Tuesday, May 26, 2015

SLOUGHS OF DESPOND.

'Round rightwing world, there has of late been much lamentation and weeping over the ruin Obama is alleged to have made of America. This is of course just their way of trying to distract the rabble so they might forget who George W. Bush was and let the Republicans get back into power, whereupon they will begin a war with Iran, force paupers to subsist on protein powder (but not the good kind the yuppies get!), institute the Yacht Needs Cleaning Income Tax Credit, and generally complete the neo-feudalization process. But right now they're really gnashing their little teeth out and it's fun to watch.

Take the ultimate wingnut Memorial Day essay by Town Hall's Slaverin' Kurt Schlichter:
Like everything about the Community Organizer-In-Chief and his cronies, everything about the carefully choreographed charade we’ll see this Memorial Day is a lie... 
It’s a pose, an act, a scam. You can see it in the faces of the liberal politicians as they are forced to stand there onstage each last Monday of May, pretending they wouldn’t rather be anywhere else in the world than in the sun listening to people talk about what, at best, liberals consider suckers, and more often consider outright babykillers.
(His readers nod sagely from their Barcaloungers and wash down another burger with another craft beer.)
Look at Obama’s face as he walks behind the floral tribute in front of the cameras at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Tell me he’s thinking about the men who stormed ashore at Normandy and not about getting out of there and teeing up.
He’ll talk a good game – they all will, but it’s all a lie. If he cared, he wouldn’t have squandered the victory in Iraq to satisfy his America-hating pals on the left. ISIS, the JV team? Obama lied, and tens of thousands died – and those were the lucky ones.
The whole froth is a delight -- some sections, e.g. "They spit in our warriors’ collective face every time Jenjis Kerrey’s equine mug flashes across the TV screen as he rushes back to the Middle East to tongue kiss the Iranian Islamonazis..." you can easily imagine being read by Patrick Magee in A Clockwork Orange. But "and those were the lucky ones" is sublime -- her heroes spent, America  cowers before the coming reign of Hitlery ISIS!

At National Review Victor Davis Maximus Super Hanson brings the back of his wrist to his forehead, flutters his eyelids, and mourns the wreck Obama has made of the Middle East to which C-Plus Augustus once brought order and stability. Also unlike Bush, Obama won't suck up to the Saudi pashas  -- and have a care, soothsays Hanson, for "their financial clout and the availability of Pakistani bombs for Sunni petrodollars" (also, they share our values!) -- plus Obama hates Israel, perhaps because "it resembles the United States too closely, and thus earns the reflected hypercriticism that so many leftists cultivate for their own civilization," but he loves his fellow black people, whom he and "the elites" subsidize with "huge, unquestioned redistributionist entitlements for the inner city." You see the problem: Obama gives more attention to America's despised underclass than to Arab sheiks and Israel. Vanitas! 

Hanson's colleague Quin Hillyer actually revives the #Benghazi-is-worse-than-Watergate thing ("a few goobers rifling through the office of the opposing political party" etc) and denounces the Clintons in general for "putting all the rest of us at substantially greater risk of annihilation" (hysteritalics his). But it's the American people who seem most to disappoint him. "A goodly number of Americans apparently are aware of the scandal yet still fall at [Hillary Clinton's] feet," he gasps. The punters also "believe quarterback Tom Brady cheated but say in the next breath that he’s a good role model for children." Of course, dummy, you want to say to him, how long have you lived in this country, Brady's rich and butch! But by then Hillyer is on about our "culture" and how it "celebrates depravities" and  "we're now told that we can't spank a misbehaving child; that we can't read Huckleberry Finn because it features the 'n' word; that we can’t name sports teams in honor of Indians" etc. and eventually Hillyer is holding his knees to his chest, rocking and reminiscing on Pat Moynihan and the Moody Blues.

The best, however, is Rod Dreher having the expected 100,000-word meltdown over gay marriage in Ireland. Here is, in every sense, the nut graf:
Understand that by “liberalism,” [Matthew B. Crawford] means not the social politics of the Democratic Party and its supporters, but the entire Enlightenment framework of social and political ideas. All of us Americans, whether we call ourselves liberals or conservatives, are liberals in this sense. I am no different. I believe in free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights and the other hallmarks of liberalism. Now that liberalism has evolved into hostility to what I believe to be true about religion, morality, and human nature, I — like all orthodox Christians — have to face the fact that liberalism, which all of us Americans took in with our mother’s milk, may ultimately be alien to our faith, because in the end, it enthrones the choosing Self over God or any conception of external, transcendent Truth.
Keep this in mind when they come whining at you about gay wedding cakes -- these guys think that the Enlightenment, whence came the American idea of freedom, is anti-Christian. And you know what the next step would be. I'm beginning to think Dreher's half-hearted praise of the "hallmarks of liberalism" is just so much taqiyya.

335 comments:

  1. Smarter than Your Average Bear10:57 AM

    As society becomes more liberal the right will do it's best to co-opt the term for themselves.

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  2. Magatha10:59 AM

    Hi Roy, I love you, and I'm gonna read this in detail in one second, but I also want to know if all of our Texas people (and Texas neighbors) are okay, because I make fun of Texas all the time, but I don't want y'all to drown. Okay, now I'm going to read the post.

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  3. Helmut Monotreme11:02 AM

    Yeah, Memorial day is a touchy topic for a wingnut. It's a fine line to walk between praising the soldiers who gave their lives to protecting freedom and democracy, and attacking people at home who choose to use that freedom and democracy. Because those soldiers buried in rows in military cemeteries all over the US and the world can't talk. They can't tell us to our face, for what reason they died, or more to the point, were killed. So we have to guess and remember, from family stories, from letters left behind, and from history books whey those men and women marched off to their deaths. For the 239 years since the declaration of independence, there have been almost as many reasons to join the military and fight, as their have been soldiers to do it. And so to use Memorial day to call for more war, for more soldiers to kill and die for the US, is like using the dead as a grotesque ventriloquist dummy. On memorial day, of all days, can't we stop putting words in the mouth of people who will never speak again?

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  4. Tilman, Tilman, Tilman...what does that make me think of, I wonder?

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  5. Ted the slacker11:05 AM

    So Rod's a self-appointed spokesman for Orthodox Christians. If I may be so presumptuous as to respond on behalf of Orthodox Liberals, allow me to say this:
    "Brother Rod, it's OK if you don't want to be one of us. In case you didn't know, we never liked you anyway. So don't worry about staying in touch, or trying to remain friends, it's probably better this way."

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  6. Ted the slacker11:13 AM

    I've never found them trying to tread delicately on Memorial Day. It's a hippie-punching free-for-all as best I can tell. Because they Love the Troops, and we don't, and nah-nah-nah SHUT UP I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU GAYWADS.
    They do have to tread a little carefully around Iraq however, most of them know that politically it does not poll well; but they still hate hippies more than they love the troops, and that delightful characteristic shines through any opportunity they have to advertise their precious brand of patriotism.

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  7. I'm having a conversation, primarily with myself, in a dead thread at LGM about the relationship between Rod's Christianity (focused on sin) and modern liberal (oh, lets agree and call them enlightenment) notions of adulthood, agency, and consent. These were always on a crack up course and it looks like for Rod Gay Marriage is the straw that causes the game of chicken smash up, to mix my metaphors like a right wing pro.

    This came up over at LGM in the context of a discussion of what the Duggars and their supporters might mean by the "wrong" that Josh Duggar did to his sisters, and what would follow after that within the Christian community or a non christian state. Rod believes, as the Duggars do, that, to quote Libby Anne at Love, Feminism http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2015/05/josh-duggar-and-the-tale-of-two-boxes.htmlmorality fits into two discrete boxes: Forbidden by God and Ordered by God. All things that are not Ordered by God (sex only within marriage between opposite genders) are forbidden by god. Consent, other religious identities, adulthood (agency) don't affect that basic binary opposition. Rod was willing to entertain the reality of a modern world (and membership in it) in which enlightenment ideals resulted in his ability to vote, own property, make laws, run for office (as opposed to a monarchy or a feudal theocracy) but he draws the fucking line at a democracy that produces free thinking, acting, adult voters who have the temerity to imagine that they get to choose the laws under which they live.

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  8. You'll miss him in the dystopian future when little way houses, like his, along a Benedictine underground railroad are the only places to stop, get a bite to eat and a little philsophical discussion of how dangerous gay people are.

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  9. Cato the Censor11:24 AM

    "[B]ecause in the end, it enthrones the choosing Self over God or any conception of external, transcendent Truth."
    Dostoevsky said this mung a very long time ago and much more eloquently. Somehow, if you think for yourself and tries to use reason to deal with life, it's snatching God from his pedestal and replacing him with yourself. It's really a hysterical reaction in all senses of the term.

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  10. coozledad11:25 AM

    I — like all orthodox liberals — have to face the fact that Republicans, which all of us Americans endured through the Bush catastrophe, may ultimately be alien to our nation, because in the end, it enthrones panty sniffing neoconfederate traitors, who when they aren't raping kids, killing dogs or shitting in the drinking water, are shaking their congregants and constituents down, and deep throating every petro dick they can suck.



    While there are still enough trees left to build a giant barge, we should build that sucker, put them on it and send them off to sea on goddamn fire.

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  11. coozledad11:28 AM

    The floods are just Obama's excuse to expand Jade Helm into Costco and Target.

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  12. RogerAiles11:29 AM

    The New Orleans Piyushes has a nice ring. Who dat!

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  13. witlesschum11:38 AM

    It's kind of the good thing about Dreher showing through in this post. He's educated enough to understand what the Enlightenment is and honest or self-matrying enough to say he's agin it if it means not being able to oppress gays. Seen beside the real conservative hacks Roy dredges up, who appear that they'll literally say anything so long as it's against Obama and don't appear to take too much time to try to make it sound good, you at least feel he's being honest about what his loathsome views are. That's worth something at least aesthetically.

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  14. Ted the slacker11:42 AM

    Imagine that, a future when Rod considers himself a victim of liberal tyranny? That's impossib... ok scrap that.

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  15. but they still hate hippies more than they love the troopsGiven that "the troops" can just fuck off and die in their own shit once they're back home, that's an awfully low bar.

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  16. whirrrr-click. whirrrrr-click.

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  17. Look how furious they were with Obama and Michelle for brokering a few deals to try to end Veteran's homelessness or give Vets a boost in the job market?

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  18. BigHank5311:50 AM

    Bowe Bergdahl, who went from conservative cause celebre to deserting traitor before his feet were back on American soil.

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  19. "You Americans make a great Clamour upon every little imaginary infringement of what you take to be your Liberties; and yet there are no People upon Earth such Enemies to Liberty, such absolute Tyrants, where you have the Opportunity, as you yourselves are."


    ---A member of Parliament, to Benjamin Franklin, on Franklin's visit to the House of Commons to plead the colonies' cause in 1764.

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  20. If he cared, he wouldn’t have squandered the victory in Iraq to satisfy
    his America-hating pals on the left.Uh, Kurt, he couldn't have squandered it if it were actually a victory. "We won; let's go home" has featured prominently in most American military operations. "We won, so now we must keep troops stationed there inside hardened bunkers forever" is only victory to goddamned reactionary morons.
    ISIS, the JV team? Obama lied, and
    tens of thousands died – and those were the lucky ones.What are you talking about, Kurt? Last I heard, approximately five thousand American soldiers have died in George W. Bush's Excellent Adventures, a number that has decreased dramatically since ... Oh, wait, now you're pretending to give a fuck about dead Iraqis? Well, you're gonna have to give Obama a little more time to get that extra order of magnitude.

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  21. Rugosa11:55 AM

    In other words, freedom for me but not for thee.

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  22. So Obama won't suck up to the Saudis enough. Seems like only yesterday they were savaging him for bowing to the Saudis.

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  23. Well--they don't really believe in freedom for the individual at all. They consider freedom very dangerous because it leads people to make up their own minds about things and that can lead to mistakes. I had a great quote from one of my pet christianist blogs on this topic.http://www.generationcedar.com/main/2014/09/raw-uncensored-thoughts-of-a-mother-with-10-children.html

    All the things in my life like being interrupted at meals or being tired of hearing “Mommy” or being tired of changing diapers or maybe just being ready to “be done” with all the busyness of motherhood–
    I keep coming back to this: all those things are self-centered things that completely disregard the eternal hand of God in my family, in this, my short life. And I am called to not set my mind on things of the earth so much.
    I could have chosen to be less tired. I could. I could have chosen to have more free time or a firmer tummy. I could be living a whole different life right now, with just two almost-grown children.
    But it would have been what I chose. And I can make really bad choices. [emphasis mine] Instead, I have what God chose for me. And there is an indescribable amount of peace in that.
    (Yes, this post is partly just a talk to myself, a reminder to this very flesh-covered woman.)
    So on the days when I’m tempted to feel overworked or when I’m tempted to look at another mother with a bit of envy, I don’t have to give in to that. In fact, I can rejoice. I do rejoice.

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  24. BigHank5312:00 PM

    I blame the story of Cain. The whole brother's keeper shtick is tailor-made for inflaming paranoia. I don't know how anyone could internalize the idea that God will hold you responsible if other people commit sins that will endanger their soul without becoming the sort of hand-wringing half-covert Dominionist that Rod is such a prime example of. Y'all either come down on the side of free will and self-determination or you're with the patriarchs. Keep looking for that middle path, Rod. Maybe you'll figure out what two millenniums' worth of philosophers and theologians didn't.

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  25. Hanson's colleague Quin Hillyer, who actually revives the #Benghazi-is-worse-than-Watergate
    thing ("a few goobers rifling through the office of the opposing
    political party" etc)Maybe Quin needs to have a talk with Kurt Schlichter about how bad it is to lie when the lives of thousands of civilians overseas are at stake.
    and denounces the Clintons in general for "putting all the rest of us at substantially greater risk of annihilation" (hysteritalics his).Um ... what? Does he think Bill Clinton lobbing missiles at Osama bin Laden, over shrieks of outrage from Republicans, is what made bin Laden mad at us, or something? Or is it that he merely bombed Iraq instead of invading it?

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  26. You can see it in the faces of the liberal politicians as they are
    forced to stand there onstage each last Monday of May, pretending they
    wouldn’t rather be anywhere else in the worldWell, maybe not in the old Confederacy, where there's historically been some unhappiness with the original holiday, too.

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  27. Ted the slacker12:07 PM

    Yes indeed, "love the troops" in this context needs to be qualified with - not in any meaningful way.

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  28. Ellis_Weiner12:07 PM

    "If he cared, he wouldn’t have squandered the victory in Iraq to satisfy
    his America-hating pals on the left. ISIS, the JV team? Obama lied, and
    tens of thousands died – and those were the lucky ones."

    More proof, as if any were needed, that there's no asshole like a self-righteous, wrong asshole. This is the wingnut legend-du-jour. "The Surge brought peace and prosperity until Obama bugged out and stabbed everybody in the back." The entire GOP and its wingnut apparatus are one great big yooje Wiley Coyote, who ran off the cliff during eight years of W and have been scrambling madly since then not to look down.

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  29. BigHank5312:07 PM

    Now you've got me curious as to how this "self sufficiency" amendment would work in practice. Do I have to grow all my own food? I won't be earning much income to be taxed on after that, I can assure you. Is there some kind of grace period? Do we have to help accident victims, or can we just steal their wallets (and maybe their kidneys) while they're unconscious? Are we just going to let the disabled starve to death, or should we, you know...help them along?

    Huh. I never thought conservative porn would wind up making regular porn look family-friendly. Go figure.

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  30. mortimer200012:08 PM

    squandered the victory in Iraq

    Imagine how blindingly stupid, moronically gullible, and willingly suckered you'd need to be to believe any part of these words. Only the most dimwitted, pea-brained, strabismic imbeciles fed by Fox-meat could possibly grunt the phrase "victory in Iraq" from the depths of their Gamma-Epsilon Minus cerebral cortexes without having a stroke. Well, them and anyone named Kristol, Cheney, Schlicter, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Limbaugh, Hannity... oh fuck it.

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  31. JennOfArk12:08 PM

    The punters also "believe quarterback Tom Brady cheated but say in the next breath that he’s a good role model for children."



    Kinda like their ilk says "yeah, sure Josh Duggar molested 5 girls, including 4 of his sisters, including one who was only 5 years old at the time" but say in the next breath that it was all a long time ago and it doesn't matter that he and his parents covered it up from the authorities because Josh apologized to God and his sisters so no harm no foul no backsies.

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  32. How much they love the troops is revealed by how much conservatives have slashed veteran's benefits. It was revealed in how Bush (with Rumsfeld and Cheney) redefined "combat death" so as to exclude anything except direct fire from Iraqi regular troops, which Bush did in an effort to reduce the amount of money being spent on GI death benefits. A benefit that Bush and Runsfeld then slashed down to essentially pocket change. It was revealed when Cheney privatized all supply functions to his own company, which resulted in facilities so fucked up that troops were electrocuted and killed taking showers because the wiring was so substandard.

    Yeah, conservatives love the troops--but only as cudgels with which to beat their imagined enemies, and as tissue-thin excuses to funnel trillions of defense dollars into their own pockets.

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  33. Helmut Monotreme12:10 PM

    If whenever Rod wargames the scenario of 'reason vs God' in his head and God keeps losing, why is it that he chooses to decide that 'reason' is the one he ought to discard? Why does he keep re-fighting his straw enlightenment when he keeps losing?

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  34. BigHank5312:12 PM

    The aide* said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based
    community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions
    emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's
    not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an
    empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're
    studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again,
    creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how
    things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will
    be left to just study what we do."

    *Karl Rove

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  35. JennOfArk12:12 PM

    They love the idea of the troops - brave, butch, manly men - just not the actual suckers who joined up to prop up the profits of Republican benefactors. Those guys are peons, nobodies, so fuck them.

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  36. Ted the slacker12:13 PM

    It's a re-purposed legend from the Vietnam era. We would have won if it wasn't for the hippies. It's a lie that threatens to get more traction over time, not less.

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  37. I think it was Kristol, or his mother Himmelfarb, who argued explicitly that religion and a respect for hypocritical shows of faith/belief were good for the masses--that the tribute vice pays to virtue was good for society. Public submission to norms and rules with private vice was better than public rejection of those norms because at least one was setting an example for (the) hoi polloi.

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  38. Yeah, even with that Franklin Graham poster boy for Christian truth-telling, Phil Robertson, making those conveniently-overlooked remarks about gettin' the girls while they're underaged, I have to admit that I never dreamed my low opinion of American religious conservatives could still somehow be too high. They're defending a goddamned child molester and the family that covered for it, because Yay team. Arkansas authorities are openly destroying records of the case in order to "spare the victims." Meanwhile, didja hear that Bill Clinton had consensual sex with an adult intern, and #Benghazi is a coverup?

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  39. JennOfArk12:19 PM

    "Rules are for the little people." And the liberals apparently.

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  40. BigHank5312:20 PM

    Rod's Alpha and Omega is not, as you might expect, God, Christ, or Christianity. It's his boundless self-pity. When given two courses of action, he'll ask, "Which one provides more hand-wringing and opportunity to declaim the sad state of this fallen world?" --and there you'll find him, like a dog rolling in four-day-old roadkill.

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  41. Jay B.12:23 PM

    Tell me he’s thinking about the men who stormed ashore at Normandy and not about getting out of there and teeing up.


    You know what, this is absolutely true -- because EVERYONE IN AMERICA WOULD RATHER DO SOMETHING ON A 3 DAY WEEKEND THAN GIVE ANOTHER FUNERAL SPEECH. I can only imagine, he sat in his fucking bunker all weekend watching Patton and hitting himself with a belt.

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  42. BigHank5312:24 PM

    Neoconservatives are some big fans of Leo Strauss.

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  43. Awhile back I checked on who voted for the Iraq war and who voted for benefits for the veterans of war.

    Needless to say, there were some discrepancies. . . .

    http://absurdbeats.net/2014/05/21/brothers-in-arms-2/

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  44. whetstone12:27 PM

    Now that liberalism has evolved into hostility to what I believe to be
    true about religion, morality, and human nature, I — like all orthodox
    Christians — have to face the fact that liberalism, which all of us
    Americans took in with our mother’s milk, may ultimately be alien to our
    faith


    A stopped clock is right twice a day.

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  45. Ellis_Weiner12:31 PM

    This. Echt Rod: I — like all orthodox Christians — have to face the fact that
    liberalism, which all of us Americans took in with our mother’s milk,
    may ultimately be alien to our faith...


    Imagine writing this sort of thing over and over, for years. "I have to face the fact..." "We can no longer deny..." "It has become abundantly clear..." "I'm afraid we can no longer deny..." Talk about passive-aggressive. He's dying for readers to say, "NO, ROD, NO. You suffer so nobly for our cause--and we admire you for it--but things aren't as dire as you portray!"

    What a drip. Strong language, yes, and I mean it to sting.

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  46. You'll miss him in the dystopian future when little way houses, like his, along a Benedictine underground railroad are the only places to stop, get a bite to eat attend a wine and cheese party and a little philsophical discussion of how dangerous gay people are.
    Fixed that for you. Rod is no barbarian - he's crunchy!

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  47. "Squander[ing] the victory in Iraq" seems to mean withdrawing troops on the schedule planned out before Obama took office. Which, by extension, means that "victory" would have been staying there forever. Let's see, there was a term that was used by some of those people Judith Miller is pretending never existed...quag-something? I'm sure I'll remember it later.

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  48. whetstone12:49 PM

    I don't particularly have a problem with a Christianity focused on sin; in a lot of ways I'm grateful that I was raised in it, because it gave a gravity to the many corrosive things we do to each other and ourselves on a daily basis.

    What I find infuriating about Rod and his obsession with gays is that even if you buy that it's a sin, it is literally the easiest sin to avoid if you're not gay. I've always thought it was a form of self-aggrandizement: a means to convince one's self that one is a Good Christian without doing the actual hard work it requires to be good.

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  49. JennOfArk12:52 PM

    The really outrageous thing about the records destruction? They claim it was done on the request of one of the victims who is still a minor to protect her identity. But since it was already known that a) there were 5 victims, 4 of whom are sisters and b) there were only 5 Duggar girls alive at the time and c) only one of those girls is still under the age of 18...all it did was identify that sister as one of the victims. It further made it clear that she was only 5 years old at the time he molested her.

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  50. Well--its pretty insulting given that Obama's grandfather and great uncles fought in the War.

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  51. They are absolutely making this argument, over and over, like there was some way in which it made sense to re-invade Iraq all over again and kick over the government we, ourselves, put into power.

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  52. Really? I have to disagree EW. I'm pretty sure Rod wants people to rush to his aid, not explain to him that he isn't right about how dire things are. He wants to be lauded for a brave truthteller, not given a mild corrective along with maybe some prune juice so he can unclench his anus.

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  53. Well...I wasn't raised in Christianity at all, any kind, and I don't believe in sin and yet I've managed to avoid most of the "corrosive things" that a broad reading of sin would consider bad. In fact I've really never had to refer to the 10 commandments (not, note, at all christian) to determine what to do in any circumstance.

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  54. all it did was identify that sister as one of the victims.So even their excuse (1) manages to self-refute itself; and (2) boils down to an unmarried girl in a Quiverfull household asking that evidence that makes her brother and father look like monsters be destroyed to spare her further pain.

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  55. Jay B.1:03 PM

    Sure. And one of my grandfathers was a POW, another was an infantry man who fought in the Ardennes...and I'm not sure they would have ever looked down on anyone who wanted to enjoy themselves. They always seemed embarrassed by the fuss.

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  56. coozledad1:05 PM

    I could have chosen to be less tired. I could. I could have chosen to have more free time or a firmer tummy. I could be living a whole different life right now



    The siren call of meth.

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  57. I can't read far enough in to see the text of the Thirty-Second Amendment (yes, Congress is going to be busy over the next decade), but the capsule description in the synopsis states that it:

    ...placed the responsibility for each individual's self-support unequivocally upon the individual himself.


    And now I'm curious too, as taken literally this would make all forms of charity illegal.

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  58. LA Julian1:11 PM

    The difference between people who supported the invasion of Iraq as polled back in 2001, and people who CLAIM they supported it today, is striking.

    Like finding people who voted for Nixon or Thatcher now.

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  59. ... and you know, it's that (2) which especially has my dander up. You know what would protect the victim? Getting her out of the household run by her abuser's collaborator.


    Thought experiment: What if this were a large Muslim family openly run on authoritarian patriarchal lines? It's a real brain-teaser, isn't it?

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  60. LA Julian1:13 PM

    So...it's Zombie Margaret Thatcher fanfic, then?

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  61. coozledad1:14 PM

    It has become abundantly clear that neither 12 oz of phenolphthalein nor twelve angry men can assist with the declenching.

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  62. LA Julian1:15 PM

    It was old when they re-purposed the "Stab in the Back" theory for Vietnam, even.

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  63. susanoftexas1:16 PM

    You know who else cut veteran death benefits? Reagan. He loved the military so much he cut benefits to their orphaned children. (I say this every year. It's how I celebrate Memorial Day.)

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  64. LA Julian1:16 PM

    At least Rod is no longer Roman Catholic, so he doesn't have to leave that church because of the Irish marriage equality vote.

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  65. Geo X1:17 PM

    Speaking of the phrase "war on women," liberals are apparently still
    using that phrase twenty years from now. That's not because Schlichter
    is uncreative, it's because liberals are uncreative.


    Gotta give him a break on that one. Do we REALLY imagine that wingnuts are going to end the war on women in twenty years time? Well then, why should we stop using the term?

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  66. coozledad1:18 PM

    I would think a lot of those guys would take the " I didn't suffer through this shit to come hope and mope. Now where's the liquor?" attitude

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  67. Well--they don't really believe in freedom for the individual at all.Yes and no. There's certainly a sense of "Beware critical thinking, because our faith is built upon the solid rock of Christ, yet the slightest breeze will blow it over." But as the Duggar thing indicates, for many there's also the smug moral bankruptcy of "Not perfect, just forgiven." So they have freedom even from basic morality, as long as they piously mouth "Jesus forgive me" afterwards.

    ReplyDelete
  68. And now I'm curious too, as taken literally this would make all forms of charity illegal.And ... ?

    ReplyDelete
  69. glennisw1:23 PM

    You can see it in the faces of the liberal politicians
    Well, now they've just decided to bypass reality entirely and declare victory over the Straw Liberals they've invented.

    ReplyDelete
  70. "(His readers nod sagely from their Barcaloungers and wash down another burger with another craft beer.)"

    Craft beer is for effete liberal commies. Real Murkins drink Bud or maybe Miller High Life.

    ReplyDelete
  71. whetstone1:30 PM

    Yeah, it's not a necessity; there are a lot of routes to that path (and a lot of routes away from it run through Christianity--anyone surprised by the Duggars is clearly unfamiliar with the long history of people who have prospered from their very loud Christian morality).

    It's just that, in my experience, people who bang on about sin with a particular focus on gay sex are generally not all that focused on sin.

    ReplyDelete
  72. BigHank531:31 PM

    Not to mention the enormous mortgage-like financial instrument that's hung around the neck of every child. I assume they'd have to pay their parents back for the time and cost of raising them--and if you should accidentally kill a child, you'd be on the hook for that bill. It'll make pediatricians' lives more interesting for sure. Also bus drivers: would you write a school bus driver a billion-dollar liability policy?

    ReplyDelete
  73. Jay B.1:33 PM

    "I've always been classically liberal!"

    ReplyDelete
  74. BigHank531:34 PM

    Well, they're focused on the sins of other people. You're welcome to decide for yourself if they're trying to make themselves look and feel better by comparison, or whether they're trying to shift blame. Or, as seems depressingly common these days, both.

    ReplyDelete
  75. susanoftexas1:46 PM

    Which is a problem because a good Christian is supposed to take care of his own sins, spreading Christianity by example. So a bad, greedy "Christian" chooses a victim and then claims the victim is out to get him which is why he *must* ask for money to fight the menace.
    It sure sounds like Dreher is afraid of the Gay Menace but what is the effect of his actions? He peddles his products and makes enough money to live a mildly luxurious lifestyle.

    ReplyDelete
  76. ohsopolite1:46 PM

    As an unorthodox liberal, I approve this message.

    ReplyDelete
  77. DN Nation1:46 PM

    I enjoyed my Memorial Day. I'm sorry these bloated, pompous goddamn *crybabies* couldn't.

    ReplyDelete
  78. DN Nation1:48 PM

    By the way, for those who don't follow his Twitter feed because the nyuks you get from it aren't outweighed by the rising bile in your throat, Bloody Bill Kristol was particularly lacking in self-awareness on Memorial Day. Peep this: https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/603010205748723712

    ReplyDelete
  79. DN Nation1:52 PM

    Rod and his ilk sure have spouted forth a bunch of words, none of which are "Josh Duggar is a sick kid-toucher." I mean, take your time, guys. You certainly don't sound creepy.

    ReplyDelete
  80. You ain't just a' woofin.' When Jim Bob ran for office unsuccessfully one of the planks in his platform was to have the laws around incest changed to have it treated as a capital crime - whereas when it happened in his own family, it was just a ho-hum no big deal non-event.

    ReplyDelete
  81. I'm wondering how the social and theocons are going to react to a constitutional ban on the stay-at-home mom.

    ReplyDelete
  82. I bet those Slate writers don't even lift.

    ReplyDelete
  83. coozledad2:00 PM

    And it's never too late to make the latest dolchstosselgende about Jews. The Liberals/Muslims/Blacks will have to do until the narrative gets traction.


    It may take a little time, but I know Republicans can do it.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Indeed. One of the great mysteries is why the military LOVES Republicans so much. It was FDR and Truman who came up with the GI Bill, it was Kennedy who fully funded the VA, and Obama has tried desperately to restore full funding to the VA--only to have the likes of John McCain block that funding and then bitch about the lack of funding.

    But it's the Democrats who hate the troops. Feh.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Wine and cheese? Don't you mean whine and geez?

    ReplyDelete
  86. tigrismus2:04 PM

    And now I'm curious too, as taken literally this would make all forms of charity illegal.

    Only charity to poor people, you could still give all kinds of handouts to rick folks.

    ReplyDelete
  87. tigrismus2:06 PM

    Har-de-har. Har.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Well...I wasn't raised in Christianity at all, any kind, and I don't believe in sin and yet I've managed to avoid most of the "corrosive things" that a broad reading of sin would consider bad. In fact I've really never had to refer to the 10 commandments (not, note, at all christian) to determine what to do in any circumstance.

    If the only thing that makes someone behave in an upright and "moral" way is the threat of eternal punishment, then their behavior is irrelevant--they're only behaving like a trained seal and their only motivation is the potential reward.

    I have always felt that the more "moral" person--the better person--is the one who behaves that was because such behavior is actually a part of their being. I would much rather associate with someone who is good because they are good.

    ReplyDelete
  89. You know he's never gonna give that up,
    you're never gonna live that down.

    ReplyDelete
  90. susanoftexas2:13 PM

    That is awesome, in a horrifyingly revealing way.

    ReplyDelete
  91. but they still hate hippies more than they love're indifferent to the troops



    That raises the bar a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  92. I feel pretty weird all by myself on the Sabbath when everybody in the world is indoors keeping it holy. Oh wait, no, they're all at Nordstroms.

    ReplyDelete
  93. montag22:31 PM

    I should be inured to it by now, but I am still not enough not to notice that what defines the right wing in this country is their sense of entitlement through ownership. They genuinely believe that they--and exclusively they--own patriotism, foreign policy, goodness, light, truth, justice and the Amurrican Way.

    And in ol' Crunchy's case, because of his innate orthodoxical Christianity, he thinks he owns religion, morality and human nature. Maybe that's what happens after four hundred years of organized thievery, ethnic cleansing in service of organized thievery, and convincing themselves that a pax Americana is a good thing and not a carefully constructed process enabling yet more organized thievery.

    The only thing they won't own are their fuck-ups.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Old joke:

    Irv and Chaim had been friends for 50 years. They prayed together, went to schul together, feasted and fasted and celebrated the Sabbath together. One fine Saturday, Irv announces to Chaim that he has a confession.
    "Listen," says Irv, "I can't live like this any longer. must tell you that I'm not Jewish."
    "Wow!" says Chaim. "But you are just as observant as me! You must be Jewish."
    "No, I'm not Jewish," says Irv.
    "Well, if you're not Jewish, then we had better go tell the rabbi about this! Go get your keys and let's walk over to the rabbi's house."
    "I can't do that," says Irv. "It's the Sabbath and I can't carry keys around!"
    "But you're not Jewish!" says Chaim. "And besides, you've carried your keys every other Saturday when we've walked to schul! You were on the committee that voted to erect the erev!"
    "Eh," says Irv. "I don't hold with that erev."

    ReplyDelete
  95. TGuerrant2:37 PM

    That's... some damn list.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Maybe that's what happens after four hundred years of organized thievery, ethnic cleansing in service of organized thievery, and convincing themselves that a pax Americana is a good thing and not a carefully constructed process enabling yet more organized thievery.

    There's all that, and there's the tremendous hangover from the first 30 years after World War II when America had the only industrial base left on Planet Earth and everyone else had to buy from us. Now, of course, everyone else has either rebuilt their industrial base (Europe, Japan) or created one from scratch (China, Korea) or had our capitalist overlords move a bug chunk of our base somewhere else (Viet Nam, India). And the True Patriots just can't seem to get a grip on what that actually means.

    ReplyDelete
  97. I hate to say it--its like suddenly realizing you are color blind, but I don't get this joke.

    ReplyDelete
  98. Schlichter in all his glory: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ya833yBKHTY/VWNfsuWWFZI/AAAAAAAAZIs/fAIeJUeljZk/s1600/Screenshot%2B2015-05-25%2Bat%2B10.44.57%2BAM.png

    ReplyDelete
  99. You don't remember the glorious surge, when we bribed the Sunnis to keep the violence to a bear minimum until we didn't anymore?

    http://www.alternet.org/story/62827/u.s._is_paying_off_iraq%27s_worst_war_criminals_in_attempt_to_ward_off_attacks
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  100. In a nutshell, despite the guy not being Jewish and finally owning up to that, a lifetime of observance rendered him unable to break the Sabbath, even with the dispensation of an erev that he had personally helped to create.

    ReplyDelete
  101. What's Billy saying? He wants PABM to "catch on" because he is one? Does he like that phrasing better than "chickenhawk'?

    ReplyDelete
  102. DN Nation2:54 PM

    A vet made a "screw you, effete journalists" tweet for Memorial Day. Bill Kristol- fucking Bill Kristol!- was all "yeah, what he's saying! Screw you, effete journalists! What a bunch of pansies!"

    ReplyDelete
  103. susanoftexas3:03 PM

    For such a freedom-loving people, they spend an awful lot of their time trying to give up their freedom. Freedom means you are in control of your own actions, not anyone else. This means you cannot avoid taking responsibility for your actions and must accept the consequences of your actions. That is painful and people avoid pain.
    Since the leader is now responsible for decisions and the follower is only responsible for following, it seems like a good arrangement at the time. God gives you a sense of belonging, purpose, moral code, lifestyle ( patriarchy), and source of self-esteem (good Christian).
    But in exchange you give up freedom to make your own decisions. So that woman drags her tired self through life, feeling bad about her body and choice and guilty about her negative feelings. Then she remembers that God made the choice for her and she no longer feels bad about making the wrong choice--until the religious euphoria ends and she still doesn't have time to call a friend or go out for a walk or read a book.
    And of course the wolves among the sheep use the rules to shear them. They adhere to the rules of the tribe verbally but do whatever they want; Christianity is the con. They do horrific things in the name of Christianity because they want to do horrific things and get away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  104. susanoftexas3:06 PM

    That might take the Jaws of Life.

    ReplyDelete
  105. susanoftexas3:15 PM

    I am fine but the snack food might not last night.

    ReplyDelete
  106. susanoftexas3:17 PM

    And yet we owe it to science to see what might work. Quick, Igor, the experimental pills.

    ReplyDelete
  107. susanoftexas3:25 PM

    One day soon the only safe place will be one's very own RV, where Real Americans are sentenced to wander the highways of America, a vacation home without a country.

    ReplyDelete
  108. TGuerrant3:28 PM

    Christianity is the con.

    That about covers it.

    ReplyDelete
  109. TGuerrant3:31 PM

    Bloody Bill's buying books from Roosh V now? Bang the Pentagon?

    ReplyDelete
  110. StringOnAStick3:34 PM

    My husband used to work with a programmer who was an incredibly smug Christian; he even changed his on-screen cursor into a Jesus fish. My husband also describes him as one of the biggest assholes he's ever worked with, who had not a single qualm about screwing over co-workers and underlings because: forgiven, now and forever.. The sociopath's creed.

    ReplyDelete
  111. I'll take my bug chunk, with a honey glazed vinaigrette on the side thank you very much!
    ....

    ReplyDelete
  112. susanoftexas3:45 PM

    That's different. They don't have our culture of freedom and equality.

    ReplyDelete
  113. liberal politicians

    Speaking of strawmen, aside from a smattering that provides the rule are such things seen often in the wild, or more importantly, any ever seen on the TV?
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  114. ...including one who was only 5 years old at the time...

    This I did not know. I guess lacking anything resembling sex education save for his parents fucking like rabbits, he wanted to explore, er, do his own research. A Conservative Kinsey, if you will...

    /tiredofcrying
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  115. And of course the other teaser is "what if the duggers were black..."
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  116. And Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot....
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  117. StringOnAStick4:01 PM

    You know, its all right there: what Rod "believes to be true about religion, morality, and human nature." Why, its almost as if Rod has placed himself up on that pedestal as God of us all, since what he "believes" is the arbiter of all action. Gee Rod, project/self-aggrandize much?

    ReplyDelete
  118. I guess lacking anything resembling sex education . . .

    I always wonder about hyperChristians and their opposition to sex ed. Some say, "Well, that's something I should be allowed to teach at home!" Of course, just because something is taught at school doesn't mean that a parent can't add information or perspective at home.

    But the other giant problem with their "Let ME teach Junior and Sally!" approach is that they never quite get around to actually having that conversation. And what little bit of information "leaks" around the house portrays sex as something dirty, sinful, and to be avoided except under special circumstances. Any wonder why these kids grow up so terribly sexually confused? Or why abstinence-only sex ed produces the highest teen pregnancy rates?

    ReplyDelete
  119. IOKIYAR, my friend. David Vitter is still a United States Senator; Elliot Spitzer is still barred from public discourse.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Tony Prost4:04 PM

    Well, the Enlightenment was certainly anti-clerical, which is not necessarily the same thing as anti-religion.

    ReplyDelete
  121. What good is having a forgiving God if you don't do things for which you need forgiveness?

    ReplyDelete
  122. "Beware critical thinking, because our faith is built upon the solid rock of Christ, yet the slightest breeze will blow it over."

    ReplyDelete
  123. Indeed. His mother rushes toilet training and 50 years later we're all paying for it.

    ReplyDelete
  124. PersonaAuGratin4:12 PM

    No, next he's going to take Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops in order to cut off supply lines to the resistance army.

    ReplyDelete
  125. Obviously someone unaware of the difference between having a dick and being a dick.

    ReplyDelete
  126. satch4:14 PM

    Kurt Schlichter probably still wants people to believe that returning Viet Nam vets were spit on...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spitting_Image

    ReplyDelete
  127. A real leader would lure the resistors into striking range, then hook them all with a net operation. Instead, Obama is casting about aimlessly, suffering backlash after backlash.

    ReplyDelete
  128. force paupers to subsist on protein powder

    MUSCLE MILK IS PEOPLE!

    anyway, I'm fucking pissed. Someone just called 911 on me for having the cats in the car - I've been trying to keep the windows down as much as possible, but Serena (the wily Oriental Siamese) has been trying to jailbreak herself and the one goddamn day I have 'em up, I'm sitting here in the liberry and one of the librarians walks up and says there's an officer asking about me... which follows on from Saturday, when Mom and I were at Tim Horton's having coffee and some ass busybody comes over to skree about the dogs panting. I am getting really tied of this shit. These folks should try living in their cars for a couple months themselves and see what a fucking paradise it is.

    Thanks for listening. BTW, anyone see the cover of the new Commentary, where Chuckles Murray is once again doing his "IT'S NOT AMERICAN ANYMORE NOW THAT THE KNEEBLANKES HAVE TAKEN OVER" skree.

    ReplyDelete
  129. I will fight anyone to the death to fire off the first flaming arrow...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  130. smut clyde4:36 PM

    squandered the victory in IraqIt was a victory -- Mission Accomplished! -- until the Obama Time Machine went and unvictored it.

    ReplyDelete
  131. smut clyde4:43 PM

    force paupers to subsist on protein powder (but not the good kind the yuppies get!)Wait, what, is Rob Rhitehart's emulsify-everything food-substitute scam still going? I suppose it's not really a scam if the software crowd are only consuming it to signal how incredibly busy they are, rather than because of its dietary claims.

    Stolen from the Beckett Cookbook:
    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rRl7piJ9LA4/UVJxC6c86JI/AAAAAAAAMD8/oi46ZXRF1Ho/s1600/watt.PNG

    ReplyDelete
  132. Why am I suddenly reminded of the sketch from MST3K where Mike Nelson was jucifying butter?

    ReplyDelete
  133. What we have here is a perfect example of a "dick move" yet this one is frosted with a honey glaze and festooned with sprinkles, call it a dick move squared, if you will...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  134. RichRolled, maybe...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  135. tigrismus4:53 PM

    "I refuse to apologize for my penis." Indeed, it's a poor workman who blames his tool.

    ReplyDelete
  136. Upvoted for, well, goodness, and another would be forthcoming only because, a draft that I am working on uses...brb..."...diddles the children..."

    Research indicates that "diddled his sisters among others" might be more appropriate...

    ...

    ReplyDelete
  137. With the added bonus of the get out of jail pass...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  138. witlesschum5:05 PM

    Because if he let reason win, he'd lose his self image as a special snowflake, engaged in titanically important struggles as a thinker?

    ReplyDelete
  139. LookWhosInTheFreezer5:07 PM

    "How much they love the troops is revealed by how much conservatives have slashed veteran's benefits."

    So they are Non-Friends Without Benefits to the Troops. Sounds about right.

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  140. Well, the troops are getting fucked. So I'm not really sure how you'd classify the relationship--conservatives get their rocks off and have a trophy girlfriend to show around, while liberals are the ones who are always getting called at 3AM to drive the girlfriend to the ER after the conservatives come home from another round of fiscal conservativism with the boys and smack her around for a bit before passing out on the Koch.

    ReplyDelete
  141. billcinsd5:15 PM

    build a giant barge, we should build that sucker, put them on it and send them off to sea on goddamn fire.

    I think I saw this in a Ray Romano movie

    ReplyDelete
  142. parsec5:15 PM

    He's my mother's representative (I almost typed reprehensitive). She takes special delight in voting against him every election.

    ReplyDelete
  143. They're just doing what Jesus told 'em to when he said, "Suffer the children . . ." They're making children suffer as much as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  144. Don't forget - they own us poors, too, and everything WE own, c.f. the hijinks I mention above with out pets.

    ReplyDelete
  145. BigHank535:20 PM

    Well, it looks like I, your humble and obedient cisgendered heterosexual white guy, am obligated once again to speak up for another penis. Ahem:

    I apologize for Kurt Schlichter's penis. It didn't get to choose which guy it was going to get stuck onto, and should not be held responsible for the appalling things that emerge from Kurt Schlichter's other orifices.

    ReplyDelete
  146. And again I am inclined to tell a dude who had been repeatedly to the skybuddy mall, to fuck the fuck off!
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  147. The Land Yacht of Freedom!

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  148. What, there might be a day left in the year that the mil-fap crowd might have missed reminding us that THEY GAVE US FREEDOM?

    Horrors!

    ReplyDelete
  149. That would be sharia, this is different because Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  150. Being one of the KneeBlankes in question, I will have to talk to upper management about the current situation...

    But seriously, while scraping by myself I can only offer my understanding and push loving vibes in your direction...

    xoxo, bud.
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  151. "I have a dream today that little children of all colors can starve to death in the streets, that the corpses of their parents will litter the highways and byways of this great land, and that both rich and poor alike will be barred from helping them. Because the greatness of America lies not in our concern for our fellow citizens, but in how much each of us can grab with our own two hands!"

    President Paul Ryan, second inauguration, 2032

    ReplyDelete
  152. Shit that happened in the past is excusable, if you're wingnut material.

    ReplyDelete
  153. You owe me a keyboard.

    ReplyDelete
  154. Levity should be the soul of wit, as for now I would very like to be watching down on this from above...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  155. "worm-powder"

    MMMMMM-mmmmm!

    ReplyDelete
  156. In their world, :diddling your sister is just as sinful as down loading porn.

    ReplyDelete
  157. billcinsd5:31 PM

    Leona Helmsley

    ReplyDelete
  158. Gamma-Epsilon Minus

    They wear infrared, you know.

    *shudder* Beastly!

    ReplyDelete
  159. "bare minimum"

    /pedant

    ReplyDelete
  160. The shittier the beer, the more MURIKAN it is!

    ReplyDelete
  161. We had a nice "picnic" at the local park with the dogs, and were visited by two different hunting spiders.

    ReplyDelete
  162. So if it weren't for these assclowns we'd be grilling in GERMAN?
    .

    ReplyDelete
  163. What better way to celebrate than remembering the awfulness of Reagan

    ReplyDelete
  164. mortimer20005:44 PM

    Shorter Rod Dreher's 100,000 words (i.e., what he simply can't bring himself to say): The referendum to institute gay marriage was passed -- by a 2 to 1 margin -- not by Irish liberals, but by Irish Catholics.

    ReplyDelete
  165. Magatha5:48 PM

    Jeez, they're training spiders to hunt the homeless now? Are you sure they weren't trying to recruit you for something? I wish you could re-train them to patrol your perimeter and scare off interlopers.

    ReplyDelete
  166. DocAmazing5:50 PM

    Wurst-case scenario, yes.

    ReplyDelete
  167. DocAmazing5:52 PM

    Oh, you just have to change the first two letters...

    ReplyDelete
  168. During breakfast this morning, I overheard on of the local luminaries (ever heard of the Sagarin ratings) talking to a fellow, and caught a couple of things...He was in favor of a politician with Bernie Sanders economic policy mixorred with Rick Santorum's, Cultural values...I bit my tongue...

    Then I heard, "...well, I don't think I would want to build my own roads, or my own aquifers..."

    At this point, I could not help myself..."has anyone ever 'built' an aquifer?"

    "The Romans."

    "I think you meant aqueduct"
    "I occasionally like to use big words that I don't understand"


    I smiled, returned to my breakfast, and left before I might cause insult.


    True story.
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  169. DocAmazing6:05 PM

    taken literally this would make all forms of charity illegal
    Heck, it could also be construed to outlaw healthcare and moneylending.

    ReplyDelete
  170. philadelphialawyer6:07 PM

    Dreher:
    "Now that liberalism has evolved into hostility to what I believe to be true about religion, morality, and human nature, I — like all orthodox Christians — have to face the fact that liberalism, which all of us Americans took in with our mother’s milk, may ultimately be alien to our faith, because in the end, it enthrones the choosing Self over God or any conception of external, transcendent Truth."
    Notice one again the incredible narcissism and solipsism here. Assuming that what Dreher says is true, that liberalism is, in the end, alien to his faith, why should all other orthodox Christians have to come to the same conclusion? The jump from liberalism has evolved into something that is hostile to what Dreher believes is true to its evolution into something that all Christians must also see as hostile is rather breathtaking.
    Christianity, even little "o" orthodox Christianity, is rather heterodox, and also rather protean. Nobody, presumably, knows that better than Dreher, who, depending on how you count it, is on his third or fourth religion in his adult life.
    And yet the Irish decision to legalize SSM, because Dreher abhors it, somehow means that the centuries long co existence of Christianity and liberalism is now at an end. Most of the voters in Ireland are Catholic, and yet they, apparently, can think they can manage to balance their liberalism with an abiding belief in orthodox Christianity. But Dreher, who once was a convert to Catholicism, but has since jumped ship, apparently knows better.
    Funny too, in that orthodox Christianity is usually defined in terms of belief in the Nicene Creed. And that creed, basically, says nothing more than the ordinary stuff about the creation of the world, the Trinity, the Jesus story, and so forth. Nothing at all about sexuality or marriage or anything other than basic theology. One would think that anyone who believes in the content of the creed could correctly call themselves an orthodox Christian. And while some sects of Christianity may have a problem with SSM, and oppose its legality, that hardly seems to be a central, bedrock necessity of being a Christian. And, if the Nicene creed is too much, well then, according to Dreher's own allegedly holy book, the son of god said only two things matter: love god and love each other. NOT: love god and love each other and don't live in a land where there is SSM!

    ReplyDelete
  171. bgnewhouse6:09 PM

    You wonder what people like Dave Thul want, if even something as innocuous as barbecue on Memorial Day weekend is grist for their culture-war mill. (I mean, there's a limit to how many war movies a man can watch in a row.) Ah, well, as I've said before, because we are virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale.

    ReplyDelete
  172. Bush was so much more sincere on Memorial Day, because he added to the "ranks of the fallen"?

    Also, I'd bet actual folding money that the tsking readers were out chugging Coors or buying toaster ovens yesterday.

    ReplyDelete
  173. Amidst all of the hoo-hah about people drinking and partying on Memorial Day, the real issue is that there are only eight or so nation holidays in the U.S., and if a person is lucky, they get a whopping two weeks vacation time. Expecting that an overworked drone from sector 7-G is going to take a rare day off on a beautiful spring day to mourn strangers is farcical, even to the most enthusiastic fellator of the MotU types.

    ReplyDelete
  174. bekabot6:45 PM

    "If he cared, he wouldn’t have squandered the victory in Iraq to satisfy his America-hating pals on the left."

    There was a victory in Iraq?

    Darn it, why wasn't I told?

    ReplyDelete
  175. tigrismus6:46 PM

    His beliefs are transcendent Truth, and he knows that's true because he's chosen to believe them. No enthroning of the Self there, nosiree!

    ReplyDelete
  176. billcinsd6:49 PM

    I have what God chose for me.

    How does one know this? I certainly agree that she has what was chosen for her, but calling one's husband God seems likely to expand his ego even more than your stomach

    ReplyDelete
  177. Not "how many war movies can a man watch in a row", more like, "could someone edit them all to only show the death scenes, and then I'll run it on the VCR in the basement, next to the fridge where the beer and polish sausages are kept."

    The simulacrum of patriotism is all that is required...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  178. bekabot6:52 PM

    "Real Murkins drink Bud or maybe Miller High Life."

    'Cuz PBR's been ruined, just ruined — it fell into the wrong hands.

    ReplyDelete
  179. TGuerrant7:00 PM

    He should drop the religion angle and just go with hating the Irish for being Irish. They were never really white anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  180. At some point you have to conclude that he's simply an idiot who can't overcome his desire that the opposite is true.


    A lot of people have confused, and continue to confuse, Rod with an intellectual. He's a classic pseudointellectual. Proof: a couple blog entries down he's declaring Rupert Sheldrake a persecuted genius rattling the cage of the scientismists. Sheldrake is a clearcut example of a pseudoscientist aka occultist.


    Part of me has pity on Rod for trying so earnestly to be a real elite and to give himself (for what that's worth) to a Lost Cause and saving the insalvagable, i.e. organized conventional religion. The rest of me has pure disgust and contempt for the load of sophistry aka philosophismist shit and selfdeception and grift and immorality and deference to insanity and professional prostitution the task requires.

    ReplyDelete
  181. TGuerrant7:04 PM

    And now a word from Schlichter's penis:

    I'm really sorry about Schlichter. I'm doing my best to keep him from reproducing.

    ReplyDelete
  182. TGuerrant7:05 PM

    Apparently being a big one takes your mind off of having a little one.

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  183. billcinsd7:10 PM

    and joint assets in marriage

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  184. billcinsd7:12 PM

    this must be imagined to be said in a high, whiny voice because of size issues

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  185. TGuerrant7:14 PM

    Does Chris Matthews do voiceovers?

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  186. tigrismus7:25 PM

    There was a sign and everything, bekabot...

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  187. agorabum7:30 PM

    We always need to be halfway around the world fighting on behalf of some group of people that somehow doesn't care enough to fight for themselves...
    They always think it's 1942, and the evil is a heavily industrialized and advanced military dictatorship controlling half the world. So America must save the day. In reality, the most everyone in that neighborhood is willing to do is fly some air strikes.

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  188. You have such a way with words, Susan.

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  189. Well, also, Vitter was merely into diaper play. Spitzer left his socks on.

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  190. M. Krebs7:39 PM

    Totally unpredictable the way it lines up, innate?

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  191. I confess I'm partial to this version.

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  192. Prisoner without a name--cell without an address.

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  193. It helps to hold a green filter up to the computer screen.

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  194. God gave me even my hairstyle! Look how free I am!

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  195. M. Krebs7:46 PM

    You're off by one year.

    https://youtu.be/CPnwlNvwBLI

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  196. tigrismus7:46 PM

    The real heroes today are the passive aggressive beta males at Slate and
    Vox. It takes guts to show that level of insecurity on Memorial Day


    I just can't get over this, it really is the most perfect own-goal.

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  197. Actually what puzzles me is her insistence that this path from god is clear, but some other path from god isn't or wouldn't be. She makes the same choices every day that any other person does, she just seems to think they are not choices. I get up every day and take care of my family, serve my community, make dinner, take care of my parents--whatever. And I'm pretty happy. I don't think of myself as a person who makes "bad choices"--in fact I have no experience of that while she does. But I see no reason to think that the "bad choice" she made once (to be a party girl and have a baby out of wedlock) is really her since she's just spent twenty years and 9 other children proving its not. I don't get the idea that people are just going to trip and fall into sin, or bad choices, or anything else absent this single plan from god. Or why some other plan from god isn't just as likely or as joyful. Why is someone else planning not to have 10 kids somehow not "being open to god's will?" Maybe god is planning for them to open a school in Zimbabwe and he's only going to put together enough money for one person to go? How can you know, a priori, that of all the choices god could be making for you this is the only one?

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