tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post483369572451202812..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: This GOP Thing Needs a NameJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-51351487728319888892013-10-17T01:44:13.299-05:002013-10-17T01:44:13.299-05:00Tuesday.Tuesday.Matt Jarvisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-14630684877396031062013-10-16T23:46:36.379-05:002013-10-16T23:46:36.379-05:00That's....not bad.That's....not bad.Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-62302678537353479272013-10-16T12:40:16.300-05:002013-10-16T12:40:16.300-05:00>> Can you imagine how that would work if th...>> Can you imagine how that would work if the Republicans were handed that kind of power?<br /><br />See, "Wisconsin."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-44861649761673744542013-10-16T08:49:57.342-05:002013-10-16T08:49:57.342-05:00I can't believe there are 25 responses and nob...I can't believe there are 25 responses and nobody has suggested mine yet. So here it is: the Vizzini. This works both because the words they are saying do not mean what they think they mean and because they think they are being really clever but really they fairly dumb. Now if only we could get Dread Pirate Roberts to come defeat them at a game of which cup has the poison.Ron E.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-70880175584554543662013-10-16T08:03:52.018-05:002013-10-16T08:03:52.018-05:00This game is called "see what you made me do....This game is called "see what you made me do."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-23984593958525267192013-10-16T02:00:03.754-05:002013-10-16T02:00:03.754-05:00Yes, if you take nonsense, multiply it by BS, divi...Yes, if you take nonsense, multiply it by BS, divide by sheer fantasy and carry the remainder, it comes out to exactly 30,000.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-40200827968624357862013-10-15T20:33:48.566-05:002013-10-15T20:33:48.566-05:00There are 30,000 climate scientists?There <i>are</i> 30,000 climate scientists?CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-19736214474316988522013-10-15T18:25:10.593-05:002013-10-15T18:25:10.593-05:00I'd like to see the requisite name arrived at ...I'd like to see the requisite name arrived at pronto, because the need for it seems to increase by the hour. So: the House is now thinking of demanding an end to an Obamacare "exemption," when what actually exists (even more so under their proposal) is something like the opposite -- which by the way was originally a Republican demand? I mean, which way is up? I was going to endorse purusha's "Dada" as a possible name, but this actually reminds me of Escher. How about "eschering" things? The "Escher Gambit"? A party of dyed-in-the-wool Escherians? Something like that?<br /><br />But stepping back: Yes, they do this because they're grown lazy, but that's not just due to Fox. Fox itself has grown lazy, because it (and various right-wing blogs and "news" sites) cater to an audience that just doesn't give up a crap whether its daily dose of propaganda is true. I've had a better look at this phenomenon lately because a long-forgotten high-school acquaintance "friended" me on Facebook after a reunion, without telling me that her Facebook feed is basically a firehose of right-wing misinformation that she cribs from sites evidently designed mainly to give people like her ammunition for posting and tweeting. I've pointed out several times that these sources are wrong, lying, and in many cases recirculating lies that were debunked years ago. (One recent example: Did you know that Al Gore is being sued for fraud by 30,000 climate scientists? The stuff of a chain e-mail several years ago, but still turning up on these sites as late-breaking news.) Sometimes my "friend" will acknowledge the correction, but she goes on trusting the same sources and favoring us with another ten or twelve such posts the next day. There's just no way these sources can be wrong or false enough to make her wary of whatever they claim next. Multiply this by a few million, give its elected representatives a system rife with veto points, and you've got all the makings of a constitutional crisis like the one we're looking at now.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-56506979844174236902013-10-15T16:52:09.483-05:002013-10-15T16:52:09.483-05:00Or more rhymey the Menacity of Mendacity.Or more rhymey the Menacity of Mendacity.Jamie Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08579007138576584958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-64547734631768058162013-10-15T16:51:10.819-05:002013-10-15T16:51:10.819-05:00The Menace of Mendacity.The Menace of Mendacity.Jamie Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08579007138576584958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-21803124360315585382013-10-15T16:30:23.065-05:002013-10-15T16:30:23.065-05:00The press, like the corpocrats, is not disturbed. ...The press, like the corpocrats, is not disturbed. To the contrary, they're both gleeful at the confusion and interesting stupidity. Everyone will tune in, they'll still buy consumer crap from the TV ads. Ormond Otvoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04218783352148219090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-3130253622946336872013-10-15T15:19:20.163-05:002013-10-15T15:19:20.163-05:00How about "crying crocodile tears"?How about "crying crocodile tears"? Bryannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-19021568485971399292013-10-15T15:06:54.873-05:002013-10-15T15:06:54.873-05:00Do you actually think the neutral press would do a...Do you actually think the neutral press would do a better job covering this, if they had some type of "better" (more concise?) language to do so? I don't get the sense that the neutral press, especially TV newscasters, are that conflicted and ill at ease about their laziness and misdirection, yearning for solutions...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-23254817365545677092013-10-15T14:41:50.136-05:002013-10-15T14:41:50.136-05:00Isn't the real issue about what constitutes ac...Isn't the real issue about what constitutes acceptable norms for political parties and how are those norms enforced? I have friends in Canada who describe their parliamentary system as an election followed by a dictatorship. Can you imagine how that would work if the Republicans were handed that kind of power? Clearly in countries with parliamentary systems the press has a major role in informing the public when those norms are being violated. I question if any democracy can withstand its norms being consistently violated while the press strives to remain “neutral” rather than “objective”. <br /><br />Enough ranting; I thought the correct word for what the republicans are doing was “Derp”.<br />?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-76635968078528829332013-10-15T14:31:09.862-05:002013-10-15T14:31:09.862-05:00The thing about bullshit is, you have to put it on...The thing about bullshit is, you have to put it on in thin coats and let it dry. If you put it on too thick, like the GOP is doing, it'll crack and make a mess. JasonBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-36540040506138592372013-10-15T14:02:38.345-05:002013-10-15T14:02:38.345-05:00I just ran across this one in the New Yorker - arg...I just ran across this one in the New Yorker - argumentum ex culo, which appears to mean argument by bullshit (using Harry Frankfurt's definition of BS). <br /><br />"It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."Geoff Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17117921607237662932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-77805800270019557352013-10-15T13:39:04.240-05:002013-10-15T13:39:04.240-05:00Orwellian
Newspeak
Orwellian<br />Newspeak<br />Tyson Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16891793724769518980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-55644060178445566182013-10-15T13:27:21.346-05:002013-10-15T13:27:21.346-05:00A week-long shutdown doesn't really affect ver...A week-long shutdown doesn't really affect very many people beyond mild inconvenience, even federal workers, but the longer it goes, the more are affected directly (and all of us indirectly). Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-86431322754968956412013-10-15T13:11:01.960-05:002013-10-15T13:11:01.960-05:00The people who really notice the shutdown are furl...The people who really notice the shutdown are furloughed federal employees - i.e., "moochers"Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15913245096162048743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-21956550584496967412013-10-15T12:49:38.228-05:002013-10-15T12:49:38.228-05:00What about "Immelman Turn"? That's a...What about "Immelman Turn"? That's an aerobatics manuver where you pull a half-loop and roll, so you're going just as fast in opposite direction. Peter Griernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-81310346925030696492013-10-15T12:40:26.242-05:002013-10-15T12:40:26.242-05:00Dadaist?
"Dada rejected reason and logic, pr...Dadaist?<br /><br />"Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition."<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadapurushanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-46284481651354623592013-10-15T12:24:59.301-05:002013-10-15T12:24:59.301-05:00Surrealist
Absurdist
Paradoxical
Surrealist<br />Absurdist<br />Paradoxical <br />Tyson Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16891793724769518980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-54815885375293573092013-10-15T12:13:14.139-05:002013-10-15T12:13:14.139-05:00This is opposition that is purely *ad factionem*.This is opposition that is purely *ad factionem*.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-51664063697313206272013-10-15T12:10:57.183-05:002013-10-15T12:10:57.183-05:00I think chutzpah works here, but only with the Mic...I think chutzpah works here, but only with the Michele Bachmann pronunciation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-48768449174357059362013-10-15T12:06:30.861-05:002013-10-15T12:06:30.861-05:00"Internal double-cross."
"Nouveau..."Internal double-cross." <br />"Nouveau Nihilism." <br />"Identification by Nullification."<br />"Spinning against your own Petard."<br />"You say I'll be hoisted by this petard; what do you mean? There is no petard, well there is, but it was the bad guys idea."<br />"Spin Sorcery - Now you see our idea, now you don't, but if you do see it and you don't like it, it was... BURN THE WITCH!"Jamie Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08579007138576584958noreply@blogger.com