Near as I can tell, the only illness that might get George off the hook is Tourettes. Otherwise, he said those words, and he has to wear it. Can’t imagine why he deserves pity or any consideration at all…

Oh wow!

You found my little joke!

If only you had, you know, GOTTEN it, you would have done better.

C+ is about the best I can give you at this point. See, you’re supposed to bring a sense of humor to sites like this. Umm, if you have one, I guess.

You can probably find a workable definition of “snark” at Wackypedia….

I love the relentless outpouring of stupid that we call “March Madness”

Why? Certainly not for the games, or the gambling, or the whole enterprise that is College Basketball. I don’t know who the players are, I’ve never heard of most of the schools, and the whole thing seems a pointless exercise in arbitrary tribalism.

But at long last, when the “Final Four” has played out it’s manufactured drama and gone into it’s blessed ten month hibernation period, well that signals that we can begin another baseball season, and that makes the world a much better place to live.

Play on, kids!

Brown said Russell was acting very strange.

Apparently, Officer Brown was able to arrive at this conclusion all by himself…

Nader sucks and Barack Obama is responsible for everything.

Yep. That’s my take on it too.

You sir, should be noted for your clarity of vision…

mikey

And heaven knows President Perry would assiduously defend the right of the people to peaceably assemble…

mikey

Good lord.

Those people are insane.

As soon as you can’t figure out the right/wrong of putting a Ranger Company on the ground to end a two decade murder/rape/mutilation spree and “launching a war”, as soon as you can’t figure out who the good guys are between Barack Obama and Joseph Kony, as soon as you can decide the “Right” thing to do is to continue to stand back and do nothing, you may have some kind of weird cred but in the process you have lost your humanity.

TBogg, you’re a better man than I am for wading into that swamp. And no minds will ever be opened, or changed. But thanks for trying, man…

mikey

On the upside, it’s very possible that on Cody’s planet they have rational politicians and no greenhouse gas emissions.

So it’s like a trade-off. Or something…

mikey

Nope. That works for me.

Please DO carry on…

As an SF Giants fan I’m left wondering just exactly what was done out here to please Him so? Fortunately, it looks as if we’ve managed to clear up that temporary condition of being in his favor. He made Aubrey Huff into a little old lady. Thong my ass.

Then there are the Cubs, and the Pirates. Forced to endure decade upon decade of suck. If they didn’t actually kill the only begotten son themselves, they musta at least used the holy ghost to wipe their asses.

The 49ers must be the worst, though. Not only forced to fall from a state of perfect grace to one of JEEZus KEYRISTE you guys!!, and to go through such a downfall while having to play half their games in the only stadium to be featured on “Hoarders” is just rubbing salt in the crown of thorns.

Gnome sane?

It’s simply appalling that an American President can voice unequivocal support for allowing the STATES to vote on whether or not to allow all citizens to have the same basic set of human rights.

The fact that it’s an African American voicing support for what can fairly be described as the Jim Crow doctrine of “Separate but Equal” is nauseating…

mikey

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had some generally agreed upon definition of that pesky word “Terrorist” so we knew every single time who we were, and perhaps more importantly, who we were NOT talking about.

Merry happy new jesus day year thingie, Boggster, and may you have all the shit nobody wishes upon you…

mikey

Thought this might be coming, but I never considered the political consequences. I just figured you’d decide there wasn’t enough time in a day for it all.

I learned a lot reading your stuff, a lot of it about dumb squishy stuff like integrity and honesty. To whatever extent there’s less, it’s a loss.

Thanks for everything, man.

EVERYTHING…

mikey

It’s appalling when they finally have no option but to structure their opposition behind blatant lies. That shouldn’t be possible – you’d think the US media would have have the stones to point out that missile defense isn’t in the treaty, or at least be willing to summarize the actual contents of the treaty, which would make clear what was in it, and almost as clear what is not. They know the people won’t actually read it, that instead they’ll believe what tom brokaw or glenn beck or sean hannity or rachel maddow tell them is in it, and their opinions will reflect that.

But it’s also worthwhile to note that US foreign policy has made disarmament somewhat toxic on its face. We ordered Saddam Hussein to disarm, and when he “refused” we attacked him. We refuse to allow calls for Israel to disarm. Disarmament is for weaklings and bad guys – good guys don’t need to disarm and can’t be forced to do so…

mikey

It’s even worse than that, because when I challenge right wing Zionists over their treatment of Palestinian women and children they shout “HELEN THOMAS!!” at me over and over as if I’m responsible for her hateful opinions and its somehow the same as bombing residential neighborhoods in Gaza…

mikey

I can’t listen to much of your choice in music (although you did turn me on to Gaslight Anthem, so that counts for much), so I suspect I’d be taking her side to a large degree (although who knows – she may be way more hardcore than me also), but surely there is some classic middle ground – I’m thinking Rancid (more Ruby than Timebomb), maybe even Offspring, the aformentioned Gaslight Anthem, there’s always room for some Springsteen, maybe Zevon, it’s not a wedding without ABBA (seriously, and you’d get major irony points), and I’d personally suggest checking out Letters to Cleo and maybe some Dance Hall Crashers.

Congrats and good luck!

mikey

Americans mostly know and understand that the ridiculous over reactions to al Quaeda’s attacks and provocations is not only destructive in its own right, but playing into al Quaeda’s hands by acting as a force multiplier to any action they take, even, as you say, if they fail.

For the most part, Americans would be happy to shrug off the attacks that DO succeed, back off the massive and unproductive responses to those that don’t and accept a certain amount of risk exists in the world today.

But there are two groups of Americans with agendas that run counter to this simple and logical prescription, and unfortunately they are in a powerful and mutually reinforcing position. First is those American politicians and pundits who see value and an opportunity to advance a certain agenda when the population is afraid. There is less resistance to policies and actions that would otherwise be viewed as toxic, if not unAmerican. And there is a significant segment of American society who’s worldview is premised on hate. Whether its ethnic or sectarian or both, American hatred of Muslims and White Christian narrative of victimhood and oppression is effective in mobilizing those same populations for all manner of activities. All it takes is fear of the other.

So just as most of us would LOVE to adopt a more insouciant and world-weary attitude toward anti-american political violence, it will continue to be exploited by powerful groups, even the leadership, to advance their own ideologically – driven agenda. And as long as those groups are working at cross purposes to a better, more adult, measured response to terrorism, they will be effectively supporting al Quaeda and assisting them in their openly conceded goals. And we will continue to lose…

mikey

Nope. The people don’t care. To whatever extent they do care, they’re somewhat programmed to be skeptical of compromise with the scary Russian empire. Politically, Obama can’t even invest significant effort into passing new START because if he wins, they’ll say he wasted time doing this dumb treaty when he should have been ‘focused like a laser’ on jobs. And if he loses, it will be ‘he wasted all this time when he wasn’t focused like a laser on jobs and he didn’t even get the stupid treaty ratified.’

What’s more interesting to me is the consequences of not ratifying a major arms control agreement. Has that ever happened before? Will the US and Russia agree to abide by it’s terms anyway? If not, will either nation actually seek to expand their nuclear capabilities, or will it just be the cuts in warheads and missiles that don’t happen? Will the Russians understand that an obstructionist and increasingly insane American political faction derailed the process, or will they see it as some kind of con being run on them by the US?

mikey

What’s changed most of all, of course, is the technology. We had a guy from a rich family in our company who had a reel to reel deck, damn thing must have weighed fifteen pounds. Every couple of weeks he’d get a new set tapes from home. A few guys had portable record players, but the records would get fucked up and the sound was pretty awful.

We loved us some Tommy James, Creedence, Temptations, 3 Dog Night, Sly and the Family Stone, Blood Sweat and Tears and of course, the ballad of the firebases, Fire and Rain. And yeah. We wore that one out…

mikey

What’s even worse is that the entire statement is predicated on an assumption that, to be as kind as possible, seems extremely unlikely to come to pass. In three years the sectarian tribal problems will be managed to some extent, the illiteracy and corruption problems will somehow be dealt with, the desertions and drug use will be reduced to functional levels and overall Afghan security force performance and capability will approach that of a modern third world nation? I don’t see it.

How are we going to get there? Is there ANY reason to believe that a real, functional Afghan force can be stood up and put in the lead in ANY time window, let alone three-four years? What’s the motivating factor? What’s the unifying concept?

We know Afghan GDP won’t come NEAR supporting the force we keep envisioning, so there will have to be huge amounts of foreign funding which will continue to feed the corruption. There will still be warlords and militias and cronies that will continue to be divisive. There will still be Islamic fundamentalists and various sects, tribes and passions that will limit commitments to Afghani nationalism and resist foreign military forces.

If there’s no way to do what you say you’re going to do, you’re either stupid or lying. And no, I’m pretty sure they’re not stupid…

mikey