I totally believe that; present and future Foxtards.

On those rare occasions that news media dug below the surface of the Tea Party groups – specifically, by interviewing attendees at rallies in a more than superficial fashion – I was initially surprised by how many of them appear to be ex-Feds (military and civilian/postal workers). And while THEY earned and deserved everything THEY had in the way of decent retirement and health care bennies, THOSE OTHER PEOPLE certainly DID NOT!*

*You know… THOSE PEOPLE… c’mon, you know exactly who I’m talking about… don’t play ignorant…

Please report to the FEMAcorn Re-Education Camp, for mandatory repeated viewings of this video until your eyes bleed.* Then you will be evaluated for suitability for your release back into the general populace.

*Blood volume to be shed must be at least 1_mL per 5_kg total body mass**
** Units are expressed in the Communistic metric system, because that’s how they roll at Camp FEMAcorn

Hahahaha! I think this is how Scripture comes into being.
Well observed, sir/madam!

Yep, purty much, though I would amend your statement a bit by saying the system is nuts, and its participants are thus nuts as a result of Pavlovian conditioning. Maintaining job security and all the goodies that come with it – steady paycheck and (mostly) reliable health insurance – are powerful inducements to just shut up and get along, especially when you ponder the less fortunate among your family and neighbors.

As far as the Beast itself: it’s a bizzaro-world fusion of Kafka and Dilbert – kinda like how I think it would look if Mel Brooks did a remake Metropolis, but with an American slant.

I looked for your comments with great interest during your time with that Army site in Teh Heartland. And I was appalled at how things started, and horrified to see how it ended – my condolences on that whole sucky situation. Unfortunately I wasn’t totally surprised by the general outcome (the depth of the awfulness you described was another matter…).

But I don’t see any significant change (let alone end) of Eisenhower’s Dragon coming from within The System (“The System” = USG, not just DoD). I wish I weren’t so pessimistic, but the whole enterprise has become a cash cow and patronage machine for key select groups, with occasional grotesque and horrific misuses by the empowered privileged (Cheney/Bush/etc., folks in both parties and connected non-politicians; we know them well at this point). Part of that is providing jobs in places that would be much more in a world of hurt without the (likely unnecessary) military facility in the area, and probably represented by a congresscritter who regularly rants on the House floor against “wasteful” jobs programs for “those people” in the Big City – programs that likely would cost a fraction of operating The Military Base while offering greater yield (at least initially). But building tanks for an Army that doesn’t want them? That’s okey-dokey: maintains the industrial defense base, dontcha know!

EISENHOWER’S DRAGON IS MADE OF PEOPLE!!! (h/t Charleton Heston)

[And relatedly, Smedley Butler was right, of course. But you know that...]

Regarding your comment #410, my observation has been if you ask anyone in the upper echelons about over-classification, they’ll mumble, “oh, yeah, that’s a problem, and we really need to take care of it.” Then they don’t. There’s no political price to pay for ignoring the problem (until the day comes when there is). And the significant costs in maintaining all that secret-stuff-that-shouldn’t-be-secret is information that is well buried and dispersed, and lacks significant newsy sex-appeal for anyone to cover outside of specialty newsletters. But you know far more about that stuff than me, so this ain’t anything new.

Le Sigh…

One of my favorite parody tweeters appreciated that Murray tweet as well; it brought out his “inner Anthony Weiner”:

FakeJeffJarvis ‏@ProfJeffJarvis

.@charlesmurray What is your SnapChat ID? I wanted to send you something.

4:23 PM – 10 May 13

BALLS!

Can Jason haz Harvard MBA insteadz?
It comes with muchly lowered expektashuns.

I may be misremembering, GBB, but I believe Teddy Partridge moved from SF to your fine state a few years ago, though I think to a much less gun-crazy neighborhood than yours.

This happens periodically, usually when a group of people “on the outside” by virtue of what they are genetically (e.g., black, gay) or otherwise [e.g., Catholics, Mormons kinda-sorta {e.g., LEO types}] are allowed “inside”. Then they bust up into political and socioeconomic factions just like those of us who grew up with most of the little boxes on our privilege cards already checked.

This SF gay pride thing is no surprise. Organizers of future events will have to scramble to adjust their themes and missions a bit. Celebrate recent/past victories? Take on new sexuality-based conflicts, like the fractures between certain groups of feminists, gays-lesbians, and the transgendered? [Saw some back-and-forth between the #radfems and transgendered on Twitter a month or two ago... hoo-boy!]

These things are the equivalent of tectonic plates in society. They’re gonna crunch and grind and shake as things change.

I was all ready to defend Hussein Obummer, when I learned he had finally dealt with Steve Miller in appropriate fashion – though not harshly enough, if you ask me. Ever since release of the atrocity known as Abracadabra, Steve Miller should have been made a high priority target by U.S. law enforcement.

Better late than never was my first thought upon hearing the news. But now I learn that our leader has failed us AGAIN! He got the wrong Steve Miller.

Government can’t do anything right.

We have to burn down the village structures to save the village structures, maaan. You dig?

Thanks; good sleuthing again! [I didn't think to check campaign contribution records...]
Only $250? As a “senior adviser”, I’m sure she can do better than that.

Ah, “burrowing in” (2008 and 2012 concerns) and cronyism, two of my most anger-inducing subjects, at least whenever we’re dealing with them in epidemic proportions. It’s been a problem since forever (pdf),* apparently – surrounding yourself with your own family/tribe/etc. appears to be a wired-in primal kind of thing – but it facilitates some major damage to institutions and missions when you’re trying to achieve some degree of civilized advancement in your social structures. Civilizin’ is hard!

Brings back memories of Simone Ledeen. I wonder if she’s still with Treasury (pdf) ? Hat tip again to commenter dsduryea who dug up that link a few years ago (comment #24). [I could find no link to her current whereabouts, but that just may be weak google-fu on my part. I'm guessing she's still there though.]

And of course there is the case of Dick “Dick” Cheney’s son-in-law Philip Perry, who saw to it that chemical plants weren’t burdened with all those pesky safety regulations even as we were being newly instructed to remove our shoes prior to boarding flights.** The recent tragedy in West TX brought that bad memory to Chris Hayes’ attention.

And from my own experience: without getting into what I do IRL (it ain’t that interesting except to me), I once came to a conclusion that we technical folk had done everything we could do on a particular problem, and I advised other folks in our working group that we had to send what we had up the line, and the issue had to “go political”. There was general agreement on that, and the SES (Senior Executive Service) person we reported to tried to contact the Deputy Assistant Secretary political appointee who allegedly oversaw our corner of the bureaucracy, whereupon we were informed that he was out house-shopping in Annapolis, and would probably not have time to address the concerns that we were tasked with addressing by an earlier Congress and an earlier President.
Le Sigh…

While I think the libertarian crowd is mostly nuts – especially the Ayntards who worship the psychologically damaged author of a bad novel premised on humans behaving in non-human ways and succeeding based on the availability on a nonexistent material*** – I kinda-sorta know where a lot of their rage comes from, at least the ones that can come up with a couple IQ points to rub together. Fucked up system is fucked up! Unfortunately the likely solution is complicated, very difficult to implement and will not yield overnight success, despite what is claimed by the likes of Ron Paul and his creepy kid (see the next post). Unfortunately the solution involves citizen education, and motivation to become better informed and active. It’s that motivation bit that is worrisome: just how bad do things have to get before folks wake up? [And no, that is not an endorsement for something like Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution or Pol Pot's "agrarian reform" "plan".]

Meh, I say!

*I don’t THINK that link is behind a paywall, but much of Harper magazine’s stuff is, so be warned. I got it to work on a browser which (I don’t think) has my subscriber info, so I don’t think it’s paywalled.

**And if you’re like me, you’re thinking we dodged a bullet there: what if that loser wannabe “shoe bomber” Richard Reid had shoved that bomb up his ass instead of into his shoe? What would airport security inspections entail then, hmm? …Oh, you say you’re not like me? Well, never mind then, and good for you.

***Rearden metal? Srsly?? Hey, maybe it exists, cash in yer retirement and get in naow, at basement prices!

Hey, you make a cameo appearance in the War-and-Peace-length comment I’m working on! [It's a catharthic kinda thing.]
My apologies in advance for the absence of any market value in that…

As for purveyor of fine laptop hard drives reganregan, I’m sure he’s spamming other sites, but it was just so gosh darn convenient having him here. I’m not sure I’ll have time to scour other blogs for his presence in comments elsewhere.

Aww, online entrepreneur reganregan done been disappeared from comments. Now I’ll NEVER get that sweet deal on laptop hard drives. {stomps off all pouty-like}

Great Oogly-Moogly, what great timing!
Your scratching me right where I itch, and in a mostly non-pervy way too!!!

I got a little sumpin-sumpin in the works with a Nigerian Oil Prince that’s going to bring in some big money real soon. I need A LOT of laptop hard drives, and I’ll be ready to buy when the Prince sends my cash.

Have your people call my people. Let’s make this happen!!!!

On the subject of Niall Ferguson (Knox & GWPDA at #21, 23, 25), someone on Twitter recently linked to what he thought was the best takedown of Ferguson he’d read: a November 2011 review in the London Review of Books by Pankaj Mishra, of Ferguson’s “Civilisation: The West and the Rest”.

I’ve read enough bad press about the guy to conclude that he must be some equivalent – in the world of historians – to social “Scientist” Charles Murray (author of “The Bell Curve”); dunno, maybe NF is just a more polished version of wingnut darling historian Victor D. Hanson?* But I’m no expert on NF nor the academic speciality, so I have no idea if that is the “best takedown”. However, given Ferguson’s vigorous objections in the comments to that review, it must be pretty good. I do believe that Mr. Mishra struck a nerve or two.

*fwiw, I’ll always be grateful to VDH just because he inspired some fine writing by The War Nerd, much like an irritating particulate can initiate growth of a beautiful pearl in an oyster.

Great idea, but I think needs a slight tweak:

Maybe Mittens can open up his fancy cabana down the street from the TBogg’s to let some of the goodly youngsters of Fun Diego shack up & boink in his basement car elevator??

And for the young men, an extra tip: before you get down to business (here, have some get-in-the-mood music), set the elevator control to continuous cycle, then time* your, um, happy ending for when the elevator reaches the top [*assuming you have that kind of control at your age].

This will ensure you are a few extra yards closer to Kolob when you consummate this sacred and hopefully productive act. Great symbolism there, and it will certainly earn you extra Holy Bitcoins redeemable after your death (trust me on that).

Now go get ‘em! Rraaawr!

…if you’re going to apply the book that was thrown at Aaron Swartz, should put Little Master Baiter in the slammer for 957 years.

Amen to that! The only way that would happen, though, is if at least one of the victims legally becomes a corporation. Because as Swartz, and especially that creative asshole weev have shown, it’s when you embarrass or inconvenience a corp. that the prosecutorial hammer comes down the hardest.

The Cult of Javert appears to be a particularly fashionable thing these days among the High & Mighty who value its powers to shield them from exposure to the Lesser Ones.

This pathetic perv is just one of their court jesters who happened to get busted. He’s easily replaceable.

Wow, that Youtube of the performance of Rakim you posted IS nice. I’d never even heard of that group before (no surprise, alas).
Thanks.

Awww, I love that photo, with or without back-story.

Given your twitter engagement with both the #Gosnell “pro-life” shriekers and the gun loons, I was afraid you were going to get derp poisoning, so I was glad to see you take a night off from all that.

By the way, I’m sure this has been done before, but I cannot remember where: a Venn-diagramish type thing providing at least a semi-quantitative idea of how much these two wacko demographics overlap. I considered calling up some of the many horrible photos of corpses from the Great Iraqi Adventure to link on twitter for the #Gosnell bunch, suspecting that it also contains a lot of gun nuts & pro-war loons. But from past dealings with these folks, I know their powers of denial and cognitive dissonance to be too strong for that to likely have any effect.