Oh, the Mendacity of it All

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is one of my "favorite" congressional Republicans. If Michelle Bachmann is the queen of the GOP crazies, Rep. King is a front-runner for the title of emir of Republican idiots. Here he is defending the "mendacity" of the House Republican leadership.

"As I deliberate and I listen to the gentleman from Tennessee, I have to make the point that when you challenge the mendacity of the leader or another member, there is an opportunity to rise to a point of order, there is an opportunity to make a motion to take the gentleman's words down, however many of the members are off on other endeavors and I would make the point that the leader and the speaker have established their integrity and their mendacity for years in this Congress and I don't believe it can be effectively challenged and those who do so actually cast aspersions on themselves by making wild accusations," King said.

Some of Rep. King's other greatest hits include describing Barack Obama as our "urban" President, describing the Watergate scandal as "a little break-in by a couple of guys," voting against Katrina aid, claiming President Obama would lead us into a "totalitarian dictatorship", and decrying Obama using his middle name in his swearing in.

On the other hand, he did inspire one of my favorite photo-shops ever, so I guess he has that going for him.

Ted Williams Reunites with his Mother

I've been following the Ted Williams story (the homeless man with the golden radio voice), and it's definitely been having an effect on me. But this video, where he finally reunites with his mother after so many years, really is causing me to tear up.



Good luck, Mr. Williams. We're all rooting for you.

Blog Cite Alert

My 2008 blog post, Second Thing We Do, Objectify All The Men, has been cited in Ann R. Fischer, Sonya K. Bettendorf, and Yu-Wei Wang Contextualizing Sexual Objectification, 39 Counseling Psych. 127, 131 (2011) (subscription only).

Eventually my actual scholarly work will catch up with this blog, but today is not that day.

Self-Immolation

If I remember my history correctly, one of the things which stymied the advance of the John Birch Society was its inability to keep its wild conspiracy-mongering contained merely to leftward targets. When Dwight D. Eisenhower became the subject of the JBS' ravings, it proved the last straw for respectable conservatives, and the power of the organization was broken once and for all.

Over the past few weeks, there's been a bit of a crack-up regarding the participation of gay Republican groups in CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference). CPAC's refusal to ban gay organization has led to a boycott movement by several members of the social right, such as the Family Research Council.

But that apparently isn't enough. Now, CPAC opponents are saying that -- you guessed it -- the hosting organization is a front for efforts to bring Sha'riah law to America. No, really.

The wild-eyed conspiracies that the Muslims are taking over American law and life have became staples of Republican discourse (Sharron Angle famously alleged that Shariah had taken hold in Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas). But it's the sort of allegation that can very easily stop promoting esprit de corps and start being fratricidal, and that's where I think we're heading. Which is a good thing. Watching this vile nonsense rip apart its progenitors would be a rare example of political karma.

Bachmann for Prez!

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), the doyen of the "crazy" caucus of the GOP, is considering a run for the Presidency. For those of you unfamiliar with the Minnesota Congresswoman, she's like if you took Sarah Palin, and injected a metric ton of LSD into her eyeballs.



Unfortunately, this quality makes it hard for me to know what she would bring to a primary that Sarah Palin wouldn't. And unlike Palin, who has a professional class of worshippers who have managed to persuade themselves that she's not utterly toxic, even Republicans seem to realize that Bachmann is a nutjob.

But I shouldn't be greedy. Successful primary campaign or no, I'm sure Rep. Bachmann will continue humiliating Republicans on the front pages of newspapers nationwide.

Flare-Up

Another skirmish with my laptop's wireless capabilities today, but one which I eventually pulled out a decisive victory (by changing my IP address).

This

Jon Chait:

The constituency for entitlement cuts -- which is the sine qua non of any serious reduction in the size of government -- is 7% of the population. Which is to say, actual small government conservatism -- as opposed to opposition to unspecified waste or a misunderstanding of the size of the foreign aid budget -- is essentially nonexistent at the popular level.

By contrast, raising taxes on the wealthy as a step towards deficit reduction carries with it the support of 61% of all Americans.

Who Could It Be?

I saw the headline: "GOPer calls Obama administration 'corrupt'", and immediately guessed "Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)!"

And, no surprise, I was right!

Apparently, Issa realized he might of stepped too far when he said Obama himself was "corrupt", but still -- let the witch-hunts begin!

Bringing in 2011

I figured I needed to get a post up before this new year gets ancient. So -- Jill and I are sick, suffering from a bad case of the 24 minute flu. It was kinda bizarre, actually -- we both have had a pretty stuffy head cold, and then (about two hours apart last night -- she had it first) we both suddenly felt really sick (nausea, chills, that sort of thing). That lasted about a half-hour, and then it went away and we were back to the head cold.

Weird. Anyway, it seems like literally everyone I talk to is sick with something or other. So feel better, everyone, and have a happy new year!