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."

Monday, November 13, 2006

Democratic Rodeo Days. Will Cut and Run Be The First Order of Business?

Rodeo Days at the Washington
National Finals Tour

Jan 15, 2006 thru Jan 15, 2008

George W. Bush, at the height of rodeo career,
riding his favorite cutting pony "High Numbers."


This will be the farewell tour of the circuit for two time all around National Champion, George W. Bush who is way behind in the points race going into the finals and looks as though he is in for the ride of his life as he struggles to stay on "Evil Doer."


A Bull Riders Thoughts
by Carrie Behrends

In the chute he is standing, ready in place,
With a look of hate in his eyes and across his face.
I straddle myself, my legs far apart,
And all I can hear is the sound of my heart.
Glove on tight; I’m all psyched out,
And in my mind I carry no doubt.
Bells under his belly, rope wrapped tight,
I know now that he’s ready to fight.
He stares at me as I pull my knees in,
And we both know only one of us will win.
I slide as forward as I can,
And suddenly its beast against man.
There is no time to think anymore,
Except about getting that perfect score.
One hand in the air and one on the rope,
My guts in knots and a lump in my throat.
My chin tucked in and my back up straight,
I’m looking good coming out of the gate.
My spurs aimed in, my toes pointed out,
I tighten my grip as he spins about.
And finally when that buzzer sounds,
I can’t wait for my feet to hit the ground.
There’s nothing like that rush inside,
When I know that I’ve won…
I’ve covered my ride.



Pelosi looked nice and calm as she was lead into the shoot, but we know from experience that this ol' girl has still got a lot of buck left in her and her eyes are beginning to roll and her nostrils are flaring.

According to the Roll Call article, Nancy Pelosi has thrown her support behind John Murtha for the Majority Leader position in the House.

It appears that when Ms Pelosi said last week that the Democrats would be "working with the President to solve Iraq," she meant one thing; Implementing Murtha's Redeployment Strategy,

The soft spoken, no veto cowboy from Crawford will have to show some real Texas grit if he hopes to ride "Iraq" to the buzzer. Will the 'ol Texan have the staying power to ride the bulls and the broncs to the Championship in the last go round? Or will he leave the
National Finals in Washington like many a bruised, and busted-up old timer before him? Poorer and wiser.




Here's a brief look at some of the more "colorful" wranglers and ropers of the next Democratically controlled House and Senate.


Representative John Conyers, Jr. Michigan. Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Represents Dearbornistan: On the Issues
Conyers has masterminded House Resolution 288, which condemns “religious intolerance” but clearly singles out Islam as needing special protection from such criticism. It states that “it should never be official policy of the United States Government to disparage the Quran, Islam, or any religion in any way, shape, or form,” and “calls upon local, State, and Federal authorities to work to prevent bias-motivated crimes and acts against all individuals, including those of the Islamic faith.” The bill was referred to the House subcommittee on the Constitution in June 2005, but Conyers, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, could rescue it from legislative oblivion.
Representative John Dingell, Currently the longest serving member of Congress, elected to the house 25 times. At the start of each session, offers a bill providing for national health insurance system. On the Issues.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), On the Issues
In 1987, Leahy resigned from his position as Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after an investigation into an alleged leak to a reporter regarding a non-classified draft report on the Committee's investigation into the Iran/Contra Scandal. [5]
Jay Nordlinger, wrote that he is the
The ‘Nastiest’ Democrat

Representative John Murtha Generally votes anti-abortion, voted against drilling in ANWR, against new refineries and for implementing Kyoto. Rated A+ by NRA. Liberal on immigration issues. Considered to be a "Tax and Spend" Democrat.

70 comments:

  1. O/T I guess I missed my nomination a couple of threads back not to be taken seriously.
    Lets see Trish made the nomination.Wiccan Creature(WC) seconded it, and might Ash turded it and proclaimed it passed.
    I can't begin to say how heartbroken I am that you three wouldn't hang on my every word. Very crushing.
    Trish, after all your trashing me but failing to address the issues. It hurts deeply that someone like that wouldn't read me.
    Water closet (WC). As I've said before you've been exposed as a fraud more time than a stripper in a cheap gin joint. Ash, you've been a running joke forever.
    But I will accept the honor, for it truly is that, coming from you three.
    Now eat your peas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rodeo, why watch this for real action
    Whiplash

    Ride Cossack Ride!

    Or this one, from habu's new home, home on the range.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rat:
    Those were Great!

    Shetland ponies, that's the ticket!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great Links, Rat; just great.

    Oh, Habu, I been gone, but I came to your defense a couple of links back.

    ReplyDelete
  5. threads back = links back

    ReplyDelete
  6. DR..
    Priceless dude..I did the milk out the nose for the first time in 30 years!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you Rufus.

    I just wonder if the shit started who most of the posters at BC and EB would throw in with....2164's gang or Wretchard's?
    I figure that Wrethchards got a good many human shields and we've got Possumtater and the rest of us.
    And now we're Shetland mobile..it don't get no better.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. One of the most astonishing things I've ever seen was when a beautiful little shetland stallion must have thrown a friend of mine (a fine athlete, and tough as a truckload of hickory knots) ten feet into the air and twenty feet as the crow flies.

    That little bastard could buck. I don't think anyone ever rode him. My friend's father raised shetlands.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Come to think of it, despite being one of the great "Dogs" of all time, I don't recall my buddy ever having kids.

    I'll give him this, he never cried (he was in his young teens, at the time,) but there was no doubt that he was in an amount and type of pain I prayed I'd never experiance.

    ReplyDelete
  11. If you can't ride them, what do you do with them?

    ReplyDelete
  12. The little mares were pretty easy to gentle, deuce; the man gave rides to kids at carnivals. Most of the stallions were breakable, too; but this little son of a bitch was just one of those magnificent little bastards that didn't wanna be ridden.

    Looked just like Trigger. I'm sure they just kept him for "stud." He WAS Beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am always amazed at how the horse has changed in different countries. Two countries come to mind Iceland and Costa Rica. They have very distinctive styles of trotting where their backs stay level.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Are you talking natural gaits, Deuce?

    ReplyDelete
  15. 2164th said:

    I am always amazed at how the horse has changed in different countries. Two countries come to mind Iceland and Costa Rica. They have very distinctive styles of trotting where their backs stay level.

    If it's an evolutionary thing, it works fast. Horses didn't get to Costa Rica until circa 1500 AD.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Like Missouri Foxtrotters, Peruvian Pasos, etc.

    What we've always refered to as "gaited" horses, in our neck of the woods.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Selective breeding does wonderful or ruinous things.

    In dogs, horses, just about all your mammals.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Back to the post, at hand. I don't think it's too hard to visualize that the actions that are being taken, now, by the EU, and our own voter in electing this bunch more or less guarantees a couple of hundred million dead Muslims.

    If you can visualize any other outcome that will result from nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, I, and, I'm sure, Habu, would like to hear it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I thought we were talkin' rodeo and breeding.

    Some being more selective than others.

    ReplyDelete
  20. T, my reading of, admittedly, anecdotal evidence convinces me that evolution does, indeed, work much faster than Scientists first supposed.

    ReplyDelete
  21. We are, Rat; Kinda.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Let's face it, the Huge "Buckin Bronco" in the room is Islam (particularly Jihadi Islam.) And, of course, to what extent Islam IS Jihadi Islam.

    We can dance around the subject all we wish, and sometimes I wish to piroutte, a lot, but That IS the Question of the Day.

    Are they so bred as to be "Uncivilizable?" Non PC thought, but, you know it's on everyone's mind.

    ReplyDelete
  23. habu,

    When next you are rudely accused of being inhuman and inhumane, think about this,

    "It may be that chimps and people ae the only species able to figure out that the extra effort required to exterminate an opponent will bring about a more permanent solution than letting him live to fight another day."
    ___Nicholas Wade
    "Before the Dawn"

    If a human is less intelligent than a chimp, does he know it?

    ReplyDelete
  24. You see, this whole Brouhaha is based on Dubya's theorum that all mankind desires "Freedom."

    BUT, It's a "Theorum." What if it's wrong? Can it be wrong?

    What's the evidence? Is it incontrovertible, either way?

    ReplyDelete
  25. It's not so much that I want 100-150 million dead Muslims. I think it's a situation that cannot be avoided unless free people want to forfeit their freedom. I don't think they do.
    It's also a situation where there is a clash of civilizations that has been going on and will forever go on, so the best we can do short of killing them all is to slow down their zeal to engage us.
    But I am a realist and somewhat knowledgeable of history. The direction we are headed now is toward a big killing field or dhimmitude or death.
    If they win I'll be one of the dead because I will not accept the coffle and yoke.
    When you ask the pacifists about the history of mankind and warfare they have no answer. It is the nature of man up to this time in his evolution that war is the norm, not the exception.
    So kill them before they kill you.
    Simple.

    ReplyDelete
  26. A year after the networks let their evening newscasts by championing Democratic Congressman John Murtha's anti-war views, the CBS Evening News on Monday night touted an “exclusive” interview with Murtha, whom anchor Katie Couric favorably described as “a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran” who was “long considered a hawk on defense issues” when he “stunned House colleagues by calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.” Though the news media trumpeted Murtha last November, Couric painted him as a victim as she reminded him of how “there was hell to pay, though, Congressman, for what you said.

    You were called a 'defeatocrat,' a 'liberal turncoat.' Senator John McCain said you had become too emotional, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said your comments were damaging to troop morale.”


    Murtha as Victim

    ReplyDelete
  27. It comes down to the species.

    My theory is this, if we and the muslims interbreed viable children would result.

    So the thing is, if they are the same species as us is this difference between us purely social? As in adaptive? Or is it truly a genetic difference that is too fine for the basic reproduction process to predict or prevent?

    Oh and another thing. the shetland pony ad was all well and good, but I notice that it was a european ad about the American west. Would AT&T run an ad that satirized oh say Cromwell here in the US? I don't think so.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Personally I think I'll make the Elysian fields.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yes, that's the question, Skip. A chihuahua and a wolf can, theoretically ( I think) interbreed. BUT . . . . ?

    ReplyDelete
  30. Species? I thought it came down to religion.

    ReplyDelete
  31. “Warfare is a bond that separates humans and chimps form all other species…And only two animal species are known to do so with a system of intense, male-initiated territorial aggression, including lethal raiding into neighboring communities in search of vulnerable enemies to attack and kill. Out of four thousand mammals and tem million or more other species, this suite of behaviors is known only among chimpanzees and humans.”
    ___Nicholas Wade

    ReplyDelete
  32. Maybe,not, Sam. Look, I'm getting into an area where I'm pretty ignorant, BUT; A Jew (from the Levant) and a Palestinian are pretty much kissing cousins, right?

    Question: If you took said Jew, and said Palestinian, and put them (in pairs) each to each, in a neutral (Christian?) environment how long would it be before they became indistinguishable? One Generation? Two Generations? Five? Ten? One hundred?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Allen,
    Mr. Wade's, "Before the Dawn" gives good advice. thanks for introducing it to me. I'll be adding it to my reading list.
    I don't want this to sound smug but I could in 99% of the cases care less about what others think of me. Maybe 97% And when it comes to the anti military or those that degrade or country you can raise that to 100%, and let me at 'em.
    Those who only know how to be critics are usually those who don't know WTF is going on.
    TR had this magnificent saying of which I'm sure you're familiar.
    The Man in the Arena. Scroll to second quote.
    Man in Arena

    ReplyDelete
  34. Then, let's get really cute. A Jew, and an Irishman.

    Can a culture, over time, actually lead to Genetic Differences?

    ReplyDelete
  35. I don't know. Just because you blend a couple of cultures together doesn't mean the end product will reject Islam. I mean we've got American and Australian Jihadi nutjobs already.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Was it Gates, speaking of his surrender, who said, "I have witnessed a new RACE of Man?"

    ReplyDelete
  37. The question I'm trying to ask is, "Has 1300 years of Islam created a new Race that is Genetically Disposed to all things Islamic?"

    That would be Conquest, Murder, Torture, Rape, Utter Obediance to Religion, etc.

    ARE THEY JUST "DIFFERENT?"

    ReplyDelete
  38. Actually, I think, Probably Not; but, it does make you wonder, sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  39. habu,

    I just enjoy the hell out of science rearing its ugly head, when pseudo-scientists and pseudo-philosophers insist on making H. sapiens what he is not. Violence, religion, language, the opposable thumb are some of the adaptations that make man, man. By the way, I do not believe that science and religion are mutually exclusive; rather, each represents a completely legitimate way of reconciling man and his environment. As with so many other things, ambivalence is the price paid for being a human being.

    ReplyDelete
  40. rufus,

    Arabs and Jews do not share a common genetic heritage.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Why are there so many great Indian Mathematicians, and why are they such lousy poker players? Why are the Russians the Masters of Chess, but, also terrible poker players? Out of a Billion Chinese you've got Johnny Chan, but the woods are full of Great Vietnamese poker players. Why did a platoon of American soldiers ALWAYS beat a platoon of German Soldiers?

    Why do, almost, all of the Top American Poker players have just a bit of Jewish Blood? Did you know that American Indian Blood course, in small amounts, through a lot of top poker players? Why is all that?

    ReplyDelete
  42. rufus,

    Traits both positive and negative can be bred into human beings. One of the reasons for the sexual taboos found in nearly every culture other than that of Muslims is to avoid the negative impacts of consanguination.

    For example, many behaviors I have noticed here in Georgia lead me to believe that the Levitical marital purity laws did not reach Georgia. Perhaps, the Archangel was on vacation that day. When the rule is that one’s son is also one’s half-first cousin, bad stuff adds up over time.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Allen, I mentioned the Palestinians, specifically. My impression was that the Levant Palestinians and Jews were closely aligned, genetically.

    I know this science is advancing rapidly, but isn't this still pretty much accepted?

    ReplyDelete
  44. When the rule is that one’s son is also one’s half-first cousin, bad stuff adds up over time.

    Sorry, I've had way too much Bud Light to follow this one.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Rufus,

    Switch to Tequila. It will all become clear.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Sam, you, obviously AIN'T NEVER SEEN ME ON TEQUILA!

    Trainwrecks are CLEAR! But, you Never want to be caught in the middle of one.

    ReplyDelete
  47. The genetic perspective is an interesting one, but lets not limit the discussion to DNA.

    The "genetic" is a model of how bits of information propagate according to the stringence of selective criteria.

    There's reproduction, selection and different rates of reproductive success.

    So they include DNA, yes. But they may also include pathways of neurons in the brain.

    For instance, infants' brains have a bazillion of connections, and the process of learning occurs as these bazillion connections are widdled down quite drastically, as only the pathways used much survive, so to speak. The ones that are just sorta hangin there get gobbled up and made into something new.

    Some people propose the "genetic" can be applied to ideas as well. Usually they take a Lockean view of the mind and those ideas are some super-organic phenomenon, wherein the mind is a simple vessel following some economic or idiosyncratic rules that can be understood as cultural objects first, and mind objects second. That is, the idea of the noble savage, untouched by any superfluous cultural objects, containing only pure mind objects.

    But we know there are inherent (DNA-produced) mind objects, such as those surrounding learning language, or the "moral grammar" alluded to be Aristides.

    The success of an idea must conceivably run the gamut of both mind objects and cultural objects.

    In Iraq, its hard to say which objects we tried changing or which objects we hedged against, knowing it would be hard to change. Perhaps it is in a kind of transition, as Michael Totten explains, his example being Algeria, where people are finally growing tired of the unrealized promise of Islamism, compounded by absurd oppression and bloodshed.

    Their cultural objects and mind objects were at war, until the absence of any rewards began to crush the veracity of them both. Perhaps man can only be at his most reasonable, when he has witnessed as survived great bloodshed, as happened to the Bostonians Liberals in the Civil War - a kind of philosophical selection driven by conflict & war itself.

    ReplyDelete
  48. "alluded to by Aristides"

    funny error though lol

    ReplyDelete
  49. Okay, Pab, but DNA changes, right? it's called Mutation. We, always assumed it happened at a slow, steady pace; but recent science leads us to believe it happens in spurts, in the course of generations, not multi-millenia.

    Maybe there really are things of this earth not dreamed of in Horatio's theories, or theologies.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Recent Science seems to suggest that DNA mutates sometimes rather quickly IN RESPONSE TO changes in environment. Can it be that small mutations have taken place in the DNA of Arabs, in just a millenia and a half, in response to their religion.

    Again, some scientists would say that this is possible.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Well, here's the thing that bugs me about that, but youre point is valid - I just want to be a bit nitpicky.

    Now, I cant speak to authority on this, but generally, it seems DNA and certain neurological "setups" or w/e aren't obviously correlated.

    The brain seems to undergo its own genetic selection and come to its own conclusions, with its own "spurts" in the course of its development. For instance, one of the most famous spurts is how kids rapidly "select" language.

    I imagine that its far more conceivable for selection for the traits you allude to exists in the brain rather than in the blood so to speak. Now, what's the difference? Well, it probably lies in what causes the given traits. If its in the blood, well, mutation or some anti-peaceful productive arab event occured and produced anti-peaceful productive arab selection. So only warlike unproductive arabs survived.

    But, it seems more obvious to me that the causation of this trait lies in the environment that each arab brain soaks up as it develops. The practice of MEMORIZING the quran may very well be an important part of this causation. And certainly all the factors championed by sympathizers contribute to the terrorist persuasion. And the easy explanations provided by Islamic authorities as well as the easy rewards provided by Islamic doctrine as well as the comfort and stability provided to males by Islamic praxis.

    You have to wonder, if this harmful trait is a neurological arrangement, what kind of agent can persuade it otherwise? Other than, of course, the ultimate resorts?

    ReplyDelete
  52. Pab, it makes sense that you're right. But, deep down, there's a little part of me that says, "I think you're wrong."

    ReplyDelete
  53. Then, maybe it goes back much farther than where I'm looking. Maybe, the Arabs weren't selected for for their religion; but, their religion was selected for for the Arabs.

    Perhaps a people living for millenia in such a harsh environment required a religion as harsh as they were.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Perhaps a people living for millenia in such a harsh environment required a religion as harsh as they were.

    That's gold, Rufus. I like that alot.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Damn this is an interesting thread.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Well, I'm afraid that millions of them are going to have to die - probably in the range of tens, if not, hundreds of millions. An Iranian Bomb will likely seal their fate.

    Here's to Tony Blair; let's hope he's right. I'm afraid he's wrong. It sounds a lot like the next verse of "peace in our (immediate, if not sooner,) time."

    I hate to be so crude as to say, "Old Darwin, he's done it, again," but, well, . . . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  57. I only hope that there is someone in Iran with the power and the motivation to overthrow the insane group leading the country. There is probably a better chance of C4 showing up for a debate.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Or,

    The Road to Serfdom

    showing up on the Fidel's Recommended Reading List.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Allen, it's simple; they did not marry their cousins. Any questions?

    ReplyDelete
  60. rufus,

    re: religion

    Definitely drink a lot more Bud Lite! You have hit the bull's eye.

    Religion is extremely old. It is also universal. As a personal thought, I think any religion must answer three questions: 1)Who am I? 2) What is the purpose of my life. 3) What follows this life. All religions provide the rules which make it possible for groups of human beings larger in number than 50-100 to function in relative peace.

    Specific religious practices and beliefs are not universal, but vary from culture to culture. For instance, actual human sacrifice and cannabilism were common practices in most cultures but were symbolic in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Allen, From your link:

    "The people closest to the Jews from a genetic point of view may be the Kurds, according to results of a new study at the Hebrew University. Scientists who participated in the research said the findings seem to indicate both peoples had common ancestors who lived in the northern half of the fertile crescent, where northern Iraq and Turkey are today. Some of them, it is assumed, wandered south in pre-historic times and settled on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Professor Ariella Oppenheim and Dr. Marina Feirman [sic: Faerman], who carried out the research at the Hebrew University, said they were surprised to find a closer genetic connection between the Jews and the populations of the fertile crescent than between the Jews and their Arab neighbors... The present study, however, involved more detailed and thorough examinations than previous research. In addition, this was the first comparison of the DNA of Jews and Kurds... The study's findings are published in the current issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics. The researchers used the DNA of 1,847 Jewish men of Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Kurdish descent; Muslims and Christians of Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian descent; various Arab populations; and Russians, Poles and residents of Belarus."

    ReplyDelete
  62. Other parts of that link reinforced my contention that there is a pretty strong connection between the Levant Palestinians, and the Sephardic Jews of the region.

    Look, this is about my 37th beer; this is about as good as I can do. BUT, the next time you see a Kurd, you might want to break out the "secret handshake;" he might throw it right back at you.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Fuck Richard Haas, whoever in hell he is, and fuck Der Spiegel. Did I miss anybody? Oh, fuck all the Hitler-loving Germans, too.

    ReplyDelete
  64. I guess, I had better save my controversial links for when Rufus is having his coffee.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Whit, I did my chore, thanks for the info.

    ReplyDelete
  66. ppab wrote:

    But, it seems more obvious to me that the causation of this trait lies in the environment that each arab brain soaks up as it develops.

    Imagine what this poor kid is soaking up.

    ReplyDelete
  67. There were two things
    That I loved most
    Good fillies and young women.
    When I die I hope they tan
    This old hide of mine and make it
    Into a fine ladies saddle, so
    I can take my rest betwixt the
    Two places that I love best...

    On A Cowboys Tombstone

    ReplyDelete