Well, 2010 was a helluva year, wasn't it? I can't say I'm sad to see the back of it. But you know what I always say: Onward, Shakers! We must always remember that when our teaspooning arms start to hurt, it's just the muscles gettin' bigger!
BaltimorePolice: 3:30pm today, 3201 Boston Street. Penny the dog will thank Officers from the Marine unit for rescuing her last night from the Harbor.
(More on the story here.)
[Trigger warning for fat hatred, weight loss talk, heterocentrism.]
Behold an advert for the upcoming CW television series "Shedding for the Wedding," in which couples compete to lose weight for their nuptials. Hosted by recent loser-of-weight actress Sara Rue.
Voiceover (over images of couples competing in physical challenges like racing while carrying wedding cakes): Wednesday, February 23rd, from the executive producer of "The Biggest Loser"...It's when she announces her weight loss and holds up her ring. UGH. Love belongs to thin people! Gross.
Cut to Rue being interviewed: "Shedding for the Wedding" is about couples trying to get in shape for their fantasy dream wedding.
Cut to female contestant getting fitted for wedding gown: I feel really nice!
Cut back to Rue: I know what these contestants are gonna go through. I lost 50 pounds and (holds up hand to reveal diamond engagement ring) I'm engaged!
Cut to couple in matching costumes looking at each other. Him: Love you. Her: I love you.
Cut back to Rue: I can only imagine what a bond these couples are gonna have.
Voiceover (over graphic of scale with one pink footprint and one blue footprint, which morphs into wedding cake): "Shedding for the Wedding." Wednesday, February 23rd, on the CW.
[Trigger warning for sexual coercion, exploitation, dehumanization.]
HistGeek_1 emails (which I am publishing with his permission):
I just found this article and it made me wretch and I thought this was something that the brilliant minds of Shakesville should discuss. In effect, Nadya Suleman (disappeared as "Octomom" in the title) may see her mortgage sold to "porn kingpin" Steve Hirsch. Here's the really sick part: "Hirsch told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's not trying to pressure Suleman into porn, but he would use her housing woes to start a conversation that brings her to work for Vivid."For further perspective, Hirsch has already made repeated offers to Suleman, for as much as $1 million, to appear in one of his porn videos, and she has repeatedly declined. So this guy's already been harassing her to try to coerce her to do porn for him, and now he's trying to buy her mortgage for leverage.
Seriously, that is some fucked up shit right there.
...the wacky weather continues in NWI. We're apparently seeing out 2010 with a thunderstorm.
Zuh?
Will you be making any New Year resolutions?
I never make New Year resolutions, because I know myself well enough to acknowledge I only do what I need to do when I'm ready to do it, and arbitrary dates don't help me get there any damn faster, lol.
Jay Herrod knows some facts about women that he'd like to share with other men, who may or may not know these facts about women:
Here are some things men may or may not know about women, which are: Number One! Women may forgive, BUT never forget. Number Two! Start giving a woman, say, flowers too often, and she will think a man is up to something. Number Three! The only way a man can win an argument with a woman is when she lets him. Number Four! Women talk just as dirty as men. Number Five! All women have a set pattern; figure it out, and a man can figure her out. Number Six! During courtship, a woman will let a man chase her to be sure he wants her. Number Seven! Not all blonde-haired women are dumb and stupid. Number Eight! Women are just as smart as men. Number Nine! A man cannot hide something from a woman in her house, because she knows when something has been moved and is out of place. Number Ten! Most women hate to be ignored.If you like what you've heard, you'll be thrilled to hear that Jay Herrod has announced his candidacy for US president.
Now I have a question no woman I have asked has been able to answer: Why do women wear pretty underwear and bras under their clothes no one can see?
That's it! This is Jay Herrod. Thank ya.
Read this headline: Brazil to build 'underwater cities' to drill for oil.
Can I see a show of hands for how many of you immediately thought of what's below the fold?
Image Description: Screen grab from the video game Bioshock.
...thus insuring (or at least making more likely) that everyone would have equal access to it:
Two US companies this year broke new ground by winning regulatory approval to start the first experiments using embryonic stem cells on humans [with] spinal cord injury and blindness.Neat. I'm totes gonna keep a spare kidney in the glovebox of my flying car.
The potent but hotly debated cells can transform into nearly any cell in the human body, opening a path toward eliminating such ills as Parkinson's disease, paralysis, diabetes, heart disease, and maybe even [aging].
...[Bob Lanza, chief scientist at Advanced Cell Technology] said the advances, while they still face rigorous testing, offer promise toward treating a host of diseases, and could one day eliminate the need for amputation of limbs, blood transfusions and transplants from strangers.
"Some time in the future, perhaps in the lifetime of most of your readers, you'll get in an accident and lose a kidney and they will take a skin cell and just grow you up a new organ," said Lanza. "That field is just roaring ahead."
I would've sworn I felt the wee rumble of a distant earthquake this morning. And so I did.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck just before 8 a.m. ET and was three miles deep. The USGS initially reported that the quake had registered a 4.2 magnitude, but later revised the estimate. Its epicenter was located about 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, and 50 miles north of Indianapolis.We're about 100 miles north of there, and it was reportedly felt in four states beyond Indiana. The epicenter of the last big earthquake we had, in 2008, was much closer. There was, thankfully, no house-swaying this time; just the vague thump of reverberating seismic grumpiness.
Geraldine Doyle, who was the inspiration for the WWII "Rosie the Riveter" poster, has died at age 86.
For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.In addition to lending her likeness to Rosie, Ms. Doyle was a cellist, a wife, and a mother.
Rosie's rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist movement.
But the woman in the patriotic poster was never named Rosie, nor was she a riveter. All along it was Mrs. Doyle, who after graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Mich., took a job at a metal factory, her family said.
One day, a photographer representing United Press International came to her factory and captured Mrs. Doyle leaning over a piece of machinery and wearing a red and white polka-dot bandanna over her hair.
In early 1942, the Westinghouse Corp. commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce several morale-boosting posters to be displayed inside its buildings. The project was funded by the government as a way to motivate workers and perhaps recruit new ones for the war effort.
Smitten with the UPI photo, Miller reportedly was said to have decided to base one of his posters on the anonymous, slender metal worker - Mrs. Doyle.
For four decades, this fact escaped Mrs. Doyle, who shortly after the photo was taken left her job at the factory.
...In 1984, Mrs. Doyle and her family came across an article in Modern Maturity magazine, a former AARP publication, that connected her UPI photo with Miller's wartime poster.
..."You're not supposed to have too much pride, but I can't help have some in that poster," Mrs. Doyle told the Lansing State Journal in 2002. "It's just sad I didn't know it was me sooner."
"Everyone was so worried about who was going to want to see Black Swan. I remember them being like, 'How do you get guys to a ballet movie? How do you get girls to a thriller?' And the answer is a lesbian scene. Everyone wants to see that."—Natalie Portman.
Um. I don't even know where to begin with that.
I love the embedded heterocentrism in the gender essentialism—because of course the embedded qualifier is how to get straight guys to a ballet movie. Give 'em a little lesbo action! Between two straight ladies! Ugh.
And since when don't women like thrillers...? Every woman I know, irrespective of her sexual orientation, likes good thrillers, and it doesn't take Dykesploitation Cinema to get us to the theater.
[Trigger warning for racism]
Happy Thursday!
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has ordered the release of Jamie and Gladys Scott, who [TW] have served 16 years for supposedly robbing a man of $11.
Jamie Scott has developed end stage renal failure. In addition to granting both sisters their freedom, this action will allow Gladys Scott to donate a kidney to her sister.
Barbour decided to suspend the sentence, stating "the Mississippi Department of Corrections believes the sisters no longer pose a threat to society." [Emphasis mine]
I suppose coming from [TW] this guy, that's pretty close to a love letter.
Judging from the press release, I'm willing to bet that community pressure was the reason Barbour granted the Scott Sisters their freedom.
I wish Jamie and Gladys well, and send my wishes for good health.
[H/t: Shaker Tabitha Rose]
Jon Swift (aka Al Weisel), a brilliant blogger and satirist, and sometime contributor to Shakesville, used to wrap up each year by asking as many bloggers as he could contact to submit their best posts of the year for a massive roundup of awesome writing.
Weisel died earlier this year, and, in his honor, Batocchio of Vagabond Scholar has compiled a Jon Swift Memorial Roundup.
There's lots of good stuff there.
The piece I submitted is Within Our Souls. I don't know that it's precisely the best thing I've written all year, but it was a piece that meant a lot to me.
[Trigger warning for sexual assault.]
$50,000: The going rate for Very Important Men to sexually harass women without further consequences. Luckily, when you make like eighty zillion biebers a year, that's only like five bucks to your average dude.
[Trigger warning for sexual violence and racism.]
"You could say that a burglar is an unauthorized visitor. You know, you could say that a rapist is a non-consensual sex partner which, obviously, would be considered offensive to the victims of those crimes. So how far could you take this?"—Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who's outraged about the slippery slope of "politically correct" language, after the Society of Professional Journalists suggested that phrases like "illegal aliens" and "illegal immigrants" be replaced with (the morally neutral) "undocumented immigrant."
I don't guess I need to explain to this crowd why refusing to unnecessarily demonize people by (erroneously) referring to them as "illegal" is equivalent to the inherent rape apology of not calling rapists rapists.
[H/T to Mustang Bobby, who hat tips Steve Benen.]
[Trigger warning for fat hatred and diet talk.]
Actual Headline: Is the Economy Making You Fat?
Actual Image Accompanying Story: A fat naked white woman, with her back to the camera, rendering her a faceless fatty if not a headless one. The embedded description of the image is "obese fat woman nude." (If you don't want to click through to Time to see the image, it is also viewable here.)
Actual Photo Caption: Lose your job, pick up a snack.
Actual Fact Missing from the Story: In large swaths of the US, it is more difficult to eat healthfully when one is unemployed, because it is more expensive. See: Salad vs. Big Mac.
It's really pathetic that in the year two thousand and bieber that a publication like Time still cannot put out an article on the subject of the relationship between fresh foods and economic privilege without actually mentioning that fresh foods are an economic privilege, no less without posting a (beautiful) picture of a fat woman's body like it's some kind of hideous warning sign.
My head may implode if I hear one more person say, half-jokingly or (holy shit) seriously, say, with regard to the twenty gerjillion biebers of snow that has fallen across the US in the past few weeks, some variation on: "Where's that global warming I've been hearing about?"
ARGH.
An appearance by our furry family members, in descending age:
[TW for violence.]
The stereotype of conservatives being a collection of cranky white people reeking of patriarchy and privilege exists for a reason: Despite there being conservatives of color, conservative women who consider themselves to be feminists, conservatives who are young or poor or in some other way defy the stereotype, conservatism remains primarily a movement shaped, led, and populated by rich, white, older, straight, cis men. They know that's a problem, in a country that increasingly looks less and less like them, so they make loud sounds about having a big tent. But there's apparently one place where they draw the line: you can't be gay and be conservative.
Two of the nation's premier moral issues organizations, the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, are refusing to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in February because a homosexual activist group, GOProud, has been invited.As Steve Benen notes, perhaps they're afraid of gay cooties and that's why they're acting like a middle-school clique. But what I find more interesting is why there is such a thing as a group of gay people who are conservative in the first place.
"We've been very involved in CPAC for over a decade and have managed a couple of popular sessions. However, we will no longer be involved with CPAC because of the organization's financial mismanagement and movement away from conservative principles," said Tom McClusky, senior vice president for FRCAction.
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, proud distributors of Deeky Brand Sailor Caps.
Recommended Reading:
Cara: California Inmates Receive Mental Health Care While Locked in Cages [TW for ableism, dehumanization]
Living ~400lbs: Things I Would Like to Not Care About [TW for fat hatred and diet talk]
Shark-Fu: Pondering Exceptionalism…
Joe: Texas' Racist Textbook Standards: Challenged by NAACP and LULAC [TW for racism]
Steve: Mecklenburg County Commissioner Reacts to DADT Repeal, Emails Colleagues: 'Homosexuals Are Sexual Predators' [TW for homophobia; rape narratives]
Susie: Looks Like Conservatives Are Just Big Scaredy Cats! and, at her own place: Call the Wahhhmbulance
Alfred Kahn, the man most strongly associated with airline deregulation in the US, has died.
I suspect that he and I would agree on the horrors of government-supported monopolies. Indeed, the high-cost to consumers of a system that guaranteed airlines profits (12 percent, to be exact) despite inefficiency was one of Kahn's motivations.
Where I suspect Kahn and I differ, is in the amount of whether we put faith in the market.
I look at the airline example, and think it'd be possible to lower ticket prices if airline profits were zero percent, even if we were just as inefficient. Moreover, it could be more efficient to just have the one government-run airline. More people could afford to fly, and the people who worked for the airline could continue to afford to feed themselves.
Anyhow, socialism (and social democracy, for that matter), is even less in vogue than usual these days, so I suppose starting that discussion isn't going to make me particularly popular in most quarters.
What I did want to point out (which, I, being born in 1978 and educated in the US wasn't aware of), is that airline deregulation happened on the watch of Jimmy Carter and with help from politicians to his left (including Ted Kennedy and Ralph Nader).
This isn't to say that Republicans haven't championed deregulation. As far as I'm concerned, they continue to make the Democrats look like rank amateurs. (IMO, they've got a habit of doing that.) However, when it comes to believing in government's ability to provide essential services (not merely air travel, but things like electricity, water, telecommunication services) for the citizenry in an affordable and efficient manner, I don't think it's safe to assume that many Democrats have been on board, past or present.
The prequel to George W. Bush's first term didn't work out too well, either.
--
Can you imagine if the blogosphere existed during the Carter administration? That's just scary.
One of the arguments from the right about the tax cuts was that the rich should not be subject to more taxes because they're "job creators", even though unemployment numbers would argue otherwise. As it turns out, they are, in fact, job creators (just not domestically):
Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn't anyone hiring?Job creators my arse. And still there are plenty of people who fall for this horseshit when it's blatantly obvious that corporations are not in the business of helping the US economy.
Actually, many American companies are – just maybe not in your town. They're hiring overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat.
More than half of the 15,000 people that Caterpillar Inc. has hired this year were outside the U.S. UPS is also hiring at a faster clip overseas. For both companies, sales in international markets are growing at least twice as fast as domestically.
[Trigger warning for sexual violence, clergy abuse, and rape apologia.]
The Pope used the occasion of his Christmas address (there's no time like the holidays!) to present a new defense of the widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy:
"In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children," the Pope said.Um. I'm no fucking Professor Seven Sacraments over here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not accurate that Catholics, nor the rest of the population, generally viewed pedophilia as "normal" in the 1970s.
"It was maintained - even within the realm of Catholic theology - that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a 'better than' and a 'worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself."
The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached "an unimaginable dimension" which brought "humiliation" on the Church.Yes, "a better presentation of the Christian message" than child rape would be awesome.
Asking how abuse exploded within the Church, the Pontiff called on senior clerics "to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred" and to help victims heal through a better presentation of the Christian message.
"We cannot remain silent about the context of these times in which these events have come to light," he said, citing the growth of child pornography "that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society" he said.The Pope and I are both deeply concerned about pedophilia and child porn. The difference is that I'm not using their ghastly ubiquity to defend and contextualize the crimes of rapists.
So, while New Jersey (and much of the rest of the northeast coast) is buried under eighty billion metric biebers of snow, Governor Chris Christie is on holiday in sunny Florida. And the Lieutenant Governor is on holiday, too!
New Jersey Copes With Blizzard Without the Governor—or His Backup.
Eric Boehlert's been tweeting the fuck out of this, if you're looking for more info.
Apparently Mayor Bloomberg hasn't exactly covered himself in glory, either.
Discuss.
Suggested by Shaker shiftydiscogirl in comments: What people/quotes/scenes would you like to see on your country's currency?
...for Mitch Daniels? This guy.
What a character!
[H/t to my mom.]
1. Jonah Goldberg loves sarcasm quotes ("transgressive," "free love," "subversive") as much as he hates facts and sense.
2. Jonah Goldberg has a ball of old shoelaces where his brains should be.
Have I mentioned in the last five minutes that my garbage nightmare of a governor shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the presidency...?
No?
Well, he shouldn't.
Seriously.
No.
If you're still not convinced, having heard me kvetch about how he's privatized everything from welfare to highways, have a look at him telling progressives to settle down with their equality business while the grown-ups fix America.
I wanted to take a moment to note the passing of the Estonian kroon into the annals of currency. On January 1, Estonia will become the 17th nation to adopt the Euro.
This is actually an important story in and of itself, but I want to focus on the necessary evil attached to adopting the Euro-- getting rid of the kroon.
Part of the reason for my writing lies in fond memories of my travels in Estonia, but another is that I think currency design can tell you a lot about a nation and the things that those in power value (or at the very least, feel have symbolic value). I think thoughtful currency has worth beyond its monetary value.
The front of the 100 kroon note features the 19th-century poet, dramatist, and nationalist activist Lydia Koidula, while the reverse contains a scene from Estonia's northern coast scene and :gasp: actual poetry. IMO, it's also a beautiful bill:
An actual exchange I just had with my friend Todd, with whom I just saw Tron: Legacy on Saturday night:
Liss: "It's bio-digital jazz, man."
Todd: The dude cyber-abides.
Liss: That grid really tied the digital frontier together.
With Lord Alfred taking up a lot of attention these days, Feather has obviously been getting short shrift. So, it's only fitting that after spending the whole day with her working from home yesterday, I pay homage to my little girl who always knows when and how to strike the perfect pose.
So, MTV has this show called "16 and Pregnant," which features teenage girls who are pregnant and carrying the pregnancy to term, most of whom also go on to parent the children themselves once they're born. Across several seasons, rarely has abortion even been discussed, and only two girls (that I know of) have chosen adoption, one of whom surrendered the baby to her aunt and uncle. The show has spawned a spin-off series, "Teen Mom," which has had two seasons, and a "Teen Mom 2," featuring new teen mothers originally featured on "16 and Pregnant" is set to begin after the new year.
The shows are all about Having Babies.
A young mother featured on the most recent season of "16 and Pregnant" is now the star of a follow-up stand-alone feature called "No Easy Decisions," in which she terminates a second pregnancy. Naturally, because one show about an abortion exists in association with seasons upon seasons of footage of young women carrying pregnancies to term, giving birth, and raising their babies, anti-choicers are OUTRAGED about how MTV is "promoting abortion."
Markai Durham, who was first seen last month on "16 and Pregnant," discovers she is expecting again and must decide whether to have the baby.So not only is this a single incident of a pregnant teenager choosing abortion among seasons of teenagers not choosing to terminate, but MTV is airing the show as a separate episode, broadcasting it at a later time, and generally treating abortion like a fucking scandal, yet still this is somehow "promoting abortion."
Her decision to terminate the pregnancy is the centerpiece of "No Easy Decision" and has pro-lifers up in arms.
The show is so unusual, MTV scheduled it to air at 11:30 p.m. -- well past the bedtimes of the network's youngest fans.
MTV did not make the show available to the media before it airs and has forbidden Markai to give interviews about the subject.
In recent months, MTV has promised to tackle "all sides" of the hot-button teen pregnancy issue.Just LOL. Yeah, birthing babies has really been buried beneath the weight of MTV's unwavering support of abortion. Yeesh.
But pro-life blogger Jill Stanek says she expects a one-sided portrayal.
"This apparently means the pro-life perspective will simply get tackled," she writes.
[Trigger warning for sexual violence and rape apologia.]
Actual Headline in the New York Times: Is It Rape? It Depends on Who Is Asking.
No. No it doesn't.
[H/T to @GABblog.]
Bob Herbert hits another one outta the park:
I keep hearing from the data zealots that holiday sales were impressive and the outlook for the economy in 2011 is not bad.Read the whole thing here.
Maybe they've stumbled onto something in their windowless rooms. Maybe the economy really is gathering steam. But in the rough and tumble of the real world, where families have to feed themselves and pay their bills, there are an awful lot of Americans being left behind.
...There is a fundamental disconnect between economic indicators pointing in a positive direction and the experience of millions of American families fighting desperately to fend off destitution.
It's really too bad that the Washington Post decided to run this important article about the erosion of Roe on the state level, with SCOTUS' help, during a week that's essentially one long newshole. But I guess all the good days were already taken up with whitewashing profiles of anti-choice terrorists. Ahem.
[Related Reading: The discussion following Point 3 here.]
Do you speak more than one language? What languages do you speak? Are there any languages you'd like to learn?
English is my first language. I had five years of German, from eighth to twelfth grade, and I remember enough that I can have a totally awkward conversation with a native German-speaker who knows as much English as I know German, lol.
I also learned the alphabet and a few key signs in ASL when I was a kid; fingerspelling has come in very handy (pun unintended) on several occasions.
I had some Spanish in elementary school, and I can't speak a lick of it (aside from a handful of random words and phrases), but I can usually suss out what's being said if I'm listening/reading Spanish. I'd like to become fluent in Spanish, at some point.
I must have also seen this Tide commercial ten thousand times in the last week:
Email Tide.
I must have seen this Vizio commercial ten thousand times in the last week:
Contact Vizio.
I am passing on this article about Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor leveraging her position on behalf of prisoners for two reasons: 1. Because she is awesome. 2. So we can all gaze contemptuously upon the continuing double standard that makes Antonin Scalia "aggressive" and Sotomayor "demanding."
If your reflexive reaction is to argue that "demanding" doesn't play into misogynist tropes, consider the difference in what "a demanding questioner" versus "a rigorous questioner" actually convey, especially regarding a woman.
For the third consecutive year, President Barack Obama is Gallup's Most Admired Man of the Year: "Obama first became Americans' Most Admired Man in 2008, shortly after his election as the nation's 44th president, and has held the title since then."
For the ninth consecutive year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is Gallup's Most Admired Woman of the Year: "Clinton has dominated the Most Admired Woman title for most of the past two decades, earning 15 No. 1 rankings since her first appearance on the list in 1992."
Let us recall with bitter irony that the most pervasive meme about Hillary Clinton during the 2008 election, even among liberals, was that she is unlikable.
This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Spudsy Brand Bowling Balls.
Recommended Reading:
Tami: Sandra Lee's Kwanzaa Cake and the Problem with Being Inclusive
For those who don't know much about Kwanzaa, but are interested in learning, I encourage you to visit Renee, who's got a good primer and links to further resources here. (Please note that is an encouragement toward listening and self-education, not a recommendation you go to Renee's space and demand that she personally educate you.)
Autumn: On Transgender Servicemembers and DADT; On Community Activism Ahead
Steve: DC Cardinal Says Catholic Church Won't Evaluate DADT
adurhamtamu: Do we need a body count to count?: Notes on the serial murders of Black women. [TW for violence, dehumanization, and racism]
Brad: New Science Committee Chair Ralph Hall Praises 'Tremendous' BP Spill
Echidne: On Ballerinas and Football Players
Fannie: Lady Director Thingy
rho: AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Feelings [TW for sexual assault]
Leave your links in comments...
Buried deep in a CNN article about the "new political reality" Obama and Congressional Democrats will face now that Republicans have recaptured the House majority (that new reality, I suppose, being that Obama will have to capitulate HARDER, or something), is this priceless tidbit:
Republicans have made clear that cutting spending is their top priority. Incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is promising weekly votes on spending cuts, and conservative Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma warned of a national catastrophe if the deficit doesn't get reduced.LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! Yes, EVERYONE will be called on to sacrifice, and the wealthy will have to sacrifice to a greater extent, says the man who vociferously advocated extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest USians and who now wants to pay for them by slashing social programs that serve the poorest USians.
"There will not be one American that will not be called to sacrifice" under the needed spending cuts to deal with the deficit, Coburn said on "FOX News Sunday."
While acknowledging that "those that are more well-to-do will be called to sacrifice to a greater extent" -- a traditional Democratic stance -- Coburn said the increased spending of the past decade under both Obama and former President George W. Bush required immediate and significant cuts to show financial markets and investors here and abroad that the United States is serious about balancing its books.
So, as I've mentioned previously, we're fighting a not-war in Pakistan as an outgrowth of the war-war we're fighting in Afghanistan. And I'm increasingly reading news, care of the ubiquitous Anonymous Officials Who Are Not Authorized to Speak to the Media, about all the people we're killing in our not-war in Pakistan via remotely-controlled drone strikes. Like this one, for instance:
Two suspected U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal region killed 18 alleged militants Monday, intelligence officials told CNN.Of course not. That might entail having to comment on the fact that we're AT WAR IN A THIRD COUNTRY.
It was the latest in a series of aerial assaults targeting insurgents in North Waziristan, one of seven districts in Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
In one attack, a suspected drone fired four missiles on a militants' vehicle in the Mir Ali area of the district, two intelligence officials said. Six people died in the attack.
In the second attack, a suspected drone fired two missiles at a militant hideout in the same district, killing 12, officials said.
Based on a count by the CNN Islamabad bureau, Monday's suspected drone strikes bring the number to 108 this year, compared with 52 in all of 2009.
The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media. The United States does not comment on suspected drone strikes.
1. No, I still do not want to see Little Fockers, no matter how many times I must see that goddamn trailer, no matter how many ads are served while I'm playing Angry Birds, no matter how many talkshows Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman do, no matter how many posters, billboards, flyers, and other marketing detritus I see, no matter how ridiculously cute Ann Meara and Jerry Stiller are on Jimmy Fallon, no matter WHAT.
2. Tron rules. "It's bio-digital jazz, man!" is the greatest movie quote of this year, and possibly any other.
