Tag: snark
Quote of the Week – Illegal Immigration Edition
(P)oliticians often argue they’re just too busy to read all these bills they’re voting on and commenting on. Busy doing what, though? Don’t they get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make laws and enforce laws? Wouldn’t you think part of that generous salary would be maybe reading those laws? What exactly do they do all day to earn their money? They already have these useless jobs where just sit around and talk and occasionally vote; is it really so much to ask they do some honest work and read these important bills? The Arizona one they’re all freaking out about isn’t even that long.
Maybe we should write all our bills in Spanish. Then we can hire illegal aliens to read them since apparently that’s yet another one of those jobs Americans won’t do.
— FrankJ, Reading is Hard at IMAO
Why We’re Winning
Those of you who’ve been reading TSM for a while are probably familiar with Dr. Brian Anse Patrick, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Toledo, in Ohio. I read his book The National Rifle Association and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage back at the end of 2007, and my überpost The Church of MSM and the New Reformation was the result. Dr. Patrick is good people.
He sent me a galley copy of his latest book, Rise of the Anti-Media: In-forming America’s Concealed Weapon Carry Movement and I’m sorry to admit that it’s taken me a couple (OK, more than a couple) of months to get around to starting it, but I did start it last night. Let me quote from the introduction a particularly pertinent passage related to the title of this post:
Based on my research, it would not be inaccurate to say that “mass” antigun organizations tend to resemble mailing lists, audiences, or abstract statistical aggregations more than true organizations of people in a state of communication regarding one another, that is, a community. Except, of course, for a relatively few true believers at the top, or sprinkled here and there, the mass antigun group is a comparatively top-down affair communication-wise; it is vertical and can be mobilized only on very special occasions, providing some powerful, moneyed sponsor supplies free bus transportation or other incentives.
Case in point, the recent brouhaha over Starbucks not prohibiting open carry in their stores.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership Violence was one of the most outspoken opponents of Starbucks’ “leave us out of it” policy. And by sheer coincidence this evening via Dave Hardy I discovered one of the strongest affirmations of Dr. Patrick’s observation:
(Click to embiggen the screenshot.) Yup. Last updated April 27, all they’ve managed to raise is $20. Will that even buy a Vente half-caf, non-fat whole-milk foam, bone-dry, half-pump mocha, half sugar in the raw, with double cup and no lid?
I guess this IS the America We Really Want to Live In. Watch the embedded April 12 Comedy Central clip. It’s pretty funny.
Now, I must continue my reading. This book promises to be as interesting as his last.
Quote of the Day – Capitalism Edition
It’s a stark illustration of the inequities of capitalism that organized labor can only afford to buy one political party, but Wall Street can buy both of them. – Mickey Kaus
Ain’t it, though?
Quote of the Day – Mordor Edition
The run into Chicago through Lake County, Indiana always reminds me of Frodo & Sam approaching the borders of Mordor: The vegetation gets blighted and unhealthy looking; there are murky pools and low-lying swamps that look like they could contain anything from tentacled horrors to Blinky the three-eyed fish; whole neighborhoods of rusting industry and boarded-up homes can be seen from the highway; and atop a giant black pinnacle on the horizon is the malevolent, unblinking red eye of Mayor Daley… Or maybe it’s just the aircraft warning light atop the Sears Tower; it’s hard to tell from a distance. – Tam, Chicago, part one:
I needed something to grin about today…
Symbology
Our President has used a lot of symbology both in the run-up to the election, and after. There’s his well-known “O” –
There was, of course, the iconic “Ché” poster:
Then there was the “Office of the President-Elect” symbol:
And more recently the “Obama Health-Care” symbol:
Now there’s a new symbol out there that, at least as far as the “Health-care bill” is concerned, says it all:
All it needs is that Obama “
“ on top instead of the ball.
(h/t to Alan)
UPDATE2 – Here we go:
Reader Gregory generated that image. I think he’s going to offer it on a t-shirt.
QotD – And They’ll Be Running Our HEALTH CARE Edition
You know you have crossed the regulatory event horizon and are heading for the bureaucratic singularity, from which not even the most energetic particle of common sense can escape, when there are specific federal government guidelines for conducting security inspections of service monkey’s diapers at airports. — Tam, Down the Black Hole
The snark is unusually strong there, today.
Is Chronic Victimitis
. . . covered under Obamacare?
(Seen at AR15.com.)
I DARE You Not to Laugh
Full disclosure: I OWN a Toyota. Not on the recall list, though.
Secondary disclosure: I’m not (yet) at the average age of the drivers who have experienced “sudden unintended acceleration” either.
Click on the link for the T-shirt. And don’t forget the discount code! (I am not in any way affiliated with Despair.com, though I like the hell out of their products!)
Quote of the Day – Thomas Sowell Edition
From his recent Investors Business Daily interview:
IBD: What do you think of the Obama administration when viewing it through the many concepts laid out in your book?
Sowell: It’s very hard to answer that without using language that is totally inappropriate in polite society.
But he manages!