In the news today
Serious Business
From Feministe: "Pro-Life" Laws: Totally Fucked. I wish I had enough faith in humanity to believe that one day, these people will stop pretending this is about anything other than maintaining power over people's minds and bodies.
From Glenn Greenwald (courtesy of Obsidian Wings): War as reality rather than cartoon. Comparing and contrasting the Israeli and American attitudes toward their respective wars. I agree with virtually everything he has to say about this, including the simmering undertone of anger that runs through the whole thing.
From Smirking Chimp: A Veto Inked in Blood. Honest to God, I want to throw up every time Bush opens his mouth these days. And not just because everything that comes out of it is hypocritical bullshit or outright lies. I feel sick when I read headlines talking about "compromise"- because anyone who's been paying attention knows that Bush's definition of compromise is "everybody shut up and do what I tell you to." Apparently the media's idea of a really hard-line Democratic compromise at this point is a timetable for the Iraqi government which would withdraw non-military funds if they didn't meet the benchmarks. Of course Bush doesn't object to this; getting a bill where that was the only stipulation would be an overwhelming victory for him.
It wouldn't stand in the way of leaving American troops in Iraq perpetually, it wouldn't even interfere with a stated goal of helping train the Iraqi military. All it would do is cut off funding for infrastructure and other civilian needs...and if that even has an effect (which who knows, since the money already being invested over there has mostly been squandered or stolen by war profiteers and contractors, and what has been built isn't being maintained properly), Bush can turn around and blame the infrastructure problems on Democrats for forcing those horrible timetables on him. He'll probably even manage to blame the problems that predated the bill on the Democrats. And that's assuming he even pays attention to the timetables; my money says that they pass a bill with timetables, call it a "compromise," and then Bush tacks on a signing statement that says he reserves the right to ignore the timetables if he feels like it.
To paraphrase Tycho from Penny Arcade, "At a certain point, familiarity becomes indistinguishable from psychic mind beams."
From Media Matters: Glenn Reynolds compares Al Gore to Hitler and attempts to lower carbon emmissions to the extermination of 6 million Jews. Classy. Incidentally, Glenn Reynolds is among the top two reasons I don't watch CNN or read their website any more. He would make me ashamed to be a human being if I believed he actually was human. Someone needs to share this essay with him.
Srs Bizness
Judge Nixes Jack Thompson's Kotaku Suit. Like many deranged people, Thompson is persistence itself; that is apparently why he responded to a judge's dismissal of his amended complaint against Kotaku by filing another attempt to add Kotaku to his federal lawsuit. (In case you haven't been paying attention, and I can't say I blame you, this is a lawsuit against the Florida Bar claiming that their attempts to discipline him in response to multiple ethics complaints filed against him are part of a global conspiracy to silence him. Jack Thompson: proving daily that even the bugfuck crazy can succeed as lawyers!)
Deathnote reference!
I think I've become addicted to The Onion's opinion page.
From Feministe: "Pro-Life" Laws: Totally Fucked. I wish I had enough faith in humanity to believe that one day, these people will stop pretending this is about anything other than maintaining power over people's minds and bodies.
From Glenn Greenwald (courtesy of Obsidian Wings): War as reality rather than cartoon. Comparing and contrasting the Israeli and American attitudes toward their respective wars. I agree with virtually everything he has to say about this, including the simmering undertone of anger that runs through the whole thing.
From Smirking Chimp: A Veto Inked in Blood. Honest to God, I want to throw up every time Bush opens his mouth these days. And not just because everything that comes out of it is hypocritical bullshit or outright lies. I feel sick when I read headlines talking about "compromise"- because anyone who's been paying attention knows that Bush's definition of compromise is "everybody shut up and do what I tell you to." Apparently the media's idea of a really hard-line Democratic compromise at this point is a timetable for the Iraqi government which would withdraw non-military funds if they didn't meet the benchmarks. Of course Bush doesn't object to this; getting a bill where that was the only stipulation would be an overwhelming victory for him.
It wouldn't stand in the way of leaving American troops in Iraq perpetually, it wouldn't even interfere with a stated goal of helping train the Iraqi military. All it would do is cut off funding for infrastructure and other civilian needs...and if that even has an effect (which who knows, since the money already being invested over there has mostly been squandered or stolen by war profiteers and contractors, and what has been built isn't being maintained properly), Bush can turn around and blame the infrastructure problems on Democrats for forcing those horrible timetables on him. He'll probably even manage to blame the problems that predated the bill on the Democrats. And that's assuming he even pays attention to the timetables; my money says that they pass a bill with timetables, call it a "compromise," and then Bush tacks on a signing statement that says he reserves the right to ignore the timetables if he feels like it.
To paraphrase Tycho from Penny Arcade, "At a certain point, familiarity becomes indistinguishable from psychic mind beams."
From Media Matters: Glenn Reynolds compares Al Gore to Hitler and attempts to lower carbon emmissions to the extermination of 6 million Jews. Classy. Incidentally, Glenn Reynolds is among the top two reasons I don't watch CNN or read their website any more. He would make me ashamed to be a human being if I believed he actually was human. Someone needs to share this essay with him.
Srs Bizness
Judge Nixes Jack Thompson's Kotaku Suit. Like many deranged people, Thompson is persistence itself; that is apparently why he responded to a judge's dismissal of his amended complaint against Kotaku by filing another attempt to add Kotaku to his federal lawsuit. (In case you haven't been paying attention, and I can't say I blame you, this is a lawsuit against the Florida Bar claiming that their attempts to discipline him in response to multiple ethics complaints filed against him are part of a global conspiracy to silence him. Jack Thompson: proving daily that even the bugfuck crazy can succeed as lawyers!)
Deathnote reference!
I think I've become addicted to The Onion's opinion page.