What Would Jack Do

Yes, kids…Glenn Beck has himself a brand, spankin’-new website thingamajig on da Interwebs. ‘Course, this “news” in and of itself is pret’near worthless, ‘cept for the impressive comedic value already apparent. Beck, of course, is hyping his new website as bigger than Jesus something he hopes will surpass the Huffington Post. I don’t know if he was referring to readership or sheer conspiratorial looniness. I’m not certain about the former, but it sure as Hell is already superior in the latter.

As an interesting side note, it seems the headline writers for The Blaze have a soft spot for erotic poetry. Somewhere, Walt Whitman is smiling. ;-)

Oh, and apparently, it was a VERY bad day for Dodge Chargers….

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

• Friedrich Nietzsche

In the aftermath of President’s Obama’s speech on the end of combat operations, it was interesting to note the number of former Bushies who crawled out from under various and assorted rocks. By demanding that The Worst President EVER © be given credit for all of the “good things” his Iraq war policy accomplished, they succeeded in revealing that revisionist history is a dish best served…not at all.

Those now rushing to garner credit for Captain Codpiece ©, and by association themselves, completely ignore how we became embroiled in the war in Iraq to begin with. They ignores the lies, the propaganda, the talking points, and the fudged intelligence used to grease the skids for a war that had NOTHING to do with 9.11. Frankly, the only credit those responsible for the death of almost 4,500 (and counting) Americans (and the maiming of 31,000+ others) and over 100,000 Iraqis should receive involves a cigarette and a blindfold. That exactly NO ONE is going to be held criminally culpable for the lies, the manipulation, and the thousands of lost and ruined lives is just about the most appalling thing imaginable.

Credit where credit is due? Of course; though I doubt these self-satisfied maroons would be willing to accept “credit” for much of the recession this country is currently mired in. Given the trillions in resources that we’ve expended in Iraq, an argument could be made that more attention was paid to administering an illegal and immoral war than to managing our economy.

Barack Obama So Bored of Wingnuts Calling Him Muslim. Really…how long should the President be expected to continue trying to convince those who will not be convinced? When truth and evidence aren’t going to sway you, are you even worth the continued time and effort?

Putin To Opposition: You’ll Be Beaten If You Continue To Rally. Democracy: YER DOON IT RONG!!

The New Right-Wing Smear Machine. The spirit of Richard Nixon lives, and Right-wing pundits pray to his legacy on a daily basis.

Beck Blasts Obama’s ‘Perversion Of The Gospel,’ While Evangelicals Blast Beck’s ‘False Gospel’. If Glenn Beck is a Christian, then I’m the Queen of England.

Buzzwords for blowhards: Rightwingers are brilliant at creating snappy-but-misleading nicknames - like fun-size chocolate bars and the Ground Zero mosque. In an era when sound bites rule, propagandists excel at creating nicknames that can focus fear and hatred for the intellectually inept.

Abandon Health, All Ye Who Enter Here: Inside Manhattan’s Sad Smoker Canyon. It will be a great day when smokers are allowed to smoke only within hermetically-sealed chambers…in Azerbaijan.

The Transformation of the American Conservative Movement into Fascism. Vote Republican…’cuz it’s a helluva lot easier than thinking.

Did You ‘Restore Honor’ (Have Secret Gay Sex) at GlennBeckPalooza? For what was “Loonapalooza” but an excuse for horny gay men to hookup in public restrooms and Metro stations?

Alaska GOP Senate Candidate Joe Miller Suggests Medicare And Social Security Are Unconstitutional. And I’m going to suggest that Miller is a flippin’ idiot whose ignorance is exceeded only by his arrogance.

Cruise Ship Stranded in Arctic Circle, Rescued by Canada. The captain’s first question was, “How far are we from Playa del Carmen??”

Arson Suspected At Construction Site Of Tennessee Mosque Expansion. The Klan may be dead, but it’s spirit lingers.

Boots card for ‘Dr Suicide Bomber’ forces store to apologise: A Boots card made out in the name of ‘Dr A Suicide Bomber’, which was sent to a customer by mistake, has forced the high street giant to say sorry. Hmm…so, just because someone’s an Islamofascist terrorist…?

American Views On Islam: Ignorance Is Bliss. It’s a lot easier to hate and fear something than it is to try to understand it.

Toddler Survives Stare Down With Bengal Tiger. When this kids say she wants a cookie, you might just want to give her the damn cookie.

Politics is SO much easier when you eliminate inconvenient things like truth, reality, and context, don’tchaknow??

They’re doing a new show: Celebrity Corpse, where you dig up someone after five years and try to guess who they were.

• Paul Merton

It should come as no surprise that I’m not a fan of “reality” television. That there’s nothing “real” about this genre is hardly breaking news. From what I’ve been able to determine, reality TV is merely a thinly-veiled excuse for television networks to save money by dispensing with inconvenient and costly script writers. The shows may lack scripts in the conventional sense, but producers manipulate results and create story lines and conflict for dramatic effect. Personalities with no discernible acting talent become stars, and a generation of Americans has become hooked. So why am I so upset about this?

The problem with reality shows is that they’re a lot like heroin. After a time, it takes ever-increasing amounts of the drug in order to achieve the same high. Situations become ever more ridiculous, conflict more unreasonable, and “characters” more caricature than human. Then you have the problem presented by one of the latest ideas, which follows American ordinance disposal technicians in a war zone. It may not be “Survivor: Afghanistan”…this is much more serious, and far more real and deadly. Reality TV is now exiting the domicile of the ridiculous for the realm of the sublime, using American service personnel and the risks they incur to drive ratings.

The US Navy has green-lighted the project, seeing it as an effective (and cheap) recruiting tool. What seems lost in all of this is that American troops legitimately in harm’s way are being used for entertainment value. And what happens when an ordinance disposal technician is wounded…or worse, killed? Since when are the lives of our sons and daughters to be used for the entertainment and edification of Americans comfortably ensconced on their couches?

What’s next? Televised executions? Real-time police SWAT operations? How long before someone in some cable network’s programming department realizes that there’s a market for real, unscripted bloodshed? Somehow, someone in a position of authority at G4 needs to rediscover his or her moral center and put a stop to this abomination. Regardless of whatever entertainment value might seem inherent in things going “BOOM!”, American service personnel should not be used for entertainment value. They deserve better…and so do we.