Sanity Pills

So Tony Snow is now the face that the press sees when they want to ask the White House a question. There’s no doubt that Tony Snow has been able to answer some real hard hitting questions in the past, and there’s no doubt that he’s got a brilliant opinion to spice it up with.

Media Matters is offering some interesting tidbits about Mr. Snow. You guys can check it out for yourselves here.

Tony Snow used to be a member of the world renowned “Free Republic” forums that we can all read when we want to find a cesspool of conservative knee jerk reactionaries and crazy people. Obviously as soon as this was found out, Free Republic deleted Snow’s account and all posts that he had partaken in. That doesn’t stop internet savvy folks from using tools such as archive.org to dig up his past opinions. I hope we find out soon what interesting opinions he provided on those forums. For now, lets all see what other delightfully educated opinions Mr. Snow has had to offer in the past.

Today, evolutionary theorists find themselves at wits’ end because the fossil record provides no evidence of any species ever turning into another. We know species adjust to environmental conditions — ever notice how tall kids are these days? — and that natural selection does occur. But there’s nothing to vindicate the notion of an evolutionary leap.

This is from a recent column of his (some time from August ‘05 I believe ). Simply brilliant though isn’t it?. Thanks for that one Tony. What other goodies do you have hiding in your basket?

Consider Vietnam. The conventional wisdom holds that America fought an unjust war there and lost. In fact, we embarked upon a noble war, analogous to the battle in Iraq, but we lost our will – in part because war protesters concocted tales of widespread viciousness and butchery

Hit the nail right on the head there Tony. No lies, deception, or strategic blunders in Vietnam, it was a great war that was lost because of protestors!

I wanted to turn this into a giant journal of more absurd tidbits of his but I’m running short on energy. Mayhap I’ll update it with more soon. For now, here’s some links to munch on.

Kwanzaa bashing

An archive of his column on Jewish World Review

A ‘Think Progress’ overview of Mr. Snow’s opinion on Bush

As if things weren’t bad enough on the homefront, it appears the pandemic known as “Intelligent Design” has made its way over the border to Canada. This time a professor at McGill has been denied a grant for a research project which would study the detrimental effects of Intelligent Design on Canadian students. Why was he denied the funds? Because he couldn’t prove the validity of evolution to the panel who has discretion over said funds. For my subjective opinion of this, see kstevens comment regarding the Amazon reviewer’s critique of Lawrence of Arabia. I would also like to apologize for my complete lack of grammatical skill today, my mind is shot.

At any rate, click here to read more.

So she wrote a wonderfully insightful and truthful piece on this whole Muhammad cartoon things. Oh wait. No, the opposite.

And people thing she is clever?

aaarghh

Among the gems.

In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.

Wait she just contradicted herself in the same article

Largely unnoticed in this spectacle is the blinding fact that one nation is missing from the long list of Muslim countries (by which I mean France and England) with hundreds of crazy Muslims experiencing bipolar rage over some cartoons: Iraq. Hey — maybe this democracy thing does work! The barbaric behavior of Europe’s Muslims suggests that the European welfare state may not be attracting your top-notch Muslims.

Maybe Iraq has been quiet because all their crazies have been too busy blowing up american soldiers to merely riot and burn down a few embassies. They have better things to protest.

And also way to be bigoted. Lets classify all Muslims as Arabs because they are the same. Just like all white people are americans and everyone with narrow eyes is chinese etc. etc. Hey Ann … Culture and Religion are two different things.

But apparently the Quran is like the Constitution: It’s a “living document,” capable of sprouting all-new provisions at will. Muslims ought to start claiming the Quran also prohibits indoor plumbing, to explain their lack of it.

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Protestants don’t make a peep about other people eating food off one another’s plates. (Just stay away from our plates — that’s disgusting.)

Also lets take a closer look at this gem

Catholics aren’t short on rules, but they couldn’t care less if non-Catholics use birth control.

Maybe some catholics do not care but Geroge W Bush(not a catholic) is very interested in your reproductive freedom. How about a mention about all those millions of aid money going to only to  Catholic/Religious organizations who provide Abstinence Only AIDS prevention programs in Africa. Oh things like the FDA bottling up the morning after pill? hmmmm

And lets not get too holier than thou here. Your friends on the extreme right wing are the ones blowing abortion clinics, gay bars, taking sniper rifles to abortion doctors …. Lets not have two standards here. One will do just fine. Keyword … Fundamentalists everywhere are making the world a lot more interesting for the rest of us.

You can put me on the “Russ Feingold for president” bandwagon.  Could I also get some Al Gore to go and a side order of Obama as well?

How much longer will I have to wait to glow green?

List of things I will do when I glow:

• Make home-porn tapes without needing to invest in night vision for my camcorder
• Sell all my flashlights on ebay…probably at midnight and probably without turning on any lights
• Sneak up on Dick Cheney one night, tell him that I am the devil come to claim his soul, and hopefully give the bastard a heart attack.
• Coolest moneyshot ever.

Palast does it again, by writing a scathing critique of Dubya’s NCLB program.

Students in New York have to pass a test with the questions like the following if they are to pass their grade:

“The year 1999 was a big one for the Williams sisters. In February, Serena won her first pro singles championship. In March, the sisters met for the first time in a tournament final. Venus won. And at doubles tennis, the Williams girls could not seem to lose that year.” And here’s one of the four questions:

“The story says that in 1999, the sisters could not seem to lose at doubles tennis. This probably means when they played

“A two matches in one day
“B against each other
“C with two balls at once
“D as partners”

and

“Most young tennis stars learn the game from coaches at private clubs. In this sentence, a club is probably a

“F baseball bat
“G tennis racquet
“H tennis court
“J country club”

Of course these questions are incredibly easy for any of us (especially since the majority of this site’s readers are pure-bred brahmins), but these questions aren’t for us, they’re for third graders in New York City’s public schools.

Third graders, 8-years-old.

I apologize for the inactivity on this site recently, hopefully that will change.

I love the magazine, but the most recent issue of Harper’s has what is easily their worst article in recent memory. I’ve come to expect Harper’s to offer high-level analyses and oftentimes be over my head (especially on issues of art and literature), but they seemed to have accidentally let an amatuer in for the January 2006 issue.

The author, Parag Khanna, is a senior analyst at the Brookings Institution. Sounds like he has the right credentials, but then again, he is only 27 (he gave away his age in the middle of the essay while describing his first job at the U.N. at the age of seventeen).

The first two-thirds of the essay make the author seem like someone with an intimate knowledge of global problems, especially those at the U.N., and the complexity of the issues lying therein, unfortunately he shows his true self toward the end when he exposes his naivety by claiming that Bill Clinton is the ONLY person capable of saving the U.N. (and therefore the world).

Clinton is viewed as a peacemaker and someone so great that he has outgrown the United States.

Khanna throws praise at Clinton about his diplomatic skills, which are clearly praiseworthy, but goes on to assign him nearly super-human abilities for curing the world’s ailments.

He conveniently sidesteps any real criticism of Clinton:

Furthermore, it was under Clinton’s watch–and Kofi Annan’s as head of peacekeeping–that the United States balked in Somalia, waffled on the Balkans, and prevaricated on Rwanda. Yet not only has Clinton been forgiven; he continues to be seen as a source of hope.

Forgiven? Really? By whom?

Khanna also shows a mastery of politics:

Certainly Clinton would use the bully pulpit to try to force the Bush Administration to respect international norms, but Bush would still be doing his party a big favor, particularly if Hillary runs for the White House in 2008. As she seeks to build a political dynasty in Washington to counter the Bushes’, having Bill Clinton at the U.N. would eliminate the Republicans’ concerns about having him back in the White House, even as First Man to Hillary.

Yeah the Repugs would LOVE that: someone at the U.N. potentially influencing U.S. foreign policy.

“As she seeks to build a political dynasty in Washington to counter the Bushes’”—I never knew that was why Hillary was going to run for President. It’s to get back at the Bushes. A ha.

Hopefully Harper’s cleans up its act soon.

Via Atrios:

“Muslims of America”

Andrea Mitchell last night:

MITCHELL: Well, a former intelligence official tells NBC News tonight that the people most likely to be swept up in this are listed in a Homeland Security database, Brian, called Muslims of America. But most people targeted are never charged with a crime. And one former official says this does amount to a giant electronic fishing expedition. Is it legal? The president says yes. Critics say no. Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter says his committee will hold hearings in the new year. Brian:

I just saw this on Atrios’ site and I need to do a quick comment. Since I have a lot of studying to do, I don’t even want to get into the substance of this story. Plus, its really just too awful for words anyway. I will, however, gladly take the time out to bash Ms. Greensp…uh…Mitchell:

Notice the bold part of the quote above. This is precisely what I hate about journalism.

I hate the use of the word critics generally. It diminishes their credibility and suggests that these “critics” will disagree with whatever the president says and does. It is also innacurate. From what I have been able to gather thus far, almost everyone who knows anything at all about the law believes that spying on American citizens without a warrant is completely illegal not to mention unneccesary. The only people who think it is legal belong to the completely deranged school of presidential infallability.

I am also completely fucking sick and tired of this “on the one hand…on the other hand” bullshit. It is this kind of “Shape of the Earth: Views Differ” fact-free reporting that I just can’t take anymore. Aren’t journalists supposed to try and discern the truth here? Am I going to be seeing stories that say:

“Is the government beaming radio signals into our brains to control our thoughts? Schitzophrenic says yes. Critics say no.”

Here we have the administration and some lunatic constitutional theorist(s) saying one thing and 99% of constitutional scholars saying another. Why the fuck do those two viewpoints get the same fucking mindless treatment?!

Rant over.

Bush supporter turned terrorist, Sami Al-Arian was acquitted on the major charges in his case today. The story behind this guy is nothing short of fascinating. You can find tons of interesting stuff here on Wikipedia, but I’ll paraphrase some amusing stuff here.

For his background, the Wikipedia link above should be consulted, but the FBI started investigating him in the 1990’s for various degrees of first amendment usage. Following that, who better to befriend than Bush himself: “After his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar was imprisoned on secret evidence, Al-Arian became politically active in the United States. He campaigned against the use of secret evidence in immigration cases and was for George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election, and was photographed with Bush that year in Plant City, Florida. ”

Okay well thats something special right there. But what then?

The following year, Al-Arian’s son, Abdullah, became a congressional intern, but was by a mistake kicked out of a White House meeting, sparking a walkout by twenty other Muslims in attendance. However, President Bush soon apologized to the Al-Arian family for the incident. On June 20, 2001, Sami Al-Arian’s attended Eisenhower Office Building for a briefing, led by Karl Rove, with 160 other Muslim leaders.

Ah he must be a terrorist if his own brother is a Congressional intern deemed important enough to get an apology from the President himself. Then O’Reilly invited him on his show and accused him of being a shady character. Fun times.

Well as we know, O’Reilly attracts the most intelligent and productive members of society to watch his show, so they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Following the airing of the program, USF received several death threats for Al-Arian. University president Judy Genshaft placed Al-Arian on paid leave and barred him from the campus on September 27, ostensibly for his own safety and the safety of others at the university.

Thanks Bill, you’ve done the country a real service as always. I wonder if those lovely fellows in Kansas got hints from your show or parent network. I wouldn’t be surprised.

On February 20, 2003, the FBI arrested Al-Arian after indicting him and seven others on 50 terrorism-related charges. United States Attorney General John Ashcroft alleged at a press conference that Al-Arian was the North American head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the secretary of the PIJ’s international organization.

FIFTY charges. If I have heard correctly, Ashcroft used this case to exemplify his backing of the Patriot Act and said that this is the result of putting it to good use. Clearly he was right.