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."
Of the living Daesh, there are, roughly, two kinds:
ReplyDeleteThose that will get dead, Today
And, those that will get dead, Tomorrow.
Some day you will publicly acknowledge that Hamas and Daesh are two of the same peas in the pod. I look forward to that day.
DeleteI like your optimism, Rufus.
DeleteISIS = Hamas = Boko Haram
All the same bunch of human crap.
Not much of a contest, a Predator drone with a Hellfire missile vs a wheeled vehicle.
ReplyDeleteEven if the Predator were to lose, there is no loss of live.
Not so for the wheeled vehicle and/or its crew.
There are those that complain the campaign is not going 'fast enough'.
DeleteTo those ... they should remember how long the US took to 'form-up' for the previous invasions of both Iraq and Kuwait.
Month and months of huge expense were incurred.
Not so much, this time.
We are in the 21st century, after all.
One wonders if Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson includes those of the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard amongst those he wishes to slaughter and then butcher, to feed the 'poor'.
ReplyDeleteBobSun Feb 23, 10:56:00 PM EST
"The argument that they are not native is amazing in light of the fact that neither are Europeans native."
Exactly.
Shoot the Arizonans as well, give the meat to the poor.
http://2164th.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-space-dump.html
Slaughter, butchery and then cannibalism. This is what Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson advocates for the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard. He should be ashamed of himself
Another thread infected by garbage, aka Jack Hawkins.
ReplyDeleteJust quoting Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, the coward that advocated for genocide, butchery and cannibalizing the people of Arizona.
DeleteHis words, his garbage, we are merely 'airing it out'.
He should be ashamed
DeleteRobert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, he should apologize.
DeleteYou are one twisted sick person. Seek professional help.
DeleteChina has stepped in to offer assistance to Russia as Vladimir Putin pursues support for the ruble without further depleting foreign-exchange reserves. China will prop up its neighbor if needed and expand a currency swap between the two nations, increasing use of yuan for bilateral trade. The ruble is now more than 5% stronger against the dollar amid the signs of Chinese support.
ReplyDelete... from one of our allies, a NATO member ...
ReplyDeleteTurkey's Erdogan says birth control 'treason' against Turkish lineage
"For years they committed a treason of birth control in this country, seeking to dry up our bloodline."
I would bet there is a message in this, and not one a of Europhile sort.
DeleteWhy Turkey’s president wants to revive the language of the Ottoman Empire
Earlier this week, the country's National Education Council, dominated by members who share Erdogan's Islamic-influenced politics, voted to make instruction of Ottoman Turkish compulsory in high schools. The move triggered a fierce backlash from secularist opponents of Erdogan and his religiously conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP). It led to Erdogan's prime minister insisting that the course would be an elective and not mandatory.
But Erdogan has stuck to his guns, and rounded on his critics.
"There are those who do not want this to be taught. This is a great danger. Whether they like it or not, the Ottoman language will be learnt and taught in this country," he said during a speech this week in Ankara.
Cool, I have long supported free condoms for Palestinians, maybe now we should start passing those out to Turks too...
DeleteTurkey's Erdogan seems to be echoing a Republican candidate for President, Rick Santorum:
Delete"One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.... Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that's okay, contraception is okay. It's not okay. It's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." (Oct. 18, 2011)
http://theweek.com/article/index/223041/9-controversial-rick-santorum-quotes
Santorum's critics are not sitting in prison or worse, moron. An American politician is an idiot, an Ottoman Turk is an enemy -- at least to those of us American born.
Delete"For years they committed a treason of birth control in this country, seeking to dry up our bloodline."
Delete___Erdogan
Lebensborn
The Turks are not the enemy of the United States.
DeleteTo claim that they are, simply delusional.
Most US allies have multitudes incarcerated.
DeleteThe US leads the world in the per capita incarceration rate..
You are a moron...Sorry, but there you have it...Proportionality, nuance, rule of law, morality, etc. are all alien to your non-Western squishy brain.
DeleteEverything Turkey is becoming under its increasingly obvious, Islamic tyrant is anathema to the West. While the West may often fail its own standards of proper conduct, it does have them. Erdogan is instituting Sharia at an accelerating pace, as only a fool or advocate would fail to admit. In your special case, both fool and advocate are mutually inclusive. Of course, as I strongly suspect, you are, under the skin, an apologist for Islam. Come out from behind the burka and make your case as a Westerner, if you can.
The Turkish Military should never have Erdogan get a grip.
Delete.................
d. rat has already agreed with you that he is a moron, allen.
Author's journey inside ISIS: They're 'more dangerous than people realize'
ReplyDelete"There is an awful sense of normalcy in Mosul," Todenhoefer said in an exclusive interview with CNN.
"130,000 Christians have been evicted from the city, the Shia have fled, many people have been murdered and yet the city is functioning and people actually like the stability that the Islamic State has brought them."
Nonetheless, he says, there is an air of fear among residents: "Of course many of the them are quite scared, because the punishment for breaking the Islamic State's strict rules is very severe." ...
"No, we will conquer Europe one day," the man said. "It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain ... For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines.
"Our expansion will be perpetual ... And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to Islam or pay the Islamic tax will be killed."
Todenhoefer asked the fighter about their treatment of other religions, especially Shia Muslims.
"What about the 150 million Shia, what if they refuse to convert?" Todenhoefer asked.
"150 million, 200 million or 500 million, it does not matter to us," the fighter answered. "We will kill them all."
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Delete___Churchill
Who shall be fed to the crocodile? Hm ...
... that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria.
Delete“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”
Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
“We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.
http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328
Israel - Founded by Terrorists and Sustained by Terrorism and now ... Allied with Islamic Terrorists
In broad daylight, a Saudi-Israeli alliance
... , we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”
Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
“We understand that they are pretty bad guys,”
- Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren
Isn't that cute! When all else fails, change the subject to Israel. Well, Mo, Israel was not and is not the topic of the day; IS and Islamic fundamentals, by extension, are.
DeleteIf WiO wants to waste his day pounding a strawman, more power to him. As for me, I think the topic at hand more than adequate to maintain audience attention.
By the way, you already proved yourself a lying coward on the matter of Oren some days ago.
The JPost quotes stand.
DeleteAs does Israel's support for al-Qeada, in Syria.
As does Israel's alliance with the Wahhabi.
Israel's course of appeasement is abundantly clear.
The audience speaks, allen, over 295,000 views at Jack Hawkins Writes ...
{;-)
morons...the world has never had a shortage...
DeleteRe: views
DeletePeople used to flock to watch fools, bears, and executions.
And birds of a feather flock together, so it is said.
DeleteBob,
DeleteThere is a huge industry engaged in "harvesting" bat guano, talking about flocking.
Preferring one enemy in a position of power does not an ally make.
ReplyDeleteIt just looks to me that Israel is lining up their ducks that will be shot down.
That ain't complicated or complex.
... from a spokesman for IS (German lad) ...
ReplyDelete"'No, we will conquer Europe one day,' the man said. 'It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain ... For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines.
'Our expansion will be perpetual ... And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to Islam or pay the Islamic tax will be killed.'"
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete"At some point, it will receive its just deserts."
Delete:-)
As will all of the enemies of Israel.
It is written and will be done.
(I don't have enough faith to be an Atheist.)
:-)
DeleteI agree: atheists are extraordinarily faith filled folks. Without metaphysics, however, they are, on the whole, a dull lot.
The only way Turkey, Syria, or ISIS would have any importance to the United States would be if they were able to invade the large oil fields (in Iraq, and South,) and completely screw up the world energy markets.
ReplyDeleteThe only one that I find "interesting" is ISIL, and that is only because I have a bet on the game - I took the "July 4 Under." for Daesh in Iraq. :)
Btw, no one seems to have noticed that we've been doing quite a bit of "striking" a little North of Aleppo.
DeleteI just wonder if that might be in support of the same FSA guys that went over to help in Kobane?
Labor Day ...
DeleteWhich do you think will fall, Mosul or Talafar, first?
heh
Delete:)
And I do hope you win.
And I'm willing to budge a bit around the edges......if there are 'just a few' or 'some' ISIS hanging on you win.......
DeleteTalafar, I Think.
DeleteBut, let's be honest, we know just about as much about those people as a pig knows about Christmas. :)
One other thing: As regards Mosul, about the only chance we have to deceive is in the "Timing."
It does appear that the Iraqi Security Forces overall strategy is to cut the logistic train between the Daesh in Syria and those that have occupied Iraqi cities, notably Mosul.
DeleteThe Kurdish militia has stated it will not advance on Mosul without the Federal Iraqi Army in the order of battle.
Five or six battalions ought to be enough, to bust up Talafar.
That's my prediction, Talafar falls, first.
Federal Iraqi Army in the lead.
{;-)
Wonder how much ammo those boys in Mosul have stored up?
DeleteHow long a combative siege can they sustain?
we know just about as much about those people as a pig knows about Christmas. :)
Delete:-)
I watched a short video, yesterday, of some Kurds taking some town up there. They are enthusiastic, but, man, they try to make up for it with unbridled disorganization, confusion, and lack of discipline. :)
DeleteI'm amazed that they can conquer, and hold a Chuck E. Cheese.
If I got orders to go over there and "train up" a Company of Iraqis, and lead them into battle, I'd desert.
DeleteOr, shoot myself. :)
:)
DeleteIf Chuck E. Cheese teamed up with Ronald McDonald it'd be over.
They are exemplars of discipline and good order compared to the Iraqi Army, though.
We are going to need to 'retrain' the Iraqi Army.
How long is this going to take?
Will the results be any different from before, or will they continue to turn and give their guns to ISIS?
These are important questions when making predictions.
Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson tells us that the Kurds are the 'best of the worst', paraphrasing of course.
DeleteLooks like both sides ride high on emotion.
What did that 14 year old combatant say ...
"If you're going to fight a war, it's good to be with the US" ... paraphrasing that, as well
{;-)
VATICAN CITY (RNS) - Pope Francis launched a blistering attack on the Vatican bureaucracy Monday, outlining a "catalog of illnesses" that plague the church's central administration, including "spiritual Alzheimer's" and gossipy cliques.
ReplyDelete"spiritual Alzheimer's" and gossipy cliques
Delete:):)
That's good.
Btw, I noticed, the other day, that a contingent from the Indiana National Guard is already flying A-10's over there, and that the Marines are flitting about in some Harriers. We know that the Apaches have flown a couple of missions around Baghdad, and it was hinted that there might be some C-130 Gunships warming up on the tarmac.
ReplyDeleteI know the Iraqis are far from ready (they'll Never be "ready,") but I'm expecting to see the Battle of Mosul kick off within the next two months.
Re: the value of public opinion
ReplyDelete... the cure ...
Doc Martin season 3 Quotes
Rufus IIMon Dec 22, 02:47:00 PM EST
ReplyDeleteI watched a short video, yesterday, of some Kurds taking some town up there. They are enthusiastic, but, man, they try to make up for it with unbridled disorganization, confusion, and lack of discipline. :)
I'm amazed that they can conquer, and hold a Chuck E. Cheese.
:-)
What the hell?
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to access Fox News. Continually get Glenn Beck and The Blaze.
Have the Mormons invaded Fox News?
What have they done with all my Leggie Ladies?
Where's Judge Pirro? Megyn Kelly?
Bob OreilleMon Dec 22, 02:54:00 PM EST
ReplyDeleteWe are going to need to 'retrain' the Iraqi Army.
How long is this going to take?
... the immortal words of Darius III at the battle of Gaugamela ...
We're not really going to "train up" the Iraqi Army. That's a Red Herring. There's not nearly enough time to do it (and, there's no guarantee that it would work out any better the 2nd time than it did the first.)
ReplyDeleteThey'll go into Mosul with pretty much what they have now, maybe just a bit more of it.
Daesh probably has two or three thousand assholes in there, so a couple of pretty rank divisions under the cover of air supremacy, and pinpoint close air support should be able to get the job done.
It'll be "winning ugly." :)
Probably, really butt-crack ugly. :)
Jib-Jab Year in Review
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/archives/2014/12/22/video-jib-jabs-2014-in-review/
Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson confusing tactics and strategy, again.
ReplyDeleteJack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Professional Asshole, Self Admitted Moron, and Champ Liar" Hawkins doesn't seem to realize one needs a trained Army or enthusiastic group to carry out his stolen from General Crooks, Boy Scout Level, WORLD FAMOUS LAUGHER of a rat DOCTRINE.
DeleteWell, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you seem to be cracking ...
DeleteOver 295,000 views for Jack Hawkins, none for BO, because you are a stinker, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
allen{ If WiO wants to waste his day pounding a strawman, more power to him. As for me, I think the topic at hand more than adequate to maintain audience attention.
ReplyDeleteWhat was I doing that was akin to pounding a straw man?
... nothing, yet ...
DeleteBob OreilleMon Dec 22, 02:35:00 PM EST
ReplyDeleted. rat has already agreed with you that he is a moron, allen.
Bob,
I find this deeply disturbing on so many levels.
It disturbs me too, allen. I can understand your feelings. Agreeing on something....It sorta established a connection one doesn't want or need in a way, or something....It is disturbing......
DeleteBut it's true. You said rat-O-zero was a moron and a liar, and he replied "...but not a liar".
Thereby demonstrating to all that beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty he is both.
DeleteTrot that sequence out for us, will you, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson?
DeleteCutting Crew-I Just Died In Your Arms
ReplyDeleteAmazing. That guy's got an entire Rock Orchestra to back him up, including a Conductor and Singing Beauties.
DeleteNever seen anything quite like that.
Singer Joe Cocker Dies At 70...............Drudge
DeleteA Man Tried To Rob A Bank After Paying $500 To A Wizard To Make Him Invisible
ReplyDeletehe had paid five million rials (just under £290) to a wizard imposter
It is getting so darned hard to find genuine wizards these days. There ought to be a law.
Been happening a lot lately.
DeleteHe got swindled by The Wizard-Q, Invisibility Upon Demand LLC, which entity is wanted by Interpol.
This is not a bad practice - Neither ISIS nor Islam as a will ever adopt such an outlook -
ReplyDeleteReligion
A list of Pope Francis' 15 "Ailments of the Curia" delivered in his Christmas address
Published December 22, 2014
Associated Press
Facebook113 Twitter45 Email Print
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis listed 15 "ailments" of the Vatican Curia during his annual Christmas greetings to the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the central administration of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. Here's the list.
1) Feeling immortal, immune or indispensable. "A Curia that doesn't criticize itself, that doesn't update itself, that doesn't seek to improve itself is a sick body."
2) Working too hard. "Rest for those who have done their work is necessary, good and should be taken seriously."
3) Becoming spiritually and mentally hardened. "It's dangerous to lose that human sensibility that lets you cry with those who are crying, and celebrate those who are joyful."
4) Planning too much. "Preparing things well is necessary, but don't fall into the temptation of trying to close or direct the freedom of the Holy Spirit, which is bigger and more generous than any human plan."
5) Working without coordination, like an orchestra that produces noise. "When the foot tells the hand, 'I don't need you' or the hand tells the head 'I'm in charge.'"
6) Having 'spiritual Alzheimer's.' "We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands."
7) Being rivals or boastful. "When one's appearance, the color of one's vestments or honorific titles become the primary objective of life."
8) Suffering from 'existential schizophrenia.' "It's the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill. It's a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people."
Delete9) Committing the 'terrorism of gossip.' "It's the sickness of cowardly people who, not having the courage to speak directly, talk behind people's backs."
10) Glorifying one's bosses. "It's the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honor people who aren't God."
11) Being indifferent to others. "When, out of jealousy or cunning, one finds joy in seeing another fall rather than helping him up and encouraging him."
12) Having a 'funereal face.' "In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity. The apostle must be polite, serene, enthusiastic and happy and transmit joy wherever he goes."
13) Wanting more. "When the apostle tries to fill an existential emptiness in his heart by accumulating material goods, not because he needs them but because he'll feel more secure."
14) Forming 'closed circles' that seek to be stronger than the whole. "This sickness always starts with good intentions but as time goes by, it enslaves its members by becoming a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body and causes so much bad — scandals — especially to our younger brothers."
15) Seeking worldly profit and showing off. "It's the sickness of those who insatiably try to multiply their powers and to do so are capable of calumny, defamation and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally to show themselves as being more capable than others."
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12/22/list-pope-francis-15-ailments-curia-delivered-in-his-christmas-address/
I don't see sexual misconduct on the list, however.
Unless.....hmm.....
Delete2) Working too hard. "Rest for those who have done their work is necessary, good and should be taken seriously."
The Pope may have taken this from the motto of Quirk Enterprises.
DeleteAsia Pacific
ReplyDeleteAttack Is Suspected as North Korean Internet Collapses
By NICOLE PERLROTH and DAVID E. SANGERDEC. 22, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO — North Korea’s already tenuous links to the Internet went completely dark on Monday after days of instability, in what Internet monitors described as one of the worst North Korean network failures in years.
The loss of service came just days after President Obama pledged that the United States would launch a “proportional response” to the recent attacks on Sony Pictures, which government officials have linked to North Korea. While an attack on North Korea’s networks was suspected, there was no definitive evidence of it.
Doug Madory, the director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research, an Internet performance management company, said that North Korean Internet access first became unstable late Friday. The situation worsened over the weekend, and by Monday, North Korea’s Internet was completely offline.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage
Obama to See if North Korea Should Return to Terror ListDEC. 21, 2014
Workers removing a banner for “The Interview” from a billboard in Hollywood after Sony canceled the movie’s release.
U.S. Asks China to Help Rein In Korean HackersDEC. 20, 2014
North Korea Warns U.S. Not to Take Sony ActionDEC. 20, 2014
Obama Vows a Response to Cyberattack on SonyDEC. 19, 2014
“Their networks are under duress,” Mr. Madory said. “This is consistent with a DDoS attack on their routers,” he said, referring to a distributed denial of service attack, in which attackers flood a network with traffic until it collapses under the load.
North Korea does very little commercial or government business over the Internet. The country officially has 1,024 Internet protocol addresses, though the actual number may be somewhat higher. By comparison, the United States has billions of addresses.
North Korea’s addresses are managed by Star Joint Venture, the state-run Internet provider, which routes many of those connections through China Unicom, China’s state-owned telecommunications company.
By Monday morning, those addresses had gone dark for over an hour.
CloudFlare, an Internet company based in San Francisco, confirmed Monday that North Korea’s Internet access was “toast”..........
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/world/asia/attack-is-suspected-as-north-korean-internet-collapses.html
Success has many fathers.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. State Department said Monday Iraqi air power helped the Kurdish peshmerga and U.S.-led coalition forces push back the Islamic State group from Mount Sinjar. The offensive on the mountain marks the first time the Iraqi air force contributed to a high-profile offensive against the Sunni militant group. Previously, only the U.S.-led coalition air forces, as well as some Iranian jets, had carried out strikes against ISIS.
Mama's baby, Papa's maybe
If you haven't purchased your Holiday gifts yet -
ReplyDeleteBooks
‘American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny,’ by Christopher Miller
By Elizabeth McCracken December 15
Encyclopedias, being time sensitive, are the most ephemeral of imposing objects. Soon enough they become quaint, fussy, outdated, wrong. For the right reader, though, there is pleasure in wrongness, which is one of the theories behind Christopher Miller’s new book. The encyclopedic “American Cornball” arrives both outdated and in its ideal form: It’s a peculiar, enlightening book, an investigation of trivia, a strange history of American life from 1900 through 1966 (Miller’s self-imposed limit) and, as all single-author reference books are, a document of obsession.
“American Cornball” discusses off-color postcards, gag gifts, animated cartoons, newspaper comic strips, old comedies, comic books, humor magazines and sitcoms. But it’s not a history of any of these things. Its inspiration is something even less durable: the jokes contained therein. How and when did we come to find anvils not only funny, but the truest test of the Earth’s gravitational pull? What is limburger cheese, that exemplar of stench? What is the difference — in fact, and in risibility — between a hobo and a bum?
This book, arranged alphabetically from “absentminded professors” to “zealots,” attempts to examine the hoary wheezes of another time, and it’s a delight. You might think that a comic investigation of “bindlesticks” (the balloon-shaped bundles hung on branches that runaway children and hobos take on the road) or “middle initials” sounds dreary, but when Miller, whose previous two books are the novels “Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects” and “The Cardboard Universe” (either of which would be a fine title for this book, too) is a brilliant writer, with a fondness for his own jokes and aphorisms: “Of course, even the most blameless euphemism will acquire connotations if it’s used enough,” he writes on the entry concerning “bosoms and breasts.” “That’s why euphemisms need to be replaced periodically, like air filters.”
The entry on “suicide” is particularly fine, with Miller charting suicide humor’s rise and fall. In a 1930 comic strip, Mickey Mouse tried to do away with himself with gas, a gun and gravity, and Miller tells us that “the first decade of the twentieth century was a heyday for jokes about small children taking their lives.” If that doesn’t sound funny, well, there’s a reason there’s not an “It’s a Grim World After All” ride at Disney World (even if some of us would go on it). The book is a strange side doorway to your memories of the cartoon, black-and-white movie, comic-strip, gag-gift world — all those things you laughed at without knowing why, exactly.
The material here is lowbrow (in no way an insult); its author is not. This is a book that compares a William Gass book to one by Mort Walker (creator of the comic strips “Beetle Bailey” and “Hi & Lois”) and, delightfully, finds the former wanting. (Walker’s splendid “The Lexicon of Comicana” was clearly an enormous influence on Miller.) He uses Rube Goldberg to plug Flann O’Brien. He observes that the act of defecation is acknowledged more among the highbrows than the low, “especially if the highbrow in question is Irish: like Swift, both Joyce and Beckett joked a lot about poop.”
DeleteIllustration a man rubbernecking from “American Cornball” by Christopher Miller. (Courtesy of Harper)
Indeed, perhaps the biggest difference between the highbrow and the lowbrow is not material, but the wishes of the highbrow to never be ephemeral, and the lowbrow’s resignation to that state. The authors of those naughty postcards with pictures of outhouses, portly gentlemen and ladies floating in the sea, men ogling pretty girls and the resulting “hat take” (Miller’s own term for a hat popping off a head in surprise) — never imagined their postcards would last the year, never mind find a place in this decades-later volume. Ephemera tells us the past was always more interesting and off-color than history class would let us think.
The book isn’t perfect. The librarian in me wished for a little less of the first-person Miller; the novelist in me wanted a little more. I found it puzzling just how many times Miller tells us in passing that he has never been married (at least five). On the other hand, there is the narrative that is at the heart of any single-author reference book, which is the story of a collector. Miller’s collections include joke postcards, artificial vomit and fake feces. It’s possible I am the only reader whose heart will sing at Miller’s fondness for synthetic ejectamenta, but I would happily have read more.
There are plenty of examples of obscure and fascinating things here — admirers of Foxy Grandpa can find him in these pages — but for well-known sources, Miller leans on his own loves a bit too hard. Of the great newspaper comic strips, he speaks mostly — and copiously — of the undeniably brilliant “Li’l Abner.” An Abbott and Costello aficionado — okay, me — might wonder why he mentions them only glancingly, when there are several places they would have been more germane than the Three Stooges, whom he trots out a tiresome amount, even for people who don’t find the Three Stooges tiresome.
What people laughed at in the past is not always pleasant or harmless (or even, as Faulkner might tell us, past), and Miller is careful to not expunge the hatefulness of some humor. There are separate entries for “Black people,” “Irishmen” and “Scotsmen,” but he missteps, I think, with “morons.” In that entry, he conflates stupidity with developmental disabilities and insists that comic fools such as Gomer Pyle, Krazy Kat and Barney Fife are representations of the intellectually disabled — whom he unhelpfully calls the “retarded” — offered up for laughter. The entry ends up feeling too self-righteous and too self-conscious: deadly in humor and in writing about humor.
DeleteStill, this is a book that can, in a single entry, track the history of flatulence in popular culture; tell us that Swift was the probable author of “The Benefit of Farting Explain’d” under the name Don Fartinhando Puffindorst; name-check the French music fart virtuoso Le Petomane by saying that his act in its heyday “would outgross Sarah Bernhardt”; discuss the disappearance of fart humor for much of 20th-century mainstream culture; explain that “Blazing Saddles” ‘did for flatulence what “Deep Throat” did for fellatio’; and end by revealing (to my happy edification) that describing a Bronx cheer as a “raspberry” is Cockney rhyming slang (raspberry “tart” for “fart”).
That is a perfect model of the narrowness of Miller’s focus and the broadness and mobility of his interests and knowledge. Not from the sublime to the ridiculous, perhaps, but sublimely ridiculous, and surely appealing to all brows, no matter their altitude.
McCracken’s latest book is “Thunderstruck & Other Stories.”
AMERICAN CORNBALL
A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny
By Christopher Miller
Harper. 530 pp. $35
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/american-cornball-a-laffopedic-guide-to-the-formerly-funny-by-christopher-miller/2014/12/15/582c92f2-7d6a-11e4-b821-503cc7efed9e_story.html
>>>Still, this is a book that can, in a single entry, track the history of flatulence in popular culture; tell us that Swift was the probable author of “The Benefit of Farting Explain’d” under the name Don Fartinhando Puffindorst<<<
DeleteSounds like it might be Swift, alright.
11 French injured in Dijon, yesterday
ReplyDelete10 French injured in Nantes, today
The French prosecutor for Dijon was satisfied that the driver was deranged, giving a new approach to viewing Islam.
"He's a person who shows major and existing psychiatric problems, since he went to a psychiatric facility 157 times between February 2001 and November 2014," she said.
This does give pause: who is crazy?
Katie Melua -kozmic blues
157 times is a lot of times.
Delete'Bout once a month.
Hell, that would drive anyone crazy.
The behavior of the French prosecutor begs the question, "Is Islamism a manifestation of insanity"? Given its literature and practice, wherever it plants its poisonous roots, it is certainly deviant.
DeleteWhile I have seen no reports, yet, on the Dijon vanssassin, I would hope after 157 psych consults he was not licensed to drive. Moreover, if he is insane, what in hell is he doing out on the streets of Dijon? It strikes me that the French are deranged.
According to the last report I saw, the prosecutor in Nantes is calling their aspiring van assassin a terrorist.
Joe Cocker has died.
ReplyDeleteThe Letter
DeleteAnother 'Triple A Attack' -- Allahu Akbar Attack
ReplyDeleteMan rams van into Christmas market in France, injures 10...
Third in as many days........Drudge
People are getting really really tired of these assholes.
What people, where, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson?
DeleteWhy should we care what tires those people?
People everywhere are also getting really really tired of you, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins.
DeleteYou should just say the shahada and 'come out of the closet' you self consumed piece of living lying human shit.
You know you want to, and everyone else here knows it too.
Yawn, just a Pro-forma reply
DeleteYawning is a mostly involuntary process and is usually triggered by sleepiness or fatigue.
DeleteIt is a very natural response to being tired.
http://www.healthline.com/symptom/excessive-yawning
Yup
Deleterat fatigue
It's a plague around here -
2.
an infectious, epidemic disease caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, characterized by fever, chills, and prostration, transmitted to humans from rats by means of the bites of fleas.
Compare bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, septicemic plague, rat plague.
A pestilence.
My link to my beloved Fox News seems to have been hacked by the Mormons from The Blaze.
ReplyDeleteWell, they're not so bad either, but their woman could show more leg.
“Your Police are being trained by the Israeli Army to defeat and control their enemy, and when your police come back, you become their enemy”
ReplyDelete— Eran Efrati — Israeli Army Whistleblower warns the American public in March 2014
https://medium.com/wake-up-act/why-are-londons-police-travelling-to-israel-cf15bb9b8848
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under fire after a report revealed one out of every three Israeli children lives in poverty.
ReplyDeleteThe findings of a poverty survey published by Israeli Humanitarian Aid Organization, Latet, showed that there are some 2.546 million poor people in Israel, including 932,000 children, Israel’s Jerusalem Post newspaper reported on Monday.
Based on the report’s findings, 65 percent of impoverished families had to give up on medicine or medical treatment for their children at some point in 2013, while more than one-third of poor children went to work in order to help their families, and, as such, some 30 percent of children dropped out of school last year.
In addition, some 32 percent of poor children were sent to orphanages in 2014, which shows a sharp rise compared to 2013.
The report revealed that one fourth of the children in Israel went to sleep hungry at least a few times every month, while 65 percent of the kids do not receive a hot meal at school.
"No child should go to sleep at night with a stomach inflamed with hunger. No elderly citizen should have to choose between heating and medication. Nobody should have to look for their next meal in a garbage can," chairman of Israel’s Labor Party Isaac Herzog said.
"While Netanyahu is busy scaring the public with external threats, he grew with his own hands a strategic internal threat with 2.5 million poor people. The fact that one in three children is poor constitutes a failing grade which echoes Netanyahu's economic policies. This situation cannot continue," Herzog added.
He also stated that the Israeli prime minister abandoned social sensitivity long ago.
Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli minister of military affairs, said in September that Israel spent more than USD 2.5 billion (1.9 billion euros) for 50 days of bombardment against the besieged Gaza Strip which started in early July and ended on August 26.
A report says 14 Americans and one Spanish national have funded a campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to retain his position at the head of the Likud party.
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Saturday that Netanyahu has raised nearly 539,000 shekels (over USD 137,000) during the campaign.
“The sum came from 15 donors, all of whom are from overseas. Fourteen are from the United States, while one is from Spain,” it said.
The donors included four members of the Miami-based Falic family and Kenneth Abramowitz, who heads the American Friends of Likud.
The report added that the premier’s rival in Likud, Danny Danon, has received more than 261,000 shekels (more than USD 66,000) from 11 donors. It said that 10 of the donors are living in the United States.
Jack has switched over to posting as Anonymous.
DeleteAn old, but well know trick of his.....
DeleteHe is trying to drive traffic. If ignored, he will go back to the pool in the mountain cave, longing for the ring.
Deletea favorite
DeleteA trick?
DeleteReally, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, no tricks are needed.
Driving traffic to where, how?
DeleteYour drivel does remain pedestrian
Why do you do it, then, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins.
DeleteYawn
Why do you do it, then, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins ?
DeleteSorry, forgot the question mark.
Yawn
Better go take a nap, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
DeleteTypo, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins.
DeleteThe first colour photographs of America
ReplyDeleteNew war in Gaza heats up...
ReplyDeleteCoca-Cola began construction on its first plant in Gaza on Monday, as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) allowed nine trucks with production equipment to enter the coastal enclave.
The factory, which will take three years to build at a cost of $20 million, will stand in the Karni industrial zone and is expected to initially employ 120 people, but eventually create 1,000 jobs, including those that sprout up indirectly around the factory.
This is the 1st time the world's largest open air prison will have 2 major soda bottling companies competing with the inmates for their cash.
And an amazing fact, all bottles to be used in the project had to be smuggled in the ass of Gaza's returning from KFC shopping trips on the Egyptian side of Rafah....
One young man commented "My ass is so sore from all the bottles and the trips", one time It's a bucket of chicken shoved up there, the next? An empty coke bottle, the bottles are not so bad, I am used to that, but those one liter plastic one really hurt..."
:-) cold
DeleteBillie Whitelaw
ReplyDeleteThe Leon Russell you may not remember
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/12/22/billionaire-harold-hamm-slashes-2015-drilling-on-low-oil-prices/2/
ReplyDeleteThe analysts at Bernstein Research figure that if oil were to stay at $65 per barrel for 2015, it would mean a 50% reduction in oil company cash flow and precipitate a 35% overall cut in capex. Bernstein doesn’t 2015 will be that bad, however. And neither does Hamm. “I still think this is a short term move,” he says. “This is the Saudis trying to cut the legs out from under people.”
Which people? If the Saudis are trying to take market share from the U.S. producers, why not just come out and say it? “There’s more going on,” says Hamm. He sees the Saudi move not to cut oil production not as an attack on American producers (the U.S. is Saudi’s protector after all) but more as a volley launched at its true religious and political rivals Iran and Russia. “This is about taking away capital,” says Hamm. “It’s their way of waging war.”
The Saudis should have plenty of cash reserves to see them through.
Deletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2014/12/22/israels-bank-leumi-settles-u-s-tax-charges-for-400m-gives-depositor-names/
ReplyDeleteThis represents the first time an Israeli bank has admitted to such criminal activity. Bank Leumi Group will pay $270 million in fines to the IRS and an addition $130 million to New York’s Department of Financial Services.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a conspiracy charge against the bank, but has agreed to defer prosecution for two years. Leumi has admitted that it put client money in tax havens and helped clients create false tax returns over a 10-year period. Bank Leumi admitted it helped clients hide assets under assumed names and numbered accounts, used loans to get access to undeclared money, and moved undeclared assets. The bank must hand over the names of more than 1,500 U.S. account holders and must help the U.S. in other investigations.
The Bank Leumi Group’s parent company is Bank Leumi le-Israel, B.M. In all, the bank has subsidiaries in seven countries and more than 13,000 employees. Other subsidiaries entering into the deferred prosecution agreement include The Bank Leumi le-Israel Trust Company Ltd.; Leumi Private Bank S.A., a Switzerland-based subsidiary; Bank Leumi (Luxembourg) S.A., a Luxembourg-based subsidiary; and Bank Leumi USA, a full-service commercial bank with offices in California, Florida, Illinois and New York.
Of the $270 million to be paid to the U.S., $157 million is a penalty for U.S. taxpayer accounts held at Leumi Private Bank in Switzerland. Bank Leumi Luxembourg and Leumi Private Bank must cease to provide banking and investment services for all accounts held or beneficially owned by U.S. taxpayers. According to the statement of facts, from 2000 - 2011, Bank Leumi helped U.S. clients conceal their assets offshore by:
surreptiously sending private bankers from Israel and elsewhere around the world to the United States to meet secretly with U.S. clients at hotels, parks and coffee shops to discuss their offshore account activity;
assisting U.S. clients in using nominee corporate entities created in Belize and other foreign jurisdictions to hide their undeclared accounts by concealing the U.S. client as the true beneficial owner of the account;
using the Bank Leumi le-Israel Trust Company as a nominee account holder for U.S. clients with accounts in Israel to conceal the U.S. client as the true beneficial owner of the account;
maintaining U.S. clients’ undeclared offshore accounts under assumed names or numbered accounts to conceal the U.S. client as the true beneficial owner of the account;
providing hold mail services so that correspondence and other account information would not go directly to the U.S. client to make it more difficult to connect the client to the secret offshore account;
extending loans to U.S. clients from Bank Leumi USA that were collateralized by the assets in those clients’ offshore accounts, so that the clients could leverage their offshore assets to obtain and use capital in the United States while keeping their foreign accounts secret and undetected from the U.S. government; and
after the department’s investigation into UBS and other Swiss banks’ criminal conduct in aiding U.S. taxpayers to evade their taxes became public, the Bank Leumi Group opened and maintained accounts for U.S. taxpayers who left UBS and other Swiss banks due to the investigation in an effort to continue to avoid detection by the U.S. government.
Aha, Fox News is in a financial dispute with its broadcaster.....
ReplyDeleteThus, the Mormons, Glenn Beck, The Blaze and the pants suited Ladies for the duration......
So you are with Dish TV, obviously ....
DeleteShould have gone with Direct, if you're a Fox fan.
More evidence that Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson lives in a 'different' world, one of ignorance and fear.
Well, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins, I didn't set the system here up so I wouldn't know.
DeleteNor do I really care, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins.
It's not a major issue in my life, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins.
I can always read Drudge, American Thinker, Hot Air, RCP, Jihad Watch, and Front Page, d. rat Jack "War Criminal, Dead Beat Dad, Self Confessed Moron, Professional Asshole and Anti-Semite, Racist and Liar" Hawkins.
Yawn
Better get to bed, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you are showing all the signs of an imminent collapse
Deletehttp://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/car-rampage-france-not-terrorist-act-prosecutor-20141223
ReplyDeleteCar rampage in France not a terrorist act: Prosecutor
Traffic ticket time, then?
DeleteInattentive driving.
DeleteThe French have lost control of their own country.
In Vino Veritas
ReplyDeleteSay what you will, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, tell any lie ...
It matters, not at all.
The truth about you, that we have from your own hand
BobSun Jun 22, 01:42:00 PM EDT
When did I ever say I was a scholar??
I don't recall saying that.
I have a college degree in English Lit. from U of Washington.
To avoid being drafted in part. ...