Whiskey Fire

Amazing World of Nature

We all deserve a break (Today!) from the daily horrors & lunacies the reactionary to neo-feudal wings of the R party spit in the public eye & ear on a daily basis; let's follow Thers' example & vacate. These lucky mammals don't know & don't care about any of it.

— M. "Stroke of Mid-night" Bouffant

The Waking Universe

So, apparently the National Review is getting sued, and they want your money for The Good Fight.

We’re being sued, and we need your help.

Let me recap: A lawsuit has been formally filed by Professor Michael Mann against National Review and Mark Steyn. You know Mann: The Penn State academic and self-proclaimed (and bogus) Nobel Peace Prize awardee best known, famously and infamously, for the “hockey stick” graph that allegedly proves that recent years were the hottest on record for more than a millennium.

That fucker and his thermometer.

Of course, he is also known for the scandal about embarrassing e-mails, pried out of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. 

There were no embarrassing emails discovered by theft.

(Anything you want to know about “Climategate” can be found at the great site WattsUpWithThat.com. And if you want to get a load of Mann, visit his Facebook page for kicks and giggles and a look at self-promotion on steroids.) 

Yeah, well, no.

"Fighting back" does not equal "self promotion on steroids."

And HOLY SHIT is this disgusting.

Yeah, I'd sue.

That is irresponsible speech, right there.

Steyn says right out that Mann is guilty of "fraud":

Michael Mann was the man behind the fraudulent climate-change “hockey-stick” graph

That ought to be actionable.

That is utterly scurrilous and there ought to be means for redress.

Rape Panels

Much has been written about the Todd Akin "legitimate rape" notagaffe. But as the old saying goes, "nobody has said the most asinine thing ever about any given topic until Dennis Prager bothers us with his horseshit."

Rep. Todd Akin has, unwittingly to be sure, harmed the pro-life movement, his senatorial race in Missouri, the Republican Party, and therefore quite possibly the nation.

"Quite possibly the nation!" How so, one axes?

While he should not have used the term "legitimate rape," he could have explained later that, given the expanded definitions of rape, not all claims of "rape" are truly rape. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry for Feminist Perspectives on Rape states, for example, that "we must recognize that, in some cases, 'yes' also means no ... The man may threaten to sue for custody of their children, to derail her green card application, to evict her, or simply to sulk and make her life miserable for days should she refuse to have sex. Which (if any) of such nonviolent coercive pressures should be regarded as rape, either morally or legally, is a matter of some controversy."

That would have largely ended the issue.

Indeed. Just who exactly occupies the moral high ground would have then been totally clear, Mr. Already-Kinda-Rapey.

The far greater problem was Congressman Akin's other comment: "From what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy is] really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

As one wit put it about such a comment: that was worse than wrong, it was stupid.

The wit wasn't even wrong: it wasn't Googled.

Akin should say so.

And so should the pro-life movement.

Unless -- and this would be upsetting -- he, and the movement, don't think this comment was stupid.

Pregnancy from rape is rare because a "woman's body shuts down"?

Who told Akin this? And why would he believe it, even if some doctor did tell him this?

Here is my theory.

This is, of course, where The Fun Begins.

I have spent a good part of my life showing what an intellectual bubble the left lives in. That is why so many could believe that boys don't really prefer trains to tea sets or girls dolls to army soldiers. Those who believe such nonsense usually live in an intellectual bubble. They are raised by liberal parents, taught by left-wing teachers from high school through graduate school, watch left-wing MTV and news, listen to liberal NPR, go to movies produced by leftists, etc. Their whole world is left-wing. They don't watch, listen to, study under, or socialize with conservatives.

Bubbles tend to produce nonsense. When the only people you talk to, read, and socialize with agree with you, it is easy to abandon critical thinking.

And when you are morally right -- and those who argue for a right to life of unborn human beings (or human fetuses, if you prefer) are morally and even scientifically right -- a bubble can make critical thought even more difficult.

I wonder if that is not the case with Rep. Akin's comment.

Yeah, maybe.

Also maybe more liberals might want to "study under you" if you were more self-aware and less, well, rapey.

Or, say, if you more clearly "knew things."

Prager then goes on to explain how if he were at a dinner party with Akin he would have totally explained to him exactly how rape works, which might explain why fewer and fewer liberals invite him to dinner parties. ("I would have respectfully asked the congressman whether he was aware of the marauding armies throughout history that raped women. Did he assume that very few of them -- like the German women raped by Soviet soldiers at the end of World War II -- got pregnant? Did he not know how many raped slaves gave birth? Was he not aware of the tragedy of the women of Darfur who, after being raped by Sudanese Arab soldiers, are abandoned by their families for getting pregnant out-of-wedlock? Oooh, pass those yummy canapes.")

Anyhow.

It's more than clear what Prager is up to, and why Establishment Wingnuttia wants Akin dead, his family burned to the ground.

It's because their Moral Clarity is pellucid like donkey dump.

To be blunt: Prager wants to outlaw abortion except in cases of Fair Rape, cases that he would adjudicate with, what, Rape Panels?

"Hello, ma'am. I am here to assess your rape claim. Please give me all the details, so I can correctly adjust the Slutometer."

Right.

Like, gracious, the harm to the nation if it were ever allowed to consider moral questions without heaping sweetening spoonfuls of far-right poopsyrup.

Accidental Humans

Rusty apologizes. Sorta. But still, ewww.

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress.

"Sexual recreational activities"...?

First off, if you spend three days yelling "slut" at a specific woman and then offer a clearly baffled "apology" once your advertisers get disgusted, something is nuts about you from the get-go.

I think the "something" here that is "nuts" is revealed in the weird notion of "sexual recreational activities."

Who on earth sees sex as some sort of "recreation," like a hobby?

For most of us, sex is deeply intertwined with who we are, and who we want to be, and how we relate to others, because, well, to have sex, for most of us, we have to meet someone else who is kind of into having this experience with us, and that involves all sorts of complexities. It's often deeply humiliating, it's hard work, and on occasion, it's transcendent.

You can only conceive of sex as "recreational" if you are some sort of sociopath who takes occasional third world junkets involving pharmaceuticals and who bankrolls legal regimes under which it it is acceptable to exchange "consent" for "cash."

But, you know, that is not how most humans behave.

I submit that you can't rave for three straight days about how a specific young woman is a "slut," and not realize you have crossed a line until you get hit on the head with it, unless you are profoundly damaged and deeply unusual.

There is a reason that even though for decades loads of insurance plans have paid for contraception, it's taken until last Wednesday for the American right to have discovered whorishness in this arrangement. It's because conservatives are only normal humans if they don't know it, or by accident, when they are compelled to realize that reality hates them.

And the reality is, women and men have sex, often together, and mostly the goal is not child-having.

The right wing is weird.

MAS. Most baffling continuing attack on Sandra Fluke, from Jim Hoft. She's 30 years old! And...? I guess this is to do with how Greater Wingnuttia seems to believe that there was some sort of Media Deception in pretending that she was a "23 year old coed." All of this is crazy, but there you go.

Simpleton at Arms

Someone exists who accepts public acknowledgment of his status as Robert Stacy McCain's "sidekick." Well, every Grima has his Sharkey, I suppose.

But this is just sad.

The crucial point for all of the Left is that there is never a substantial economic argument to refute the Tea Party’s disdain for living in Reich’s blend of 1984 and Atlas Shrugged.

Yes there is! It's called "economics."

But let's play:

Crackers ran the economy, and fucked it up.

Rich white people shouldn't be in charge of capitalism.

Fortunately this is a testable premise. I propose that for a two year period, poor people who are not white should be put in charge of major corporations as well as most major governments.

If they fuck shit up even worse than the current nitwits, then we, the Left, promise to never ever complain again.

WHAT A DEAL.

And no filibustering, you cheeky scamp!

Values

Here is a thing that I discovered at Townhall.

In his seminal work, After Virtue,  philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre argues

Townhall also publishes Chuck Norris. Skip ahead.

Nowhere is the truth of MacIntyre's observation more readily apparent, perhaps, than in the precipitous decline of marriage.  What was once venerated as a holy, sacramental institution is now considered an optional, if slightly outmoded social convention, a stultifying but necessary financial convenience.

That's precisely why gays want to get married. Steve says to Bill, "before all our loved ones, please let's together forever participate in what was once venerated as a holy, sacramental institution that is now considered an optional, if slightly outmoded social convention, a stultifying but necessary financial convenience, you sweet bitch you."

Anyway, I'm straight, and not religious, and I'm pretty sure I got married because of the love thing, and also because I was pretty sure I would like being married and having kids. And thanks to the magic combination of Pedialyte and vodka, I was ultimately proved insensible!

Anyhoo, I wasn't much concerned with providing the Bedrock Cornerstones of Western Civilization, and I'm mostly sure MollyI wasn't either. This sort of bullshit isn't anything I recall getting on board with, definitely:

Traditional marriage (specifically, Christian marriage) has through the centuries served as a critical civilizing force in society.  It has been, quite literally, the glue that holds communities and peoples together.  As traditionally understood, the bonds of marriage are forged not by man, but by God.  They are not merely legal, physical, or emotional, they are spiritual and sacred.

Honey, God wants us to fuck! But not for fun, only babies. Honey? Sweetums?

The Elmer's...? Pass it over...

Dear? My sweet? God quite literally wants us to stick together with glue?

This may make going wee a bit awkward henceforth, but Jesus says -- OW! HOLY SHIT! THAT'S MY TAINT HAIR! AND YOURS! Love... please... if we move together delicately, we can locate the cell phone and contact 911... NOT THAT WAY! AIEEEEEEE! STICKY NIPPLES! [Ripping noises, screams. Soft, gentle sobbing.]

Shazam.

There's no mystery as to why God-botherers want us all to hold to 14th century social norms: it's good to be the priest.

But as for me -- stop bugging me. I'm a straight married guy. Whatever. Stop trying to call what I have some sort of Spiritual and Sacred hot-shit win for Mankind. It's not. It's just what I am.

It is a symptom of the malady of this modern age that influential figures within our popular culture have fallen subject to this degraded notion of marriage.  Only recently, Rock singer Jack White and his wife announced that they will celebrate their sixth anniversary of marriage . . .  by getting divorced.  The soon-to-be separated couple is hosting party in Nashville, Tenn., to mark the auspicious occasion. 

Yeah. Dude. Newt Gingrich wrote a tune about it.

Trying to force everyone by means of guilt into this one mode of being has produced appallingly depressing results. That it has also produced "Irish Literature" is its only excuse.

I recommend instead that "feed the poor" shit. How's that going?

MAS. This:

However, when you view marriage as nothing more than the mutual stirring of emotion accompanied by a few lines of poetry, or as the mere "making it official" formality that comes after years of cohabitation, or even as an excuse to have a good party with great friends, you are depriving it of it's full force and power as a foundational social and cultural institution.  Try as you might to spin this shortchanging as an "enlightened" understanding of human relationships, you are tearing at the fabric of God's design.

I guess MollyI&I aren't tearing that fabric. But maybe we left a wet spot. Send the dry cleaning bill to Ba'al?

Besides, it's as it happens misused apostrophes that truly make me say, O! Western Civilization! We're assfucked!

Mas. Commenters rock.

Ho Ho Ho!

This being, technically, Observed Xmas Eve, best wishes & greetings to all, plus which bacon:

Maple syrup, brown sugar, cayenne pepper & a "dusting" of chipotle, baked. Dee-lish!

M. Bouffant (Who sure as hell wasn't the chef.)

Abusing Privilege & Related Items

Well, isn't that what privilege is for?

When I typed "going on about religion & politics" below, a line from this song came to mind, but I figured, you know, like ... uh, why bother. Little obvious, eh? But we did decide it couldn't kill us to listen to it. And when the first YouTube version of it turned out to be live in Dublin, well, there's some bog-subtext that goes on here, isn't there?

This one a lamely obvious reference as well, but goes w/ my alienated weirdo in the Left Coast desert subtext. You are not obligated to click.

Just et some dee-lish Farmer John maple bacon too.

Pork Belly Weekly Wrap-Up

Best bacon we've yet located in L.A. County.Happy now?

Demand For Content

How-dee!! M. Bouffant here. As a result of the blog-o-sphere's incessant demand for content, this blog's proprietor (In the mind's eye I see him in a floor-length barman's apron, polishing a beer stein, then spitting on a dirty spot & scrubbing harder, but that tells you more about me than him.) has offered us the keys to his public house while he's taking a well-deserved week away from the struggle for truth, justice, & the American way. 

Right now I got nothing, but I'm ahead of my usual schedule (Up before noon, PT. So excited, we couldn't sleep.) & will be prowling this system of tubes & the tubers who type on it for the raw meat we live on. 

Speaking of which, a perusal of Whiskey FIre categories reveals "Bacon." If nothing else, I'll get the strip of bacon in a pancake experiment I've been threatening at my D-list web log going here. That's something to anticipate!

Sincere (& amazed) thanks to Thers, & I'll try to keep the lawsuits to a minimum.

P.S.: Especially grateful because this opportunity provides an excuse to avoid cleaning the bachelor bathroom. This item from 1991 should give a good idea of whom you're dealing w/ here.