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, August 31, 2009

Keep things in Perspective.


Just some words to live by.

39 comments:

  1. There certainly are worse perspectives, aren't there? By his own admission, rufus's ass, for instance.



    It appears that tomorrow (though it's in release this evening and the Corner has it) George Will's indicating that he won't be going bowling with Stan McChrystal, Mike Mullen, and Dave Petraeus anytime soon, though he may be getting together with Buchanan for lunch.

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  2. McChrystal should invite George Will over for a "warm, soapy shower." A few more George Wills, and the good General might be able to escape that debacle with his honor, and "Career," intact.

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  3. A little dab of toothpaste (I prefer Tom's Spearmint) will take care of that unsightly pimple in no time, rufus. It's a little trick I learned from the Indians.

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  4. Aww, I'm Cherokee, and I never heard of sech thing.

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  5. The Mahicans, rufus. The Mahicans.

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  6. Trish, being connected with the more polite, Diplomatic Services, it may not be a big thing to you when people make a point of not capitalizing the name of your country

    (and, yes, he was saying, "America" did this, and "America" did that - Not, The USA did this, or the USA did that: in other words, he Was referring to the Country, and not the "Continent,")

    or, spelling it with a "k" as another of our erstwhile friends was wont to do;

    but, it Really Chaps my Ass.


    (Must be where the pimple came from.)

    And, as I pointed out, he had no trouble remembering to capitalize when the name "Israel" came up.

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  7. Rufus, What Is did indeed at some point in the recent past spell America with a 'k', as Rat himself took to doing for awhile.

    And I got in a lather over it.

    He didn't repeat it, though I'm sure it wasn't out of deference to my feelings. I believe he just thought twice about it.

    I don't think his failure to capitalize the other day was intentional, as he capitalized twice before that in the same post and it was probably a hurried one.

    (As intentional insults go, failure to capitalize would just be the goofiest and lamest damn thing anyway. Almost like adding an extra vowel. 'Did your handlers not give you the rundown on insult protocol before they sent you here?')

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  8. There.


    Are we all happy now?


    If so, I get a gold star from DOS. If I accumulate four in one month, I get a free coffee and ham sandwich from the cafeteria.

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  9. There was a movie in which the startled big-game hunter, just prior to having his head removed by the velociraptor, said, "Clever Girl!"

    ...priceless!

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  10. Well, you Want to give him the benefit of the doubt. You like him.

    I Don't. The failure to capitalize was just as insulting, and intentional as the "k."

    In the same riff, he capitalized Israel, and then, repeatedly started sentences with America spelled with a small a.

    It was passive-aggressive horseshit. And, he might be posting from inside the U.S. but, I do Not believe he is an American.

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  11. "You like him."

    My secret crush.

    Rufus, I just do not believe that he meant any insult by it. Whatsoever. I think generally that if one is in the mood to take offense, one will find reason to take offense.

    I say, if you're going for insult, go whole hog. Full bore. You know. Like mat's "Lady liberty is a whore." Something that will get the shit beat out of you by sailors on shore leave before they've even ordered their first round. But failure to capitalize? Give me a break, rufus.

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  12. We are not wired for long wars with nebulous goals and dubious allies. Americans like wars that are for vengeance, ruthless in execution and short in duration.

    When will politicians learn?

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  13. No gold star for me, I guess.

    Thanks a bunch, rufus.

    And here I gave you beauty advice gratis.

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  14. Funny Trish, reminds me of a warm Sunday in October on Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park in 1966.

    Seven or eight well lubricated US airman, fresh from Sunday services at a pub on Bayswater Road, watching two long haired American students unravelling an American flag and getting out the zippo.

    To the delight of the English crowd, a farm boy from Minnesota, in civies as was our orders, dryly asked one of the hippies how he planned to remove the flaming flag pole from his ass.

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  15. Well, Trish, "Lady Liberty is a Whore" is, in a strange way, sort of an American-type expletive.

    It's the kind of thing that would, likely, cause you to rear back, and say, "Why did you say that, Boss?" "What did they do to you, This Time?"

    It's a case of, you can get mad and "Insult" my Country (maybe) but you can't, derisively, "Diminish" my Country.

    You CAN NOT diminish it with a small "a." I have too much invested to let you do that.

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  16. "...unravelling an American flag and getting out the zippo."

    That'd definitely do it.

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  17. Feel like I'm wandering in some parallel universe.








    Here, rufus. Have a Bud Lite. And a tube of Tom's. Also the best dentifrice, if I might say so.

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  18. Tomorrow comes early. I must put my "big nose" to bed. When it's fully covered in the morning, I'm told it's hard to tell which end of me is which.

    Lawrence Edward Page
    Sergey Brin

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  19. heh, I'm part Cherokee, also.

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  20. Garrido, and his 54-year-old wife, Nancy Garrido, pleaded not guilty on Friday to a total of 29 charges related to the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard from her South Lake Tahoe, California neighborhood in June 1991.

    Dugard, now 29, was found after a parole officer for Garrido became suspicious, prompting a search of his home about 100 miles southwest of where she was abducted.

    During their search, police turned up a hidden backyard within the home's backyard, where police believe, Garrido housed Dugard and their two children, ages 11 and 15, in sheds and tents in squalid conditions.


    Probe Expands

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  21. Decliners were led by sea transport, warehouse, and iron and steel issues. Major gainers included insurance, precision machinery, and pulp and paper issues.

    Wall Street declined Monday after a sharp drop of nearly 7 percent in Shanghai stocks triggered concerns about the health of the world economy. While the Tokyo market on Monday had already priced in the Chinese plunge, investors are now watching for China's Purchasing Managers Index and Chinese stock moves later Tuesday, brokers said.

    Investors also fretted about continued weakness in the U.S. dollar, which was trading in the upper 92 yen range in the morning in Tokyo, as it erodes Japanese exporters' overseas profits when they are repatriated.


    China Stocks

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  22. Mike Spann, was the first to die in the GWOT. He won’t have to worry about the Holder/Obama GWCIA.

    But others in the Agency are very worried. While we sacrificed to achieve incremental victories, Holder and Obama plotted and schemed — not against those “evil-mongers” who killed our countrymen, but against those of us hunting the terrorists.

    Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The odor is not from Langley, Mr Holder.


    'At War' With Agency

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  23. Heads up to Sam---

    Wind turbine neighbors describe “hell on Earth”
    Low-level hum from wind turbines is sickening scores of Australians and driving many from their rural homes, according to ninemsn.com. Residents describe motion sickness, sleeplessness, irritability and other physical and psychological problems as a result of living near some of the 128 turbines. “It’s not renewable energy, it’s renewable misery,” said one neighbor. “It’s not a wind farm, it’s wind factory.” Wind developers said sound levels comply with government limits, but neighbors say the sound is too low frequency to be heard and is felt instead. http://tinyurl.com/windhell


    So that's Obama's wind energy plan.

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  24. heh, heh, I gotta luv a bar fight, a real good insult throwing wraslin' match with a small a and a big A at its heart. Heck, the small a and big A really weren't at its heart - we all know that. I was all set to throw some fuel on the fire but I didn't. How unlike me. Waassss up wit dat?

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  25. rufus said...
    Well, you Want to give him the benefit of the doubt. You like him.

    I Don't. The failure to capitalize was just as insulting, and intentional as the "k."

    In the same riff, he capitalized Israel, and then, repeatedly started sentences with America spelled with a small a.

    It was passive-aggressive horseshit. And, he might be posting from inside the U.S. but, I do Not believe he is an American




    Rufus...

    your a jackass....

    My usage of cap for America was me being LAZY for the 3rd time...

    My usage of Amerika was to INSULT ourselves that we are being taken OVER by an internal socialist regime that is SCARING the living crap out of me...

    My capping of Israel, if you took the time to read all of my posts is about 50/50...

    but your so hell bent on being a prick and/or a jew hater (israel hater) your blind to my typing STYLE...

    I proudly fly MY American Flag...

    I proudly say the pledge of allegance to our nation..

    I do not BURN our Flag....

    I do not disrespect it...

    I am a lazy typist, PERIOD....

    is any of this getting thru your hatred filled brain?

    I doubt it...

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  26. Mobile towers threatening honey bees in Kerala

    Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 31 (PTI) Mobile towers are posing a threat to honey bees in Kerala withe electromagnetic radiation from mobile towers and cell phones having the potential to kill worker bees that go out to collect nectar from flowers, says a study.

    A plunge in beehive population has been reported from different parts of Kerala and if measures are not taken to check mushrooming of mobile powers, bees could be wiped out from Kerala within a decade, environmentalist and Reader in Zoology, Dr Sainudeen Pattazhy says in his study.

    In one of his experiments he found that when a mobile phone was kept near a beehive it resulted in collapse of the colony in five to 10 days, with the worker bees failing to return home, leaving the hives with just queens, eggs and hive-bound immature bees.


    Here in Ideeho the cows don't give milk if they are near the cell phone towers, I'm told by those who should know.

    If I were a pregnant woman I wouldn't live near a cell phone tower. It's what happened to Ash, foul defacer of God's handiwork.

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  27. born 1960 in philadelphia

    made eagle scout 1976

    bought my 1st tony lama boots in 1974

    my grandparents arrived in 1918 thru ellis island

    and my blood runs red...

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  28. oh and as for trish liking me?

    i thought she hated me and put a boot in my ass for spelling America with a k...

    I think i will use "amerika" to describe the fascist take over of our nation by the chicago gang when it fits the shock value

    not caping otherwise?

    lazy typing

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  29. A misbegotten rough-hewn cell phone tower born clotpole! is Ash. There's no more faith in him than in a stewed prune.





    I'm beat, I'm headin' to bed.

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  30. Nite, Bob. Thanks for the tower heads-up. Haven't heard anything about that in the news down here. But then I never watch the local news. Only Fox.

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  31. Or the wind farm heads-up, I should say.

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  32. wi"o" is a sectarian, first and foremost. It is his primary loyalty, outside his immediate family.

    He belittles the country that defends him, constantly. He never offers an alternative that could be implemented, to solve his concerns.

    He thought posting a property made it a human hunting grounds. His is naively ignorant of the real world, outside the wire.

    As to the spelling of Ameri...

    To spell it with a "k" does send different messages. The one I intended, not the one perceived by the average reader. It is, because of that, I have not used it again. The message I was trying to convey was not the one that was delivered. So I found other ways to describe the Federal Socialist State that our government has evolved into.

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  33. Protester Teri Willis said she was there "because I love my country."

    She said her son is a Marine and she does not trust Obama to keep him safe.

    The tour's next stop is Flagstaff, Ariz.


    Big Government

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  34. Those agave plants are a wonder, grow really well, if watered just a little. Easily transplanted, we grew a fence of them at my brothers place.

    Became quite the obstacle.
    Another desert cacti that creates a dandy fence, the ocotillo. Planted a couple of feet apart, they grow and entwine themselves amongst themselves.

    But still, doug, switch grass or Sweet Sorghum are the plants that would be the most commercially viable, on marginal farm lands.

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  35. Francisco Alcazar, Patron's master distiller, said: "We are getting away from the idea that tequila is a cheap, mass-produced spirit to show the true tequila, made from the highest-quality agaves and with a taste that appeals to the sophisticated palate. This is a drink made to be enjoyed in the same manner as a good single malt.

    An oak-aged tequila can be justifiably compared in complexity with a fine whisky."

    Thomasina Miers, the Masterchef winner and broadcaster who set up the Wahaca Mexican restaurant in London, said: "The really good stuff not only tastes delicious when sipped before supper, or mixed in drinks, but it is a really great spirit to cook with. The sugars in the alcohol come from the blue agave cactus soaking the sun's rays for up to 12 years before the cactus is ready to be harvested, so you can look at tequila as sunshine distilled in a bottle."


    Spirit of Choice

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  36. Yeah, Bubba. I don't like Obama's Socialist/Communist/Anti-American policies I'm a "Racist."

    I don't like my money going for Crazies to build settlements on the West Bank, or for those that propose that to take my money with a gun, and then not even respect my country enough to Capitalize it in a sentence,

    so I'm a "Jew-Hater."

    Horseshit.

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