Month: July 2014

Lois Lerner cursed out conservatives using her IRS email account.

Let’s say that I had some oversight authority over liberal groups or individuals. Or that I could do things to make life more difficult for those groups. And let’s say that I wrote the right-wing equivalent of what Lois Lerner wrote about conservatives (according to her, we’re apparently a*sholes, crazies, and teRrorists)…

LernerEmails2

(Via Truth Revolt)

…using my official email address. Two observations about that would inevitably follow:

  1. Liberal groups would go ballistic, whether or not I was linked to any kind of detrimental activities towards them.
  2. They would have a point.

I understand that people don’t want to be told that they can’t have the luxury of a private opinion, but: I don’t want IRS personnel to think that they get to have the luxury of a private opinion, especially when it involves people that they may be auditing. And I really, really don’t want that opinion expressed via public property. That’s an irs.gov email account she’s using. My taxes pay to maintain that email account. I’m giving her resources: I expect a basic amount of professionalism in return.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

This is not entirely dissimilar to one of my The Secret World Characters.

I suppose that I shouldn’t admit that, but what the heck. It’s an amusing video.

Mind you, my Secret World character is also carrying an Assault Rifle – which, bizarrely, is one of the items that you also use to heal* in that game – but I suppose that wouldn’t have worked for the ad. Continue reading This is not entirely dissimilar to one of my The Secret World Characters.

Quote of the Day, I Yearn To Have This Superpower edition.

Background: Haaretz – I apparently should be putting an exclamation point in parentheses after that – reported on random Italian philosopher (and closet anti-Semite) Gianni Vattimo, a man who managed to be goaded into wishing on the air (specifically, on a show called ‘La Zanzara’) that Europe would send troops and missiles to Gaza for the purpose of killing Jews.  Oh, and apparently Mr. Vattimo would like to shoot some of those ‘b*stard Zionists’ himself*.

Impressive own-goal there, huh?  Apparently this is par for the course: Continue reading Quote of the Day, I Yearn To Have This Superpower edition.

The “Dreams in the Witch House.” Lovecraftian rock opera. [Content warning]

The folks over at the HPL Historical Society (need to think about getting a lifetime membership: $75 is a lot of discretionary income, though) helped put together a rock opera based on one of Lovecraft’s short stories (‘The Dreams in the Witch House,’ obviously).  I just picked up the album (Dreams in the Witch House: A Lovecraftian Rock Opera), largely on the strength of this (DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK YET!) music video – but please note that I am putting a content warning on said video, which I do not often do.  This is a rock opera based on a horror story, and the video features images of a disturbing and alarming nature that are all the more so because they are not done in a cartoonish fashion.  Do not watch this at work.  You have been warned.

I get the impression that the HPLHS might be expanding this, later on (they’ve already done the radio dramatization of the story).

Alison Grimes: boy, I just love that Iron Dome underground defense system!

Look, I’m not telling you to love Mitch McConnell; but this was a really stupid thing for Alison Grimes to say.

As foreign policy inches its way into a debate that has largely focused on the economy, Grimes was asked about congressional efforts to aid Israel’s missile defense system, known as the Iron Dome.

“Obviously, Israel is one of our strongest allies in the Middle East, and she has the right to defend herself,” Grimes said. “But the loss of life, especially the innocent civilians in Gaza, is a tragedy. The Iron Dome has been a big reason why Israel has been able to withstand the terrorists that have tried to tunnel their way in.”

‘Tunnel.’

Continue reading Alison Grimes: boy, I just love that Iron Dome underground defense system!

How you know when you may have been doing this gig for a while.

When the words You know, honey, we should put a whiteboard up here on the bedroom wall show up in the middle of an explanation that you’re having with your spouse over a tricky federal court case.

…Because, no, we don’t need a whiteboard up there on the wall.

Moe Lane

Fox News Poll: 57% would tell Obama to go away if they were Democratic candidates.

Man, that’s just cruel.

A new poll that asked voters to put themselves in the shoes of 2014 Democratic candidates found that a majority would not want President Obama to join them on the campaign trail.

According to the Fox News survey released Tuesday, 57 percent of respondents said no to hypothetical appearances with the president, whose job approval rating in the same poll stands at 42 percent. Only 41 percent said they would want Obama to join them on the stump.

Continue reading Fox News Poll: 57% would tell Obama to go away if they were Democratic candidates.

I’d like to note for the record that Jesse Ventura is neither a Republican nor a Democrat.

He is not a member of my party, or the Other Party.  He has nothing to do with either.  I believe that he hates the current system with the white-hot fury of a billion burning suns, and rejects both the Republican and Democratic party outright.  In short: Jesse Ventura is not of us.

Fine by me. Continue reading I’d like to note for the record that Jesse Ventura is neither a Republican nor a Democrat.

So, yeah, Dragonriders of Pern flick.

That’s gonna be interesting.

Warner Bros. has, according to a story at Deadline, secured the big screen rights to Anne McCaffrey’s classic fantasy series, Dragonriders of Pern. The 22-book series will serve as the basis for a feature film that aims to launch a new franchise.

“Dragonflight,” the first in the series of novels, follows an elite group of warriors who take to the skies on the backs of giant, fire-breathing, telepathic dragons to save the wondrously exotic planet of Pern from a terrifying airborne menace.

Particularly since the books were… well, there’s some somewhat unusual stuff in them, as I recall. From what I recall, this was science fiction, not fantasy: and the overall plot of the series is not exactly a good fit for a standard action-adventure format. Still, dragons. Continue reading So, yeah, Dragonriders of Pern flick.