Morning Seditionists

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the video of intrepid reporter and former U-Boat commander Wolf Blitzer asking Moore, OK resident Rebecca Vitsmun if she was thanking “the lord” for having escaped death in this week’s mega-tornado. Vitsmun, of course, politely (and genially) responded that she’s an atheist, so, like, no. I’d have liked to have seen Wolf ask other survivors if they were blaming “the lord” for having wiped their town off the map. Or asking parents if they were angry at “the lord” for having sent a tornado to a school and killing their kids. It’s always “the lord” or “the angels” were on my side when you escape disaster, but they never claim responsibility for putting you in these shitty positions in the first place, other than maybe the vague “it’s God’s will” or “‘the lord’ works in mysterious ways.” If Wolf had asked me if I was thanking “the lord,” I’d have told him: “Fuck no, Wolf. If there is a God, I wanna know why the hell He just destroyed my (literally) goddamned house!”

I’m sure everybody’s read the story about the brutal attack in London where a British soldier was hacked to death. British PM David Cameron called it an “act of terror.” So I’m now waiting for Darryl Issa and Fox News to condemn him for not calling it a “terrorist attack,” which of course is something completely different. (more…)

My, my, my. “The Press” has certainly gotten its collective panties in a bunch over the rather aggressive DOJ investigation into “leaks.” This outrage was expressed today in a NY Times editorial entitled “Another Chilling Leak Investigation.” (more…)

Glad to see that OKat and family are okay. The pictures and video from Oklahoma City are just incredible. I’m really glad we don’t get that kind of thing around here. An occasional small tornado isn’t totally unheard of around these parts, but they’re extremely rare. Too many hills around to break them up, I guess. I hope Oklahoma gets a break from these tornadoes, but as we experience the effects of climate change, I’m afraid this stuff is just gonna get more frequent. It’ll be interesting to see what Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn push for to “offset” any disaster relief funding that goes to OKC. Maybe they can eliminate the Global Change Research Program. (more…)

First, the bad news. I did not win the $590 million PowerBall drawing last night. I blame it on my wife, to whom I gave both two dollars (courtesy of the Nielsen folks) and fairly simple instructions: buy a winning ticket. Not only did we not win, we didn’t even get one number (I was hoping there was a prize for getting nothing right, but I guess that’s some other game, like Keno or something). I’m very sad about this, as I really don’t want to go to work anymore. Oh well. (more…)

Last night’s Realtime wasn’t the worst show he’s ever had, but it was kind of disappointing in light of the fact that both Michael Moore and Zach Galifianakis were on. I was mostly annoyed by some MSNBC chick who is apparently a right winger. She was rather impassioned about the whole gun thing who seems to think that requiring a background check and/or registration to buy a gun is tantamount to being considered guilty until proven innocent. A rather specious argument, IMHO. As somebody tried to point out (only to be shouted down because that’s about the only thing these wingnuts can manage to do to “refute” opposing arguments), having to register your car (or license you dog) doesn’t mean anybody is accusing you (let alone convicting you) of a crime. Her other tactic was the tried and true, “I know you are but what am I” defense when the subject of how come all of a sudden right wingers are so upset with the government getting reporters’ phone records now that Obama is preznit, when they were all gung-ho when Dubya was in office. Her response, “where’s the outrage from liberals now?” (more…)

I got an e-mail from a guy I used to work with this morning. Apparently I was behind him on the way in to work. We work at the same place, except in different locations, but we live in the same general vicinity, and there aren’t a helluva lot of different ways to come in from the sticks to the big city, so I’m surprised we never came into contact before. So we had an e-mail reminiscence of my past life as a refrigeration mechanic, remembering the good old days of working in the anatomy cooler, squeezing between the cadavers hanging from their ears with their giblet juice dripping on the floor. If I close my eyes, I can almost smell it. (more…)

So I was listening to my old time radio in the wee hours of the morning (as I often do, since I don’t actually seem to sleep). It was some show from the early fifties, and for some reason they were comparing the US bombing run on the Romanian oil refineries in Ploieşti in August 1943 (operation “Tidal Wave”) to a football team being down by fifty points with time running out (the idea being, I guess, that the loser team keeps on playing instead of leaving the field). (more…)

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty tired of hearing teabagger apologists whining that the IRS gave them a little extra scrutiny in determining whether sympathetic political operations masquerading as “social welfare groups” (or whatever the hell they call them) should get tax exempt status. Fuck ‘em. None of them – on either side – should be tax exempt if they only reason they exist is to run political ads. While we’re at it, take away tax exempt status for churches and get rid of tax deductions for donations to those churches. If they run charities that actually do some good, then fine, exempt those entities. But there’s no reason some cult shouldn’t have to pay property taxes while they make money hand over fist while fleecing the flock. And I shouldn’t have to subsidize the flock for their fleecing, either. (more…)

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers. Here, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, with highs today only expected to be in the 50s, and it looks kinda windy out there. It’s not the worst weather we’ve even had on Mother’s Day, though. I recall one year when we got eight inches of snow. (more…)

It was an expectantly pleasant ride into work this morning, thanks to the fact that NPR was having an issue with its satellite feed of Morning Edition. This led to my local NPR station switching over to the BBC World feed, which meant I didn’t have to hear Cokie Roberts (assuming she was on, as she is most Mondays). Things rapidly deteriorated from there, though, as I arrived at work and had to abandon yet another gorgeous day (the weather’s been amazing – everybody in Central New York is sunburned today) to go and sit in my dark cave of an office. (more…)

So, don’t forget that the new IFC show “Maron” starts tonight at 10:00 (the first show isn’t the “possum” episode that Vernon posted the other day, so this will be one most of us haven’t seen). And of course his new book, “Attempting Normal” is also out now, too. In support if these two endeavors, Marc has been out there all over the place lately, including appearances on “Fresh Air“, CNET’s “404″ Podcast/Vidcast, and on the Howard Stern show. Suddenly (well, maybe not so suddenly) the man is everywhere. Yes, it’s the beginning of a new Maron Era. (more…)

I’m officially putting amputation on the table when it comes to my foot. By the end of the day yesterday, it was so swollen and painful, I could only laugh as I hobbled out to my car. I’m the sort of person who really hates to draw attention to myself, so I felt particularly ridiculous (not that anybody else would give a shit, I’m sure). This was only made worse by my decision to go get a new set of tires for the car after work (the thought of waiting ’til the weekend, driving 40 miles round trip per day on the really crappy ones I had was just too scary a thought – and I don’t generally scare all that easy; I must be getting old). (more…)

Because I did a little bit over the weekend, I’m now paying the price. My foot hurt yesterday, was killing me all night long last night, and hurts so bad I can barely walk this morning. So I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to keep ice on it while still functioning. This should make taking the dog to the vet this morning even more fun that I thought it would be. I guess I’ll just have to hobble through. (more…)

With all the conflicting information and rampant speculation about the Boston Bomber Dudes, it’s hard to really get a handle on just what the hell the deal with them is. Except for one thing I think we can all agree on. As with most messed up people, the blame clearly falls on the mother. Damns mothers, right? And if you don’t believe me, then just ask Texas Republican Michael McCaul (who I never heard of, but I suppose I should have since he apparently chairs the House Committee on Fatherland Security). (more…)