Marks for Gratitude October 26, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Catholicism, Education, Family.6 comments
Kept away from my usual habit of reading growsing, mad-Leftie sites full of derangement.
Instead, I found myself wrapped up in someone else’s idea of a party – that person then got sick, and I ran about today trying to make it happen. Then sat down here to decompress, and -as I said- avoided the mindless, lefty-loony sites that serve to boil my blood. . .and came across some interesting sites. As in my son’s site here, and his friends sites here, here, here and especially here.
The English ain’t too bad. . .and many of the ideas and writing. . .especially at my-stream-of-consciouness, wallywuzhere and blacklight arena are actually enjoyable to read.
Gives me hope for the future, it does. And I am grateful for it. There is much to be grateful for.
But as one who was once voted -and it was thoroughly merited- Most Pessimistic in his high school class lo these many moons ago, I need all I may be grateful for, and then some.
Not the least cause for gratitude is the following; my son has hooked up with some very good people.
The Continuing March of Mendacity October 25, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Cultural Pessimism, Liberal Hypocrisy, Liberal self-loathing, MSM, Politics, Stupid Party vs Evil Party.2 comments
Now NPR jumps on the bandwagon with commentator Lennard Davis castigating Rush Limbaugh for suggesting that Fox is over-acting with political ads in favor of embryoinc stem-cell research.
I am not about to defend Limbaugh here. I have rarely had much use for the man, and I suspect that he was barking up the wrong tree in accusing Fox of overacting.
But that won’t stop me from cutting into Davis for attempting to change the subject.
I can’t access the quotes right now, as my Realplayer (that I do not want) (and thank you very much, Maria Cantwell, D-Wa, a huge stockholder in RealPlayer, for screwing up my ability to listen to soundfiles) is insisting on attempting to play the clip, which was downloaded as a MSPlayer file. So I’ll have to go on memory.
Davis states -with some validity- that Fox is now NORMAL as a sick man, and Limbaugh wants him portrayed as normal -as in NOT sick. Fine, I guess. But Davis deliberately misses the point that it is Fox”s disability that is the star of the spots, and it is the disability that is designed to play on viewers heartstrings to promotes government funding of state-sanctioned murder in the name of science. He tries to place the focus on Limbaugh, and how he is exploiting Micheal Fox in the name of conservatism. That the issue is not one of Fox’s disability, but of stem-cell research.
Davis has it mostly right, but is disastrously wrong in two respects: Fox IS getting exploited, but not by Limbaugh. Fox is allowing himself to become prostituted by the DNC. And the second is that it IS about stem-cell research; the need to prevent further embryonic research before we become one with the Nazis.
UPDATE: Not to mention that the research in favor of embryonic research is NOTHING (literally) compared to adult-stem cell research.
Marty McFly, Part Duh. October 24, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Cultural Pessimism, Liberal self-loathing, Politics, Stupid Party vs Evil Party.5 comments
(NOTE FOR THE LIBERALLY OBTUSE: In this little rant, when I speak against stem-cell research, I am referring exclusively to embryonic stem cell research. Anything that doesn’t involve the death of an embryo/fetus/choose-your-own-codeword-for-a-HUMAN-LIFE is of course perfectly acceptable and NOT the subject of this rant.)
Cancel the previous wisdom. McCaskill is still behaviorally evil, but Micheal J Fox is fully aware of what he is doing, and he is prostituting himself in a effort to revive embryonic stem-cell research. (And unlike some political candidates, I’ll come right out and say that following this line of research is EXACTLY as bad as the experiments in Nazi Germany, and if they proceed, we are morally no better than they were.)
Fox is video stumping for Democrat Ben Cardin, from the same hotel room he shot the McCaskill video, and he plans to stump for Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Congresional candidate Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. (LINK)
I’ll say it again: Fox’s illness is unfortunate and sad. That he has allowed it to overcome his common sense and decency, to advocate for the grinding up of human flesh into hamburger in hopes of a miracle cure is a monstrous tragedy. For the American electorate to buy into this emotional demagoguery is dangerously stupid.
UPDATE: Anchoress has a newer, even more relevant post up on this sad debacle.
So, now the KosKids endorse the exploitation of Marty McFly October 21, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Cultural Pessimism, Liberal Hypocrisy, Mechanistic Relativism, Stupid Party vs Evil Party.add a comment
At this link, you will find a very disturbing and painful video of Parkinson’s victim Michael J. Fox, stumping for Missouri Senatorial candidate Claire McCaskill. She is one who is willing to expand research into embryonic stem-cell research in hopes of finding cures for chronic, painful diseases such as theParkinson’s Disease that Mr. Fox suffers from so tragically.
Fox, given his illness, is probably not to be blamed for the making of this video. I cannot imagine the frustration with his increasingly debilitated condition, nor his rage at what he perceives to be the deliberate desire to keep him sick.
But no one wishes for Marty McFly to be sick. Just like no one in this country would wish for their fighter pilots to die unnecessarily in extremes of low pressure and bone-cracking cold.
But they WOULD object to studies being done -to humans- to determine the absolute limits of humans in those conditions. Such as forcing human subjects to spend the night outdoors, in sub-zero conditions, without clothing, and being subject to repeated dousings with cold water to simulate ditching conditions in the North Atlantic.
It would not be the issue of who would benefit from the studies that would appall putatively objective observers. What would offend them would be the callous and inhumane treatment of the experimental subjects; observers would cry -with justified outrage- that to strip the inherent dignity of the human person for the sake of scientific progress is morally reprehensible.
And these studies have been done. By the Nazis, of course.
Just like torture.
And in both cases, the observers would be both ethically and morally correct.
But the modern -or post-modern- observers turns this logic on its head in defense of embryonic stem-cell research. There, the dignity of the human person is routinely denied -even as ever having existed– in the name of the furtherance of science so that Marty McFly might be able to sit still and hold a conversation without looking like a speed freak with a speech disorder.
In the end, I cannot blame Fox for making this sordid and repulsive video. And the source of its repulsion is not the sight of Fox himself. That alone evokes sympathy -or at least empathy- and fills one with a sense of tragedy.
What is repulsive is the tag line:
I’m Claire McCaskill, and I approved this message.
McCaskill has no problem with the exploitation of the wounded and sick, so that the slaughter of innocents may continue unabated. Her position is one of evil, and it must not be allowed in the halls of public decision making.
McCaskill herself is not evil, but she has endorsed the creation of one of the most evil campaign images I ever hope to see in the seemingly ever-increasing squalor that is American public debate.
I do not like voting Republican. But with messages such as these, I simply CANNOT vote Democratic.
And as for the berserk Pandagonites that would dare to use this post to suggest that this is all part of. . .
(A conspiracy that leads Christians to). . . spout. . . the exact same empty platitudes about abortion and Teh Gheyz, then the reason is that red staters are under a non-stop, top-down, pseudo-Christian propaganda blitz that preys on people’s. . .anxieties. . . (link)
Yeah, Mandy, it’s a conspiracy, all right. Led from the top down. The problem is, the top in this case is the teachings of a creature much greater than you or me. The difference between the two of us is that I at least try to understand and follow what He is saying. You deliberately ignore Him.
You and McCaskill are certainly free to continue to do so. At the peril of more than your lives. Your souls.
God have mercy on this country. Cause God also knows that if I were in charge. . .I’d be far less patient.
More of that good, ol’ time, down–home Missouri mudslinging. . .
UPDATE: The Anchoress, as usual, has her finger on the pulse of this sordid nonsense.
Why statistics are dangerous in the hands of the Stupid October 12, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Cultural Pessimism, Liberal Hypocrisy, Pandamansanity.2 comments
After weeks of relative quietude, Amanda at Pandagon is back in full-blown, barking-mad mode, citing the new Hopkins report that claims total dead caused from the Iraq War is at 655,000 and climbing.
Some of her choicer idiocies:
Naturally, the chickenhawks are squawking. LGF and Hot Air are already making noise about how this is supposedly unfair to whip out in October. Which just goes to show how screwed up the discourse is in this country if people think it’s appropriate to withhold actual, verifiable, relevant information from the voters before an election, because god forbid people be informed about the issues before they vote.
Brushing off 2.5% of the population dead to war is nothing, done automatically without a moment’s pause to consider what it means to have 655,000 individual, unnecessary, unjust tragedies dealt to a single nation.
Now they blow off 655,000 dead, and indeed seem incapable of understanding that each of these dead was loved by someone, that each one is not just the loss of a human life, but the ruin to other human lives.
Let us consider the Hopkins methodology, as reported by the eminently sensible RightWingNutHouse:
the researchers were able to discover and confirm 547 dead in the post invasion period by interviewing a little more than 1800 families. And from that sample, they extrapolate 600,000 dead.
Rick goes on:
There are other sources for counting Iraqi dead. The well respected Iraq Body Count, run by academics opposed to the war, lists nearly 49,000 civilian dead since the invasion. Their methodology is sound and their numbers are based on actual reports from morgues, the media, and the military. Their number of confirmed dead is still less than half the number estimated in the 2004 Lancet study. (Emphasis is mine, admin) (link)
But Amanda, because it furthers The Narrative that Bush And Everything About Him Is EVIL, swallows the Lancet report hook, line and sinker.
Surprised?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
UPDATE: PZ piles on. Imagine that.
Random thoughts. . . October 10, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Blogging, Liberal Hypocrisy, Politics, Sports, Stupid Party vs Evil Party.add a comment
. . .so that the wretched Picture From Hell (down below) might be pushed farther Down Below. . .so to speak. . .where it belongs. . .to FURTHER speak.
I haven’t been blogging much, because there are these things called WORK and FAMILY that keep getting in the way of the BLOGGING!!!
Anyway, random thoughts include:
- The increasing certainty that the GOP is going to get its ass kicked next month
- And I’m not terribly heartbroken about that, except
- That the alternative looks no better and in fact is in many ways significantly WORSE: For example, if the best an opposition party can muster during a period of economic expansion is “Bush Sucks” and “We can do better” without telling us exactly what better is and how your “plan” might work (note to Jackasses: See “Contract With America”, ca. 1994 AD for a cogent example of a “plan”), well, that’s really no better than the kindergartners fighting over the prime toy in the sandbox, crying “He’s had it long enough. IT’S MY TURN!!!”
- I’ve been doing a pretty good turn predicting sports results recently. Picked Detroit over the Yankees. (Check. And with much satisfaction). Picked the Bears over the Seahawks. (Check). Picked my high school team to lose when favored two weeks ago, and to win when the underdog last week, and was right both times. In fact, I am 23-2 in predicting local HS football these past two weeks.
- No one cares about the above, as no one (including myself) bets on my predictions. . .but it feels good all the same.
- I will be very happy when Thanksgiving break arrives. I am tired of work just now.
Finally, here is a picture with no relevance whatsoever, save that it hastens the demise of the wretched Myers/Franken horror show from down below.
Church-going support for GOP slipping? October 6, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Cultural Pessimism, Liberal Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupid Party vs Evil Party.add a comment
As reported ably by Rick Moran here.
Now, this may all be quite true. And in the wake of the Mark Foley insanival, not to mention the GOP’s reliance upon death penalty, torture, cutting taxes and then spending like crazy economic notions, there would seem to little reason for committed Christians to be yoked to the Republican party.
My question, however is this:
WHERE will these voters go? Despite the psychotic beliefs of the mouth-breathing delusionaries over at Street Prophets, the Democratic Party, with its continued reliance upon situational morality in abortion and euthanasia, a free hand in ignoring pornography, openness to gay marrige, not to mention their fantastically blatant hypocrisy in howling for the heads of Foley and Hastert while glibly looking the other way while their abusive, criminal President turned the White House into his own little X-Rated film in the ’90s, is certainly no workable alternative to the GOP. Now, people like Bob Casey might serve, but the party in general is not only not attractive to cultural conservatives, but outright repulsive.
Frankly, I see no uptick in Dem voting, but a likely serious decrease in GOP voting next month. Which will still amount to a possible -if not likely- takeover of the Legislative branch of government.
UPDATE:
Having read the Anchoress’ rather dour (yet justifiably so) read on this idiocy, perhaps it will increase people voting, but against both parties.
What would be cool would be a genuine minority vote: The Demopublican dingbats (Stupid and Evil all in one) receiving less than 50% of the overall vote and various alternative parties accounting for the majority.
I know it’s a pipe dream, but wouldn’t THAT wake these clueless, complacent bastards up?
A Picture, as they say. . . October 6, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Cultural Pessimism, Humor, Liberal Hypocrisy.1 comment so far
. . .is worth a thousand words.
On the left is Al Franken of the swooning Air America, and on the right, PZ Myers, notorious, faith-based atheist biology teacher from University Minnesota-Morris and author of the absurdist, satire-fiction blog Pharyngula.
Other than this, I leave it to the viewer to express their own thousand words. I am rendered speechless in the face of such lunacy masquerading as intelligence.
Turns out the Anchoress is human after all October 5, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Blogging, Catholicism, Smart People, Sports.2 comments
See, not only is she Catholic, but she is amazingly insightful and wise. Examples abound. Just go to her site and browse about.
There were already indications of her humanity; is seems she is suffering from chronic symptoms of Lyme Disease, a very debilitating condition, yet she just keep blogging right through it.
But I’ve now seen in full, highly debatable glory, her most unfortunate and demeaning Achilles Heel:
She’s an unabashed Yankee’s fan.
How can a person who otherwise show such intelligence and common sense back the Evil Empire of George Swinebrenner?
Ah well. Mysteries abound in the universe. This is one of them.
Why the Amish Rock. . . October 4, 2006
Posted by Administrator in Smart People.add a comment
. . .and how they serve as a reminding example to those of us religious followers in the West, a damning example to the clueless atheists amongst us, and are a revolutionary example to the rabid, radical Islamists.
A Whole Lot About Mostly Nothing 
