Say Anything Blog

Alright, we have four cases to make here. Let’s be short and sweet:

1) Liars - Here I have in mind Toot and Bat. Their most recent, blatant fibbing can be viewed here and here. Intentional of not, it was posted. If ‘Liar’ is to strong… we’ll just have to settle for misrepresenters of truth or some other analogue.

2) Pedophile apologists - Well well. Recent events involving more religious fanatics who get their rocks of by marrying and raping girls who are well neigh the legal age to consent… have led Rob to come to their defense. Now we are hearing cries of ’return these children to their families‘.

3) Fascism - Whether or not you knew it or cared, a fascist coalition government was elected four days ago in Italy. While many view it as a sad step backwards and a strike against free society, two of our very own commentators (r108 & chief) are just giddy over the developments. See for yourself. Chief even had the gall to call it a victory of right over wrong.

4) Anti ME Democracy - Within days of authoring a call for ME democracy and the dissolution of the tribal system, BatOne has expressed his contempt for the results of a ME election of great importance that was forced on Palestine by pressure from Bush and Condi. Not only that, he lied in an effort to support Rob (see #1). Rob, the owner of this blog, has called an effort at diplomacy with the newly democratically elected leaders of Palestine ”nauseating”. Meanwhile, Bush and Condi back ‘terrorists’ in Palestine, and meet with them regularly. “Nauseating.”
-----
Edit: Oh, and Pilgrim ain't that cool either. And he's a fuzz. Rob says fuzz are a bummer, man.

Wow. Putting the screws to the ethicists!

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

Wow. And people caused a ruckus when DuChamp showed a urinal? I guess its something to do next weekend if you are in the Yale vicinity. Get some popcorn and some Mike n’ Ikes and head down to see this girl’s ‘film’.

Wow. We are giving out money like candy… to try to cure the upshots of giving out money like candy…

Rising food prices have sparked recent riots in several countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.

The World Bank has said a doubling of food prices in three years could push 100m more people into poverty.

...

World Bank head Robert Zoellick had on Sunday proposed a “new deal” action plan for a long-term boost to agricultural production.

So, I was chided for intimating that the Bear and Stearns bailout, and the opening of the federal reserve to irresponsible lenders, is more Mao than it is market maintenance. Now we have Zoellick (Bush’s former deputy secretary of state) giving ‘new deal’ speeches? Maybe hotel will take back his snarky effing comment now.
---
First, we all know the 'new deal' was unconstitutional, but it happened anyway.

Second, what was it? We made fake money out of real money, back then. Now... what are we going to do make fake-fake-fake money?

Duh.

We have read many a whiny tirade bemoaning the inability of the population to be patriotic, supportive, and the lot.

I just want to point out the power of dissent, how special it is, how important it is, and so forth.

We hear ‘esteemed’ Mr. Limbaugh wishing he could squelch out the dissent when the country is engaged in a project or few that he is pleased with. Yet, come hell and high water, Mr. Limbaugh goes into dissent mode, exercises his negative, positive freedoms… and spouts asymmetrical hypocrisy loud and clear.

I like to argue. Most times, I don’t even find out why I really hold a position until I have argued with others, heard the problems, seen the boundaries, and so forth.

Its effing wonderful! SO, when you disagree vehemently with me, which you will because I think what you have to say is patently false, don’t forget to thank me for helping you understand your position better. And, if we uphold reason and the like, let’s uphold dissent… and show it a bit of appreciation. After all, where else would change come from?

Why, in the end, are we most pleased when we agree with others? Or if we have been able to convert them forever into dogmatic piety of our choosing? Do we really advocate democracy as an intrinsic good and turn our nose at dissent?

From time to time there come about certain fads which we partake in, only to find evidence of it years later which appalls us. “To think I once wore that!” ...and so forth.

The center-heavy, uni-branch, Mao-style government that has been ‘all the craze’ of late is one phenomenon I count among these ‘fads’. Imagine a few years down the road, the silly things one gets tricked into saying. View the slippery slope towards Mao-style government that Bush has brought us down. Is this something that ‘conservatives’ (little ‘c’ will just miss, absorb, move on from. Can you guys really rationalize the Bear and Stearns thing as just market maintenance? How far must we pound out our definitions to convince ourselves this is ‘conservative’. Market maintenance or moving towards Mao? What is quasi-public? Is little ‘c’ conservatism still viable? If only the hardworking rural folk weren’t working, if only they could take some time off. They wouldn’t even have to spend as much time in the mirror looking at themselves as all politicians doubtlessly do… if we could get them to remind us once again what matters. Its rapport with your neighbors, so that when a cow dies you can call them and have em dig you a big hole with their backhoe on the cheap before it starts to stink…

Spinoza, in his Theological-Political Treatise of 1670, offers a salient point:

...anyone who makes reason and philosophy the servant of theology will be obliged to accept as divinely inspired the prejudices of the common people of antiquity and let his mind be taken over and clouded by them.

I can think of a few people who missed this memo; some who comment on this blog, perhaps some of the televangelists, Hitler, the Hindu hardliners in India, countless missionaries in Africa, the Saudi royalty, and of course Osama bin Laden and his little group of petty thugs. Leave it to Spinoza to find a unifying theme, eh?

D’oh! Carlyle project goes under, Dutch market monitoring the situation closely… Gee.

Go buy euros or a blow pop (suckers).

He he. Chalk one up for the godless cretins!

(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida’s public school science standards for the first time will use the word “evolution,” although the biological concept already was being taught under code words such as “change over time.”

The new standards, part of a set of overall science changes adopted by the State Board of Education Tuesday on a 4-3 vote, require schools to spend more class time on evolution and teach it in more detail.

The standards state that evolution is “the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence.” That statement rankled opponents, some of whom had urged the board to add an academic freedom provision that would have allowed teachers to “engage students in a critical analysis of that evidence.”

Evolution supporters, including mainstream scientists and clergy, told the board the academic freedom proposal was a wedge designed to open the door for injecting religious arguments into science studies.

“We know what’s going on here,” said board member Roberto “Bobby” Martinez, a Miami lawyer. “What we have here is an effort by people to water down our standards.”

No, not watered down standards in Floreduh skuul!z How’ll all these kids make a living? After all, there can only be one pricasso.

Seriously though, thank God Florida is prancing into the late 1800s.

Oh boy. Pay-to-play is here to stay!

Here.

WASHINGTON — The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the [propaganda stratagems] for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.

But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

A review of the lengthy report… shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war.

Right. We live in a democracy. Those function when information is disseminated and used. Those break down when shoddy leaders seek to control the documentation and dissemination of information pertaining to their dishonesty and ineptitude.

Don’t like those private reports, Army? Prepare your own FUCKING reports and stop gouging me on my taxes to pay some sally-ass RAND person umpteen million dollars to fill out a boilerplate memo telling us all that we are asses.

Don’t like democracy, an institution that thrives on information sharing? Move to Pakistan where the lawyers are in prison and people blow themselves up.

People who can’t admit to flaws, cover them up, and continue on as before, without acknowledging the problems that, if addressed, might save countless lives, are clearly dangerous individuals. Want to support the troops? Think about the amount of lives that something like GOOD PLANNING can save. Think about how much good planning one could buy with all those trillions of dollars the pentagram gets every year to play with.

This just in!
Move_zig endorses Ron Paul… r108 and G.W.B. endorse McCain… Pigs out my window are flying to Boca for some sun… and the relativists are taking notes from their raft…

What’s next?

Will bin Laden shave his beard?

So, there is a program/organization which pays crack-addicted women a few hundred bucks cash to get IUDs so that they won’t have crack babies born into lives of despair, suffering, etc. Children Require A Caring Kommunity. Wow.
I think there are a few red flags here that one could pause to ponder. Seriously. It is my understanding that there are currently approx. 7,000 women partaking in this program in the US.

1) Soon (if not already) taxpayers will be footing the bill. Is giving anyone money for crack (that is what, in effect, this is) okay, no matter the circumstances? My tax money? And I can’t smoke crack, because its ILLEGAL.
1a) It should be noted that paying people a one time fee ain’t that bad when one considers the amount of tax money repeated visits to rehab and the hospital by these sorts of people cost in tax money… or to lock them up… for their illegal activities… This is a weak counterpoint, IMO.
2) It seems there are autonomy and consent issues when we are talking about crack-addicted individuals who are being coerced, in effect, with cash into significant transfers of autonomy, such as reproductive autonomy.
3) The sort of precedent that is established by allowing this sort of thing seems like it is going in the wrong direction. What sorts of other types of laws or policy might be enacted that is going further, but close enough to C.R.A.C.K. to use it in a justificatory manner?
4) I suspect that the demographics for the roughly 7000 females currently involved in the program may lead some to think that this program has a not-so-distant affinity to eugenics.
5) IUDs are abortives. Does the concern for the child, on the part of the anti-abortion crowd, leave them open to similar policies in which other sorts of more pre-emptive methods of birth control are used? Can anyone speak Chinese?

I urge you guys to think about this stuff. Discuss it. Call someone and talk to them about it. Its odd. It smells fishy. I don’t necessarily have a strong Christian ethic or anything, but this strikes me as being in an ethical grey area whose depths might best be left unexplored.

Are we reasonably to think that this is the sort of case where some sort of overall benefit can rationalize the situation? DO we even achieve a benefit with this?

I was discussing C.R.A.C.K. last night with a couple law scholars I know. I find it deeply disturbing, do you? Do the ends justify the means?

I smoke from time to time. Usually after two or more bourbons… but never at work. This boss has cohones.

A small IT company in Germany fired three non-smokers after they ... demanded a smoke-free workplace.

...the owner of a 10-person computer company ... dismissed the employees after they became obstreperous about their demands and “threatened to disturb the peace.”

Germany ... still allows smoking in small offices and other places of employment.

Thomas said he’s only going to hire smokers from now on and it’s time for revenge.

Hotel has commented, and I agree, that 80% of the fed can be cleaved off and discarded. What’s more, not only is this cleaving possible, in principle, it would make for a desirable outcome. I, personally, am interested more local control and more variety among the localities.

Regularly I bump into articles or have conversations that reinforce this. Yesterday I had one of those conversations. This is old news, but when the frivolous spending of democrats is berated on here… I agree. What I don’t agree with is the assymetry that is assumed. Republican or Democrat, with this 80% left in place, they are both dangerous.

The 27someadd billion dollar 9/11 federal fund was set up in congress in five hours and the ‘dole-ing’ responsibilities were handed over to a man named Feinberg, if I am not mistaken on the name which is possible, one of the pre-eminent mass tort lawyers in the country. This was hailed as patriotic, American, what we do in crisis, and so forth… by both sides of the isle. There was so much verbal butter on this it took only 5 hours of discussion to slide through. 27 billion.

Money was paid to everyone. Firefighters wives, illegal immigrants wives, fiances, same sex partners, sons, daughters, mothers, brothers, you name it. The workers who contracted illness cleaning up, and countless others no doubt. Well, what to do with all this money? Jeans, plastic surgey and new breasts for innumerable firefighters wives, god knows how much drugs, whatever the remotely involved parties wanted to spend all their money on (our money). Feinberg was told, by our congress, that if he needed more money, they would print it for him.

What about the law? THIS is american? Well, its idiotic spending and skeezy rhetoric, of course its american. God bless people’s simple love for their country that politicians can use to empower themselves and steal our money. Make no mistake, the GOP IS BLAMEWORTHY, just like the donkeys.

The law would have allowed the suing of all the involved parties that could be shown to be neglegent and deemed sufficient causes. However that panned out, that would have been the law. May I ask, as it seems stupid not to at this point, about WTC#1, Oklahoma, and all the other terrorist attacks remotely related to America? Oh, well this was unprecedented. Yea. And Oklahoma City wasn’t? Now one might begin to wonder, as I did, how many hours it will take congress to give the entire effing country, which is OURS (piecemeal), away after, say, a terrorist blows up a larger chunk of some city?

As far as I am concerned, there is no divisive issues here. WHO got paid is besides the point. The point here is that this entire debacle is multifarious and deeply disturbing. It highlights to amount of power we have put in one place, the stupidity and shortsightedness of those who have it, and the propensity for my, your, and the next guys money to disappear out of the buttery hands of these idiots and into their buttery mouths. They will print more. They don’t even need to take our money from us to steal. They’ll just make what we do have worth less instead.

Now, about that 80%?

over here

had to share. I figured Neiman would wanna add that to his ‘bookmarks’.