Moe Lane

Yeah, I didn’t wake up expecting to write that today, either (I wonder if Glenn did).  Heck, I don’t even know if I agree with this…

I’ve spent much of my adult life studying various theories of race and racism, and the last few years in a rather intensive mode of study. In all of that time one inescapable conclusion has dogged me: Race is such bullshit.

…in the same way that he does; but race is such bullshit.

And that’s all I feel like saying on that matter, actually.

Moe Lane

PS: Of course, I don’t particularly expect that Ta-Nehisi Coates is ready to abandon the roughly sixteen metaphorical tons of bad liberal/progressive/Democratic policy positions that rely on said bullshit being taken seriously.

This one goes out to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is currently enjoying a close-up, indefinite stay at Rikers Island.  Because the NYPD does not MESS AROUND, that’s why.

Folsom Prison Blues (Live), Johnny Cash

And, yes, they know PRECISELY just who you are.

You know the one: it’s the one where we get told about how OfA is… organizing itself for America.  The group’s getting itself together, rebuilding and getting ready for the titanic struggle of 2012!

…Which is not to be distinguished from the titanic struggle of 2009-2010, which utterly failed to stop the GOP from taking the New Jersey governorship, the Massachusetts Senator’s seat, and pretty much the entire state of Virginia.  Or the other titanic struggle of 2009-2010, which utterly failed to convince the American people that health care rationing was a good thing.  And, wait, there’s that third titanic struggle of 2009-2010, which utterly failed to keep the Republican party from retaking the House of Representatives, literally decimating the Senate Democratic caucus, and cleaning up in state legislatures across the country.

Heck of a lot of titanic struggles there, really.  Fortunately, they all had happy endings.

You know, I had a point to all of this; really, I did.  At least, I had one besides ‘genial mockery.’  But I’m blessed if I can figure out what it is, at this point.

Moe Lane

…which is thankfully getting a whole lot less pound-my-head-against-a-wall, now that I understand a little better how to do combat.  Overall, pretty fun: the Central/Eastern Europe 17th century vibe is very good, but there are issues with combat being sticky.  Also, I’m already lost in the plot and it’s only Act 2.  Bottom line: having fun, will play the sequel if they’ve really fixed the quirks in this one, but I wish that Mass Effect 3 hadn’t been delayed three months.

…what?

Look, I know that Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Epic Series looks like somebody vomited up a fashion disaster and everything, but consider that the only viable alternative SF universe to live in (Star Trek) was getting hammered by Alien Space Bats a LOT more often.  Besides, after the first series all the danger was happening to people FAR AWAY from Earth.  Which is great, if you’re planning to move and everything.

Also, I could be a consultant.  As the first link notes, those people were so starved for culture that disco looked good to them.

Via somebody or other.

But this is apparently not an universal sentiment:

…and while I certainly would have been much more polite about it, I’m with Ace of Spades (H/T) on this one: ouch.  Not surprising, though: these days, Paul Ryan is more or less bulletproof among the base.  We may not agree that he should run for PotUS or even WI-SEN, but Ryan is definitely showing some moxie.

Rep. Schakowsky, attempting to explain why photos of the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden would not be released, had this to say:

“These are pictures of a violent crime scene. This is a dead person. A dead Osama bin Laden,” she said.

Now, I will readily grant that normally a statement like this should be subject to Occam’s Razor.  The simplest way to explain the problems with the first sentence* would be to simply postulate that the person who uttered it is a semi-literate buffoon who is so unthinkingly programmed to parrot outworn and exploded progressive agitprop that she is truly unaware that even suggesting that Navy SEALs are criminals for killing Osama bin Laden is offensive.  Or that she has not contemplated that her aforementioned parroting handily confirms every not-nice said about the average progressive antiwar politician’s judgement, character, and native mother-wit.  Or that (by extension) Schakowsky is accusing fellow-Democrat President Barack Obama of war crimes, given that he gave the order.  Yes, really, if this had just been uttered by some nobody then you could simply chalk the comment up to pig-ignorance, coupled with thee utterer being a natural-born damned fool. (more…)

I mean, seriously, if I was going to read a parody post of the “Drat that Obama for being insufficiently left-wing!” it’d read like this.  Down to the fake “Family/Clan/Brotherhood” ways of addressing people; I mean, seriously, folks.  That attempt to obfuscate the socioeconomic differences between angry populists and clueless intellectuals* was merely one of the many pernicious societal quirks that were largely wiped out by the Reagan Bomb.

Then again, we are talking about progressives.  They might really be that dumb.  In that case, I invite West & Ledge to watch this clip again:

…only, this time?  They should contemplate the notion that Spike Lee was talking to them.  Because, really… he was.

Have a nice day!

Moe Lane

*Typically either White ones, or MAWB-Whites.

That’s what Patrick McIlheran over at RCP called retiring – in more ways than one – Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl, largely on the grounds that during his tenure Kohl has done… nothing.

Nothing at all.

Which would normally be enough to make him one of my favorite Senators – the more of them that can’t be bothered to do anything, the better* – but Patrick also notes this fun little detail:

Obama was going to run in a Wisconsin where his side’s leading local face was a senator who never offended anyone. He will instead run in a Wisconsin where the face of his party will be beet-red, occasionally mobbing the Capitol by the tens of thousands, and shouting for higher taxes — over and over, in a campaign season that drags on for two sleepless years.

This reflects a paradox that has not yet even been really noticed, let alone resolved: the man who ran for election in 2008 on a platform of Change will be stuck running for re-election in 2012 on a platform of Don’t Change – while still somehow having to stay true to the original Change message.  And said message of Change will undoubtedly be appropriated by whatever Republican gets the nomination, which means that the real message from Obama is going to be Change that is not the Change of four years ago, nor the Change that my opponents are embracing – but is the Change that is nonetheless the spiritual equivalent of the Change four years ago.  And if you buy that, it’d be great, because the alternative is me running on my record.  Which sucks.

Hmm.  Doesn’t really fit on a bumper sticker, that.

*Particularly the Democratic ones: if the 111th Congress taught us anything, it’s that Senate Democrats should not be trusted to come in out of the rain without also somehow tripling the deficit.

…I mean it, huh?

Regular schedule resumes tomorrow.

…I’m off visiting in-laws.

No, it’s all right: they’re cool.

“Tentacles,” Shoggoth on the Roof

…That’s going for a HUNDRED BUCKS?

Dag.  Now I need to find my copy.