Whiskey Fire

In Case You Were Wondering, or Cared...

... what the hell else the Daily Caller does when they're not race-baiting.

That would be boobs.

Because what the world needed was another online gutter tabloid: Tucker Carlson, the Murdoch Mini-Me. Fucking hell.

For the Record, the tweet where David Martosko stopped replying to me was the one where I pointed out that it was ridiculous to claim that the DTs [typo, I'll leave it] had done "reporting" to get Trayvon Martin's account, because they themselves said they had it sent to them, and that it's likewise ridiculous to Preserve the Anonymity of someone who did a simple Internet search.

Redbud Salad

So I decided to pick some of these wonderful flowers and make a salad. I read somewhere that they have a bitter taste, but that is not true at all. Arugula has a bitter taste. This is closer to the truth.

I didn't have any other greens to mix with the flowers, so I just ate those in the bowl with pepper, olive oil, and rice vinegar for dressing. It was delicious! And you could just as easily add the flowers to a regular salad, to add extra flavor, nutrition, and color.

Also, they're free! See avid forager B^4 for more.

P.S. I've taken 186 pictures since I last downloaded what was on the camera on Tuesday. Here are a few more.

Suet feeder blogging has been absent since the remote for the camera stopped working. Fortunately, this Downy Woodpecker let me approach to a point that was even closer than any I've used to date with the tripod.

(Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.)

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Why Does Charles Pierce Hate Italians?

Ann Althouse comes right out and says what everyone has suspected for years, but has been afraid to admit in public, probably for fear of Thuggish Hibernian-Style Retaliation: Charles Pierce is an anti-Italian bigot.

"Tony Scalia's Retirement Has Started Early."

Says Charles P. Pierce on the Esquire website.

Calling a man of Italian ancestry "Tony" when that isn't his nickname? Isn't that on the level of calling a Latino "Jose" or a black man "Leroy" (or some such stereotypical name)?

Of course, quite aside from that, the blog post is bilge:

I think Justice Antonin Scalia isn't even really trying any more. It's been clear for some time now that he's short-timing his job on the Supreme Court. The job bores him....  he's now bringing Not Giving A Fuck to an almost operatic level.

Opera... see? That's like talking about a black person and throwing in watermelon.

His "originalism" was always a shuck, even if it was consistent, which it rarely was, and even if it was principled, which it never was.... But at least, for a while, he actually tried to act like a judge in a democratic republic, and not the lost Medici pope. 

Pope? More anti-Italian (and anti-Catholic) stereotyping crap, which Pierce probably thinks is just fine, indeed hilarious, because it's against a conservative.

You may be inclined to consider this ridiculous. However, Shocking Footage has emerged of an enraged Pierce hurling barrels at an innocent Italian plumber, probably because Pierce suspected the little fellow is Catholic:

On the merits of Scalia's performance in the ACA arguments, it's really disappointing that Pierce just can't concede the obvious, that Scalia turned in a delicious performance. The truly non-partisan, objective observer can only quietly applaud and say of it, "Ah now, that's a-spicy-a meat-a-ball."

Subterranean Horseshit Blues

No, Robert Zimmerman does not appear to have been significantly wounded here, but then he was presumably doing some damned folkie nonsense in another location.

The point is that George Zimmerman has quite a pristene, laceration-free rear-skull area in this video.

The guy wasn't punched out and had his head banged into a sidewalk repeatedly. Please stop with that noise.

But thanks for playing.

Also, Bird-Girls

Sometimes, the Internet coughs up a perfect illustration of a famous apothegm.

Apothegm:

— Then, said Cranly, you do not intend to become a protestant?

— I said that I had lost the faith, Stephen answered, but not that I had lost self-respect. What kind of liberation would that be to forsake an absurdity which is logical and coherent and to embrace one which is illogical and incoherent?

Here is a logical and coherent absurdity. In ludicrous detail.

These argument can be part of the greater discussion, but they don’t have much weight in the Catholic Church, because the Catholic Church works from a different premise to start with. We begin with theology and the truth of the theology governs all other decisions. Practical and sentimental and civil rights questions–while important in civil society– are very low in priority when making decisions within the Catholic Church.

No shit...

That's kind of exactly why I decided all this god-bothering was silly, to be honest.

Game Over Man, Game Over

I don't see any "lacerations to the back of the head."

For openers.

[By the way -- a hearty fuck you to the idiot news sites that want to load up tacky advertising into this rapidly viral clip. It isn't even your fucking clip, most of you. No more embedding for you! See here.]

More Journalism

In the post below we observed that the Daily Caller, based on Journalistish Integritudinal Principles, published Trayvon Martin's last Twitter posts.

As to whyever the hell they decided to do this, you can Twitter-ask this fellow, a Daily Caller High Lord Executioner Editor, who is sticking to this line: "It's a window into who he was and what he was like. Our readers want to know. End of story."

Okay.

See, now, that's a bit curious.

Because Martin's Twitter account has been circulating throughout Greater Wingnuttia for days. Here is Colonel Mustard, shaking his head and tut-tutting at the Sad Revelation of what this Damaged Youth was Really Like:

And, readers have been posting similar links over the past few days, and I really, really wanted it not to be him, but The Daily Caller says it is, so I’ll finally link.

Gosh! Why, what is so terrifying in those Twitter posts, that if it were him, which it was, that it is Totally Shocking?

Probably that his Twitter handle was NO_LIMIT_NIGGA, and that one of his posts reads like an attempt at pretty generic rap lyrics. (Or, indeed, metal lyrics. Maybe Martin was a Metallica fan. Could be.)

Looking through the Daily Caller's "window," we are treated to the shocking revelation that Martin was a typical American adolescent male.

That's not quite the conclusion of the Intrepid Citizen Journalists who are Responding Sensibly to this Vital Information, however...

...and you know where this link is going to, don't you? For you are cute, and upon you is a spectacular absence of flies...

It's to the Free Republic comments section.

Where the hell else? (Your soul will feel better for reading those comments. Mine did. Promise. No, this isn''t a trick to make you suffer like I did. Honest.)

So, yeah.

Adding to the fun, the Daily Caller account of how they got this Scoop is rather comical:

The Daily Caller has obtained a compilation of the late Trayvon Martin’s tweets.

 The social media scan, executed on PeopleBrowsr and supplied to TheDC by the individual who performed the search, contains tweets from the last month of Martin’s life, dating to the beginning of 2012.

So, some operative sent you dirt and you flung it up there, in other words. Why this "individual" cannot be named is rather a mystery. "Whistleblowers" who provide Key Scoops usually do other things besides just run a fucking Internet Search that anyone playing along at home can duplicate. But but by all means, Daily Caller, Protect Your Source! Freedom and Responsible Journalism Demand No Less of You.

Incidentally, I have asked the Daily Caller Lord High Executioner Editor whether or not they were planning on looking into Zimmerman's social media accounts. The exchange is entertaining, and maybe even enlightening.

 

That's some hard-workin' shoe-leather journalistic enterprise they have going on over there -- "No, but if you would like to do our reporting for us, that'd be swell!"

For some reason, he's not responding to further inquiries as to whether or not the Daily Caller "reporters" ever tried to discover George Zimmerman's social media interactions -- you know, in the interests of "balance."

He's also not answering questions as to whether or not he was aware that Martin's tweets have been circulating around Wingnuttia since right after the story broke.

I'm darn curious as to whether or not David Martosko is willing to answer the question of whether or not the Daily Caller ever went looking for Zimmerman's social media presence -- like, to give us a window into his personality that this site's readers would value, and, perhaps quietly cherish -- or if he's just happy publishing irrelevant crap furnished by anonymous operatives that furthers a rather nasty point of view.

You can ask him here! Please do!

Kindly, be polite. (I actually mean it this time, redsnouts. I'm darn curious as to how he'll reply.)

BTW, he's already ignored our VS, who was indeed polite.

The key question is whether or not the Daily Caller ever went looking for Zimmerman's social media profiles. Let's see if he answers.

Bets? I bet he tries to ignore.

MAS. Totally irrelevant, but I just realized that my dentist looks exactly like frickin' Perry Farrell. He's a good dentist (my dentist, not Perry Farrell, who I'm sure sucks at dentistry), but I'm not sure I can hack this.

FURTHER MAS. Martosko says the DC did in fact look for Zimmerman's social media posts -- though it's kind of odd that they were sent Martin's, and then went, uh, like, let's look for the other guy's.

More later.

Journalism

The Daily Caller has found Trayvon Martin's Twitter account, and has published his posts.

They did this because of journalism and is journalistically relevant.

Oh wait. Actually, they did it because they are assholes.

This is the Twitter account of the Daily Caller person who published the material.

https://twitter.com/#!/editmedavid

MAS. Further Journalism.

MUCHO MAS. And this is just sad.

Why Democracy is Precious...

Please vote--Is this "Blue Steel" or "Magnum?"

Ooor is it some awesome, new look only hipsters (WITH THEIR SKINNY JEANS AND STARBUCKS COFFEE!!!!) know about? If so, what's its name?

WHAT? The Founding Fathers were huge "Zoolander" fans!

--vacuumslayer

The Rain in Rochester Falls Mainly on the Lame

Of all the barnyard-class deep-thinkers clamoring to make grunting fools of themselves over Sandra Fluke presenting her opinion to Congress, and getting called a "slut" for her trouble, among the loudest jackasses was Steve Landsburg, who brayed:

while Ms. Fluke herself deserves the same basic respect we owe to any human being, her position — which is what’s at issue here — deserves none whatseover. It deserves only to be ridiculed, mocked and jeered. To treat it with respect would be a travesty.

Landsburg said this because, as a Philosophical Economist, he either (a) doesn't understand how this newfangled contraption known as "insurance" works, or else he's (b) just kind of an asshole.

He in fact came up with a third iteration of this nonsense, though by that point most people were bored and kind of just sighed and moved on, because it was the same old -- the argument that if you pay a tax you get to veto every single use of your tax dollars is not strictly accurate, but even worse is the idea that if you yourself are paying a tax, you don't get a say in how that tax might benefit you, if someone else who is paying that tax objects.

The tax on fertile women who choose not to use birth control pills is the least defensible.

Fertile women who never use some form of contraception are in a minority consisting of Rainbow Brite, Princess Buttercup, Kathryn Jean Lopez, and not even Smurfette.

You definitely get a kind of Henry Higgins vibe off Professor Lansburg, though....

Higgins is standing up near him, closing two or three file drawers which are hanging out. He appears in the morning light as a robust, vital, appetizing sort of man of forty or thereabouts, dressed in a professional-looking black frock-coat with a white linen collar and black silk tie. He is of the energetic, scientific type, heartily, even violently interested in everything that can be studied as a scientific subject, and careless about himself and other people, including their feelings. He is, in fact, but for his years and size, rather like a very impetuous baby "taking notice" eagerly and loudly, and requiring almost as much watching to keep him out of unintended mischief. His manner varies from genial bullying when he is in a good humor to stormy petulance when anything goes wrong; but he is so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable even in his least reasonable moments.

The "likeable" bit is not so apparent online, where, well, Landsburg's blog reads exactly like what Henry Higgins' blog would have read like, if they had the internet early last century, and Shaw hadn't invented him. (Ultimate grammar troll!)

Anyway, I thought of Higgins after I saw this... 

Steven Landsburg, the professor who was denounced by his university for criticizing Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, stuck to his position in an exclusive interview with The College Fix.

“Everyone deserves respect, but some people are not interested in discussing their ideas, or possibly examining a different side,” said Landsburg, a bestselling author and professor of economics at the University of Rochester. “Fluke clearly has no desire to do this.”

How does he know that Fluke feels this way? Who knows? And who cares? Yes, Fluke clearly believes that if she pays into an insurance scheme, it ought to cover contraceptives. This is an astoundingly non-controversial position. It certainly does not deserve to be "laughed at, mocked, and jeered."

But then note this, why Landsburg was told he was out of line by Rochester's president:

I am outraged that any professor would demean a student in this fashion.  To openly ridicule, mock, or jeer a student in this way is about the most offensive thing a professor can do.  We are here to educate, to nurture, to inspire, not to engage in character assassination.

Well, yeah.

When you're speaking as a professor, you shouldn't do that.

But then, dig this:

UR president Joel Seligman wrote an e-mail to faculty and staff that said he was “outraged that any professor would demean a student in this fashion.”

Landsburg found these criticisms to be absurd.

“Free speech isn’t the issue here,” he said. “Nobody, myself included, tried to stifle her speech.”

Right...

But free speech is so not the issue.

You being a dick is the issue.