Friday, May 29, 2009

I go away for a few days...

...and suddenly the entire world goes mad.

Well, in truth, it was mad to begin with. But you have to step outside of blogland to see just how nutty it is.

I mean, can you believe the sheer ugliness of the "arguments" against Sotomayor? Dig:
This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs’ feet with chickpeas — would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench.

Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee for Justice, a conservative-leaning advocacy group, said he wasn’t certain whether Sotomayor had claimed her palate would color her view of legal facts but he said that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee clearly touts her subjective approach to the law.

“It’s pretty disturbing,” said Levey.
And then we have this piece in National Review, which insists that the Spanish pronunciation of the name Sotomayor is "unnatural." Idiotically, the writer of that article dares to buttress his argument by bringing up the late Cathy Seipp. I knew Cathy back in college, and I can assure you that anyone who insisted on calling her Seep would have met with a volcanic response.

If these nonsensical anti-Sotomayor arguments do not constitute an appeal to racism, what does? What we are seeing here is not the pseudo-"racism" of the 2008 primary campaign, in which words were warped and meanings mangled and phonemes phragged by fanatics intent on reading invisible bigotries into innocent statements uttered by Bill or Hillary Clinton. No, this ain't that. Now we see what the real stuff looks like.

At this point, the Republican party should be looking for new blood. They should fish for converts among the disillusioned Dems betrayed by the primary battles. Instead, conservative snipers have reminded Clinton partisans of all the reasons why Republicanism is not an option.

At the same time, the Obots have chosen to remind us why the current manifestation of the Democratic party is also an unappealing option.

As all Drudge aficionados must know by now, Brenda Lee -- a bizarre self-proclaimed "Roman Catholic priestess" -- was roughly escorted away by the Secret Service after she tried to hand Barack Obama a piece of anti-gay marriage literature. Lee is a black woman. So is left-wing anti-Obama writer Cinie. Thus, our friends at Democratic Underground concluded that Lee and Cinie must be identical.

Hey, how many black women could there possibly be?

And never mind the fact that Cinie's most recent post uses heavy sarcasm to slam anyone who uses the Bible to justify an anti-gay position. You don't need to be a specialist in linguistics to understand that Brenda's plain see-Spot-run writing style bears no resemblance to Cinie's infectiously baroque way of wordsmithing.

The world is mad. Mad.

At least, blogworld is mad. Nevertheless, I am returning to it.

In case you are curious, my brief recess was devoted to the earning of lucre. There may be another brief recess after June 1, although I will probably find some way to blog from the library. (This site was born in a library.)

Once again, I want to thank all those who donated, and I will thank you all personally as soon as my real life calms down a bit.

By the way: At the time I knew Cathy Seipp socially, my mother was dying of lung cancer. I never would have guessed that Cathy, who did not smoke, would one day face the same foe. Before her death in 2007, Cathy wrote about the strange increase in lung cancer cases among non-smokers.

One possible culprit may be the American diet, which leads to severe heartburn, which leads to gastric reflux backing into the esophagus and lungs. I -- a-hem! -- have some experience of this.

Reflux can cause both adult-onset asthma and lung cancer. Actually -- and most do not realize this -- cancers are caused not by stomach acids but by bile, which comes from the liver and is alkaline. Stomach acids counteract this bile. Thus, the antacids we take to relieve heartburn may actually increase cancer risk.

When reflux seeps (not seipps) into the lungs, you wake up coughing violently, and your torched lungs make you feel as though you just escaped from the battle of Ypres. Since you have to spend the next hour or two upright, there's nothing for it but to get up and blog. (The time stamp of this very post may now be less mysterious to you.)

Although I doubt that reflux played a role in Cathy's cancer -- surely, she was too intelligent to maintain anything like my own abominable eating habits -- I do hope that more people understand that not all lung cancers originate in tobacco use. If only the bank bailout money could have been spent on cancer research...

Turning worm watch: This DU-er decries the Democratic party's betrayal of the left -- without once denouncing Obama by name. This guy -- who published some very ugly crap about the Clintons during the campaign -- now seems furious at Obama for the continuing Abu Ghraib photo cover-up. He references this piece by Larisa Alexandrovna, who talks about the homosexual rape of an underaged captive while Americans filmed.

Larisa does not mention (as I have) that the accused rapist's name is Adel Nakhla, and that he works for the ever-mysterious Titan corporation. If she starts writing about Titan, I'll be very impressed.

Larisa's commenters are calling Obama a "war criminal."

I broke off all relations with that woman in 2008, after she joined the Obot cult and allowed anti-Hillary calumnies to pepper her site. Of course, she will fervently deny that she ever was a cultist. She always has and always will.

I wish to hell that these people would just be honest about what they did. I wish that they would 'fess up to the role they played in foisting this nightmarish presidency on the world. I wish to hell that they would apologize.

25 comments:

Unknown said...

It is particularly infuriating when supporters of Hillary Clinton recycle right wing lies in the same way that the "progressives" did with attacks on the Clintons--claims like "60%" reversal rate (4 or 5 reversals of the more than 300 cases in which she wrote an opinion on behalf of the majority members of a panel, lack of judicial temperament (read "not ladylike"), racist (do they think that the decisions of old white men are not informed by their life experiences?) and pandering to Hispanics (Are these the same people who argued that "It is time for a woman president"?)

Every time that I read one these posts I worry about how bad they make Hillary supporters look.

Unknown said...

I'm not used to posting and I left out a parenthesis after the word "panel" and the words "on which she sat, and attacking a decision opinions"

DancingOpossum said...

That's pretty funny, an Obot complaining about Clinton supporters recycling right wing lies. Were you asleep during the primaries, or just high on your special Kool-Aid-and-Hope bong? How do you like the way Obama rushed to the defense of his SCOTUS nominee, blasting these sexist and racist attacks? Oh, he didn't? Well I'm sure he'll get around to it one day.

"I worry about how bad they make Hillary supporters look."

Your concern is duly noted.

The Raving Badger said...

Judy, not all of us do. In fact, most of us don't. The Messiah still sucks. It's not like we have to lie about it.

As for the DU'ers and Kossacks, etc. who will lie to their dying day about their fuck up in selecting the teleprompter prez, I can only hope they get ass cancer.

They tore apart our party... cheated democracy and dumped our once shared values. And all of that because they didn't get their way for 8 years and wanted to be cool kids like Josh and Arianna and Anderson.

Boo fricking hoo.

(Am I sober yet????)

Joseph Cannon said...

judy may be right on this. I haven't seen those comments on pro-Hillary blogs, but I've been out of commission for the past few days. I have NOT seen those comments on the Confluence or Corrente. But I would not put much past the No Quarter crowd.

By the way, did you see the latest on NQ? SusanUnPC pushes the usual reactionary line that the gummint can't run anything right, and -- as usual -- she proves the point by citing the post office. I happen to think that our postal system is pretty good. Other countries may have arguably better service, but when you compare the price of postage...

gary said...

Anyone who thought that Obama was the left "Messiah" should apologize for being so stupid. I am all in favor of criticism of Obama from the left on Gitmo, on ending "don't ask, don't tell (why not now?), on arguing state secrets privilege, on whatever. Clearly he's not the radical Sean Hannity warned us against. Neither was Hillary Clinton. Obama positioned himself as slightly to the left of Clinton. Whether he is or not remains to be seen. Not that I think the farther left the better, I am a moderate liberal, and purist ideological leftwingers make me nuts. Nor do I think Hillary would have dismantled the national security state.

As for lingering resentments from the campaign, there's no excuse for bad behavior, and anyone, anonymous or otherwise, who engaged in it should apologize, and anyone with hurt feelings from any of it should get over it.

By the way Joseph, have you read "JFK and the Unspeakable" by James Douglass? If you haven't you really should. I've read it twice now. JFK was a "liberal" (somewhere there's a proud defense of that term by him) but of a moderate sort, he took plenty of criticism from his left, and he was tied to some very cold war thinking that almost brought the world to the brink of destruction, and then he "turned", he changed and was killed for it. Whether Barack Obama will turn remains to be seen.

So you go on criticing Obama, but please for his present and future behavior as President, not for things that he or his followers, much less anonymous commenters on blogs, did during a campaign that is over and done with. Some of those anonymous comments, that you carefully documented and linked to, were deplorable to be sure. But even then they were outnumbered by responsible comments. I know this because I clicked on your links and read all the comments on more than one occasion. And it's not like you didn't go too far in reaction. I could go back and selectively cull quotes from Cannonfire that would make you look crazy as hell. (Although you are a much better writer than me, I could perhaps offer you one note on style: the use of repetition, combined with ALL CAPS and BOLD and multiple exclamation points, really doesn't make your argument more convincing).

But past is past, and your blog continues to be entertaining and occasionally informative. I still read it and so I have added it back to my links.

As for internet access, do you have a laptop? I am a computer moron but I understand that there are locations where one can find free wireless internet access. Starbucks and some McDonalds I think.

Unknown said...

Huh! Me an Obot? Not hardly!

You have to understand that Hillary supporters are not immune from criticism and it is extremely tiresome to see the knee-jerk reaction of calling everyone who tries to set the record straight an Obot.

In 44 years of voting, I have never ever voted for a Republican in a national election but this time I voted for McCain. When I did that I was hoping against hope that the Democrats would have the backbone to block any right wing appointment like Roberts and Alito.

Judge Sotomayor was not my first (or even 5th) choice but I think that she is acceptable. As a lesbian lawyer, I was hoping for Kathleen Sullivan, who, I think, has the best qualifications of everyone mentioned and just happens to be openly gay.

There are plenty of reasons why Obama should never have been elected in the first place and almost everything he has done so far validates the judgment of those of us who opposed him. We don't need to resort to attacks that have no basis.

Anonymous said...

Does Judy have some citations for her allegation? I've seen that "60% reversal rate" thing pop up on some winger blogs, but I haven't seen any supporters of Hillary Clinton repeating that crap other than to refute it.

The correct numbers are:

380 opinions authored by Sotomayor

5 reviewed

3 reversed

.08% reversal rate

Perry Logan said...

Amen, Raving Badger. I feel the same way.

You could hear the Democratic Party's spine snap when Obama's supporters started shouting "racist!"

Fool that I am, I'm now going around reminding progressives of what went down during the primaries, taking time to point out that hardcore Obama supporters are misogynists, Philistines, and cheats.

Unknown said...

I hadn't seen your last post before I posted again but the remarks I was criticizing were the posts of people commenting on a blog article. I can't now identify the particular pro-Hillary blogs involved because I regularly read almost all of the major ones.

By the way, not to suck up, but this is the blog that I click on first because you usually have something interesting and provocative to say.

SN in MN said...

You know... you're pretty tough on the zionists, but La Raza is OK by you? She's a racist.

Anonymous said...

Joseph, these outwardly sexist and racist comments I've heard about Sotomayor have given me much pause these past few days. What really bothers me is this attitude or precedent that was established by the Obots that's its ok to use racism to justify their feelings (just like some Republicans do), and now it's backfiring on them bigtime. I am surprised by the people I hear using it now to justify their anger. It's like a big kettle of explosives that once the Obots added to it, it's about to explode!

judy -- I would be careful to blame Hillary supporters of recycling right wing lies when Obie and his supporters did it and continue to do so in spades.

From the one thing I have heard about Sotomayor that does make sense to me is she revealed the dirty white lie concerning the Sup Court justices that they do carry their life experiences and make law based on that; although she upped it with she has a type of superiority in the application of her experiences. That is probably the one thing that shows me she lacks restraint.

Gary McGowan said...

Much of the "madness" in the world is intentionally created. This is well-documented, but putting it in a form palatable to the victims of the brainscrubbing and endless wash/rinse cycles is a swimming upstream kinda effort.

Turning off and throwing away the #!*-*$ TV can be a big help, as can extended time spent in undeveloped areas of the world--won't make you a good writer or speaker, but sure helps clean lots of the propaganda pollution out.

"One of the main techniques for breaking morale through a 'strategy of terror' consists in exactly this tactic—keep the person hazy as to where he stands and just what he may expect. ... together with the spreading of contradictory news, make the cognitive structure of this situation utterly unclear, then the individual may cease to know when a particular plan would lead toward or away from his goal. Under these conditions, even those individuals who have definite goals and are ready to take risks will be paralyzed with severe inner conflicts in regard to what to do."

- Kurt Lewin, Time Perspective and Morale [not irrelevant]

Want sanity? http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/26/antonia_juhasz_on_the_true_cost

EXCELLENT interview with very competent and committed Antonia Juhasz on “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report”... Way better than that sounds... a hundred of these intelligent, moral, SANE women in the federal government and we would kick the asses of the scumbags from here to kingdom come.

There is actually a fair bit of sanity in the world, but in cartel-provided entertainment "news" and in the Congress and among Obama's chief "advisors," and in much of political blogland, not so much.

Anonymous said...

when supporters of Hillary Clinton recycle right wing lies I've not seen this at any of the blogs I read, but as Joe notes, there are some blogs with HRC supporters that sound as every bit as crazy as the wingers. I've stepped away from those places.

Sites like The Confluence, Corrente, and Reclusive Leftist are examining her record and are skeptical, to say the least, of her commitment to civil liberties, choice, and what appears to be a willingness to defer to authority.

Anonymous said...

La Raza is the Hispanic equivalent of the NAACP. The idea that they are a racist group is a wingnut lie.

Anonymous said...

Rachel Maddow: Sotomayor-haters & racists (Republicans) get their daily spanking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM9lNL09y5c&eurl

Wow, that Newt and his boyz have been very busy...this week.

Edgeoforever said...

I hope you did realize that Cinie was sarcastic?

Sextus Propertius said...

"judy may be right on this. I haven't seen those comments on pro-Hillary blogs, but I've been out of commission for the past few days. I have NOT seen those comments on the Confluence or Corrente. But I would not put much past the No Quarter crowd."


Actually, Larry has been extremely critical of the right-wing attacks on Sotomayor, damning them as both racist and sexist. He has also been extremely critical of Cheney.

Just Me said...

As to the pronunciation thing, I have no problem accepting anyone's desired pronunciation of their name.

However, I have great respect for the difference in vowel usage re American English versus basically all other Germanic languages. Same true for Romance languages.

To overly simplify, and realizing there can be exceptions or variables, We (American English speakers) are the only ones who pronounce vowels contrary to all others, even the Btits when it comes to elements of A

We use AEIOU as others do, but we pronounce as A as in ace, E as in eat, I as in ice, O as in old, and U as in use.

Other Germanic and Romance languages use A as in ah, E as a long A, I as a long E, O the same, U as in Sue.

Adding in the umlauts and tildes of course equals more variance. AE becomes an umlaut A, which converts it to a long A for instance. OE becomes a sound I cannot write phonetically, possibly "uewrr" comes close.

As Joe once correctly stated, " in German , when I and E go walking, the one one the right does the talking". AI or AY become long I.

The same is basically true for Spanish. Certainly in the case of Sotomayor. The AY becomes a long I, hence "Sotomior".

Sorry for all of this, not very well expressed, too much info, yet not concise, and too verbose.

However, hope it makes a bit of sense, and points out how the uniqueness of American English vowels contributes to our often realized difficulty in understanding and pronouncing various "foreign" names and words.

Zee said...

"...not for things that he or his followers, much less anonymous commenters on blogs, did during a campaign that is over and done with."

Nice try, gary. We will remember, and no, it's not over and done with. Fraud never is. A concerted campaign of misogyny and false accusations of racism is not something to forget.

But again, nice try. Next time, try an apology. Be explicit. :)

Zee said...

"Kurt Lewin" huh? Is that part of the LaRouche recommended reading, McGowan? There are all kinds of propaganda and scare tactics. Including the scare tactic of brainwashing and propaganda, a shell game LaRouche is genius at. Oh...and DOOM. Financial DOOM. Thanks to Soros and all the Jews who secretly rule the world!!!!!! There are more things than televisions we should turn away from.

Zee said...

Joseph...my goodness. Where to begin?! Dang, this is like a triple post, at least. I don't know where to begin...Sotomayor, DU, or reflux! Just...thanks for the info. Off to read more about them...

gary said...

Hey, Zee I'm not going to apologize unless you can point to something that I personally said or did that I should apologize for.

Gary McGowan said...

Hey zee, Have you ever volunteered for service in the armed forces? Taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution? Worked with machinists and tool and die makers of 40 years experience and been tutored by them [infinitely patient, those gentlemen] and contemplated their skills and value in a national economy--do you understand what increasing the productive power of labor through creativity and technology means? Did you write a paper for your noted physics professor in your sophomore year railing against logical positivism which he regarded as thought-provoking and thanked you for [all the while filling it with red ink pointing out spelling and punctuation errors]? Can you even name our first Secretary of the Treasury and where he derived his proposals from--and what they were? Do you know how we could have saved the auto industry (and its tool and die capabilities so crucial to our nation) back in 2005 for a very small fraction of the cost of the auto industry fiasco, and many productive and employment gains? (Guess who laid out that plan.) Can you begin to understand how the adoption of the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act, if adopted in late '07 when proposed, could have acted to turn the tide in the financial collapse? (Do you foolishly think the tide has turned now?) Have you pulled drowning people out of the water? Built homes (in the cold and snow of winter?) Lived or traveled in undeveloped countries? I've been there and done all that (I'm of course leaving out a long list of the more stupid things I have done, but may have learned from.) Comon' zee, tell me you are not just a bag of hot air. (If you are a woman and have given birth to a child, that would count for a lot.) Who are you?

Anonymous said...

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Just based on the MRSA fighting ability, it is a must have for a first aid kit. Eating it for general health seems like an immune boosting plan that would fight the MRSA taking hold in the first place.

Hope it helps. At least it isn't better living through the pharmacy.