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, October 19, 2011

Don't Screw with Screwy Joe Biden




“I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!”

33 comments:

  1. Crazy Joe - Invented for Politics

    Or, maybe politics was invented for "Crazy Joe." :)

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  2. Just think, the Republicans could have Vice President "Crazy Herm."

    That would be a ticket worth buying. :)

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  3. The Chicago Sun-Times’s Laura Washington revived a perennial non-story this week, in a column speculating that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might replace Vice President Joe Biden. It’s a numbers game: Washington thinks Clinton could energize her old feminist base and shore up President Obama’s standing with women next year.

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  4. Romney has sought throughout the campaign to bolster his bona fides with the right. However, Perry was clearly aiming to stir those doubts about his rival as he introduced himself to the debate audience as “an authentic conservative, not a conservative of convenience.”

    Perry was asked if he would repudiate the remarks of the Rev. Robert Jeffress, who called Romney’s religion, Mormonism, a cult after introducing Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington earlier this month. Perry said he disagreed with Jeffress’s views, but Romney added that it was something else Jeffress had said that was most disturbing to him — that to choose a president, voters must first “inspect his religion.”

    “It was that principle, Governor, that I wanted you to be able to say, ‘No, no, that’s wrong, Reverend Jeffress,’ ” Romney said.

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  5. Clinton arrived at the elaborately tiled Omani palace Wednesday morning, a day after meeting with leaders of Libya’s transitional government in Tripoli, and spoke privately with the silver-haired sultan.

    Oman, a member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, traditionally maintains good relations with Iran and has helped mediate conflicts with the Islamic Republic in the past. Omani officials interceded with Iranian leaders last year to secure the release of American hiker Sarah Shourd, and were influential last month in persuading Iran to free Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer.

    ...

    Said the senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in keeping with diplomatic protocol: “We hope the Omanis will use their relations with Iran, as they have in the past, to help the Iranians understand the risks of what they’re doing.”

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  6. * Mitt and Rick, not BFF: Before last night’s debate, most of the skirmishing between the former Massachusetts governor and the Texas governor was at the staff level. No longer.

    ...

    * Perry — not dead yet : Perry’s performance was somewhat uneven — he was terrific in the earlier part of the debate and less so as it wore on — but overall it was by far his best showing. Perry actually seemed like he wanted to be there; he was energetic and feisty.

    ...

    * Health care still matters: Romney had largely avoided an in-depth discussion/critique of his Massachusetts health care plan in the debate prior to last night. But, when former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum went on the attack against the law, it served as a potent reminder of how potentially damaging it remains for Romney.

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  7. Speaking of Libya: It's pumping a little oil now. So far, all the oil it's exported has gone straight to

    China.

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  8. Rufus: Scientists hope to create Robot Strawberry Pickers.

    Ooo, lots of nice juicy failure modes for one of those, I'd like to see the prints and get a head start working up a repair procedure.

    Speaking of Libya: It's pumping a little oil now. So far, all the oil it's exported has gone straight to. . . China.

    That oil is totally fungible is another classic Oil Drum canard, except when Peakers themselves forget it.

    "Washington thinks Clinton could energize her old feminist base and shore up President Obama’s standing with women next year."

    The "gender gap" closed during last year’s midterm elections, with women favoring Republicans 49-48, and it's only gotten better since.

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  9. T, are you sure that word "canard" means what you think it means?

    All agricultural crops will, eventually, be picked by machine.

    In the U.S., anyway.

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  10. Rufus II said... T, are you sure that word "canard" means what you think it means?

    "The term Canard refers to a tactic used by a parent duck to deceptively draw a predator away from its offspring or nest by quacking and feigning a broken wing."

    We're crossing through peak demand.

    SEP 12, 2011: In a monthly report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said it expected demand growth to drop to 1.1 million barrels per day -- 150,000 barrels per day fewer than its earlier forecasts.

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  11. In the year before the suicide, Madoff's daughter-in-law Stephanie Madoff Mack wrote in her upcoming book that her husband was distraught over the $64 billion Ponzi scheme -- the biggest in US history -- that his father Bernie had pleaded guilty to running.

    ...

    Mack also recalls telling Mark's mother Ruth that she no longer wanted to see or hear from her again.

    "I do still think of Ruth often," she said. "I don't regret my decision to honor Mark's wishes and cut her off, but I wonder it I will ever face her again.

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  12. The two key words there, T, being "demand growth."

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  13. .

    Fans of Nobel Laureates Riot in Scotland

    STOCKHOLM—The annual announcement of Nobel Prize winners was once again marred by vandalism this year, with triumphant fans of the 2011 laureates mobbing Stockholm streets last week, breaking shop windows and setting bonfires as they celebrated remarkable achievements in economics, physics, medicine, and other disciplines.

    "Fuck yeah, rapidly solidified alloys shown by means of electron diffraction to possess icosahedral symmetry—a little phenomenon known as quasicrystallinity, bitches!" said one chemistry fan who helped overturn a parked car as a mob chanted the name of prizewinner Daniel Shechtman. "Number one, motherfuckers!"

    Nobel officials said this year's rioting is Stockholm's worst since 1971, when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's prize for literature sparked three days of bloody unrest that left 19 dead.


    .

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  14. Demand, of course, IS a function of "price."

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  15. Quirk's week is complete. A new copy of "The Onion" has hit the newsstands,. :)

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  16. Either that, or Quirk's day job Is writing for the onlion.

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  17. .

    New York, NY (October 17, 2011) - In a dramatic turn for the 2012 presidential race, comatose former congressman John Clarkson (http://www.facebook.com/JohnClarkson2012) threw his hat into the ring for the Republican nomination today, and early polls show the immobile, bedridden candidate already ahead of his competition.

    Clarkson, who has been in a coma since 2003, has a four-point lead over previous frontrunner Mitt Romney among likely voters according to an Onion News Network poll. Surveys indicate that while Clarkson cannot move or speak, many see him as "more likable" than Romney...



    Man in Coma Enters GOP Race. Already Polling Ahead of Romney

    .

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  18. .

    Damn that didn't last long.


    Comatose John Clarkson Drops Out Of GOP Race Due To Sex Scandal

    John Clarkson, the unconscious GOP frontrunner, was forced to drop out of the race after he was caught receiving oral sex from a very unattractive nurse.

    .

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  19. Wed Oct 19, 10:04:00 PM EDT

    I hate it when that happens.

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  20. Poor old Clarkson:
    He should have insisted on a bag with a hole in it.

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  21. Blogger Rufus II said...

    Speaking of Libya: It's pumping a little oil now. So far, all the oil it's exported has gone straight to

    China.




    ummmmm, riiight. It was written by rufus therefore it must be so...

    ...is it?

    You've spewed so much BS in the past rufus I have no confidence that statement by you is at all true. Given that the French were in Libya up to their eyeballs before the war why should one expect that any new shipments went to China? I guess if Rufus said it was so it must be!

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  22. Reminds me of this crazy story in San Luis Obispo back when we lived there:
    A gynecologist that was pissed off at his ex-wife got her twat sewed up so tight that she couldn't have sex!

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  23. "I guess if Rufus said it was so it must be!"

    If it has anything to do with oil, ethanol or their relationship to the major issues of the day, you're damned right!

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  24. If Rabbi Daniel Lapin posted links to his site on the Elephant Bar, would that be kosher Spam?

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  25. Makes the old Dude's hair stand on end!

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  26. Dude's name is "Lucky Kaʻahumanu"

    Probly claims ancestry to include Queen Kaʻahumanu, who married her third cousin Kamehameha, who became king shit, ruthlessly conquering all the islands.
    ...in case you're interested:


    Kaʻahumanu was born in a cave called Puʻu kauiki in Hāna on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. Her father was Keʻeaumoku Papaʻiahiahi, a fugitive aliʻi (noble) from the island of Hawaiʻi, and her mother was Namahana'i'Kaleleokalani, the wife of her half-brother the late king of Maui, Kamehameha Nui. From her mother she was related to many kings of Maui. From her father, she was the third cousin of Kamehameha I, both sharing the common ancestor, Princess Kalanikauleleiwi. She was named after her fathers rival, Kahekilinuiʻahumanu because it was from him that her father was fleeing from at the time. Her name translates as the feathered mantle.

    Her siblings include Governor John Adams Kuakini of Hawaiʻi island, Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie,and Governor George Keʻeaumoku II of Maui. Her father became an advisor and friend to Kamehameha I, eventually becoming royal governor of Maui. He arranged for Kaʻahumanu to marry him when she was thirteen. Kamehameha had numerous wives but Kaʻahumanu would become his favorite and encouraged his war to unify the islands.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka%CA%BBahumanu

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  27. Wife says "hair" is part of his hat.
    oh well...

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  28. I don't think Joe Biden has been given nearly enough credit for the new level of stupidity he has brought to the office of Vice President. He is a moron of truly epic proportions. I only hope he keeps talking. He isn't funny, he is dangerous, as are the rest of this Administration. His rhetoric is disgusting, telling 4th graders that the reason they are getting a lousy education is because the Republicans are stopping Teachers from getting more blackmail money from the Taxpayers, and suggesting that if the jobs bill isn't passed, Police will not respond to potential rapes. The only group raping anyone, the only group holding our children down with Union-tethered teachers, is the Democratic Party. It seems they are pulling out all the stops now, in their effort to destroy this Country. Biden is a sick, pathetic pawn in the Obama Administrations agenda. Between Biden and Obama's inability to keep his mouth shut, it should be pretty easy to take the White House away from these keystone cops.

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  29. Get a grip people.

    These people are dregs from the asylum..

    There is less chance of these utterly corrupted and discredited clowns Biden and Obama fixing anything that than there is of my cat winning the lottery.

    First and foremost, what needs to done is take these idiots back to the asylum.They represenr an America that is not united.

    One thing is for sure these two swines have really messed this country up.

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