This remind you of anyone?

Lots of anyones, actually.

"When the Left asks for a classless society, now I know what they mean."*

Jay Nordlinger chronicles some abuses of non-political public occasions. The last one on the third page is especially horrendous.

I'd like to thank the MSO for not doing this Friday night. There were no words spoken at all from the stage--they just came out and played the music. And the pre-performance educational talk (which I really appreciate, since I know so little about classical music) was all about the pieces being performed. The composers, the soloist, how the conductor chose to follow the tempo markings in the original manuscript instead of slowing it down like most 21st-century conductors do.

I also love that I wasn't the only woman wearing heavy warm winter boots with dress pants. ;) How many cities in the world will let women wear weather-appropriate footwear to high-culture events with nary a eye-rolling?

* It's a pun. We all know damn well they want a two-class society: Their in-crowd of wealthy "educated" true-believers, and everyone else to do the work.

"bowel-stewing self-indulgence of elite liberalism"

If you're reading this, you will enjoy Jonah Goldberg's latest column.

Wasn't there a war--a real one, with guns--fought at some point to rid America of an incompetent self-serving hereditary aristocracy? I saw a documentary about it once.

Holy Soviet Union, Batman.

Have you ordered your free sticker yet? It looks like something from The People's Cube, but these morons are serious.

This is the scariest image yet, minus the ones that advocated violence against Sarah Palin.

(Apparently it's still too early to read quilt blogs. They're celebrating O's "overwhelming mandate." Uh, no, try again: 52% is neither.)

Hate is not a family value

But who believes their own bumperstickers?


Worth reading the whole thing. Depresses me--because it's happening, and because the coverage is so backwards.

Well, that was disgusting

Watching a little CSI.

Planned Parenthood is running a spot featuring the rape kit smear.

Complete with a rape victim suggesting that future rape victims will be charged if McCain is elected.

Which they are, in some states. Like Illinois, where the guy they're shilling for was in the state senate (granted, not for very long...) and could have addressed this matter on a state level. Because it's a state/city matter. Yes, some administrative details still are still left to the states--shocking, I know.

That's what I get for watching TV.

C'mon, my cat can see through this.

Muslims for Obama held a voter registration drive at mosques around the nation. They say it's non-partisan and there will be no "advocacy on behalf of any candidate or party, whether written or verbal." Except, you know, "Muslims For Obama" kinda gives it away...

I wonder if they bothered checking proof of U.S. citizenship.

Can I stop paying my student loans?

It's the only debt I have, and it would make a nice downpayment on a house. Unfortunately, I owe the Dept. of Education and not a foreign bank.

Reminder that the bailout allows foreign banks to partake of American taxpayer funding — and that the bailout plan includes buying student loans, car loans, credit card debt and any other “troubled” assets held by banks.

I'm troubled that there's "agreement" and yet no one knows if the provision granting billions of dollars to ACORN is still in it.

Let's just get this election over with

I'm so tired of seeing this catshit (this is the least offensive example, trust me) everytime I read quilt blogs and friends' personal journals and every other email with "FWD:" in the subject line. Can we just move on to the gloating (and/or race riots) and stop the snide crass self-congratulation-on-how-smarter-we-are-than-people-who-go-to-church? It's like water torture, and I'm only two "Sarah Palin is an evil bitch!" conversations away from going Towanda the Avenger.

Full disclosure: I do laugh any time Gary Varvel draws Obama's ears, but that sort of thing is a) a tradition of political cartooning and b) doesn't co-opt, politicize, and vulgarize any treasured American icon. And half the time I still think McCain looks like Statler and Waldorf's long lost brother. Heh.

(I might start asking them how they think Sarah Palin is going to go about impregnating every American woman after she takes the oath of office. Some of these women I'm convinced there's some Oprah-esque wish-fulfillment fantasy going on here. The liberal ideal of government-as-husband, 35-year-old educated white woman version.)

Semi-related, I attended a birthday dinner last night and at my end of the table conversation centered how how much the Midwest sucks. Too much "sprawl", unlike Portland and Seattle which are awesome because no one's allowed to build so it's pretty and you don't have stupid poor people from the small towns trying to move in (I think I outed myself as an evil baby-polar-bear-starving Neanderthal conversative asshole when I accidentally mentioned out loud that building restrictions are a classic example of how government over-regulation hurts poor people). People from small towns are so..."limited." (guilty) Milwaukee has no progressive culture, just backwards mass-commercial crap (really? There's a one-man play about an East German transvestite going on right now at the Rep....). Lake Michigan is small and boring (!!!). And four distinct seasons? That's for unenlightened boors. You have to be seriously unevolved and classless to like winter.

I LOVE winter. And like the Midwest. And enjoy life in Milwaukee (except for the driving down to the inner city and having to swerve to avoid the people who stand in the middle of the street and stare me down, but I'm thinking you get some of that in the poor parts of any major city, no matter how progressive and cultured it is). Stupid, limit, uncultured, unenlightened, boring, worthless small town hick that I am...I can't help wonder why these people are here instead of someplace more to their liking. I suspect its because it costs a lot of money to live in those places...

I don't think I'll be invited to any more dinners after my friend Andy, who organized it, moves to The Cities next month.

(Two of my favorite writers are Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell, can you tell?)

Heh. Heh heh.

Nelson Muntz, call your office.

What could be worse than Wal-Mart?

I thought "progressives" loved recycling. *snicker* It's for Teh Planet, people! Everyone needs to suffer to save Teh Planet, whether you like it or not, and you think you deserve an exemption because you hate WalMart?

Gutfield: "People who hate Walmart really hate the success that's eluded themselves." I'm guessing that's also a reason to hate a recycling facility that turns a profit instead of sucking up tax dollars.

On second thought, it's less funny than it is disgusting.

(I've had an apartment across the street from WalMart in two different Iowa college towns; the traffic wasn't half as bad as when I lived behind the upscale Fashion Mall. Dear God.)

In this house, we obey the laws of Thermodynamics!*

I don't know who "Reader Brian Anderson" is, but he's my kind of people.

Have you noticed that the people shouting loudest to make developing oil fields impossible, to tax gasoline to astronomical levels, and to have government subsidized "Manhattan Projects" to create the breakthroughs in solar, wind, waves, bio-mass, etc., are the same people who did not take the math, science and engineering courses in college? Despite their profound ignorance in these subjects, they are sure that creating enough pain will cause those of us who did grind away in these fields for all these years to suddenly have that amazing insight which will let us repeal the third law of thermodynamics. Their core belief is that genius comes forth when misery is piled sufficiently high.

*

Not so modest proposal.

I love this.

The solution to the energy price problem? Simple! Ban all registered democrats, commies and greens from owning any personal transportation vehicles and air conditioners as well as any light bulb with a higher than 40 wattage.

If that doesn't do the trick, turn them in to bio-fuel. For the good of Gaea.

Put yer stinkin' brain-dead carcasses where your mouths are and leave the rest of us alone.

I'm getting really tired of listening to people who have clearly never seen a city smaller than Chicago nattering on about how expensive gas is awesome because now we all have to walk or take mass transit. I grew up 15 miles from the nearest supermarket--who walks that far to get groceries for six people?? No one who wants any of it to be edible when they get it home, that's who.

Meanwhile, I have some family business to conduct in Podunksville this summer, and there's no bus service there from Milwaukee, which suits me fine because I like driving. Gas prices don't stop kids from being born and baptized...

Morons.

Bah.

Bah.

We keep voting the wrong way because our brains are “physically affected by stress” and “neurally shaped by past conservative framing.”

"past conservative framing" seems to be code for what used to be called "good upbringing." You know--treat everyone the same regardless of superficialities like skin, work hard to support yourself and your family instead of sucking up handouts, make your own choices and accept consequences thereof--can't have that now, can we??

(Aside: Lately I've been noticing a lot of leftist/eco-whacko womyn with multiple children living in ZIP codes with low population densities--you know, the stuff they think us "wrong-way" types shouldn't be allowed to choose. Regulating lives and fighting "incorrect behavior" begins at home, ladies...fight the hypocrisy!! And stop buying so damn many shoes, it's Bad For the Teh Planet.)

I'm in the wrong business.

I've been kind of bummed that I'll get an "economic stimulus" welfare check, because that means I don't make enough money. The past two years I've been contributing to American exceptionalism in the 21st century (OK, I press buttons and fill out paperwork...but the Dreamliner will fly eventually...) for low, low prices when I could be pulling down six figures for harassing pale people who try to broaden their minds.

Quote from the janitor's column:

The people at the Affirmative Action Office were so myopically intent on finding a Klansman, they failed to see a natural ally standing before them.

I think this happens a lot more than anyone cares to admit, even outside Indiana.

(You can kind of see the buttons I push behind the pilot's left knee. My mother wasn't impressed either.)

Question for anti-2nd Amendment activists

Why do you continue to insist that it's better that I call the police and wait for them to protect me than it is for me to protect myself?

Screw that.

About your pie, Mrs. O....

Just write your check payable to the U.S. Department of Treasury.

California Republican John Campbell yesterday introduced in the House his "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act," which would amend the tax code to allow individuals to make voluntary donations to the federal government above their normal tax liability. The bill would place a new line on IRS tax forms to make this easy.

Mr. Campbell says he has heard the "cries" of those wealthy Americans – Mrs. Clinton, Warren Buffett, Barbra Streisand – who reject the lower tax rates passed in 2001 and 2003 and complain that they and their fellow rich don't pay enough. "It's a great injustice that citizens wishing to fulfill their dream of paying more taxes cannot simply check a box on their 1040 form to make a donation," he says.

You *will* be giving your pie to the federal government, right?

More geniuses in Madtown

Michelle Malkin was in Madison last night.

Throughout the lecture, some members of the audience jeered at Malkin with profane taunts and dismissive interruptions, and her responses to critical crowd members frequently elicited laughter.

"Entry into this country is a privilege, not a right," Malkin said in opening her speech.

This line drew a cry of "Bull----!" from one crowd member, to which Malkin replied, "Such an intelligent rejoinder - what a clever response. I bet you have that on a bumper sticker.”

I am unimpressed by the intellectual rigor of that argument. OTOH, I can't feel too dismissive, because the odds are good that student had never, at any educational level, been taught any sort of logic or rhetoric.

I *am* impressed by the YAF and College Republicans holding a lecture on a Friday night.

Jonah Goldberg will be at UW-Mad Monday night; I'll think about going when he posts time/place details. I had an enjoyable evening when he was there last year, but next week is real busy.

Light reading, or so I thought.

I've been a fan of the Mrs. Murphy murder mystery series (the main character is a cat in rural Virginia) for awhile, but the latest one just annoyed me. It was less of a murder mystery/small town story and more of a pro-abortion screed. I don't mind characters with different political orientations--the last book had a few offhand remarks about stopping the "unnecessary" war in Iraq, which I assumed were to make the reader see the characters as interested in world events or current fashionable thought--but in this book, all the main human characters seemed to discuss the sacred right to abortion and the threat of right-wing extremists on every other page.

I knew there was going to be cliche when the murder victim was an abortionist, but I wasn't prepared for just how much cliche. The murderer was a backwoods fundamentalist preacher-type, and one accomplice was a corrupt Republican/rapist. Only the second accomplice, a young attractive (promiscuous, natch) nurse deviated from the usual hackneyed stereotypes.

In one scene, one of the main human characters, a multi-multi-millionare, consoled her daughter about the abortion she got during her sophomore year of college by telling her the baby would have destroyed her life, her Seven Sisters education, blah blah, so she was right to kill it. For a dozen books, the daughter character has been portrayed as trust-fund baby who never worked a day in her life...what was there to destroy? What was there to lose by taking a semester off and interviewing nannies? OK, she might not have been able to marry the scion of a blue-blood New England family, but she divorced him a book later after he killed and dismembered two people...

Then the mother told her daughter about the joys of motherhood and how she shouldn't be afraid to embrace it and I threw the book across the room. The daughter character, who is childless, is now in her 40s. I'm sure in the next book she'll be paying thousands and thousands of dollars in an attempt to conceive, like most of today's 40-yo Hollywood celebrities, but that's just...so...the feminist ideal of aborting "inconvenient" babies during prime childbearing years and then successfully birthing a "wanted" child or two in the twilight of fertility is not a reality for most women, and seeing it normalized makes me nuts.

That's just one conversation; a friend of the abortionists wife was on the board of Planned Parenthood AND the board of the local Lutheran church (which I found hard to imagine in any Lutheran church I've been a member of, but I haven't gone for awhile) so there was room for "oh noes, our rights are endangered" conversations at the visitation, the funeral, the fundraising dinners, anytime two or more women met for lunch, on and on and on. OK, OK, I get it, can you please shut up and find a new dead body?

Of course, I finished the book (I knew the murderer was a cliche, but I didn't know which cliche). The cats and dogs in the story didn't seem concerned one way or the other about humans killing unborn babies, which was pretty consistent with their attitude throughout the series with respect to humans killing each other, and they solved the mystery and saved the day. But I don't ever want to re-read it. I read fluff to relax; if I want an abortion lecture, I'm sure there's a leftwing blog or two to accomodate me.

Eco-terrorists in Mad-town

Gorism seems to be taking notes from Islamism.

The note left on windshields read "Happy Fossil Fool's Day - Drive Less" when Madison residents found air let out of their tires on April Fool's Day.

Madison police received at least 30 phone calls early Tuesday from residents along or near Monroe St., Williamson St. and Langdon St.

Although there were numerous flat tires on parked vehicles, police did not find any permanent damage, according to reports.

What gives them the perceived right to around damage property and interfere with people's livelihoods on behalf of their religion? Who the F are they to tell the rest of us how to spend our time and go about our lives? And why do the rest of us put up with this?

It's probably just kids (old enough to know better) who've never been taught to respect other people. And I'm impressed they put down the bong long enough to go out and act. But I really resent terrorism on behalf of religion.

Castro "steps down"

Depriving Miami of a hell of a celebration, although he has to die eventually...

The U.S. MSM mourns:

HAVANA (AP) -- An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.

A half-century! That's even cooler than LBJ!

By sunrise, most people headed to work in Havana seemed to have heard the news, which they appeared to accept without obvious signs of emotion. There were no tears or smiles as Cubans went about their usual business.

I get the feeling all the emotions were beaten out of them decades ago.

Can't wait to see what the People's Cube comes up with.