COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Barney says, 'labels are important' as he tries to bully Harvard student.



How does "petulant queen" work as a label?

Look at the audience. Obviously, there are many Harvard professors laughing at Frank's petulant sarcastic comments. Democrats such as Frank are the best hope for a Republican comeback in 2010. Maybe. Hopefully.

56 comments:

  1. In short, proposing a noncirculating reserve currency attached to the IMF isn't quite the same as "replacing" the dollar. It's not as if all the dollars in the world would disappear in a great poof of green dust. There would be no Chinese nationalists dancing around a mountain of burning Benjamins. They like dollars: They have way too many of them not to. But they're nervous about its future, as well they should be.

    China's Strange Assault on the Dollar

    Is a supersovereign currency really anti-U.S. or really smart?
    By Gabriel Beltrone

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  2. Not much news on the 21 US merchant marine sailors that pirates off the coast of Somalia took hostage, along with their ship.

    Will the US military get to play, or will the shipping company pay?

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  3. I wouldn't even waste a bullet on him. Just hang him upside down and let him yabber till the last wind passes out from his lungs.

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  4. I just can't seem to gin up any enthusiasm for a Republican restoration.

    Call it Republican fatique.

    Although I'd like to have my own, personal Republican back.

    T minus sixty days and counting.

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  5. Funny.


    Economist Nouriel Roubini lashes out at CNBC host

    Apr 8, 6:59 AM (ET)

    By ROB GILLIES

    TORONTO (AP) - CNBC's Jim Cramer has another feud on his hands.

    Just weeks after "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart took Cramer to task for trying to turn finance reporting into a "game," famous bear economist Nouriel Roubini criticized Cramer on Tuesday for predicting bull markets.

    "Cramer is a buffoon," said Roubini, a New York University economics professor often called Dr. Doom. "He was one of those who called six times in a row for this bear market rally to be a bull market rally and he got it wrong. And after all this mess and Jon Stewart he should just shut up because he has no shame."

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  6. Hawaii, suffering tourism drop, appeals to Obama

    Winter hotel occupancy rates in Hawaii fell to a five-year low.

    State officials urge the president to block any policies that would limit business travel.

    By Hugo Martín

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  7. Steve Benen:

    IT'S ALL PART OF THE CONSPIRACY.... A variety of far-right voices seem quite sincere in their belief that ACORN is going to try to "sabotage" Tea Party events next week. It's not at all clear why ACORN would care, or what ACORN would do to interfere, but some conservatives are apparently quite worked up about it. Fox News' Neil Cavuto even "reported" that the community activism group intends to "infiltrate" the right-wing events.

    Adam Serwer decided to pick up the phone to see what ACORN thinks about this.

    [O]n the offhand possibility that there was some truth to the idea that ACORN was orchestrating the sabotage of tea party gatherings, (maybe some local chapter had organized a counter-protest or something) I called up ACORN Executive Director Steve Kest and asked him about it. "I saw some mention of this on a blog, I have no idea even what the tea parties are," Kest said. He then asked me to explain to him what the tea parties were having only just heard about them yesterday. When I laughed, Kest said, "Seriously, do you know more about what the deal is here?"

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  8. There is an whiff of hysteria in the air.

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  9. And what if, ACORN was going to support the counter revelutionary Government, by peacefully expressing their support?

    What if they support the United States government in its efforts to stabilize the economy?

    Now that the "Right" are the revolutionaries, they ought to take Alinsky's Rules to heart.

    Until they do, the status que will continue its advance. But if the object of the Revolution is merely to exchange Barack Obama for John McCain, well then, it'll be tough finding anyone willing to:
    mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

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  10. Rather than to act as one, in a political movement that rocks America back to its foundation, the more natural inclination is to:

    "arm-up and hunker-down"

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  11. Moody's Puts All Munis On Negative

    The Federal government is still AAA, but every municipal debt issuer is now suspect and shaky according to Moody's.

    For the first time ever, the ratings agency placed all munis on negative outlook, a precursor to potential downgrades. Historically, the agency looked at munis individually and considered them to be too diverse to make blanket statements about.

    But it seems overspending and the hollowing out of the revenue base is a nationwide phenomenon affecting cities and states everywhere.

    And of course the US government is affected by those same phenomenon -- we think the government's revenue expectations remain wildly optimistic, given the slowdown and the collapsing of the income gap -- but alas the Fed still has the printing press and should be able to hold onto its AAA rating for awhile longer.

    Meanwhile, New York actually managed to float a bond at a 5.55% interest rate and a 2036 maturity. Who'd have guessed?
    .
    .
    http://www.businessinsider.com/moodys-puts-all-munis-on-negative-outlook-2009-4

    http://bit.ly/147YTS

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  12. Mark Levin reads the intro to Alinsky's book, with some comments of his own.

    It's an entertaining show.

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  13. It's an entertaining show.
    ==

    Yes, everything is entertainment. And the true clowns are all so amused, watching, while their world disintegrates.

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  14. No, trish, I'd never read, nor even heard of that Pale Horse novel you mentioned to bob the other day.

    I just see the same historical trends that can be projected into such scenarios.

    Does not mean that they will be.
    But it does mean that there is a constituency that share those perceptions.
    Similar views, reached independently

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  15. If that's the way you feel, mat, you best

    "Arm up and hunker down"

    It's the American thing to do
    and when you're in the Americas, it's best to do as the real Americans do.

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  17. But then, if you do, refrain from unrestrained hysteria

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  18. I'm going to a tea party. Taking suggestions as to what my sign should say.

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  19. If that's the way you feel, mat, you best
    ==

    This isn't my shit to clean up. I have my own country and people, and they be Israel.

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  20. Bawney Fwank, Larry Craig, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obumble, Nancy Pelosi, Kay Hutchinson, they're all the same, Trish, all Federal Socialists, you should know that by now. Not a dime's worth of difference between any of them.

    Although I'd like to have my own, personal Republican back.

    Most people like their own congresscritter. But not the other guy's. So we keep electing the same people decade after decade.

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  21. Then you'll be headin' on back to Haifa, soon?

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  22. Then you'll be headin' on back to Haifa, soon?
    ==

    Yes.

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  23. That should put an end to the old false canard that Mat was fleeing from the lion's den, then.

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  24. bob, my clan's been "armed up" since we left the NY metro area and joined the general migration to the great American desert in the west, 1971.

    Being "hunkered down" is a matter of perception, as much as anything.

    Moving to AZ was "hunkering down" or "expanding horizons", or a bit of both, depends upon who controls the narrative.

    Who's tellin' the tale and when

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  25. Crew Reported To Have Taken Back Control Of Pirated Ship

    Obumble may be off the hook. Pirates reported to be 'in the water'. :)

    No confirmation by the shipping company.

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  26. We were a better country when there was still a frontier to leave for. Today's world is really getting claustrophobic. Always seems to be closing in closer in one way or another.

    I get antsy thinking of all these cameras around sometimes, though I realize some do some real good.

    Down in Walla Walla in the 50's there was a lady lived in a cave in the mountains we used to talk about. Saying how crazy she must be. Just ahead of the times, it almost seems now.

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  28. It was never false, bob.
    It was accurate at the time and place.

    Now that mat is headed back it appears that he has recommitted to mutually pledge his Life, his Fortune, and his sacred Honor, in the Zionist Revolution and the reestablishment of Greater Israel, he is a step closer to fulfilling his rhetorical destiny.

    Which is good for him.
    Hopefully he'll find it a rewarding experience. It will make organizing your vacation easier, bob.

    Go ahead, enjoy the day, take the Missus and head over to see mat, once he's resettled.
    Put it on the Visa, if you have to, it'd be the trip of a life time. Sell the land when you get back, the market'll be up, or not.

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  29. Obumble Administration Looks At Climate Engineering

    This distinctly reminds me of the Idaho Fish and Game Department. How they destroyed the fishery in Lake Coeur d' Alene for instance. Introduced they mysis shrimp to feed the kokanee to make them big, then introduced the coho to feed on the kokanee. Only trouble was the shrimp were up when the kokanee were down in the water, the positions reversed when the sun went down. Upshot was the coho got what was left of the Kokanee.

    Same thing with the wolves. They thought the wolves would go after the deer first, then the elk. But, the wolves, knowing best what works for them, went after the elk first, and with disastrous results, too.

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  30. I'd like to go to Israel sometme.

    Always wanted to see the Pyramids too, and the Sphinx. A friend from here went, said Cairo was a real shithole, for the most part.

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  31. Today's world is really getting claustrophobic.
    ==

    :)

    Not if you have neighbors you love. It's always nice when Mrs Robinson comes over to borrow some coffee, and then stays for breakfast.

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  32. I'd like to go to Israel sometme.
    ==

    You will. Work on them leg muscles.

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  33. Elk are the slower, easier prey of the two. The elk also supplies a larger feed for the wolves, than a deer.

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  34. O's Amateur Hour In Turkey

    Turks mock him in blackface on TV. Meanwhile the Paks want our drones, technology, money and control of operations.

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  35. Yep, what's the use of working your ass to take down three, four, five deer, when one big elk provides the equivalent protein and you use up less energy in the process?

    Never let the Idaho Fish and Game Department anywhere near your household fishbowl.

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  36. Man, that Mrs. Robinson was something, even though she drank a little too much.

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  37. In a word, the future is plastics, so said Mr. Robinson.

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  38. Those Turks not bound by the PC Rules of the West, bob.

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  39. Susan Estrich On Prosecutorial Misconduct

    Says the prosecutors just wanted to win, probably the simplest of the explainations offered.

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  40. Will the US military get to play, or will the shipping company pay?

    Wed Apr 08, 10:13:00 AM ED

    Seal Team.

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  41. (Now if we would cut one loose and send him back to the herd carrying, unbeknownst to him, some nasty aerosolized shit, we'd be cookin' with gas.)

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  42. (But we're not cookin' with gas.)

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  43. They retook it themselves. Even better.

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  44. As far as the whiff of hysteria in the air, this is a fixture of US politics. It is a fixture of both sides. It is courted and leveraged by both sides, for rather than against a deeply conservative (in its own way) non-radical system.

    The fringe has long since been mainstreamed, long since been coopted, harnessed, put to work.

    Erstwhile flower children figured that out. Their counterparts on the right will, too.

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  45. O'Reilly and Hannity haven't figured it out yet? uh oh...

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  46. Sometimes, hysteria doesn't seem such an illogical reaction to events, to me. Coming out of the worst century in recorded history (so they say) into a brave new world of nuclear proliferation, in the hands of idiots, I think hysteria might have it just about right. That, and my tactic of crawling under my bed, lacking a grandmother with big enough skirts.

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  47. Well, Christ. Let's pick from the menu of fantasies, shall we?

    1. Peacelove.

    2. Strangelove.

    3. Freedom on the March.



    It's a messy, unsatisfying world. We have messy, unsatisfying. answers.

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  48. Coexist Bumper Stickers For Sale Here

    Can't we all just get along?

    Saw one of these the other day on a studentmobile. Great sentiments, but doesn't seem to be the moslem way. From o to t ought to work out, with a little good will and good sense; it's that c that's the tough one.

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  49. Obama Job Approval: Pew at 61%, Marist at 56%, RCP Average at 60.9%

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  50. US crew members have retaken their hijacked ship but their captain is still being held by Somali pirates on a lifeboat, reports say.

    Pentagon sources and relatives of the Maersk Alabama's 20 crew were earlier quoted as saying the ship was back under control after a struggle.

    But later reports emerged that the captain was still in the hands of the hijackers, adrift in the lifeboat.

    It was the sixth ship seized off Somalia in recent days.

    It is reportedly the first time in 200 years that a US-flagged vessel has been seized by pirates.


    There's more

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  51. "Obama Job Approval: Pew at 61%, Marist at 56%, RCP Average at 60.9%"

    I wonder how many are reacting to the un-Bush?

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  52. Confidence in each to do the right thing on economy:

    Obama - Great deal/not too much/don't know - 70/26/4%

    Dem Leaders - 55/40/5%

    Rep Leaders - 38/57/5%

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