.  when the democrats are every bit the repugnant assholes that the republicans are, why would anyone vote for a loser?

virag's movie reviews: 30 minutes or less (2011)

this was not a movie.  it was only 78 minutes long and was missing quite a few obvious scenes in addition most of the purported comedy.  i think it was a rejected pilot for an fx network show.  maybe comedy central.  that sad thing is, there was could have been something here.  there was the germ of a good idea.  the setting was grand rapids, michigan, which is one of those weird, sad, worn-out and left-behind american locales.  the main characters were comfortably non-heroic and downtrodden.  fred ward.  the guy and his friend were fine.  the sister was stunning.  but the two tee vee actors who were playing the villains were awful.  there is a reason why some people are on the tee vee: they are invisible on the big screen.  the stripper was played by a tee vee actor, but at least she was willing to do the thing young women have to do sometimes to prove they can fill up a big screen.  so...where was the rest of the movie?  supposedly the director had made a movie before, so didn't he look at the script and realize that was not a complete film there?  why would you go forward?  because the check cleared?  a good director would have done a rewrite, fleshed this thing out, and made it a genuine, profane and cynical dark comedy.  maybe next time. 

eric bolling got cancelled on fox business!

hahhahhahhahhah!  fucking awesome.  that racist walking cockbag eric bolling had his show cancelled on fox business channel.  i'm sure we'll all shed a tear for that dumb-as-a-post piece of shit.  i wonder how long it'll be until he gets replaced on that stupid fox news channel show by a plankton?  or plankton?

So Much For Congressman Murphy

Patrick Murphy didn't have to wait too long to disappoint us after doing the gods' work in dispatching vile war criminal and teabagging asshole Allen West.  Oh, well.  He did something good, and now he gets to do a shitload of awful things because he was a better man and a better choice than one of the worst Americans in history, Allen West.  That's racing.

Update: Shame on Kyrsten Sinema for being a part of this fucking bullshit.

(via)

Cory Booker Is And Would Be A Disaster

Let's hope he never gets outa Newark.  He would be a shitty fucking Senator; he's a lightweight self-promoter and preening auto-fellator in the mold of Bill O'Reilly and Ted Cruz.  I guess it is a sign of progress that reprehensible bastards who are also African-American can have a real shot of failing up the political food chain in modern America. 

Senator Warren Sez

What's the opposite of grandstanding?  Senator Warren would probably say it is actually doing the homework before you show up for Senator stuff.  Ted Cruz would probably crank out a turd and eat half of it before flinging the rest at his fans.

Ralph Nader And The Minimum Wage

Last year. 2012.  It's cool that Obama got on the bus this week, sorta.  It is also cool that Nader and lots of other smart guys and gals have been on this shit for a while now, and if Obama was really interested in helping the working poor and helping the economy...never mind.

One Year Ago Today

virag's movie reviews: x-men: first class (2011)

why?  what was the point of this fucking dreck?  yeah, yeah, i know: money, but jesus this was just garbage.  pointless garbage.  all of the x-men movies sucked, even with captain picard in them; the only actor who seemed to be engaged is the australian wolverine guy.  (bryan singer shoulda drowned himself after his first movie--remember, that turd had a baldwin brother in it, and not the good one.  i can't wait to see what he'll do if he really gets a chance to buttfuck battlestar galactica.)  the fantastic four movies sucked; most comic book movies blow dog.  almost all of the these comic book concepts are just too stupid to justify a big-budget, live-action film.  however, after all the years of publication, there should be no excuse for not recognizing the worst of the plots and characters.  these movie studios are bereft of any scrap of imagination and originality. 

Is West Liberty University America's Finest Academic Institution

Probably not, but tweaking the Fox "News" assholes is always good fun.  Of course, many WLU folks probably love the Fox brand of bullshit.

Harry Reid: Biggest Douche In The Universe, Today

Useless asshole Harry Reid got his balls handed to him today by the Republicans over the Chuck Hagel disaster.  Reid, aristocrat, douchebag, hypocrite, is kinda getting the pasting he deserves. 

The Real Question About Senator Slurpy

The problem is not that he is getting eviscerated for his hilarious and hilariously awful performance.  No, the real problem is how the fuck did a sitting Senator giving a nationally televised speech not have every possible contingency covered, and how could said Senator not be so fucking rehearsed that even a nuclear attack would never have distracted him?  Rubio is an ass-clown, and this damn well should be the end of his political career.  Not for the creepy slurpy performance, but for the entire astoundingly amateurish fuck-up on national goddamned television.

Electric Car Controversy

No, electric cars aren't ready to be substitutes for actual cars--and may never be--but the car establishment is always gonna hate 'em.  Right now, you can make an electric car work if you live in a place where you don't really need to drive, but for open-ended driving, the lack of credible infrastructure in addition to very credible reliability issues are absolute killers for the foreseeable future.  I hope electric Saab is paying attention. 

Oh, How The Obama Fluffers Hate Better Men

They really can't help it.  It makes them sad and sorry little peckerwoods, but it also enables our great conservative establishment when the fools and fluffers mindlessly nip and spew in defense of their own oppressors.  Oh, well, we're completely fucked anyway.  A few of the more lucid comments are mildly enlightening though.  Good for the few who continue to struggle even as they drown in shit.

One Year Ago Today

della santa goodness

breitbart on cenk's show

very disappointing.  it seemed that cenk was not all that prepared.  unless the fix was in, i would have expected him to sodomize breitbart without the benefit of a reach-around.  it didn't happen.  i wonder why?

Virag's Movie Reviews: The Hunger Games (2012)

Did I read the book?  Of course not.  Still, I can't help but be underwhelmed by the entire production of The Hunger Games.  It didn't look much like a huge, Hollywood movie; much of the content and presentation was cable TV at best.  Jennifer Lawrence seems to be another one of the endless parade of unremarkable young actresses who are chosen for stardom for no apparent reason.  She was certainly not up to transcending this material and making it something memorable.  She also didn't look too too hungry in the movie.  Nobody did really.  And some of the technology was oddly, inappropriately advanced.  Were those demon dog things supposed to be real?  Did they create them right there?  Unfreeze them?  Were they not real, just a hologram or some shit?  Did I miss something?  I mean, if they could do that kinda shit then they certainly could have been way more advanced in other ways.  Who cares?  It was just a not-great TV movie, hamstrung by its source material.  A novel for teenagers would have to be completely unbelievable and unrealistic given the subject matter.  Teenagers caught in the predicament of Katniss and the others would certainly not behave like children.  They would be acting to the best of their abilities as the greatest hedonists they could possibly imagine, and any realistic or believable movie would probably look more like an especially graphic Jess Franco film and nothing at all like The Hunger Games.

$18,720

Nine bucks an hour is $18,720 a year, if you get 40 hours a week all 52 weeks of the year.  Does that sound like a revolutionary proposal for the United States in 2013?  Seriously, not even 19 grand a year, at the most.  That is fucking nonsense.  If Obama really wanted to make those reactionary teabagging Republicans squirm, he should have gone just a tiny bit bigger and raised his proposal by 50% for a $13.50/hour minimum wage--or better yet, a living wage, indexed to inflation.  $13.50 is still only 28 grand a year, so nobody with any brains thinks that's enough to live on.  Raising the minimum wage is a great way to begin to reverse the outrageous transfer of wealth away from the working classes up to the oligarchs.  The more people get paid, the more money they spend, and the better the economy is for everyone, even the asshole Koch brothers and their Koch-sucking teabaggers.  Sure, the richest of the rich like the Walton family might have to do with just a little less in the next few years, but it would be so much better for the economy as a whole. 

Senator Slurpy Says Bye-Bye

Following in the great tradition of purported Republican saviors shitting the bed and killing their national political aspirations after an Obama speech--see, Jindal, Piyush--Marco Rubio, Senator Slurpy, effectively ended his hope of ever being nominated for President last night by giving an incoherent and inane SOTU response.  Poor Rubio couldn't even keep the plot during his short speech, and he looked so goofy and helpless that he will never again be taken quite so seriously by the Republican masters.  Adios, dickbag.

One Year Ago Today

scraping the bottom of the barrel: gretchen hamel on fox

because of the particular over-compensating pathology of rupert murdoch and roger ailes, fox news channel does some amazing scraping of the bottom of the most rancid barrels in america to find a particular sort of on-air 'talent'.  amilya antonetti is one especially sad example; former jc watts associate gretchen hamel is another.  sometimes when you watch fox you suddenly get the feeling that shepard smith was hired on orders from the top becauase of his looks as well.
update: fox news closet queen alert: holy shit!

papists pulling the lever for obama

the catholic clergy is doing everything it can to deliver the election to obama this year.  too stupid to take their pathetic and inexcusable victory and shut the fuck up before someone brought up their history with unnatural sex and sex crimes, the creepy boy-rapers and boy-rape-enablers decided to alienate 99.5% of american women and at least 99% of american men who are not complete fucking morons with their useless yapping on a subject about which no group of people on earth have less credibility.  the republican establishment and the romney campaign brain trust must be livid that the cocksucking clergy and the retards in congress have made this loser an issue in a year that they had a decent chance to unseat a sitting democratic president.  obama may be the luckiest man ever to occupy the oval office, even luckier than clinton who had gingrich to kick around.

lost girl

meh.  the premise is beyond silly, but the lead actress in it is really attractive, and a little bit different than the typical american tee vee type, with a sort of low-budget molly parker vibe going on.

update: the werewolf guy is pretty decent, too.  somehow he pulls it off despite the material.  maybe it's a canadian thing that i just don't understand.

update: exactly what is the point of the canadian remake of being human?

Nice Looking Canfield One

Single-crown fork, double chainrings, seat height for actual pedaling, an all mountain destroyer.  I could really dig a sled just like this.

State Of The Who Cares?

Take no notice of the saturation coverage.  The State of the Union address is nothing but cheap political theater.  Ted Nugent didn't diminish the event, it was debased long ago.  Regardless, the coverage is the show and the show is pointless.  Watch Justified instead.

Political Song for Marzocchi to Sing

Check out the fork on Petra's bike.  Sure looks like a pre-Bomber Marzocchi fork to me.  Still think Weezer blows dog, though.  Somehow, The Rentals were a joke band that managed to be less of a joke than Weezer.

Idiot Watching At The WSJ, Dipshit Wingnut Doctor Edition

Jesus fucking christ, the nuttiest wingnut rejects are out in force over at the Murdochian Wall Street Journal because some fuckwad retard wrote an editorial with four of the dumbest words in the English language as a title: Ben Carson for President.  Well, there you go.  Between the article and comments you can see the inevitable damnation of the American experiment lead by assholes dumb enough to base tax policy on biblical fiction and the people dumb enough to follow them.

One Year Ago Today

too stupid even for republicans

this is maybe the nuttiest thing that those brain-dead gop fuckers could do, hitching their political fortunes in an election year to a wildly unpopular position on something as personal and universal as birth control.  except for creepy cocksuckers like rick santorum, even the majority of self-identified republicans are huge users of birth control and abortion, so following the lead of the closet-case boy-fuckers and the other religious extremists is exactly the wrong move for a party attempting to unseat a sitting president.  obama must be doing backflips tonight.  

greasy d fault

at some point, if you can't figure out that stupid shit like a 22% cut in the minimum wage is not going to be helpful in solving your economic problems, then you have no business running a country.  this greek nonsense is nothing about helping greece and all about bailing out the international banks and maintaining the illusion of eurozone viability.  if a country can't control its own currency for the benefit of its own people, then it's not worth saving.

White Girl Problems: Range Of Tubes For Custom Aluminum Bikes

Here's the question: Are there enough different aluminum tubes to make custom bike frames for the edges of the bell curve?  Can a framebuilder make a light-enough hardtail for a short, 95 pound woman?  Or a reliable and serviceable road frame for someone 5'10" and 260 pounds?  Or a proper frame for someone 6'6" who weighs 310 or 180?  I have no idea, but it sure seems like the selection of Al tubes is a little sparse.  I can remember seeing tiny women back in the day riding really cool custom mountain frames made of Columbus SL (or lighter) skinny road tubing with Koski or Ritchey Logic forks and loving them.  I also saw a pretty wide selection of over-over-over-sized cromoly used on frames welded up for strong riders and serious racers who wanted something a bit sweeter than the $500 GT or Specialized or Diamond Back disposable racing mountain bike.  The steel was out there to make a nice frame for road racing or mountain biking for pretty much anyone of any size who wanted one.  Can we do that with aluminum in 2013?  Do the tubes (still) exist after the death of the top-level road frame in the late '90s?  I'm not talking about the stuff that Cannondale or Knolly use in Taiwan, but instead I wonder about a wide range of tubes available to custom framebuilders who can mix and match like they do with steel to create a perfect frame for an individual rider.  We may never know the answer to these questions, but tune in next time for another episode of Bullshit, or Not?

What If The LAPD Shoots More People Looking For Dorner Than Dorner Does?

It's bad mojo for the LAPD.  Worse than usual, if that's possible.  Parnoid, sleep-deprived, and scared-shitless cops shooting up a bunch of innocent people is not cool at all!  This crazy cat Christopher Dorner finally cracked, and he has a problem with his former peers on the job.  Reading his manifesto, it seems remarkable that a middle-of-the-road Navy veteran and Jon Huntsman supporter could not make his way in an organization like the LAPD.  I also find it kinda surprising that a self-described good guy like Dorner didn't know what a loathsome cabal the department was when he joined.  The force was chock-full of no-good racist bastards and thugs long before Dorner got there.  How did he not know that?  Perhaps not as funny and not as surprising are the ludicrous attempts by Fox "News" and others to make Dorner sound like some sort of liberal.  Dorner is many things, but liberal ain't one of 'em.  I guess being a Jon Huntsman supporter and big fan of Joe "Dead Intern" Scarborough makes you look like a liberal to dipshits on Fox.

Teabagging The Koch-Sucking Tea Party In 2002

The Koch brothers and their Koch-sucking catamites have been teabagging full-on since at least 2002.  That's not a fucking headline--or at least it shouldn't be--because the whole teabagger phenomenon was such an obvious bullshit stunt, an astro-turf joke that was only taken seriously by Village Idiot types and the rest of the establishment clowns.  The fact that anyone at all took them seriously is a serious black mark against the species. 

Oh, Jeebus, Wingnut Buffoon Ben Carson Should Shut Up!

Yes, it was indeed possible: he sounded dumber on Fox with Cavuto than he did at that stupid prayer bullshit.  At least he didn't say death panels this time, but he did talk about his personal relationship with god--along with how oh so many people ask him to run for President, but he only will if god asks him.  He is quite possibly the first man on Fox "News" to try harder than Bill O'Reilly to suck his own dick on live cable TV.  And he advocates a flat tax and pretends that is some god's will bullshit and in the bible as well!  What a moran!  On Fox he  pretended that he was some a scientist or some shit but failed to talk about how his god told him that the Earth is only 6000 years old.  Even Marco Rubio isn't that dumb.  Comparing Dr. Carson to a gifted BMW mechanic is an insult to car mechanics.  Here's a top tip: if your kid needs brain surgery, find a doctor who's not such a fucking preening moron. 

Auf Wiedersehen Mein Popenfuherer

Time to goose-step up one last time and say bye-bye to that vile, boy-raping Nazi primitive.  I really really hope he doesn't forget to fuck himself in the ass with Satan's spiky tail one last time on the way out the door. 

Update: 31 Dec. 2022--ded.

One Year Ago Today

now that's a small custom frame

you don't see a frame like this every day.

Blood And Chrome So Far

It looks really cheap.  I did not watch the webisodes because after waiting so long, I just didn't care.  I can see why the NBC was not thrilled, though.  On an HDTV, Blood and Chrome looks cheesy and flat.  It may be a while before I can watch the whole thing, but so far, even without the stench of Ronald D. Moore's corrosive banality, the project looks and feels like a waste.

Not Breaking News: Chris Christie Is A Titanic Asshole

NJ Governor and near-planetary body Chris Christie being a thin-skinned bully and all-around blowhard is not exactly hot off the presses.  He'll be electoral poison on a national stage; even Mittens understood as much.  The best thing that could happen for any Dem hopeful would be a Rudy Giuliani-style campaign abortion unleashed by Christie in 2016.  The worst would probably be a Charlie Crist-style conversion.  Chrisie's hypocrisy is not going to help him with teabaggers, so if he stays with the R's, he will hold 'em all back.  Moby's Dick ain't gonna be President, and if not for Obama, he wouldn't be getting a second term, either.

A Little FDL Love For John Maynard Keynes

Firedoglake has the Sunday Keynesian love.  Besides being sound economic policy for large, wealthy nations, Keynesian theory is made better by the fact that ignorant Galtian dickwads hate it hate it hate it. 

One Year Ago Today

obama's pulling the lever for mittens, again

the village idiots and obama fluffers are thrilled with the president's political capitulation to the assholes and creepy boy-lovers like the inexcusable closet-case tim dolan.  they're all wet and sticky because obama appeared to both defend his health care plan as well as kiss the ring of the backward-ass catholic men like e.j. dionne and mark shields and tim kaine who pretended to be oh so offended by this nonsense.  once again, this was a political failure that obama created for himself.  instead of making the argument that women and women's health are not matters of religious opinion in a country where there is a separation of church and state and then bringing out the vast majority of catholic women and other religious women who put the health of women and the freedom of choice ahead of the bullshit spewed out by a bunch of hypocrite pedophiles to make the case and voice the administration's principled stand in order to not let the debate be defined by the boy fuckers and the patrician village idiot assholes like chris matthews, he soothed the egos of the bad guys and made sure that the old men knew who was boss.  they were.  as a matter of law, as a matter of principle and as a matter of equal rights for women, the original birth control rule was the proper one; no compromise was necessary.  he had the support of women, and the nation in general; the only ones who had a problem were the catholic leadership and a bunch of asshole republicans, none of whom were voting for obama anyway.  and anyone who believes that obama had a big plan to outwit the republican leadership and presidential candidates in order to make them look like extremist whackjobs on birth control and shit clearly just got here from neptune, because this president hasn't outwitted anyone except his most ardent supporters in three and a half years.
once again, obama struck a compromise with the evil and the stupid when none was necessary.  when obama's supporters make the argument that obama deserves reelection because the alternative is so much worse, this birth control failure is just another proof that the argument is not a strong one.  obama has not been a good president who might have been great as armando at dailykos would have you believe.  as he's shown over and over, he's a political failure who was elected in the hope he'd be a strong leader in times of enormous national distress.  his supreme court picks have been mediocre at best; the need for a strong, intelligent legal intellects on the court was not met by obama's choices.  his health insurance reform was too little, too late when the nation needed radical change; obama squandered his mandate because he had no intention of being a transformational leader.  when obama acts as the servant of the oligarchy and abandons the ideals he supposedly supported as a senator or as a candidate, he's doing nothing more than pulling the lever for mittens.  certainly his only argument for reelection is that a republican would be so much worse, but if you've been on the planet since 2008 and have had your eyes open, you can only ask how?  health care?  women's rights?  freedom?  peace?  economics?  how could mittens be so much worse?  mittens can be bush's fourth term if he wants, as obama has essentially been the third.  the pool, the pond.  the pond would be good for you. 

virag's movie reviews: cowboys and aliens (2011)

cowboys and aliens might have been the best movie ever made--or at least marginally entertaining--had the film been made with the cast of deadwood and an r rating, along with music by kitchens of distinction.  however, it wasn't, and it didn't, so it sucked.  as it turns out that jon favreau is an awful filmmaker.  go figure.