“Stateless Fascists”

Digby gets it, as usual.

Yes Virginia, heavily bearded Islamic religious fundamentalists are a threat and need to be taken care of sooner rather than later. But Rove’s attempt to re-brand them this late in the game is, first of all, a dollar short and a day late. Second, as a former history teacher what really bugs me is that the analogy to military states like Germany and the USSR ca. 1939 is asinine.

The same drinkers and purveyors of the paradigm-shattering Rumsfeld Kool-Aid, including Bush, are going around the country and talk-shows lecturing us about how this is really World War II all over again. But what happened to a new type of war calling for a new type of strategery? These same people were strangely silent in the face of the obvious — that the US didn’t have enough ground troops to stabilize the power vacuum in a post-Saddam Iraq. (Because by sprinkling magical “freedom” dust everywhere, we didn’t need to pacify a hostile Iraqi populace with overwhelming force, aka the Powell Doctrine, or so the former narrative goes.)

I’ve said it plenty of times, but it’s worth repeating — fear-mongering works better when your approval is above 50%. Right now? Not so effective, guys. Americans are a lot of things, but shiftless cowards awaiting the “fear” signal from Rove and his apparatchiks as to when we should be wetting our pants isn’t, and shouldn’t, be one of them.

66% of Americans Support Terrorism

Olbermann on Rumsfeld’s recent screed before the American Legion.

Another response in Slate.

I’m not a big fan of television journalism, but Olbermann manages to restore a little of my faith in it. At least on basic cable.
I love my country and want to save it from the ideologues and morons that currently run it. Back in 2004, that put me in the minority. In 2006, it makes me securely a part of the mainstream.

Fish

Poet Charles Simic on Dada.

Neato

Hundreds of old Apple games you can play in (and only in) Windows IE.

My current favorite: Oregon Trail.

Because nothing could be more fun than watching your wife and children break various limbs and then die of disease and exposure. And then killing some buffalo.

Spore can suck it.

Best. Youtube. Evar.

Husker Du in London, 1985.

I’m looking for a job.  Youtube is more fun right now.

They Forgot to Mention That Science Totally Gives You Teh Gay

Jesus’ General offers up your daily wtf.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Darwin had to deal with malicious little half-wits who took his empirical genius and twisted it into Social Darwinism, something he had nothing to do with.

Now, he’s Hitler.

Was 9th grade biology class really so traumatic for so many people that they have to resort to this type of stuff?  Did Darwin eat your baby too?

Nussbaum pwnz Mansfield

Martha Nussbaum on Harvey Mansfield’s Manliness. A good bit, among many really good bits:

Mansfield’s daring physical prowess, he told a New York Times Magazine reporter, is displayed in his ability to move furniture around his house. His daring moral prowess is displayed in his ability to make speeches on the floor of the Harvard faculty opposing the creation of a women’s studies program, a risky feat indeed. Should average readers wonder whether this does indeed bring him into competition with John Wayne, or even with the questionable Barry Bonds, Mansfield does not care an iota, because he has his expected audience dead to rights. Readers of The Weekly Standard and National Review, they are already devouring the logic-free, ambiguity-riddled concoction he has served up and smacking their lips.

Wilco: Fight!

Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), a widely acclaimed album that gained notoriety after a major record label refused to release it, is a bit sucky when compared with the gloomy pop-melodicism of Summerteeth (1999).  Discuss.

Plus ca change

Honestly, the hardest thing about driving cross-country wasn’t missing out on the intarweb. It was getting a three-day cramp in my left shoulder and neck. And having to play restroom bingo once or twice a day–you truly never know what you’re going to get.

But sitting here in the Western Washington University library, doing a cursory glance at  recent Blogistan, James Wolcott never fails to impress with, of course, his redoubtable snark, but also his ability to connect the dots regarding Republican memes o’ the month.

Kanye had a point, blunt as it may have been.

I Like America and America Likes Me

DC to Bellingham, WA is about 3,100 miles. About 11 tanks of gas. About 25 LP’s worth of listening met with plenty of NPR and bizarro-world Christian apocalyptic radio. Three nights in three different hotels–Blue Earth, MN, Sheridan, WY, and Missoula, MT (hell of a town). I went into Kerouac mode the first night and after some drinks in Gambier, OH, decided that I didn’t need to sleep. I was desperate for benzedrine, but settled for gas station coffee and Diet Coke. Basically, I drove for about 26 hours straight from DC to south central Minnesota. Then I slept for 12 hours at a Super 8.

Chicago is a great city, but a nightmare to drive around. Illinois charges you for the pleasure of driving through their fair state. The bastards. I already knew that Minnesota was pretty, but South Dakota ain’t bad. Mt. Rushmore is definitely worth three bucks to stop and visit. It costs eight. Wyoming is gorgeous, at least the little northeastern sliver that I went through. Little Big Horn is a must-see (five bucks)–don’t just settle for “Custer Hill,” the place with all the markers where the White Eyes bought it. You’re getting the denouement, but missing all the great tactical blunders made by Reno, Benteen, and the C-dog himself. You couldn’t plan a more hideous waste of lives and material. Montana is very, very big. The mountains are beautiful, as mountains tend to be. Missoula is a trip. Post Falls, ID has a very hospitable Denny’s. Eastern Washington was easily the most desolate part of the trip–the technical term is a “wheat desert.” There weren’t many radio stations on this stretch, and most of them were in Spanish, interestingly enough. The trip was safe up until 30 miles outside of Bellingham, after turning right in Seattle–some jagoff in a pickup was hauling shipping palettes, and four of them came off right in front of me. My metallic steed and my own lightning reflexes saved the day. But honestly, wtf Mt. Vernon, WA?

This is a really beautiful country. Everyone should drive across it at least once.