I Missed You, So I Tried to Write a Poem or Something

And that didn't go so well. I was going for, "It's been so long since I saw your face, you're kinda blurry in my mind's eye now and that sucks because you and me used to be awesome" but it came out like teen angst, so eff that. Point being there's a lot of folks I've been missing lately and I don't do connecting well, let alone reconnecting, so I'm kinda crabby about it. Especially because a good number of the folks I'd like to reconnect with would probably not be so hot to reconnect with me. Still working on the next step, whatever that's supposed to be.

New Year's Eve!

Fzck you 2010, get the hell out!

***

Awesome, wingnuts, just awesome.

Is Danny Davis completely irrelevant yet? How 'bout now?

STFU, Grandpa.

I have so many opinions on this I don't know where to start. Just like the econ policy vs. identity politics issue earlier in the week, there's no way to have a calm, rational discussion in Chicago about the police force. Problems like this are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.

***

Megalist!

Uh, what?

I hereby declare 2011 to be the year of the Tiny Dancing Penguin.

Last Link of the Year: A Gorgeous Retrospective

wednesday!

Ross Douthat is a piece of crap. Here's my position on "bipartisanship" and compromise: there was no bipartisan compromise to be had on slavery. You either supported slavery or you opposed it, and there was no way legislation could have been crafted that would have "respected" both positions on the issue. There's simply right and wrong, and we chose correctly in enforcing an outright national ban.  The left needs to start getting a whole lot louder about opinions held on the right that neither need or deserve respect. You don't think women are free people? Refuse to acknowledge that climate change is a problem? Then get the fzck out of the way and let the adults work. To wit: "There is a real price to be paid for sacrificing fundamental human rights in the name of compromise."

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How You're Being Fzcked Today: one

Looters!

This is long but worth it; I feel a whole lot smarter.

Ongoing: Fzck the TSA

A pretty good argument for putting Wired in the doghouse.

The War on Sick People. And the Hollywood War Machine.

File Under: Inhuman Monster President

More on identity politics: one, two

Some good counterarguments in comments, but yeah.

***
I am totally down with this particular Jesus.

Love these.

Gamers: what is wrong with this kid?

Beautiful Words.

Kitties of the Year.

tuesday!

It's getting harder and harder to come up with interesting ways to linkbait stories this, this or this. I may just switch to a "How the Rich/Elite Are Fzcking You Today: one, two, three" model, because it's all day-to-day variations on the same theme of 'kill the poor.'

John vs. John

And you, of tender years / Can't know the fears that your elders grew by / And so please help them with your youth / They seek the truth before they can die.

"Nothing is more important to the establishment and continuation of a democracy than a rigorous inheritance tax." More here, but take your blood pressure meds before you click through.

I am overwhelmed by the human empathy on display in comments. And related info that's fueling some of the hostility.

Holy fzckballs do I hate Republicans: one, two

Okay, so does this meet the standard for a lawsuit claiming that citizens are being denied a right to a speedy trial? If not, how many vacancies would be enough for folks to make some noise? The current backlog must be outrageous.

Erasing Labor. If you have a job, you are under attack.

This is pretty much the same response I gave Tom when he brought up how much stuff Obama got done before the end of the session.

***

Daley's greatest hits. You can't go in your pants, guys.

LOL

Latest and best evidence that Comedy is the new Truth.

LOVE this.

BUNNIES: one, two

Sqrls! Catbun! Dolphins!

Baby Steps

Trying to get back into writing more mid- to long-form pieces, mainly to exercise my copywriting muscles and hopefully find a new gig. It's almost unbearable. But I'm working on it.

monday!

Must-Click of the Day: I agree in principle on focusing on a "basic economic worldview" but I don't really see how you can separate that from "identity politics." SPK cites "economic and educational inequality" as one of the "true evils" that needs to be addressed, but how could you craft a philosophy addressing those inequalities that *doesn't* consider the racism and sexism issues he dismisses as boondoggles in the previous sentence? I'm guessing he's thinking of policies like the CPS test balloon floated last year re: shifting public school student placement/distribution from a race-based model to a household-income model. There were instantaneous cries of Racism! that had to be addressed when talking about the policy, so even if racism or sexism aren't directly addressed within a given policy proposal, they'll still need to be acknowledged and discussed at some point. You can't just avoid the issues that make people reactionary when you're talking radical economic policy change. Alternate example: I'd consider one of our bigger problems right now (after the Wars and staving off catastrophic entitlement reforms) to be the huge-and-growing prison industry. How the fzck do you talk about sensible prison reform without talking about racism, immigration policy, and prison rape culture? I don't know if it's possible.

***

Yeah, the west side's pretty nice, sure would be a shame if something happened to it. Better get behind Rahm now or suffer the consequences.

Post-mortems on the Net Neutrality compromise: one, two

YES PLS

Re: the notion of a "statute of limitations"--fzck you, Howard Kurtz. The experience and wisdom that comes with age means you have even LESS of an excuse to be a bigot, not more.

The phrase "doubling paid maternity leave" really stuck out for me. I can has, pls?

CRAP

Of *course* he did. And "of course" part two.

***

Somebody put something in Pat Robertson's coffee.

Whoever put this video together had to have suffered brain damage, right?

This doesn't strike me as comprehensive but it's a nice overview.

STFU conservatives is one of my new favorite sites: one, two

Ooh, I want one of these.

This looks really, really good.

***
I have puppy fever something fierce. Should we get a dog, perhaps specifically this one or this one? I love both their wee faces.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Merry Christmas, freaks!!

I totally thought this song was by Jason Mraz or something. I don't know if Train makes it better or worse. Also, to put on the Grouchy Old Person Hat for a second: Sweet Jebuddha is that a breathtaking Top/Bottom Twenty. Scott Stapp covering Fortunate Son might literally be the worst thing I've ever heard, and I'm including that time in high school when my mom took me to the ER with abdominal pain and they brought in a dude who was in a motorcycle crash and screaming from the road rash. Yeah, I'm committing to that: Scott Stapp is worse than road rash.

I demand to see this Photoshopped immediately.

I am maybe not totally opposed to this idea. Is that nuts?

WTF indeed.

I hope so, it was on my wish list to Santa this year.

It's a Christmas miracle: Mike Huckabee says something not-crazy.

I have no idea what I'm looking at here, but I like it.

And I have absolutely no idea what this is about.

Christian love and charity.

lol ur dead butt.