Whether it’s Barack Obama or some subsequent pathological megalomaniac, Republican or Democrat, the increasingly ceremonial and quasi-religious aspect of the presidency is unseemly. It is profane. It is unbecoming of us as a people, and it has transformed the presidency into an office that can be truly attractive only to men who are unfit to hold it. – Kevin D. Williamson
This wasn’t an unusually busy week for links, but it was a very good one for quality and variety. Everything down to the first video was provided by Radley Balko, and the video itself (a short sequence from an episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!) by Mancrack. Coincidentally, a link on the same subject was supplied by Furry Girl, and the other links between the videos by Grace (“pigs”), Caty Simon (“Sappho”), Violet Blue (“year”), Clarissa (“headlines”), Jason Kuznicki (“best essay”), Police Misconduct (“seizure”), and Aspasia (“together”).
- Updated catalog of Snowden’s revelations about the NSA.
- Libertarianism even happens to children.
- I hate it when this happens.
- Headline of the week.
- As one does.
- Pigs vs. pigs.
- Suffering Sappho!
- The Year of the Whores.
- What could possibly go wrong?
- How do vaccines cause autism?
- Headline juxtaposition of the week.
- Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
- The best political essay I’ve read in a very long time.
- Cops tase and arrest man for the “crime” of having a seizure.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
From the Archives
- I’m falling in love with my sex worker and she has intimated she feels the same, but already has a boyfriend. Could she be leading me on?
- Cops, debutantes, politicians, robots, Twitter, bakemono, drugs, cats, spiders, zombies, flaming cheese and the school to prison pipeline.
- On the cruelty of denying commercial sex to men who can’t experience physical intimacy in any other way.
- When are professionals considered LEAST knowledgeable about their own job?
- “You’re probably safer with a professional than with a gifted amateur”.
- Forcing massage parlors to close at 10 PM is the latest anti-whore fad.
- Judge throws out most of the charges in the “zumba prostitute” case.
- Cops save citizens of Connecticut from menace of 71-year-old whore.
- Busybodies mind other people’s business most when sex is involved.
- End of government ability to control money can’t come soon enough.
- South African government distributes millions of defective condoms.
- A cute little promo video made at the Sex Worker Freedom Festival.
- Sex workers fight attempt to impose Swedish model on Indonesia.
- Another European government wants to tell women how to dress.
- “Sex trafficking” rhetoric derives directly from Protestant theology.
- Three politicians vow to do all they can to increase the rape rate.
- US sacrifices more children to evil beliefs than Carthage ever did.
- The vileness of arresting whores in the name of “rescuing” them.
- More “stripper licensing” idiocy, with “sex trafficking” nonsense.
- Sometimes prostitution law is like a good news/bad news joke.
- An “app” designed to automate callouts misses one vital point.
- What fraction of male sexual encounters are with prostitutes?
- “Objectification” debunked by Rene Magritte and Captain Kirk.
- Prohibitionist explains that all prohibitions are equally valid.
- It never takes control freaks very long to prove my points.
- High-ranking Swedish official busted for running brothels.
- Another article on the PEPFAR “anti-prostitution pledge”.
- St. James Infirmary provides healthcare for sex workers.
- The legendary scientific detachment of Dr. G. S. Brindley.
- Possibly the most disgusting pervert of the last decade.
- Irish judge refers to Nazis as a “Jewish support group”.
- Being attracted to hot chicks is “socially constructed”.
- American prisons punish prisoners for masturbating.
- The story of compulsive busybody Thomas Radecki.
- In which I change my mind on a few issues.
- How do whores deal with underage clients?
- Ashley Madison has sleazy advertising, too.
- The story of New York City’s “cabaret card”.
- A mobile “panic button” for streetwalkers.
- Slowly but surely, the press is waking up.
- All the hooker songs I’ve covered so far.
- Another advantage of breast implants.
- What testosterone does to women.
- More Nevada brothel gentrification.
- YOU are a computer criminal!
- King of the Hill: Oklahoma!
- My favorite movies.
“Whether it’s Barack Obama or some subsequent pathological megalomaniac, Republican or Democrat”
Do you seriously think that a true megalomaniac would stand for all the blocking of initiatives that the House of Reptiles has been carrying on with? Obama has been one of the most conciliatory Presidents. I wonder how Theodore Roosevelt would have reacted?
Obama has issued fewer Executive Orders than Bush the dumber, Clinton, or that doddering old fraud, Reagan. Even Gerald Ford issued more!
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php
And while I am in some agreement that the state of the union is a sham, as we never have two real, different points of view represented. We have the very capitalist and the mostly capitalist parties, both of whom have failed the majority of people in this country, giving speeches,bizarre right wings rants don’t help.
I totally disagree. Everything is going exactly the way those in power want it to go as part of the theater; some drama is necessary to convince the American people there are two antagonistic parties and three independent branches of government (all of which are separate from big business) instead of the one fascist establishment which actually runs Washington.
The “House of Reptiles” you refer to were ELECTED by the people. When they block initiatives – they are doing their duty. I can’t thing of a single issue where the HOR has acted unconstitutionally when it comes to legislation.
CC – THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO SHUT THE GOVERNMENT DOWN – and SHOULD when the guy at the top goes snakeshit with government spending.
My criticism of the HOR is that they have defaulted on their role as a “check” to the executive branch.
When you compare Bush and Obama – you’re basically comparing two reptiles of the same species – so it’s not really a epiphonic point.
Your basic problem is not with Congress – it’s with the Constitution. You want action – but the founders set the Constitution up to SLOW the wheels of government so that it didn’t spin out of control.
They obviously didn’t make it foolproof though – here we are – spinning out of control.
Just a couple of quick observations, not trying to be rude or anything like that. 🙂 Please excuse my naivete:
“The “House of Reptiles” you refer to were ELECTED by the people.”
And the President was not?
“I can’t thing of a single issue where the HOR has acted unconstitutionally when it comes to legislation.”
My reaction is the HOR may not be acting unconstitutionally, and perhaps I’m not looking hard enough or in the right places, but I see very little strategic “big picture” thinking in either that chamber or the Senate.
It makes me wonder what will happen if/when the Democrats lose the Senate majority this year. Will the Republicans actually put their money where their mouths are and act to prematurely remove Obama from office? Unless it truly is a “Republicrat” situation and all this bloviating about Obama’s actions on the part of the Republicans is purely ceremonial.
“Your basic problem is not with Congress – it’s with the Constitution. You want action – but the founders set the Constitution up to SLOW the wheels of government so that it didn’t spin out of control.”
Yes, slow, not come to an almost complete stop. The only reason Obama is able to get away with what he is proposing is because Congress has been successfully portrayed (by the President or the media or whoever you wish) as hopelessly gridlocked and incapable of accomplishing anything. Heck, they could go and start repealing laws (I wish they would!) and it would be better than the situation we have now.
Perhaps at this point it’s down to what little charisma he has left, but I’d say there’s a reason that as low as the President’s approval rating is, it’s still higher than Congress’. (I’m basing that on recent aggregate readings of the news. If that is no longer accurate, please correct me).
To Maggie: I wonder if you would be interested in this:http://fawstin.blogspot.com/2014/01/bono-sings-praises-of-capitalism.html
Big thumbs up to today’s epigram!
I hadn’t read that article – but my friends and I were discussing the Ogabe’s SOTU address and were nauseated when they heard Congressmen/women applauding when the Tyrant in Chief announced that he would act without congress.
My comment was – it was like the Roman Senate applauding Caesar when he announced he was usurping the Republic.
I wish horrible things on all these people.
>CC – THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO SHUT THE GOVERNMENT DOWN – and SHOULD when the guy at the top goes snakeshit with government spending.
They certainly failed at that when Bush the dumber wanted to run a war on a tab for Haliburton.
So, it’s ok when a Democrat tries to rule by decree, but horrible when a Republican gets his way according to the rules. Say what you like about Bush; he went to Congress and got authorization for what he did, and the people who spent eight years chanting “Bush lied” were liars.
Was Bush doing the right thing? Questionable.
Was Bush steering money to his cronies? If so, so has Obama, and Obama has played far faster and looser with the rules.
Bush pursued a war that was, at the time, wildly popular and did so largely within the rules of the game. Obama has pursued a variety of goals (Health Care, shutting down coals power plants) that are fairly unpopular, and to do so has used his power in a a way that, were he a Republican, would have the Media howling for his impeachment.
Amen Brother!
Bush was bad enough on civil liberties and lack of spending restraint but the current WHO (White House Occupant) has doubled down on everything I hated Bush for. Crony bailouts, NDAA, Patriot Act, NSA overreach and then let’s add the IRS thuggery and a deliberately untrackable firearms transfer program to the Mexican drug cartels.
Not that the Repugs weren’t smooching Bush butt when it came to the same violations as BHO just like Dems are now.
It’s funny that BHO still blames GWB for his problems governing; thing is, I had a GOP activist doing exactly the same thing – Blaming the dems when the Repubs held all three houses and the SCOTUS.
“It’s funny that BHO still blames GWB for his problems governing; thing is, I had a GOP activist doing exactly the same thing – Blaming the dems when the Repubs held all three houses and the SCOTUS.”
And it won’t surprise me one whit when (hypothetically), the Democrats lose the Senate majority this year, a Republican candidate wins in 2016, and when this new Republican president, with his shiny new majorities, can’t fix everything in four years says in concert with his supporters “Well, look at the mess Obama left me to clean up!”
Round and round we go…
Very likely prospect.
I agree with Maggie’s analysis; what we have is DC is single party rule with two wings that pretend to oppose each other. You know, for us Rubes in flyover country. I’m not an Obama supporter or a Reid supporter or a Boehner supporter. Except that I am, perforce. These cretins are living at our expense; parasites engorged on the tax money of the productive class. I guess it’s kind of like having to pay alimony to a woman with a trust fund.