The Ugliest American

"Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election." -- Brad Heath, USA Today

Honestly, is anyone surprised by this? The audacity of the den of thieves that calls itself the Federal Government knows no bounds. I, myself, am beyond anger and disgust at this point and can only react with classic, textbook Weltschmerz.

The extended version of Burger King's absolute genius commerical.

Meanwhile, in enlightened, civilized Europe...

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

LL Cool J at the top of his game. The origin of every single nu metal/rap rock/rapcore band can be traced from this single performance.

"There are two kinds of personality cults. One is a healthy personality cult, that is, to worship men like Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. Because they hold the truth in their hands. The other is a false personality cult, i.e. not analyzed and blind worship." - Mao Zedong


I neglected to take my students to the campus-organized celebration of Dear Leader's ascension to great helmsman of the revolutionary cause. I managed to avoid being accused of thoughtcrime by stating that I had class presentations scheduled for today, and thus could not afford the time taken from class to offer our sincere and humble devotion to the Savior of the People.

Nevertheless, when I returned home from my daily toil, curiosity got the better of me and I searched for the text of our fearless leader's address to the people. The following statement in particular aroused my interest:
"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end."

Well, the answers to the following questions are obviously no, no, and no. So does that mean we can stop Keynesian-style interference in the private sector now?

No? Oh well, it was a nice thought anyway. Thanks for throwing a bone to "non-believers" in your address and Long Live Our Glorious Revolution!

Hey, during Obama's speech today did anyone else notice when he was possessed by the ghost of John Maynard Keynes and started speaking in tongues, spouting off gibberish like
"...but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy - where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit"?

How do you exorcize a demon that was channeled through voodoo economics?

Professional mourning, that is paying people, usually women, to lament with shrill ululations for the deceased, has been a time-honored tradition in much of the Near East since historical antiquity. In light of recent events, it seems this tradition has been given new life by the indefatigable Pallywood media machine. As I was perusing the news this evening, I came across this article, which contains a photo of a supposed casualty of an Israeli mortar salvo. Whilst reflecting on the possible causes that give rise to photojournalists' and news editors' pathological glee in subjecting the general populace to necrophilic war-porn on a daily basis, I noticed something familiar in the photo: The woman in the upper right of the photo bares an uncanny resemblance to "Flat Fatima: The Unluckiest Homeowner in Beruit". Perhaps it is my eyes playing tricks on me, but the woman in the photo seems to even have the same tell-tale scar on her left cheek.

If this is true, one must wonder how stupid Reuters and/or Hamas think us to be. Did this woman actually travel from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip to continue her fauxtography modeling career? Is it truly posssible that Hezbollah and Hamas have some sort of horse-trading program when it comes to these things? Of course Reuters, with their "new, more stringent standards" (yes, those are sneer quotes, by the way) will cloak any discussion of this behind a veil of plausible deniability, and if somehow incontrovertible proof of photo staging is shown in this case, Reuters will just toss photographer Ismail Zaydah down the memory hole and continue manufacturing consent for the Ministry of Truth.


UPDATE: The link to the article and photo seems to have been replaced by another story. I couldn't find the original article and photo on the MSNBC website. Down the memory hole indeed.

An absolutely fascinating map that correlates 1860's cotton production in the South to the various counties that voted for Obama in 2008.

This is why we study history.

As one of those crazy, frothing-at-the-mouth, fringe 3rd party voters, today I cast my vote for someone you've never heard of. I don't know (or care) if the pundits consider New Hampshire to be a battleground state or not, but I'm sure that with our winner-takes-all electoral system, I'm bound to anger someone by voting on my principles as opposed to, um, their principles.

By the way...Wait, what?

Both McCain and Obama agree...Service guarantees citizenship!



Would you like to know more?

You know, this the kind of shit does absolutely nothing to disabuse paranoid schizophrenics and/or Evangelical Christians that Barack Obama is not the Antichrist.



Now, wash out your eyeballs and eardrums with this.

More snark commentary from the boys and girls at reason here.



*Bonus: If you can watch the entire video without retching, even once, treat yourself and buy this t-shirt.

Daguerreotype of Cdr. L. Samuel Schwartz, Mrs. Lamyai Khanhong-Schwartz, and Miss Ariya Schwartz - taken after their voyage from Bangkok, Siam to Manchester, New Hampshire in July of 1858 A.D.

i think Mikhail Gorbachev is a pretty cool guy. eh institutes perestroika and doesn't afraid of anything.

Porn Spam: Circa 1914

--courtesy Modern Mechanix

I would like to wish all my friends a very Happy Drunk Obnoxious White People Day!

The Sons of Ether shall rise again!

Everyone is home....safe and freezing!

On December 12th, my family and I will be leaving Thailand and returning to the United States of America....just in time for Angry Jew Christmas. (I'll explain about AJC in more detail in my next post)

As things look, I'll be living in the States for at least 5 years, which is the amount of time it should take for me to get my PhD. After that? India looks good. A lot depends on the state of health of my daughter.

Even though I'll be in my home country, I'll still be "the_expatriate"; my soul has been indelibly changed by my sojourn here. I'll always be a stranger wherever I reside.

It feels like I just arrived yesterday. Amazing.

"Those that scaped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatche, and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and gave them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie." - Sheikh Abu Omar Tariq ibn Muhammad al-Libini al-Haji - William Bradford, leader of Plymouth Colony

Happy Thanksgiving!