Islamic Culture Is So Strange

Apparently when a Muslim woman's husband is killed by a foreign country's army she becomes desperate and seeks revenge on said country. Crazy culture!

Yurp

Generally I'm in favor of greater international cooperation, but I still maintain the Eurozone was a bad idea. It's great that Greece is getting bailed out but it's not great that they are having a series of austerity measures shoved down their throat that threaten political stability as prerequisite.

Greece and Spain and Italy are very different than Germany and Sweden and the Netherlands. The former set are bad with money but have great food and beautiful languages and culture. The latter are very judicious about fiscal policy but are filled with boring people living atop barren hellscapes of countries. Greece and Spain need their own currency so they can devalue the hell out of it and pump up exports.

Maybe this whole conditioned bailout process is exactly what the EU founding fathers envisioned, but it doesn't seem worth it.

Plus the Euro is the most boring-looking currency on earth.

Romanticism

I'll admit that back in my undergrad days I had my own fantasies of running off somewhere to pick fruit with migrant workers. That was until I saw video of how quickly migrant workers have to pick fruit.

I'm aware that this arrangement makes it so the oranges in my grocery store are affordable, but it's still depressing.

Felons' Rights

I have a sneaking suspicion the issue will be demagogued and the bill wont pass, but I applaud some members of Congress for introducing a bill to restore voting rights to felons once they've paid their debt to society. I understand the argument for not allowing them to vote (they forfeited that right, blah, blah, blah), but we should be focusing on ways to integrate ex-convicts into society after prison, not continually holding it over their heads that they screwed up. I'm such a dirty hippy I think prison inmates should be allowed to vote, but I know that's just crazy talk.

Comedy

Republicans are now starting to take credit for Obamacare. Many are also walking back all the repeal talk.

I hope democrats have finally learned that nothing breeds success like success. Americans may have been divided about health care reform, but one thing that's clear is that they like winners.

politicsoffear(revised).ppt

What we knew all along. Thanks to the folks at Salon.com and Politico, we see exactly how our friends at the GOP are using fear to help their fundraising efforts. To be fair (as the folks at Politico put it): "Manipulating donors with crude caricatures and playing on their fears is hardly unique to Republicans or to the RNC – Democrats raised millions off George W. Bush in similar terms – but rarely is it practiced in such cartoonish terms." Still, this is shocking to see. Common sense conservatism? Compassionate conservatism? Nah. How's about we go with cynical conservatism?

Theocons

One interesting, and not so bad, thing about the Great Recession and the rise of the Teabaggers is that the "social issues" have sort of fallen by the wayside. It's not that I agree with Republicans on economic issues, but I feel I can discuss these issues with them and we can have substantive debates. That's really not the case with abortion, prayer in school, or they gay stuff. There just isn't much room for give and take.

However, I never believed the folks who got off on those sorts of issues went away. They're still around, waiting in the wings to piss me off.

Shorter Michael Walsh:

All Jewish, Italian, and Irish politicians are just "the bastard idiot children of the Tammany Hall ethnic groups."

Apparently the only people fit to govern are white protestants and conservative black people. Also, Democrats are racists. That's why a black guy is the President.

It May Have Been the Warmest January Ever Recorded...

...but Al Gore is still fat.

I Got Nothin'

But this always bothered me too.