6/29/2007

In Which I Become Angry About Idiotic Pseudo-Libertarian Garbage (or, Damian Tells Smokers to Shut Up)

Thanks to people who like to buy papers and leave them behind, I find myself reading the Journal-Gazette nearly every day I work. Between huge walls of text about FWCS petition color coordination and pithy defenses of Matt Kelty on the opinion page, they occasionally print yet another whiny letter about the Ft. Wayne smoking ban. Beyond the BS arguments about the ban "reducing business", there's a lot of flap about "smoker's rights", always phrased as either "the gummint's takin' my/business owners' rights, yours'll be next!!1" or "why shouldn't I be allowed to smoke in public?"

To this, I still ask, why is it that smokers have some inherent right to smoke inside a building, but non-smokers like myself don't have a right to not breathe poison? And no, the arguemtn of "well, you should just go somewhere that doesn't allow smoking" is and has always been a load of utter horseshit. Why shouldn't the smokers go outside? Why shouldn't the smokers go somewhere else? Why do their "rights" trump mine?

The answer? They don't. Smokers, you're making a choice to harm yourself, so you can at least have the courtesy to not harm us. Your rights do not trump ours.

On the recent mAnn Coulter clusterf**ks

Yes, I know Ann Coulter is a horrible person. I know that better than many others. I know she's a homophobic, racist, sexist bitch, and I know that the media can't get enough of her (or, rather,t he people who own the media can't). I also know that a lot of people will still indirectly defend her hatreds by saying that the Edwards campaign is "using" Coulter garbage for "attention" and "fund-raising".

The worst part, though, is the people who think ignoring this kind of crap will make it go away. It doesn't work in the schoolyard, and it sure as hell won't work with people like this. The TV network owners, the newspaper publishers, the book publishers, all the same people, and all with the same agenda.

Don't turn your back on something wrong. You wouldn't in any other situation, so why do it in this one?

Random Ten, 06/29/2007

It's the Friday Random Ten, brought to you by the letter F.

Hit the Party Shuffle in iTunes and what do I get?
  • The Beatles - Penny Lane
  • Jeff Wayne - Forever Autumn
  • Lali Puna - Left Handed
  • DHT - Listen to Your Heart
  • Garth Brooks - Rodeo
  • John Lennon - Imagine
  • Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
  • David Bowie - Let's Dance
  • Eminem - Cum on Everybody
  • Enigma - Beyond


All that extra music I added has to pay off sometime.

6/22/2007

Random Ten, 06/22/2007

It's the Friday Random Ten, because you're worth it.

Hit the Party Shuffle in iTunes and what do I get?
  • Eminem - Kim
  • nc feat. FINALFORCE - SEDUCTION
  • Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
  • Garth Brooks - New Way to Fly
  • Eminem - I'm Back
  • All Girl Summer Fun Band - Dreamy You
  • Modest Mouse - Bukowski
  • Masato Nakamura - Hidden Palace Zone
  • Barenaked Ladies - Leave
  • Lullacry - Nothing to Lose


Hey, it's more than last week's Random One.

6/19/2007

Savage Weiner: "Boo Hoo, I'm Being Oppressed Because I'm a Paranoid Jackass"

From Think Progress: C-SPAN Gets Savaged By Right-Wing Radio Listeners
Last week, right-wing radio host Michael Savage was presented a Freedom of Speech award at Talkers Magazine’s annual New Media Seminar. C-SPAN, which aired portions of the two-day event, chose to not air Savage’s acceptance speech because the conservative talker only appeared in a pre-recorded DVD speech.

Savage is now claiming he is a victim of censorship. Repeatedly attacking C-SPAN this week as “fascists” and modern versions of the “brownshirt movement in Hitler’s Germany,” Savage encouraged his listeners to call and email CSPAN about their supposed “blacklisting” of his speech.


First of all, who would give a bigot like the Savage Weiner an award for ANYTHING other than his rampant douchbaggery? Second, this is a prime example of Weiner's entire modus operandi: Everything is done solely to oppress bigots like Weiner, and everyone who disagrees with him is the highest form of evil. Never mind that he's given an open platform to spout his racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, hateful shit every single day, never mind that he's given carte blanche to say whatever he wants without fear of the actual reprisal he so richly deserves. No, in Weiner's world, he's so very oppressed, and that's just an immutable fact that no amount of evidence to the contrary will ever refute.

On Washington Journal this morning, host and C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb read aloud some of the emails he has received from alleged listeners of Savage’s show. The emails defending Savage are filled with personal attacks, referring to Lamb as an “ass loser Communist,” “pervert,” “bed-wetting commie,” and worse. Watch it:


But remember, conservatives have more class. Once again, the hateful pigs prove themselves as such.

Michael Savage is obviously not responsible for the content of these emails. But it’s worth noting that such attacks are standard fare for Savage’s radio show. According to Savage, MoveOn.org members are “rat-bastard Communists,” supporters of the Fairness Doctrine are “Nazis” and “no different than the Bolsheviks in 1917,” and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) says things that “Goebbels would be proud of.”


Gee, and I wonder where they get this kind of hatemongering from...

6/18/2007

In God I Trust, So I Don't Need to Drive Right

Today's J-G Letters page.
For those who feel they need to profess their faith via their “In God We Trust” license plates – more power to you. But remember, God, and everyone else, is watching you. Hopefully you use your turn signal every time it is warranted; you use the passing lane for actually passing; you don’t pass on the right; you come to a full and complete stop at all stop signs – no slow rolling allowed; and you do not ever speed, for you are to “submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13). If you can’t abide by these “laws of man” and feel compelled to still have your “special” plate, realize that you may be considered by some to be a hypocrite.


I've noticed that most of the obnoxious drivers in this state (or at least in this area) have the IGWT plates. It's as if they seem to believe themselves above the pithy laws of man, much less the tenets of common courtesy.

I'm really glad I'm not the only one noticing this trend.

6/15/2007

Random One, 6/15/2007

John Denver - Leavin' On A Jet Plane

I'm out of the LHP offices until Sunday, because I have a wedding to attend in Maryland. And I'm flying for the first time.

Just one question, though: Why the hell do we still have to take our shoes off? Why in the name of all that's holy would they try something we're expecting? Hell, you'll notice we haven't had any air disasters since 9/11. Maybe we don't need to worry all that much?

Ah, I'm not bitter or anything. I made it through security fine, so I really have nothing to bitch about.

6/08/2007

New links, June 8, 2007

Added Masson's Blog to the Local and State Weblogs list.

Evansville Courier and Press: "Treason's okay if you're a Bush fan!"

Masson's Blog has brought to my attention a disturbing editorial that ran in the Evansville Courier and Press, asserting that Scooter Libby was given too harsh of a sentence.
The sentence seems awfully harsh for obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name when it was known from the outset that no crime had occurred and who the leakers were.
And right away, the Republic Party memes start. Yes, it WAS a crime, because, as has been covered about fifteen thousand times, Valerie Wilson was STILL COVERT when she was outed by Bob "I'm Just Doing My Job Putting Us In Danger" Novak. Furthermore, when Libby started lying to Fitzgerald, that's a crime. Impeding an investigation is a crime, for those who didn't know.
The judge indicated he was not disposed to let Libby stay free pending appeal — he said he found the evidence "overwhelming" — meaning Libby, 56, who has two school-age children and an otherwise impeccable reputation, would be heading off to jail around Aug. 1.
So this supposedly "impeccable reputation" isn't broken by the fact that he LIED to a federal investigator and was implicit in the traitorous outing of a CIA agent? Wow. Apparently Scooter Libby is made of the same Teflon as Reagan was.
Much about special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation is still not public, including why Libby felt compelled to lie. Was it to protect his boss, as administration critics suspect, or simply an overzealous defense of the White House rationale for going to war, as his defenders insist?
So an ongoing investigation should be made completely public just because a few wingnuts are scared that it might not be going all their way? Yeah... no, not happening. And aren't these the same people who screamed about how federal investigations should remain completely secret?
Immediately after the verdict, Libby partisans began clamoring for a presidential pardon. But Bush, while sympathetic, has been noncommittal, saying only that there is a "process" that must go forward. That has provoked venomous attacks on Bush from his erstwhile allies on the right, "cowardice" and "incompetence" being two of the kinder insults directed at the president.
And nobody knows cowardice and incompetence better than far-right justice-haters. After all, they were teh ones who voted for Dubya, they're the ones who vote for shameless liars, cheats, and thieves like Tom DeLay, and they're the ones who listen to chickenhawk losers like Flush Limpballs and Jesus-Boy Hannity. Besides, maybe Bush wants to be seen as not being soft. After all, I thought that traitors were supposed to be executed.

Random Ten, 06/08/2007

It's the Friday Random Ten, with fresh lemon scent.

Hit the Party Shuffle in iTunes and what do I get?
  • The Advantage - Bubble Bobble
  • Julie Ann Frost - Balalaika, Carried With the Wind
  • Eminem - Kim
  • Koji Kondo - Forest Temple
  • Patrick Victorio - La Copa de la Vida
  • The Birthday Massacre - Red
  • TËRRA - DoLL
  • The Beatles - Something
  • Hidenori Shoji - ZEN (Aeropolis)
  • Smile.dk - Boys (full version)
That's an odd sort of list.

6/02/2007

Another "terror plot"": Has it been a week already?

Yet another "terror plot" "foiled".

What a surprise - no huge distractions from the shit state the country's in, and things aren't going as swimmingly as the folks in chrage might hope, so it's time for more fearmongering.

How many so-called plots does this make now? I lost count.

6/01/2007

Random Ten, 06/01/2007

It's the Friday Random Ten, strong enough for a man but made for a woman.

Hit the Party Shuffle in iTunes and what do I get?
  • Fatboy Slim - Wonderful Night (radio edit)
  • Barenaked Ladies - Alcohol
  • DE-SIRE retunes - CHAOS
  • Koji Kondo - Powerful Mario
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers - Right on Time
  • Green Day - Letterbomb
  • O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tei
  • Wiz-US - Toori Ame
  • Lullacry - Nothing to Lose
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic - White and Nerdy


Every list is a good one.