Amusing comment from a friend of mine, as quoted on Michael's Random Dialogue: http://www.randomdialogue.net/comments.php?logid=627
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Amusing comment from a friend of mine, as quoted on Michael's Random Dialogue: http://www.randomdialogue.net/comments.php?logid=627
Grammar nazi here:
That's "homophobia[,] " in paragraph 1.
"Bush and company are going to a great deal of damage is going to be done to[...]" needs work. You had it right the first time, and then decided to go for the passive voice. Bad Alan:) Probably "Bush and company are going to fuck us all in the ear until Karl Rove gets tired of it and goes back to snooping on our library records" is what you meant.
"many voters choice [should be: chose] to enshrine homophobia in their state constitutions."
Grammar nazi out.
Now, to address the content...
What's amazing to me is that it's the same states that voted for ear-fucking that are so adamantly anti-ass-fucking. Now, having pissed off both Republicans and gays, I'll just point out that those two groups aren't as mutually exclusive as they really ought to be. Though I'd give $50 to know how Mary Cheney voted:)
Anyone know how many electors are beholden to states that just fine you for voting against the popular vote, rather than ones that toss yo' ass in jail? I only mention this because if Kerry manages to get Iowa and New Mexico, that means only 5 out of 274 people have to rise above the idiocy rampant in their respective states. Otherwise I'd like to see near-constant philibustering. The Dems don't have the power to do much, but they can certainly demonstrate their discontent and unwillingness to participate in such a farce. If not, it's up to the judicial branch to at least slow our decent into hell. My respect for the Supreme Court notwithstanding, I think expecting the judicial branch to stand up to Bush is not only evidence of insanity but, in fact, one of the signs of the Apocalypse.
Any non-BB-readers here who haven't seen this US map, colored as a function of the popular vote rather than colored as a function of victor? ( http://www.boingboing.net/images/Purple-USA.jpg )
Alan, is your comment box so narrow to discourage people from posting long comments like I keep doing?
That is now scientifically proved and irrefutable: about 50% of Americans are absolute morons. Stupid beyond any hope of redemption.
You can lie to them, you can mislead them, you can send their children to the slaughterhouse, for fighting a useless war started for flawed reasons. You can send them spill their blood for the twisted fantasms of insane Dr StrangeLoves. You can extort them, then fatten private companies, like Halliburton. You can severely restrict their liberties using fallacious pretexts. You can outsource their jobs. You can bully them to no end just by spitting the word unpatriotic every two sentences. You can bankrupt them. You can make them detestable to the eyes of 80% of humankind. You can encourage soldiers to torture prisonners as far as they are not caught doing so. You can shit on major international treaties, or insult old allies.
All of that, my friends, won't ignite a spark of doubt in their minds. Anyway, they will cast their vote according to so called "moral choices", on gay mariage, on stem cell research, or gun control policy, rather than on these other "minor" issues. They will always prefer someone lying about weapons of mass destruction, rather than someone lying about the strange use he has for his cigars.
For all those morons, here is my message: you have got what you deserve for the next four years. Enjoy. For the other 50%, belonging to the America I love, I cannot tell you how much I feel sorry for you.
Thanks for all of the comments.
Re: typos. Thanks for the fixes; I'll try to incorporate them tonight.
Re: ear-fucking. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that. Do you mean "being lied to"?
Re: comment box width. Actually, that's been irritating me of late; I'll see about widening it. Or making it configurable. Oooh, I like that idea.
Oh, the whole deal. Not specifically the lying. More of the screw the environment lie to the people attack foreign nations ignore science gleefully mix church (the worst elements thereof) and state spend money you don't have gestalt, really. But if I can get that down to 2 words rather than 20, that's better.
Bizarrely enough, the best summary of why the middle-east is a quagmire waiting to happen comes from a tech reporter. Skip the beginning, he's talking about unrelated stuff. Skim to (or search for) the paragraph beginning "Back to the election." It's about two-thirds of the way down. It's isn't really about the election, it's about morality and horror.
Big enough, ben?
If it is smaller than 80x25, it isn't big enough. :)
So, when do you think mandatory sunday service attendance will be up for constitutional inclusion?
Hey Alan, You forgot a link:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=232573
Eat that for breakfast. In our own state too! I'm so ashamed, we might as well pack up and move to Kansas.
Hmmm.... Creationism? Eh? Which one is the right one again?
Was it this one: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/creation.html
How about this one: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/bible/creation%20myths.htm
No? What about this one: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~kenichls/1301HinduCreationCaste.html
Oh I'm sorry! You meant this one! http://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_15.html
There is no creationism. There is no "intelligent design". There is no god.
I'm sorry that you are incapable of comprehending the fact that there is no destiny for you, no divine path, no plans, no meaning, absolutely no reason for you to exist, and that you and you alone are responsible for your actions. The only thing you can be assured of is that you have free will.
That insignificant thing--free will, is enough, I assure you.
It's definately wider, and possibly taller (not sure, but it seems so a bit). Now, whether that's 'enough' or not I can't say. It's just barely 50% the width of my screen, so in that sense it's narrow for no good reason. Given that I've already expressed my preferred browser width, it might be nice to have some idea of how my comment will be formatted on a screen of said width, but at the end of the day I'm not terribly concerned - paragraphs all look funny and short on wide screens. It's not a big deal, but wider+shorter is better than narrower+longer, though I'll take just-wider over just-longer any day.
Anyway, that's my ramble, and I'm only about 75% the way down the comment box so I guess that's a win for the new tweak. Also, your dates are fixed, which is more important than the comment box.
The box is both wider and taller.
I'm not aware of any good way to make the box the full width of the screen. As a result, I need to make it big enough to be useful, but not so big as to such on small screens. (And as a use of a Sony Clie TH-55, I'm acutely aware of this.)
If I get inspired I'll make it a cookie-saved option.
Well, maybe you can discover the browser looking at you and give a suitably small, say 10x10 entry form, for web browsers that come on palm-like things. Would that even work?
Making the rounds, courtesy of K.: http://www.fuckthesouth.com/
If it's possible, could you please move the "The box is both wider and taller" conversation to a different thread? It disrupts the natural flow of reader responses and is a bit distracting. Thanks.
Well, if Alan would put up a "submit this link and have a thread on it", then we could oblige you. As it stands, we don't have one. So this is where the box thread will sit
I thought the entry box would be configurable by now.... it's been several days at least!
Guys, that's why I admire so much Fidel Castro, from Cuba, he's all what a country needs.
Alabama's state constitution contains some embarrassing historical bits. Specifically, it orders racially segregated schools (http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeOfAlabama/Constitution/1901/CA-245806.htm) and allows for poll taxes (http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeOfAlabama/Constitution/1901/CA-888218.htm). Neither one is enforced as they are clearly unconstitutional (http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm and http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_b.htm respectively).
The obvious thing to do would be to strike such an embarassment from their constitution. Sure enough, they finally got around to it (http://www.sos.state.al.us/election/2004/statewideamendments.htm see number 2). Clearly an easy victory and everyone can get on with life, right?
Bizarrely, just about 50% of Alabamans voted to keep the segregationist and unconstitutional language.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/states/alabama/2004-11-29-segregation-recount_x.htm
The automatic recount (a good idea!) may change the final result, but no matter what the recount turns up almost half of Alabamans voted for racism.
The hell?
This doesn't do much for my faith in humanity.
(Oh, and to see the most stunningly overcomplicated state constitution ever, check out the whole thing. http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeOfAlabama/Constitution/1901/Constitution1901_toc.htm )
On slightly more positive ground, check out this map of the presidential election results:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/countycartlinearlarge.png
It's been skewed so that are matches electoral vote power (since electoral votes are what matters and roughly maps to popular. Wyoming's mid empty spaces are impressive, but almost worthless as it's worth only 3 votes.). The bluer the county, the more Kerry votes, the redder the more Bush votes. On this much more honest map it's clear that the solidly pro-Kerry locations are quite large (in population) and the solidly pro-Bush locations are quite small. This should be obvious; city folk tend to be more liberal, country folk tend to be more conservative. Also interesting is that large amount of purple land.
(The full set of quite interesting maps and a discussion on their creation is available here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/ . I highly recommend it.)
Given this, anyone claiming a Bush mandate is delusional. Yes, Bush got the most votes of any presidential candidate ever. But who got the second most votes? Turns out it's John Kerry. Bush has a razor-thin margin. His strategy should be to unify this country, but he's made it clear that he doesn't give a shit about the rest of us. The current administation is perfectly happy to alienate half of the United States. Feh.
Christ, I try to write something happy and upbeat and it gets angry again. Oh, well.
