Monday, June 29, 2009

Ayn and Farrah

Here's an interesting article on how two great ladies, Ayn Rand and Farrah Fawcett, hit it off. (Hat tip to Ed Cline of The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism.)

And here's a video from the big hair days, featuring Farrah's ex.



And now Farrah is the unknown decedent, so to speak. But unlike a certain sick, self-destructive wannabe singer mourned by millions of morons, she will be missed.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Quote of the Day

"Dude, where's my party?"

— Attributed to Arlen Specter

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Fox & Friends?

In a similar vein: If you belong to that mysterious species, the early riser (Annoyinginthemorningand boringatnightus), you probably heard of that show, Fox & Friends.

Now, I wonder, for some truth in advertising, how can it be possible for Fox to have any friends?

Accomplices maybe, but friends?

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Beck Autopsy

The Atlasphere has an article by an intellectually slumming John Stossel stooping to praising something like Glenn Beck. We sure won't have to operate all day long to figure out what went wrong.

The problem with Glenn Beck is that he's a conservative, and like with all conservatives his value system is so full of contradictions that he's of necessity ineffective, no matter how many people agree with him. In fact, it's a wonder he hasn't died of cognitive dissonance yet.

So, to be done with it, let's do a brief Beck autopsy. His principles, as Wikipedia quotes him, are:

1. America Is Good
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday
4. the family is sacred
5. if you break the law you pay the penalty
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with whom I want to
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion
9. the government works for me — I do not answer to them, they answer to me.


Well, #6, #7, and #8 are perfectly fine. But it goes all downhill from there.

Basically, #2 flies straight in the face of #6 — if your life belongs to god, it doesn't belong to you. As does #4 — if family is sacrosanct, all your values that conflict with irrational wants of some random family member are annihilated.

Sure, #1 might be true if you hold that America is the land of #6 — but according to Beck and his ilk it's firstly the land of #2 and #4, which make #6 impossible. And #5 flies straight in the face of #8 — if he disagrees with authority, he'll at some point have to break the law to save fugitive slaves and Jews. Likewise, #3 is at least a tactical mistake — you don't tell the truth to jackbooted government thugs.

Accordingly, if #9 can ever be made to work, I'd love to see how. It sure can't be by conservatives like Beck.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

No News Is Bad News

By guest columnists Margaret Donovan and Richard Hughes of The Twin Towers Alliance.

What we are witnessing at the World Trade Center is a massive failure of imagination. If not arrested, it will undermine the nation that so many have fought for and died to preserve.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week: "It is in the interest of the city and this country to get development going at the World Trade Center site."

He went on to warn us: "There's no easy solution here. We'll try and come to an agreement."

The sad spectacle at Ground Zero is demoralizing our country. As it happens, there is indeed an easy solution for the World Trade Center and the majority of the people have always been in agreement on what that is — rebuild the Twin Towers.

What we want is clearly irrelevant to officials who determine which "answers" will do. But America is only as strong as its social contract.

When officials fail to hold up their end of the bargain, our only hope is a faithful and resolute press.

America was founded on the belief that we, the people, know how to run our affairs. The only way our country will thrive is if those we elect to represent us actually do.

In the past year it has become apparent how completely the official plan for the Trade Center has failed. Unsound from the start, the credit crisis has exacerbated the distress of a project that has been on life-support all along.

At the same time, officials have known that there is a fully developed plan to build 21st-century Twin Towers. The plan would save billions of dollars, years of time, and honor the will of the people, but for some reason that doesn't matter.

The viability of "Twin Towers II" has been recognized as clearly superior by some of the most eminent skyscraper authorities in the world. But instead of analyzing its merits, officials put a bad plan on steroids, closed their eyes, and held their breath — with predictable results.

Now the Port Authority wants to replace two of the four towers with retail "stumps," but instead of canceling the windowless wonder that by any name is still an eyesore, they want to replace the only towers that have a little character.

The latest price tag for the WTC transit station — inaccurately hailed as a "hub" — is projected at between $3 and $5 billion dollars. For not much more we could build two spectacular mixed-used Twin Towers.

And the morbid 9/11 Memorial is again up over a billion dollars and will require another billion-dollar endowment to finance the annual $50 million dollars-plus needed to run it.

It may be privately funded, but why should something that is detested by 9/11 family members, that manages to be extravagant and insipid at the same time, be treated as a sacred cow? Only because the facts are not widely known.

It is time to let the public become part of the solution. People can learn more about the "Twin Towers II" plan and leave their names and comments on the petition at www.twintowersalliance.com.

Between now and June 11th, intensive meetings will be held to examine the options for the site. Now that there is one final chance to get it right, we can't let officials decide our future behind closed doors, because they have a different set of priorities and the public is not high on their list.

Nothing good can come of allowing politicians to hide the details of their discussions from scrutiny. They are not authorized to use the public's money to sell our World Trade Center short, when a real solution has been provided that they won't consider. If they need imagination the people have plenty to spare.

The time has come for a free and probing press to stand up for the public's best interests by challenging the news blackout and by insisting on the people's behalf to know how officials are addressing the robust alternative plan that would powerfully resolve the breakdown.

If there is a good reason to deny the American people the incomparable delight of seeing those Twin Towers reclaim their place in the skyline, let's hear it. Because that's the kind of country this is. It was created of, by, and for the people.

It is the entire country's burden and the entire country's privilege to build a World Trade Center that we can all be proud of. It is illogical and improper that the future of this site should be limited to what the people of New York and New Jersey can afford in an economic slump.

The ideal solution would be for the Federal Government to buy the air rights to the site, form a public corporation, and, while it is being fully funded, to advance Mr. Silverstein the money needed to go full speed ahead with the project to restore the skyline by 9/11/2011.

The two states need the money and the American people need their towers back. Given the chance to fund new Twin Towers and profit from their investment, the people would eagerly rush to be a part of the win-win venture.

There is only one way to make sense of the past eight years. There is no need to justify honest mistakes with dishonest excuses. We have one last opportunity that we can't afford to squander.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Gay Divorce, Then?

Fundies are stupid.

On the one hand, they want to "cure" homosexuals from being gay. On the other hand, they are against gay marriage.

Judging by most all the married couples I've met over the years, there's no better cure for gaiety than marriage. So why are fundies against gay people getting married so they won't ever be gay again?

QED. Fundies are stupid.