Choice - Who's Smarter: Sarah Palin Or Thomas Sowell?

Sarah thinks Ted Cruz is Syria and worth defending:

"Sarah Palin is actually right about something. 

...Former Governor [Sarah] Palin (R-AK) tweeted, on Sunday, that [Chris] Wallace ought to reveal which sources had sent him the dirt on [Ted] Cruz. She tweeted “@FoxNewsSunday Keep it TRULY fair & balanced. Release the GOP names encouraging you to trash @SenTedCruz. No more anonymous sources.”

Thomas Sowell sees Ted Cruz as the Republican's Vladimir Putin:

"What could possibly rescue Barack Obama from all these political problems and create a distraction that takes all his scandals off the front page? Only one thing: the Republicans. 

By making a futile and foredoomed attempt to defund Obamacare, Congressional Republicans have created the distraction that Obama so much needs. Already media attention has shifted to the possibility of a government shutdown. 

Politically, it doesn’t matter that the Republicans are not really trying to shut down the government. What matters is that this distraction solves Barack Obama’s political problems that he could not possibly have solved by himself. 

The time, effort, and credibility that Republicans are investing in trying to defund Obamacare is a high-risk, low-yield investment."

So who's right for the Right? You know my views:

I'm leaving this one for you,...

 

Glenn's Intuition: Speculation, Assumptions & Guessing

Some happy thoughts from Glenn Reynolds:

HMM: Unlike 1995, Americans say they would blame GOP, Democrats equally for shutdown. I suspect this reflects two things: Obama’s political skills being inferior to Bill Clinton’s, and the traditional media having less power.

That's great - I think it reflects something altogether different:

YOU'RE WASTING OUR TIME!

 

We Can See Everything (Except Whatever's Blinding Us)

There's something kind of heartening, and validating, in my bad ass being hated and ignored when this message echoes my daily output:

“The country’s elites – of both political parties and across the political spectrum – have been wrong on just about everything they have done since the end of the Cold War.”

Let's see, that's the Boomers, NewAgers (and other cultists) race hustlers, motivational speakers, newscasters, and,...

 

Glenn Reynolds: Is He Really Smart Or Just Distracting?

Glenn Reynolds is interested in a lot of shit, and he's got a sweet little gig going, but when it comes to why I started reading him, the man can't hit the side of a barn. He's a hot shot law professor, right? Check out the results of his advising Rollie Chance on media over-reach, in the Washington shooter case, according to Hot Air:

Glenn Reynolds suggests that Chance should sue, as “Enormous damages would ensure greater circumspection.” As true as that might be, Glenn must know that’s an unlikely outcome,...there really isn’t a case for libel, and therefore no damages — as enraging as that might be.

The only accountability we can apply to these outlets in this case is the shame of getting it wrong and the damage to their credibility that results. Perhaps with enough of that kind of damage, networks won’t be so quick in the future to run with a suspected gunman’s name, or his supposed political influences, and so on.  As this episode showed, though, the media doesn’t seem to learn from their past mistakes.

Glenn Reynolds doesn't either, providing ("useless information, supposed to fire my imagination, I can't get no - no, no, no - well hey, hey hey") what Hot Air just said should be worth a word to somebody,...

Word: They Don't Look For Anybody Darker Than Amber

Have you ever seen a missing black kid in an Amber Alert? I don't think I've ever seen a missing black kid in an Amber Alert:

Black Youth are Regularly Missing, But Rarely Reported in Media: Two Sisters Are Fixing the Problems

Good for them: 

 Because, maybe I'm missing it, but something don't seem right about that Amber Alert,...

 

Seriously - With A Name Like "Drudge" - You Can't Say You Didn't Ever Understand What You've Been Getting

Does anybody else remember, a couple of weeks ago, when I wrote this headline? 

  Matt Drudge Is Now Using White Folks 

As Total Chumps

Well, The New Republic did a little racial research-type number crunching, and discovered an amazing thing: 

  Matt Drudge Is Now Using White Folks 

As Total Chumps

I'm giving it time:

White folks will figure out who their real friends are one day,...

 

It Gets Easier (Once You Stop Being Led By The Nose)

Why, oh, why are they doing it? Really? 

Because they're playing politics - during an actual crisis - which means all their talk of being journalists, patriot bloggers, and statesmen is bullshit:

“GOP’s massive new lie: 

The truth about Obama’s second term It's factually and morally wrong to say his agenda is doomed if war vote loses.”

First Oprah, now Obama - geez. 

O.K., I've got a message, for my beloved wanna-win-minority-votes-so-bad-it-hurts G.O.P.:

Making me defend people I despise, from your stupidity and unfairness, is no way to prove how smart and trustworthy you are.

Especially if you can't even do it intelligently. 

Republicans, conservatives, and libertarians, let this black man be perfectly clear:

I'm not buying a phony narrative from the very people who taught me about phony narratives,...

 

Charlie Manson Ain't Real (His Crimes In Movies Were)

Here's a film that's hitting all the right "stupid" buttons, but was still overlooked:

What if there was a secret group of individuals who formed a cult and had access to the dirtiest secrets of the biggest corporations in the world? What if their intention was to bring down pharmaceutical companies that knowingly kill millions of people with their drugs’ side effects? Would you side with the cult for their quasi noble albeit vengeful intentions, or would you expose the cult and let the law take its course? 

 

This impossible choice is faced by the protagonist of The East,...

Yeah - don't you love journalism? That choice is "impossible".

New Age cultists trying to bring down "Big Pharma"? The East Vs. The West - in medicine? 

Ha! Give me a break - that's not even worthy of TV:

The storyline's just too unbelievable,...

Give Up Tomorrow: Life's A Nightmare Without Sleeping

On the night of the murders, Paco Larrañaga was over 300 miles away, with about 40 friends. They have photographs. 

He got a life sentence. 

After his accusers channeled the dead in court, arguing for a harsher sentence, Larrañaga got the death penalty.

"We're not the same, we'll never be the same." 

I've been saying that a lot, myself,....

Really Jean, More Snow(den), Julian: No Teasing, Water Company Smears, And One Time Walmart's Horrifying

We Call BS! 

Did Jean Quan really spend “many, many hours” 

at the White House?

British Gov’t: 

Snowden hauled off a lot more than US thinks

Julian Assange Told: 

Stop using embassy to make fun of politicians

German Homeopathy Companies Pay Journalist 

who Smears UK Academic

Ohio mom horrified to find son’s ashes 

in Wal-Mart bag

You Go From Cold To Hawt But Getting All Hawt Is Best

I remember something about standing astride history yelling "Stop!" but all I see is confusion:

Where to even begin? Ms. Karasik relates her experiences being a 14 year old girl, saying that she and her classmates thought about sex just as much as the boys. She also goes on to claim that girls were having sex with teachers in high school and college and nobody really got hurt. She generously allows that teachers who are caught “having sex with” (i.e. raping) their students “should be removed from their jobs” but only until they complete “rehabilitation.” 

I remain puzzled as to how this managed to make its way onto the pages of the Washington Post, but it has.

Here's someone else from the same article:

How is society “damaged” by protecting children from predatory teachers? Karasik doesn’t actually say, other than to imply that Morales might not have committed suicide had the criminal case not been pending. Despicable. Oh, and maybe students would be more likely to discuss sexual issues with school counselors. 

I repeat, this was published in the Washington Post. How low can we go? I am afraid we are going to find out.

Does any of this sound like "Stop!" to you?

Why's about the only thing I haven't figured out yet,...

 

An Atheist's Prayer (There's A 1st For Everything, Bub)

Dear God, 

 Please make Chris Christie the President so, at least, NewAgers will have to finally shut up about their frustrations with Americans speaking and being American:

“I think folks around here know that I am willing to take as well as I give,” he said. “I didn’t wake up this morning worried and petrified about what Maureen Dowd on the op-ed page of The New York Times thinks about me. 

“If you wake up as a Republican and worry about what the op-ed page of The New York Times thinks about you, you are going to be in a constant state of crisis.” 

Christie defended his calling the New York Daily News reporter “a dope,” saying he is free in expressing his opinion. He added the newspaper was well within its right to express its opinion when it referred to the New Jersey governor as “fatso” in a recent headline. 

“I don’t worry about this stuff. Whenever you express opinions in this world, other people have opinions about your opinions, and that’s OK,” he said. “So, you know, I thought a particular reporter was a dope, I said so, and I heard him on the radio today … and he seems like a very nice young man, a dope nonetheless, but a nice young man.”

Brilliant - just what I'm looking for:

Really, God, make this one happen and I'll make a note of it,....