The fine art of ridicule

by Graham Email

There comes a point, when faced with a certain level of finely-honed idiocy masquerading as an argument, where one decides that the whole proposition is ridiculous.
At that point, ridicule, by definition, becomes an acceptable response.
The author of this blog passed his or her "keep quiet and hope the idiocy goes away" threshold some time ago, so every two to three days, they summarize, in a journalistically correct but nonetheless pointed way, the latest happenings in the weird world of the "birthers", the collection of cranks, conspiracy theorists, sovereign citizens and other individuals who believe that President Obama is not eligible to be POTUS, not eligible to be American, not born in the USA, not born on planet Earth etc. etc. Those of us who have invested time in examining the "birthers" have discovered that they are not a monolithic group of individuals, and they routinely change their viewpoints dependning on what day of the week it is, or what piece of news they have just received about the POTUS. In short, their views are often incoherent, and every so often the mask slips in their writings, and the clear signs of racism show through.
Here is today's summary. As always, I enjoy drinking a large mug of tea and reading some well-deserved ridicule.

The Economics of Bank Robbery

by Graham Email

Many years ago, I watched a TV chat show with the late Quentin Crisp, a most interesting man on many levels (he is the subject of Sting's 1987 song "An Englishman In New York"). During the show, Crisp launched into a monologue where he lamented what he saw as the lack of style in modern crime. His view was that what he called "white collar crime" was so much less glamorous than breaking the bank at Monte Carlo or robbing banks. He may have had a point about the lack of style, but according to a recent study, bank robbery no longer rates as a useful form of robbery. The RoI is poor, very poor.

Friday Round-Up - ACA Miscellany - 29th June 2012

by Graham Email

1. Butthurt over the ACA Verdict Part 1 - the People's Grand Jury is resurrected
Lawyer Larry Klayman, whose attempts to have President Obama declared ineligible for the 2012 Presidential Election are going the way of the dodo (total score at state level for all lawsuits is 0-134 and counting), has hit on a new strategy. Perhaps because of desperation or the need for a diversion (who knows?) he has decided that he is butthurt by the ACA verdict, so he is convening a "People's Grand Jury" to indict members of the Supreme Court that he does not like. As Dr. Conspiracy points out here, the term "People's Grand Jury" is coded language for a lynch mob.
2. Butthurt over the ACA verdict Part 2 - the militia members speak
The bunch of paranoid individuals who form members of militias across the USA are very distressed by the ACA verdict, which they see as conspiratorial statism run amok. So, what better to do than to threaten some armed insurrection? (Note that just about every comment on this blog is either "anonymous" or a pseudonym...). I am fond of saying that America has to decide what it wants to be when it grows up, and these ratchet-jawing chest-thumping people are proof that there are a lot of pretty childish individuals out there, whose response to something they don't like, instead of working to change the picture (like, for example, voting for somebody who is not a member of either of the two major parties), is to throw their toys around, and engage in revolutionary masturbation fantasies like marching on Washington DC. It's not 1770-something folks. The world has moved on. It's time to grow up.
3. The correlation between health and opposition to the ACA
Interesting blog posting here showing the clear correlation between opposition to the ACA and levels of obesity and other indicators of poor health. As some economists have pointed out, this is probably an indication that many people are not rational actors.
4. Idiotic reactions to the ACA verdict
There have been intemperate reactions on both sides of the political spectrum to the ACA verdict. However, a couple of GOP reactions leap out at me for their sheer stupidity and, well, wankerdom.
Sen. Rand Paul apparently appears to think that the Supreme Court is not the final arbiter of what is constitutional. Perhaps he would like to explain who is. Sen. Rand Paul? Did he appoint himself as the arbiter? If so, somebody needs to fire him from that role immediately if not sooner. If he doesn't like the Constitution, he is free to work to change it. Until then, he needs to STFU.
Then Mike Pence apparently tried to compare the ACA verdict to 9/11 in a closed door GOP meeting. He swiftly corrected himself and issued what, by most politician's standards is actually a proper apology. However, am I going to be impressed by a politician who becomes unhinged so easily?
NOTE - Sen. Paul's utterances on this subject are a classic piece of rationalization much beloved of people whose worldview is challenged by actual facts. Some time ago, I was discussing healthcare in the USA with a nursing professional who was ranting about "socialized medicine" in Canada. When I tried to point out that Canada spends a lot less of its GDP on healthcare, and has better overall healthcare metrics in a number of key areas, the response I got was "that's just your opinion". When I responded that no, it's not my opinion, it's published numbers, she suddenly wanted to talk about the weather. Any time I read bloviations of the sort issued by Sen. Paul, I know I am dealing with a person who does not want to deal with facts contrary to their fixed worldview.
5. The GOP attempt to fillibuster the ACA at the state level
No real surprise here...the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, has already announced that, effectively, he will continue to ignore the ACA and will not set up an insurance exchange. He appears to be relying on a "perfect storm" which will result in the repeal of the ACA. Over to you, Louisiana voters. The decision is yours, you need to consider whether the lack of an ACA infrastructure in the state is going to make it a less attractive place for people to move to. Look next door to Mississippi if you want to see how severely fucked up you could become...

Another blogger has been muzzled via an unconstitutional court order

by Graham Email

Blogger Dan Valenti, who writes a local politics blog in Massachusetts, has been muzzled via an absurd and unconstitutional gagging order from a local judge, due to butthurt on the part of local dignitaries, since Dan has been writing about what he perceives to be corruption at the intersection of local politics and law enforcement.
Ken at Popehat has written a detailed explanation of the status of this affair, and is attempting to get legal help to get the court order overturned, since it is absofuckinglutely unconstitutional.

Censorious Bigoted Twit round-up - 28th June 2012

by Graham Email

1. Eugene Delgaudio and a smear campaign breaking copyright law in Colorado
Regular readers of this blog may have read some of my comments about Eugene Delgaudio in the past. He is a censorious, bigoted hack who sends fear-mongering emails to a list of people whose names he harvests from literally anywhere, as part of a fund-raising process for a PAC that he owns and manages. In my case, he obtained my name from a comment that I left on PZ Myers' blog Pharyngula, and began sending me his apocalyptic screeds every couple of months. I regard them as fun reading for a slow evening, they are below risible.
However, Delgaudio appears to now be up to his tiny little neck in an odious example of a political smear campaign, that not only involves bullshit and deceit, but also involves the use of a picture of two gay men without their permission and the permission of the photographer. It appears that Delgaudio, despite his disingenuous denials, has morphed from being a gadfly into a totally reprehensible sleazeball. I sincerely hope that he gets taken to the cleaners by the court system.

2. The out of control Seattle Police Department
Philip Mocek, who has been doing a lot of good work tracking abuse of police power across the USA, but especially during the Occupy protests, entered what has to be the most surreal Tweet I have ever seen:

Our @SeattlePD told court that cop's threat to "beat the fucking Mexican piss" out of man was to control, not to offend

Well, OK, that's all right then...well no it isn't. Who are these out of control fascistic thugs?

The Texas and OK GOPs and their batshit-crazy platforms

by Graham Email

1. Texas
Back in 1983, when there was a general election in the UK, the Labour Party wrote a classic manifesto for the election, promising all manner of backward-looking policies if it won the election. After the Conservative Party won the election in a landslide, the Labour Party manifesto became known as "the longest electoral suicide note in history".
Right now here in Texas, the GOP has whistled up an even more batshit crazy pile of poo, billed as its Party Platform.
There is an analysis of the document here,
and based on that analysis, this is at least as batshit crazy as anything I have read in the past 30 years from a political party. It appears to have been written by a collection of people who inhabit a strange parallel universe that I have never been to (and would never want to visit, based on what I have read so far.)
This platform is regressive, censorious, out of touch with reality, and completely in conflict with any sustainable concept of limited government. In short, it is what a work colleague of mine called a "pile of cack". It might make good fertilizer, but somehow I doubt that.
If the GOP in Texas ever wants me to even consider voting for them, they need to be dynamiting crap like this into earth orbit, and actually coming up with something that bears a passing resemblance to 2012 and beyond.

2. Oklahoma

Of course, I should have realized...there is an old joke in these parts that the only reason that Oklahoma exists is so that people will stop feeling sorry for Texas. Based on this OK state GOP Platform from 2011, they might have a point...

I intend to translate both of these platforms into GrahamSpeak in the near future. Stay tuned...

I lose my first Facebook friend in this election cycle

by Graham Email

On reviewing my friends list in Facebook today, I discovered that somebody has unfriended me recently. Knowing who it is, I can guess that the reason is mainly because I have consistently and persistently disagreed with this person on the subject of the eligibility of Barack Obama to be the President of the United States. This person is what is generally known as a "birther"; they believe that Barack Obama is not eligible to be the POTUS. Actually, they are a more wide-ranging conspiracy theorist, believing that there is a New World Order being constructed behind the scenes by a cabal of shadowy figures and all manner of scary people, including (of course) the POTUS.
For reasons that I think I understand, conspiracy theories are popular right now out in the internet world. If I believe a fraction of what I read, the US currency is controlled by a Jewish cabal, and the New World Order, Big Pharma and the Mooslems are about to permanently enslave, poison and kill us. Never mind the fact that the moon landings did not happen...the list goes on...
Because I have limited patience for conspiracy theorists at the best of times, I used to regularly point out the tenuous connection between most of the ideas in those theories and current reality. I guess that ultimately my contributions were deemed to be unwelcome. To their credit,at least I did not get a nastygram from this person, unlike somebody who I disagreed with a few years ago who sent me an IM inviting me to "get your head out of your ass and get back on your meds". Then there was the person who told me to "go back to your own damn country" not long after 9/11, when I suggested that bombing Iraq might not be a strategically wise response. (Note to anybody thinking of saying this today - this is my damn country - I am a citizen, and I am not about to leave).
As a general rule, I am not going to let bullcrap and empty sloganeering pass me by in any online forum without making some form of comment. Unlike some people in the modern USA, I do not regard dissent as disloyalty, and I do not regard people who disagree with me as agents of evil, spawn of the devil etc. I have already informed a commenter this morning that calling the ACA verdict "communist" does not make it a fact, nor does it constitute any form of useful argument. I also have a low tolerance for poorly constructed arguments, especially those that deploy fallacious reasoning or ad hominems.
I intend to continue engaging where appropriate, using facts and argument. If people don't like my opinions, they are free to offer their own. However I have limited tolerance for people who argue in slogans, and I will point that out if it happens. I also have no time for viewpoints based on the idea that somebody who disagrees with you is some agent of evil or lesser form of life, who can be ridiculed, asked to leave the USA, or demonized.
If people decide that they find my interaction style intolerable, yes, they can unfriend me. I fully expect to lose a few more people this electoral cycle because of my opinionated nature. However, I'm not going to back away from forceful expression of views and opinions.
In the past I have been accused of not respecting other people's ideas. My response is quite simple: if you want me to respect your ideas, make sure they're good ones. I can and will call out bullcrap, and we know there will be an enormous amount of THAT floating about in the next 4 months or so.

The ACA verdict from the Supreme Court - Unhinged reactions

by Graham Email

Now that the Supreme Court has (by a narrow 5-4 majority) upheld the Affordable Care Act (note to sloganeers - yes, that is its proper name), we are seeing all manner of intemperate, immature and brainless reactions to the verdict by opponents.
The funniest, in terms of sheer vacuous stupidity, is the collection of tweeters who decided that the only possible response is to leave the USA to go live in...Canada. This of course, despite the fact that Canada has a universal single-payer healthcare system, just the thing that some Facebook friends of mine apparently think is "communism" or some variant thereof.
Here is an exchange with a Facebook friend of mine who happens to live in Canada, she and her friend have a better idea:

Friend: you can keep them
Me: I suggested that they move to somewhere more to their liking...iike Belarus, Kazahkstan or Somalia
Friend: Ooooo much better idea. My friend and I were going to offer a free cruise for all the dip shits and hire an Italian captain

I like the way their minds work...
Seriously, you are an opponent of the ACA, and your reaction to something you don't like is to utter apocalyptic slogans about the end of America As We Know It, stamp your foot and threaten to leave the country? And you expect me to somehow take your opinions and ideas seriously?

MSNBC gets it wrong on Amare Stoudamire

by Graham Email

Amare Stoudamire has gotten himself into trouble for writing a Tweet containing anti-gay slurs. For some reason, the MSNBC storyline seems to be that professional athletes need to learn how to use Twitter. It seems that they do not realize that using Twitter is like talking in public.
No shit, Sherlock.
The real story here is not that superficial hack journalism conclusion. The real story is that Amare Stoudemire is either a bigoted moron, or managed to tweet a message that made him sound and read like a bigoted moron. He has sort of apologized, but in that weaselly fashion that public figures often resort to when they suddenly realize that they made fools of themselves, but their primitive ego prevents them from saying "Sorry - I goofed".
UPDATE - The NBA has hit Stoudamire with a $60k fine. Personally, I think his team should have fined him $100k simply for being a ratchet-jawing idiot.

In case you hadn't noticed that the USA is a polarized country...#2

by Graham Email

Every so often these days I come across a commenter on the internet whose sheer stupidity and vacuuousness causes me to mouth "WTF?" on reading their nonsensical witterings.
Step forward Huffington Post commenter Sharonwillis47, commenting on an article highlighting a downturn in buisness performance of the holding company for Olive Garden and Red Lobster:

they'll just fire a lot of middle management, close the ones which aren't highly profitable, wait for obama to get the boot in Nov. and expand again when the economy recovers. People always cut back on eating out in bad times. Once obamacare and obama are gone things will begin to improve.

"Once Obamacare and Obama are gone"...how the hell does this person think that there is any correlation between the performance of a restaurant chain and the Affordable Care Act (NOTE to partisan wankers - that is the real name of the Act. Do yourselves a favor and stop speaking in moronic slogans).
The sheer idiocy of that sentence just leaps out at me. Sharonwillis47 wins my newly instituted Commenting Wankery Award Of The Day. Actually, a review of this person's comments shows that they are wasting bandwidth on a much larger scale than this one comment.

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