Whaaaaaaaaat?

We've all been reading stories lately about right-wing knuckleheads breaking out their (rightfully-held but woefully-employed) firearms and killing them some freaking lefties. First there was the George Tiller murder. Then there's the cop-killer Richard "Pop" Poplawski. And now there's James W. von Brunn. I thought that Michael Gerson would have something interesting to say about this, since he's a Reich-winger and I figured this would challenge his worldview. I was wrong.

In the course of his screetardation, here's a puzzling bit:

The anti-Semitic community is varied in background and ideology. It includes both Internet Nazis and campus leftists carrying signs that read, "Jews = Nazis."

Really? Who are these "leftists"? Are they represented by Jeremiah Wright, who Gerson mentions in his next sentence? Here's Gerson's Wright quote:

Oh, wait. He doesn't have a quote. But he will put a couple of words in quotation marks. Here's what Gerson has to say:

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright recently blamed "them Jews" for blocking his access to President Obama.

Really? That's what Gerson has for "leftist" antagonism for the Jews? Does Gerson think that more than a hundred people in America take Jeremiah Wright seriously? But that is it. Then Gerson goes on to document other instances of anti-Semitism. Leftist? No. But that's the last brush he used, so the next painting must have been done with the same implement, right?

Er, no.

This article is just another example of Michael Gerson's incompetence. But given that he got started as Dubya's speech-writer, we shouldn't expect much. Oy.

Well, sure . . .

. . . sometimes it occurs to me that violence is appropriate when dealing with people who won't shut up during a movie, but I'd never shoot them.

I hope everyone's holidays are going well. And I hope to see some of you tonight at Jam's place.

And You Thought Incompetence Was a National Thing for Republicans

Here's a video taken of Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman's press secretary fielding questions about whether Coleman accepted inappropriate gifts or favors.

Pathetic.

Via Matthew Yglesias.

This Just In: Sara Palin. Complete. Fucking. Imbecile.

Let's roll the tape:


Seriously. If you can get wrecked in an interview by Katie Couric, you're beyond salvageable. This woman couldn't find her ass with both hands. But hey! She likes to shoot at wolves from a helicopter, so she must be . . . well, she must . . . aw screw it. She's a typical conservative dolt.

Via EoTAW

Sarah Palin As Brain Surgeon

There's a pretty good article at Newsweek written by Sam Harris (of Letter to a Christian Nation fame) about Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate. Harris lays out a good case that Palin is unprepared and generally unsuited to leadership of any kind, but especially at the international level. He uses this portion of the article to illustrate his point:

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world's only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

"But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind."

"That's just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink."

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

This is the doing of homo moronicus as well. Insecurity about other people being more intelligent, I think, drives regular people to reject exceptional people as leaders. That, if anything, is the real danger posed by the McCain/Palin ticket. Well, at least as far as the election goes. If they were to win the danger would be much worse.

The Morons Are Coming! The Morons Are Coming!

A couple days ago in the Minneapolis Star Tribune some quasi-human pile of snake shit named "Lisa Sisinni" wrote about how, now that Hillary Clinton has been passed over for Vice President, she's going to vote for--get this--John McCain. She even lays out her "reasons" for this fuckwittery thusly:

Now that Obama has captured the Democratic nomination, the choice is clear: John McCain has far more experience and understanding of critical issues -- the war in Iraq, economic prosperity, health-care reform and energy security, to name a few -- than Barack Obama. John McCain has been a member of Congress for 26 years; Obama has yet to finish his first term in the Senate. I may not agree with McCain on every social issue, but he has earned the right to stand where he does after years of making tough decisions as a federal lawmaker.

I know that I can trust McCain, because he was willing to sacrifice his own life in service to his country. That kind of character is hard to find, and that character has guided him throughout his political career. He has held fast to his beliefs even when they made him unpopular and when he faced pressures from his own party. Obama doesn't have a record of character like that; in fact, he doesn't have much of a record at all.

I've written about this kind of idiot previously, and Sisinni's essay on petulant stupidity falls right in line with my earlier post. In short, every criterion she lists as a reason to vote for McCain over Obama also would be a reason to vote for McCain over Clinton.

Can we pass a law or something? Maybe something like, "If someone should demonstrate, in speech or in writing, that he or she is incapable of simple critical thinking, then that person shall be barred from casting a vote in any election." Because really, this is the same kind of stupid shit that put Dubya in the White House and then kept him there.

Dammit, people suck.

Another Thing George and Osama Have In Common

I mean--other than being the two people who have done the most to damage America in the last eight years. It turns out they both have terrible approval ratings.We've known about Dubya's public perception problems for some time. The American Research Group, Inc. had this to say a few weeks ago:

Among all Americans, 21% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 72% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 17% approve and 77% disapprove.

But it turns out Osama can't get his people behind him anymore, either. Here's Peter Bergen in the Washington Post today:

No matter what bin Laden's fate, Muslims around the world are increasingly taking a dim view of his group and its suicide operations. In the late 1990s, bin Laden was a folk hero to many Muslims. But since 2003, as al-Qaeda and its affiliates have killed Muslim civilians by the thousands from Casablanca to Kabul, support for bin Laden has nose-dived, according to Pew polls taken in key Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Pakistan.

It turns out that whether you're in America or Arabia, if you screw over the people you pretend to help, they don't like it. Huh.

It's almost like they're related.

This photo from Uncyclopedia.

A Video About How McCain Sucks

As Ari notes on Edge of the American West, this should be shouted from the hilltops. Except it can't be shouted, because it's a video. So it should be . . . shown to lots of people.



I can't believe there are still people willing to vote for this schmuck.

Exposure Path: CartwrightDale, Talking Points Memo, Edge of the American West

Damn, People Are Stupid #3

Normally I like Nick Coleman's commentaries in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He tends to take the side of the underdog, usually in a case where that is necessary. Normally he makes sense. This time he doesn't.

Actually, I had overlooked this article until Michele started ranting about it over breakfast (she is her father's daughter--no doubt about it). Once I read it, though, my ranting matched hers.

Apparently a woman named Christina Brown bought some shirts at Target, paid for them with a check, and took them home. She discovered there that the shirts didn't fit and returned to the store the next day to get her money back. Once in the store she was told that--per company policy--she could have her money back immediately in the form of a gift card or she could wait six more days and get cash back. That wasn't good enough for Ms. Brown. She wanted cash and she wanted it now. Evidently her conversation with the manager of the store wasn't well-handled from either end, and Ms. Brown was taken away by stretcher to the hospital.

Here are the relevant points to the episode:

• Ms. Brown wanted her money back and, according to Target's return policy, was entitled to it.
• Ms. Brown was offered her money back in accord with Target's return policy.
• Ms. Brown wanted Target to make an exception to their return policy.
• Ms. Brown refused her refund and refused to leave unless an exception was made for her.
• Ms. Brown called the police, who apparently decided she needed to go to the hospital.

Here are the irrelevant points to the episode (but Coleman included them anyway):

• Ms. Brown is 79 years old.
• Ms. Brown is an English-Irish immigrant.
• Ms. Brown uses a wheelchair.
• Ms. Brown wears a patch over her eye. (Arrrr.)
• Ms. Brown's leg ached.

Emotional appeal is used effectively when supporting a conclusion already arrived at by reason, as any of my freshman Comp students have heard more times than they'd like. It doesn't, however, take the place of reason, which Coleman surely knows. He's a better columnist than this. Here's another gem:

Attention shoppers: You won't take a gift certificate? You must be nuts.

Nice distortion, Coleman.

Here are some questions Coleman didn't address, but that I'd find pertinent to the issue:

• Why didn't Ms. Brown try on the shirts in the store?
• Did Ms. Brown try to exchange the shirts for some that would fit?
• Why was Ms. Brown so emphatic about getting cash back? If the shirts had fit she wouldn't have the money, so she clearly wasn't counting on having it. And since she "liked to shop" in that store--did she not think the gift card would be useful to her?

All of this is easy to come up with after the fact, but there's no hiding it: this is a shoddy commentary.

Sure, the manager could have defused the whole situation by just handing thirty dollars to Ms. Brown. And there's no harm in trying, right? I don't think Ms. Brown was out of line going to the store and making the attempt (though it seems that calling instead would have been more sensible since she *boo hoo* uses a wheelchair). But she's deluded if she expects people have an obligation to do her a favor, to make an exception for her.

And we have the usual fallout:

Christina Brown wants an apology, she wants her money (including getting her medical bills from the unexpected hospital trip paid), and she wants this: "I want the staff trained in how to treat customers."

Want, want, want. Wah-fucking-wah. I'm sure she'll get her money--in seven days, like the policy says (Correction--already has her money. This happened on July 31st). But money back for the hospital visit? Talk to the police, who actually made the call to send her there. Good luck with that. An apology? Yeah, here's an apology that Target should send her:

Dear Ms. Brown,

We're sorry you're a self-important, whiny bitch. Thanks for your previous business, but please take it elsewhere from here on out, because we'd rather spend our time and effort on reasonable people.

Thank you,

Target

And as far as I can tell, everyone involved treated her as she should have been treated.

Idiot.

Damn, People Are Stupid #2

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the results of a study by FindLaw.com:

. . . 48 percent of drivers between 18 to 24 and 27 percent of drivers 25 to 34 admit to texting while behind the wheel.

Seventeen percent of all adults surveyed say they have sent text messages, instant messages or e-mails while driving.

This doesn't surprise me at all, but it does enrage me. Put down the damned pacifier and drive, you fuckwits. You can go for a few minutes without finding out what Kelsey, Chelsea, Lindsay, and Ashley are doing this weekend. You certainly don't need to instantly communicate that "taht ashol just curt me of!!"

If the only people hurt or killed in accidents resulting from this stupidity were the texters I'd encourage it. Strengthen the gene pool and all that. But the anencephalous specimens engaging in this behavior are more likely to walk away from an accident while some other poor sucker bleeds to death around the steering column embedded in her chest.

Gaaaaah!

Damn, People Are Stupid

According to CNN, People magazine has paid $14 million for pictures of Angelina Jolie's spawn.

The sad thing about this arrangement is that it's probably a good investment for People. They know their audience better than I do, and I'm sure they know whether there are enough mouth-breathers out there who would buy their magazine just to gaze on celebrity brats to justify the fourteen-million dollar price tag.

Hopefully the story's correct on this point:

It is the second time People magazine has won the North American rights to the couple's exclusive baby pictures in exchange for a hefty donation to charity.

Maybe some needy people will benefit from this stupidity. Otherwise, People is just producing more noise, distracting the public just a little bit more, eroding whatever sense its readers had left with photos of wealthy, worthless larvae.

But hey--how dumb am I? If this isn't worthy of the attention it gets, why am I writing about it?

Because I'm stupid, too.