Tuesday, December 09, 2014

THE "LIBERTARIAN MOMENT" RETURNS, IN A CAMEO ROLE.

Dana Milbank at the Washington Post on Chris Hughes, the internet doofus who has lately been mulching The New Republic:
...Hughes lashed out in a group email to staff because [New Republic] senior editor (and former Post reporter) Alec MacGillis had dared to propose writing a piece about Apple avoiding taxes just after Apple’s Tim Cook had come out of the closet. Hughes shot back that “Apple has acted squarely within the law” and that MacGillis’s argument would be “tone deaf.” MacGillis quickly backed off, but Hughes did not, writing twice more to defend Apple’s tax strategy and to call Cook “incredibly heroic” for coming out.
As you might expect, the g-factor causes a frother at rightwing Jesus site First Things to explode in straight rage:
Capital is cloaking itself in the rainbow flag... One must choose one’s loyalties. In this case and in many others, the Democratic Party and its organs have chosen the sexual desires of the rich over the economic aspirations of working Americans... Gay rights have allowed oligarchy to put on progressive drag...(et hetero)
Come let us Reason together, says National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru to the frother: Ponnuru's not asking him to like Those People, but he does ask him to focus on the greater good:
Even if the generalization is true — and it may well be — this comment seems a bit off. It’s not at all obvious to me that Apple would be doing any great favors for “working Americans” by paying more taxes than legally required. I can well see how social conservatives might be nostalgic for an older form of liberalism that placed less emphasis on sexual liberation than today’s. Nostalgia should not, however, lead conservatives to parrot that liberalism’s view of the economy.
In other words: Fag-bashing may be fun, but give Hughes a break -- he was after all defending a corporate oligarch, and isn't that really what the new libertarianism-injected conservatism is really all about?

Like I've been saying all along, libertarianism is just a niche brand of conservatism, and you see it more clearly when the parent brand asserts it.

UPDATE. In comments, hellslittlestangel encapsulates nicely: "While it's true that Jesus said, 'Hate your neighbor,' let's not forget that he also helped the money-changers get a tax-exemption for working out of a temple." But Rugosa is puzzled: "'Sexual desires of the rich'? Does that mean that having lots of money causes the gay? So maybe we should tax the wealthy into heterosexuality."

141 comments:

  1. hellslittlestangel12:57 PM

    While it's true that Jesus said, "Hate your neighbor," let's not forget that he also helped the money-changers get a tax-exemption for working out of a temple.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had no idea that so much wrong could be packed into such a small space. It's like a neutron star of derp.

    First, Hughes's "But Apple's CEO just came out!!!" is completely irrelevant to Apple's tax-avoidance strategy. Especially since what Apple is doing is what damn near every other corporate kleptocrat is doing. And this really DOES screw working people since we're left holding the fucking bag for those unpaid taxes.

    Second, the guy from First Things is hallucinating that the Demoncrats are all about the sexy ghey all the time. A bit too much Rush for that guy.

    And, finally, I'm convinced that Ponuru is Punjabi for "clueless tool." In what corner of the conservative universe has liberalism NOT been all about sexual liberation? To hear conservatives tell it, all liberals want is a gigantic government on which to have sex.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BadExampleMan1:20 PM

    At least we're willing to admit what gender we want that giant government to be.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rugosa1:22 PM

    Wait a sec, "sexual desires of the rich"? Does that mean that having lots of money causes the gay? So maybe we should tax the wealthy into heterosexuality.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JennOfArk1:24 PM

    Well, hey, if your organs have to choose sexual desires, it's just as easy to lust with the rich as with the poor, amirite?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Liberals are rich

    Liberals are gay

    Ergo rich people are gay

    I believe Aristotle called this logical structure argumendum ad idiotum

    ReplyDelete
  7. satch1:53 PM

    I always knew there was something funny about Steve Forbes...

    ReplyDelete
  8. coozledad1:54 PM

    I can well see how social conservatives might be nostalgic for an older form of liberalism that placed less emphasis on sexual liberation than today’s.



    It was a simpler time. After all, it's not like a socially conservative family was ever going to give birth to a black, Hispanic or Jewish child.


    Mo's can show up anywhere, anytime.

    ReplyDelete
  9. satch1:56 PM

    The ability to indulge your lust does not come cheap!

    ReplyDelete
  10. ColBatGuano2:04 PM

    Well, I'm encouraged that First Things is concerned about the fate of the working poor....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ellis_Weiner2:11 PM

    Iggzzackly. A right-wing organ (hurr) talking witheringly about "capital" and "oligarchy"? Someone's been getting into the wine.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Jay B.2:14 PM

    Capital is cloaking itself in the rainbow flag...Gay rights have allowed oligarchy to put on progressive drag...(et hetero)


    Sorry son, you got your gay panic in my class struggle.

    ReplyDelete
  13. montag22:34 PM

    This appears to be the argument used by Limbaugh in the Dominican Republic, in an attempt to sidestep some of his more obvious, umm, shortcomings.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Gromet2:36 PM

    Now that you mention it, I have heard that the gays have a lot of disposable income...


    But... but wait. Marriage causes wealth and traditional values. That has been proven. So... too much marriage causes gayness!


    This certainly explains Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, Larry Craig -- they're not actually gay. They're just too moral and successful.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I like my government hot, throbbing, and ready to invade at a moments notice. And etc...

    ReplyDelete
  16. Touch-and-go Bullethead2:44 PM

    It was Cook's coming out, not his tax evasion, that Hughes called courageous. And, to be fair to Hughes, I think his original point was a concern that writing about the tax evasion at that moment would dilute the effect of the coming out. That much is understandable, and though it is probably bad editorial policy, one can have a bit of sympathy for it. But, of course, he could not stop there...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Can we tax Donald Trump until he stops that squirrel from humping the top of his head?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tribble Mobility Scooter Donald Trump and his undead scalp ferret

    ReplyDelete
  19. coozledad3:10 PM

    It's a kind of all-fuck-all orgy. Less of a human centipede than a gratuitous fuckball.

    ReplyDelete
  20. coozledad3:13 PM

    Take away the squirrel, and all that's left is Trump.


    I don't know if America can handle it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Helmut Monotreme3:23 PM

    In latin?

    ReplyDelete
  22. I always thought the sexual desires of the rich merely involved fucking workers.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Forget it, Helmut, he's on a roll.

    ReplyDelete
  24. M. Krebs3:26 PM

    We should've known that those Apple computers were totally gay when we saw the old rainbow-colored logo.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Helmut Monotreme3:26 PM

    He wears that scalp ferret so people don't look at his face. Which, considering his '6 hours into his own wake' complexion, is very considerate of him.

    ReplyDelete
  26. BigHank533:26 PM

    Upvoted for "gratuitous fuckball" which is how I plan on describing CPAC from now on.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Blessed are the dealmakers!

    ReplyDelete
  28. BigHank533:28 PM

    Until you're rich, then it's complimentary. That is, the rich expect compliments, and lots of them.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I'd prefer that they remain in the Old Testament without dragging that nice Jesus fellow into it.

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  30. montag23:29 PM

    Ah, but he was certainly trying to portray just another rapacious CEO out to gouge the government as courageous. He chose to link those two separate and clearly disparate news items. And, no, it's neither understandable nor deserving of sympathy. I don't care whether Cook is out or not--it's his choice and it's his life. But I do care a good deal about corporations stretching the law to near the breaking point so that they can hoover up even more cash--at the expense of the public, and that is what Hughes is rather desperately and hamhandedly trying to minimize, whatever the excuse he makes for it. He is, in fact, saying, "don't talk about this."

    Paraphrasing the old Sesame Street song, these things are not like each other. In the grand order of things, Cook's coming out ranks well below the actions of the corporation he controls, and the two, in fact, have no fucking relation to each other at all, even though Hughes is doing a pee-dance trying to make it seem as if they are.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Can't spell Steve without "Eve".

    ReplyDelete
  32. The serpent in this new garden has one eye, IYKWIMAITTYD.

    ReplyDelete
  33. M. Krebs3:34 PM

    Butterfield 8? No, wait, I'm just speaking for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  34. susanoftexas3:34 PM

    Blessed are the poor in spirit: for they will be mistreated for others' personal gain.
    Blessed are those who mourn: for the deaths of their loved ones will enrich the military-industrial complex.
    Blessed are the meek: for they will be easier to control.
    Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be jailed as whistleblowers.
    Blessed are the merciful : for they will be used by the merciless.
    Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will not recognize abusive treatment.
    Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be blamed for the warmongers' failures.
    Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the torture of prison life.

    ReplyDelete
  35. the Democratic Party and its organs have chosen the sexual desires of
    the rich over the economic aspirations of working Americans


    More proof that conservatives are always trying to sneak their organs in places when you're not looking.

    ReplyDelete
  36. So (Work w/ me here people!) when capital comes to America, it will be cloaked in the rainbow flag, carrying a, what ... dollar sign? Cross of gold?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Helmut Monotreme4:05 PM

    Sometimes I wish I lived in the America that conservatives think they inhabit. Imagine, a place where virtue was rewarded, and escaping poverty was as simple as living frugally and working hard? Where that worked equally well for poor kids and rich kids? Imagine an America that really was as honorable as we were taught in elementary school history classes. Imagine an America that really did have equal rights for everyone and those who still complained were only whiny malcontents instead of oppressed people with legitimate grievances. Imagine an America whose wealth and power depended on its respectful integration of all of its citizens in a diverse egalitarian democratic society, and its leadership on human rights and history of defending human dignity inspired the world? Imagine an America of such boundless size and natural wealth that extraction industries could cut all the lumber, mine all the coal, catch all the fish and use all the water, that there would still be enough to left over that no one would have to do without, and the pollution would be negligible leaving forests and wildlife unaffected. Where leaving and old job and starting a successful business was as simple as slamming the door behind you? I wonder what color the sky is in that world. And I wonder how people can still think that's the planet they live on rather than this one.

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  38. montag24:10 PM

    "... and its leadership on human rights and history of defending human dignity inspired the world?"

    Oh, we've inspired the world, alright.

    Good and hard, to steal a phrase from H.L. Mencken.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Bitter Scribe4:12 PM

    I'd never heard of "First Things," but it proclaims itself "America's Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life."

    Wow. My first reaction is: If you have to tell someone you're influential, you're not.

    Just for shits and giggles, I read today's lead essay, by some minister on the virtues of forcing children to attend church. He says that he "had the good fortune" in divinity school to take an ethics class from somebody or other who declared on the first day, “I don’t want to hear what you think, because you don’t have minds worth making up until they’ve been formed by this class.”



    Those folks over there have VERY high opinions of themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Smurch4:14 PM

    Add size 12 1/2 stiletto heels and a gold tiara, and you have some FABULOUS capital!

    ReplyDelete
  41. I was nine when Cleopatra was released.

    ReplyDelete
  42. coozledad4:17 PM

    Mama Ptolemy not to come.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Smurch4:20 PM

    Not as drunk as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

    ReplyDelete
  44. LittlePig4:22 PM

    I thought that logical structure was the Goldberg variation.

    ReplyDelete
  45. LittlePig4:22 PM

    Would that I had more upvotes.

    Bravo.

    ReplyDelete
  46. gocart mozart4:26 PM

    http://theaporetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gaygeorge.png

    ReplyDelete
  47. Holy shit that is good.

    ReplyDelete
  48. If only the serial # had been IM1RU12.

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  49. Time to roll out the mastrubationphage amoebas.

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  50. tigrismus4:40 PM

    Gay rights have allowed oligarchy to put on progressive drag

    It's awful isn't it, just like how greenwashing allows companies to pretend capitalism isn't... wait, you think the main problem with this is the gay rights, not the oligarchy, don't you?

    ReplyDelete
  51. Gromet4:44 PM

    Slopes abound, and liberals are out there slathering 'em all with Astroglide.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Touch-and-go Bullethead4:46 PM

    Shorter montag2: The important thing here is that I get to feel superior to someone.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Bizarro Mike4:46 PM

    "Sometimes I wish I lived in the America that conservatives think they inhabit."

    After seeing a lot of wingnuttery, I think this works on the No Checking Principle. Working hard gets you ahead in life, so don't bother checking if this is true for anyone. There's plenty of water for everyone, so don't try to predict and plan future water conservation. There's no racial discrimination, so stop collecting statistics to cross-correlate with race. And so on.

    ReplyDelete
  54. montag24:49 PM

    It must be a real joy when one's profession (fucking the help) is also one's hobby.

    Just ask Ahnold Schwarzenegger.

    ReplyDelete
  55. montag24:57 PM

    "I don’t want to hear what you think, because you don’t have minds worth making up until they’ve been formed by this class."

    Sounds like someone who thinks the Inquisition was just friendly persuasion.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Yeah. I'm watching The Vikings on Amazon Prime right now. Being a robber baron was pretty hard work. Googleapp millionaires? not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  57. I hate to say that I had no idea what you were spelling out for quite a while.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Call for Smut Clyde! Smut Clyde needed in aisle two!

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  59. DocAmazing5:01 PM

    They'll pay away their gay, okay?

    ReplyDelete
  60. John Wesley Hardin5:05 PM

    "So maybe we should tax the wealthy into heterosexuality." I think the President should announce this new policy tomorrow so as to boost the right-wing-head-explosion-cleanup industry. That sort of cognitive whiplash between hate-the-gays and hate-the-taxes is lethal.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Brother Yam5:08 PM

    No, no, no, you Eat The Rich

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h45WnW0ASFY

    and Kill the Poor
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpa7wEAz7I

    ReplyDelete
  62. John Wesley Hardin5:08 PM

    That quote, unaltered, would be at the center of an article about "the horrors of liberal indoctrination on our nation's campuses" if the context was on the other foot.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Your butthurt has been duly noted and recorded for future amusement.

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  64. Nope. The amoeba that gives itself hand jobs while eating itself is YOUR invention. I have the empty bottles of brain bleach to prove it.

    ReplyDelete
  65. You may be on the road to adulthood!

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  66. montag26:08 PM

    I'm using the term in the Gilded Age sense, rather than the one you're suggesting. Piracy and plunder did require some physical exertion before the days of organized capitalism, which allowed and encouraged one to simply pay nominal sums to others to accomplish one's thievery.

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  67. montag26:14 PM

    "... so as to boost the right-wing-head-explosion-cleanup industry."

    I can see that Merry Maids will be hiring a lot more undocumented workers if this comes to pass. After all, isn't that what is done in this country with our messiest and most dangerous jobs?

    ReplyDelete
  68. Three cheers for your comment:

    Ra! Ra! Ra!

    ReplyDelete
  69. tigrismus6:32 PM

    How kind of you to ensure it.

    ReplyDelete
  70. I confess that was me. But Smut Clyde had the pictorial proof of the existence of the creature.

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  71. M. Krebs6:58 PM

    “I don’t want to hear what you think, because you don’t have minds worth making up until they’ve been formed by this class.”



    That's a pretty good argument against faculty/course evaluations by students, I must say.

    ReplyDelete
  72. M. Krebs6:59 PM

    Humina humina humina.

    ReplyDelete
  73. J Neo Marvin7:02 PM

    In that event, it would be classic "It's different because we're GOOD!" reasoning.

    ReplyDelete
  74. I hired the Merry Maids once, when I was a new mother living in a strange city. This is about 18 years ago. I asked the woman who was doing the cleaning how much of the hourly rate she was paid (I think I was paying 50 dollars an hour for two women). She told me she was paid 5.50 an hour and they were forbidden to use the bathroom in any house they were cleaning. Also: she couldn't come back later and work for me privately, for the original 50 dollars an hour, or they'd fire her and sue her. I never, ever, considered hiring them again.

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  75. montag27:27 PM

    Although Barbara Ehrenreich was probably forbidden by lawyers to refer to them by name, they're undoubtedly the subject of one of her chapters in Nickel and Dimed.

    It was not a flattering portrait.

    ReplyDelete
  76. A whole new "Valley of The Kings".

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  77. Yes--a great book and I'm pretty sure it was Merry Maids.

    ReplyDelete
  78. redoubtagain8:17 PM

    Sometimes I wish I lived in the America that conservatives think they inhabit.


    They wouldn't be living here, because they'd all be in political asylum (in some Caucasian-ruled dictatorship) or we'd have put them against the wall long ago.

    ReplyDelete
  79. redoubtagain8:24 PM

    Only in the sense of creating as many of them as possible, but I digress.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Frank DiMarcotte8:35 PM

    Gotta be honest here, this is a pretty clear case of both sides being guilty. They both do it.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Ellis_Weiner8:57 PM

    Oh tut tut...

    ReplyDelete
  82. stepped_pyramids9:40 PM

    No, it goes beyond that. It's natural for people to have different standards for their in-group. It's easier to empathize with people you know and share experiences with, and thus to see their bad behavior as justified (or at least mitigated). It can be a toxic tendency (see the "thin blue line"), but it's a universal trait of humans, and can only be avoided by a great deal of conscious effort.


    In this case, Chris Hughes is a tech jillionaire with vaguely liberal policy goals. Tim Cook is his kind of people, Apple is his kind of company. I don't see any ideological aspect to his behavior there. It doesn't make it good or defensible, but it's not political.

    ReplyDelete
  83. Buffalo Rude9:47 PM

    Natch. . .


    (h/t The Oatmeal)

    ReplyDelete
  84. Another Kiwi9:54 PM

    Are livers in this? I'm not sure mine should be choosing that sort of thing without a consultation process.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Another Kiwi9:54 PM

    AND the planet SIR!

    ReplyDelete
  86. smut clyde10:12 PM

    You mean this?
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0DD9x-q_6rY/ULEziadZjvI/AAAAAAAAKWM/0qYZYXra3J0/s1600/plasm1.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  87. Do. Not. Feed. The. Troll.

    ReplyDelete
  88. smut clyde10:18 PM

    NAG NAG NAG.
    For the gray mass quobbed and quivered, and swelled perpetually; and
    from it, in manifold fission, were spawned the anatomies that crept away
    on every side through the grotto. There were things like bodiless legs
    or arms that flailed in the slime, or heads that rolled, or floundering
    bellies with fishes' fins; and all manner of things malformed and
    monstrous, that grew in size as they departed from the neighborhood of
    Abhoth. And those that swam not swiftly ashore when they fell into the
    pool from Abhoth, were devoured by mouths that gaped in the parent bulk.

    ReplyDelete
  89. AGoodQuestion10:19 PM

    Alternate shorter Ponnuru:


    Let the Democrats serve the sexual desires of the rich. We're still where they go for their nihilistic world-destroying urges.

    ReplyDelete
  90. "In this case and in many others, the Democratic Party and its organs
    have chosen the sexual desires of the rich over the economic aspirations of working Americans.”


    *Snork* *snork* "He said ORGANS! Hur hur...


    Seriously, though, how did Ramesh miss "The Wolf Of Wall Street"? I'll bet him ten thousand dollars (don't worry, Ramesh... Mitt will cover it) that jordan Belfort not only wasn't gay, he wasn't a Democrat.

    ReplyDelete
  91. AGoodQuestion10:23 PM

    Some kind of asylum, political or otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Hail, Ragnar!

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  93. AGoodQuestion10:34 PM

    She made one hot pickled faculty wife.

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  94. AGoodQuestion10:42 PM

    Our big economic decisions are being made by men - it's still almost all men - who have spent their entire lives in a privilege bubble. It's just that the bubble has to be rather FABULOUS! in order for the First Things guy to notice.

    ReplyDelete
  95. AGoodQuestion10:49 PM

    Sounds like they're unclear on the concept of "merriment".

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  96. My mother always referred to the spouses of my father's fellow teachers as the Fuckulty wives.

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  97. Seeing as how I am a Certified Proclaimer, you lose!

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  98. davdoodles1:16 AM

    "... so as to boost the right-wing-head-explosion-cleanup industry."
    Ghastly and messy though the contents of a right-wing head might potentially be (I personally imagine a liter or more of of black, bubbly, oozing ichor with a commensurate stench), the evidence of their ravings suggests that their lumpen melons probably contain little beyond traces of sulphur dioxide and dessicated weevil frass.
    .

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  99. Indeed. The Right's vision of America as a land of boundless freedom, opportunity, and plenty is what even we liberals aspire to. Who wouldn't want to live in such a great country?

    There are two major break-points between the Right and liberals, however. First, America as it is today is NOT that great country--we liberals see that, while conservatives either spackle over the bad parts or simply pretend those bad parts don't exist.

    But second, and much more fundamentally, conservatives have a mean streak in them that makes them want to hurt others at every turn. Whether its social policies that punish the poor, or legal frameworks that allow corporations to trample both their own employees and the general populace, it always seems like conservatives are doing everything possible to keep America from realizing its greatness.

    ReplyDelete
  100. It's not the slopes we're interested in so much as the valleys. Those deep cleavages. Those . . .

    Excuse me for a while.

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  101. Marcottian Acolyte6:18 AM

    Both sides have been caught red-handed at this. They both do it. As liberals, we can't pretend we're without fault in this. We can do better. We must do better.

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  102. They have the Mighty Wurlitzer, but we have the superior organs.

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  103. Also true in the other sense. $100 million can make even a short, fat, bald man with hygiene issues into an Adonis.

    And then there is that weird phenomenon of just how much free stuff the wealthy do get.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Given how much effort and enthusiasm Ponnuru puts into fellating the wealthy, it seems like he'd be a one-stop shop for both urges.

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  105. I think Clark Ashton Smith, creator of Abnoth, also visualized where NRO.com was staffed from:



    There, in the grey beginning of Earth, the formless mass that was Ubbo-Sathla reposed amid the slime and the vapors. Headless, without organs or members, it sloughed from its oozy sides, in a slow, ceaseless wave, the amoebic forms that were the archetypes of earthly life. Horrible it was, if there had been aught to apprehend the horror; and loathsome, if there had been any to feel loathing. About it, prone or tilted in the mire, there lay the mighty tablets of star-quarried stone that were writ with the inconceivable wisdom of the pre-mundane gods.

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  106. That's just an old Horus story, the fight for love and glory.

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  107. Kinda like these guys:

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  108. mgmonklewis8:51 AM

    We'd Bast not continue all these puns.

    ReplyDelete
  109. For many of them, I'm sure reading Song of Solomon sets off a vigorous round of fapping to the oldies.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Frankie DiAmanda9:35 AM

    After being diminished in Congress, wiped out in the South, and marginalized in the states, Dems need to focus on gun control. Now more than ever. It's time.

    http://t.co/Qgwzi9VVgc

    ReplyDelete
  111. StringOnAStick9:43 AM

    But second, and much more fundamentally, conservatives have a mean streak in them that makes them want to hurt others at every turn.
    Hey, Supply Side Jebus says that not only is that OK, it is required or else no pearly gates for you!

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  112. Not to go totally OT but what a weird show. I have long been a fan (distantly) of the Vikings. I grew up reading Viking's Dawn, The Road to Miklegard, and Viking's Sunset three great YA books about the Vikings by Henry Treece and I loved Njal's Saga and even taught it in an anthropology of law course I taught once. I like The Vikings, even though there is less anthropological accuracy and detail than I'd like and I seem to be blonde-blind and can't tell one viking from another even when they are main characters. But still, its a weird show. Way too many scenes devoted to hacking and slashing and too few to politics, vendettas, score settling, and social life. But what a tremendous actor plays Ragnar! He really seems different from a modern person--different concerns, different emotions, different responses.

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  113. Upvoting for the CAS reference.

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  114. Who hits one another with dildos seriously, anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  115. The other one was stolen by the Unicorn to make the Jewel of Judgement?

    ReplyDelete
  116. Helmut Monotreme10:26 AM

    Is Ironic hitting each other ok?

    ReplyDelete
  117. Dildo combat is deadly serious. In the thrust and parry of the struggle, head injuries are tragically common. Many fall and never rise again.

    ReplyDelete
  118. As an atheist blogger I have no pantheon.

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  119. Schlitz Romney10:58 AM

    In my circle jerk of friends, we like to call them the Gaymen Islands.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Whoa, and I thought I was being subversive by not wearing socks.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Whatever you say, Ray!

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  122. DarkAvengerGonePRIVATE4:34 PM

    You really have too much time on your hands

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  123. DarkAvengerGonePRIVATE4:37 PM

    Hi my name is Frances and I am a 50 something year old half wetback who is unemployed and I claim to have a 'very healthy' relationship with that fat slob Amanda Marcotte.

    ReplyDelete
  124. FrankMarcotty6:32 PM

    Hey there sweetly. Are you still super bored?

    ReplyDelete
  125. FrankMarcotty6:33 PM

    Hey Franky- how's that dirty snatch wife of yours? Tabby? You fookin dirt bag.

    ReplyDelete
  126. FrankMarcotty7:03 PM

    Hi my name is Frank and I am a 50 something year old half wetback who is unemployed and I claim to have a 'very healthy' relationship with that fat slob Amanda Marcotte.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person12:39 AM

    Talkin' 'bout your hemorrhoids, baby...

    ReplyDelete
  128. Note that the organization of the Picnic On The Mount is the Bible's clearest endorsement of Keynesianism.

    Everybody has come to hear their favourite agitator speak, but nobody's breaking out their lunch because they're looking over their shoulder at the people on the next blanket over.

    Then the Disciples, who are walking up and down seating people in rows and stuff, say "Hey, we got some loaves and some fishes. Have some!"

    And suddenly everybody is like "Hey, let's eat," and they open up their stashes. Turns out everybody's got just a wee bit more than they need, like at any other picnic, so they pass it around, a good time is had by all, and there's a ton left over.

    Pump priming: "Cast thy bread upon the waters," etc.

    -dlj.

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  129. One of the Big Reforms of my youth was in 1957, I think it was, when the Anglican Church removed the prayer for protection from the [some subdued but quite horrible adjective] Dane from the Book of Common Prayer.
    After, I dunno how many centuries. Probably goes back before Christianity, to the Angles and the Saxons, before Thor and Fria, and all them northern gods came along...

    -dlj.

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  130. Once, the Viking roamed free, raping and pillaging, destroying coastal towns they encountered from their longships.

    Today, modern Vikings accomplish the same tasks while seated comfortably behind their long desks.

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  131. Jebus loves me, this I know
    'Cause he makes me lots of dough.

    Only in American Christianity must you maintain a minimum balance in order to get into Heaven.

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  132. Or what? You'll tell your mummy?

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  133. That frother at the right wing Jesus site was interesting: the guy is relying on William Jennings Bryan as his model for both political and religious soundness.

    We don't see many of those around these days. Rebekkah Baines, LBJ's mother, and the somewhat similar Lillian Gordy, Jimmy Carter's, were of a type, but a type that's been awfully damn quiet lately.

    Still, methinks there are an awful lot of youngsters coming up with Evangelical backgrounds and looking for somewhere sensible to go. Neo-Calvinism of the mega-church variety has sucked a lot of them in, it's true, but that may be losing its grip too. If you're a hustler pastor going into the superchurch business, you're better off taking over a second-hand basketball court than building your own Crystal Cathedral these days.

    -dlj.

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  134. AlanInSF7:09 PM

    I think it means honest hard-working real Americans can only afford farm animals.

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