Douchebag of the Day

Careful, the stamp has a special glue on the back — if you lick it, you will become a droid in Obama’s Army of Islam.

@Dodgerblue: Yes, and then he will activate the children in his call to arms.

Piper? Isn’t that one of the Snowbilly clan?

Eid Mubarek everyone.

Better not tell him about Arabic numerals.

@nojo: COTD!

I think it’s high time that Obama’s crew tries some culture-jamming on the RW crazees. Imagine if he came out with a “new prescription drug benefit program” – actually, just a exact rehash of Medicare Part D that Bush was lauded for passing. How long would it take for Fox News to come out with a story about how “Obama is going to steal grandma’s medicine”?

Then, after a couple days, point out how this is what already exists. We all know none of the screamers would actually *read* what they were yelling about…

The Stupid is very strong with that one.

There’s a certain irony in sending out a message via free electronic mail telling “patriotic Americans” not to purchase stamps to use in the American postal service.

@Jamie Sommers:
I’m betting he also doesn’t like the Big Bang and da Gay. This makes the irony of his using email even worse as the physics that runs the very computer he uses is based in large part from the theory of the big bang (Superstrings) and the SW he uses comes from the Father of Computer Science, Alan Turning–a brilliant man who happened to like other dudes.

@ManchuCandidate: After running extensive Turing Tests, I’ve determined that most folks think computers are more human than fundies.

@al2o3cr: The only problem with that plan is that then we would have a bunch of idiots running around thinking Obama’s gonna steal grandma’s drugs, and they’d never change their minds. It doesn’t matter if it’s fact or reality or myth or hyperbole. There’s just a segment of the population who doesn’t want a black guy for president, and are going to run with any reason they can wrap their mitts around to say he shouldn’t be there.

The people who aren’t them, who aren’t running around shouting about birth certificates or death panels or whatever else, they already think the birthers are idiots. They don’t need any more proof, or at least more proof isn’t going to prompt them into further action than they’ve already taken, ie. none whatsoever.

@IanJ: There’s a classic psychology study, the details of which I’ve long since forgotten, but it goes something like this:

Three guys each thought he was Jesus. To jolt all three back to reality, the shrinks put them all in the same room. But instead of realizing the untenability of their delusions, the three quickly worked out a universe in which three Jesuses makes sense.

So, yeah: The wacky wingnuts are beyond help. All we can do is convince them they’re capable of walking on water, and drive them to a deep lake.

@nojo: And just ignore the Fox News babbling about them.

@nojo: Darling, that’s called the Trinity.

@Benedick: There’s only one trinity I recognize – Manny, Moe, and Jack.

@blogenfreude:
for me, it’s moe, larry and curley

@baked: Them too.

@blogenfreude: Black Sabbath is my higher power.

@baked: I’ll give you such a zetz.

@Promnight:

i cannot stop laughing at a comment you made a week or so back.
i’ll be needing medical intervention for LHS…laughing hyena syndrome.

“joe lieberman (L- Israel)”

@blogenfreude: Huh?

@baked: They scare me. But I’m easily scared. Chaplin scares me. Jackie Gleason makes me hide under the bed.

Oh and right, Jesus and… thing and whatsit… See, what you can’t reach around is that he is reported to have said…. oh why do I bother? Who gives a shit? I will not play their game. It is to laugh.

@Benedick: http://www.pepboys.com/

@baked: @Benedick: The stooges scare you? Oh, my, Benedick, the stooges, they are, well, something that is, they just are. You need to know yiddish at a high level to get all their little asides.

I am not usually a fan of physical comedy, I like the intellectual stuff, mostly, but then, look at Cleese, is he not the highest example of both? The ministry of silly walks, Fawlty Towers, he is all three stooges all through that, and he is also one of the brightest of comedians.

“Slowly he turned, step by step, inch by inch,” oh, Benedick, the stooges had a genius that transcends thought, its pure, like zen.

@baked: Oh, Baked, it was not that good, I mean, ya know? There’s lots of PC places where joking that Lieberman is Likkud would get someone banned. Thanks though.

It was my distinct honor to meet Mellbell this weekend, by the way, ya’ll, and what a good time was had, would love to repeat the festivities with more stinquers in attendance. The east coast is beautiful in the fall. Anyone? Buehler?

@Promnight: OMG, isn’t she the sweetest and most adorable person ever?! I worry that her hanging around us is going to turn her into a bitter cynic like the rest of us. And I’m so jealous of her, because I suspect that you cooked for her, and you *still* haven’t done that for me.

I’m heading east in November and December. A little late, because there’s nothing more gorgeous than the mid-Atlantic and northeast in late September/early October. Almost makes up for your horrific July and February weather. Almost.

How about you get you and Mrs. Prom out to NorCal or Oregon for the fall wine harvest?

Rumor has it there’s a Chicago Stinque-up happening in late October.

@Benedick:

having lived in israel for 6 months, i have a new perspective of religion.
it’s even more stupid than i thought.

i’m afaid of christophers: buckley, walken, and chriss-to-pferrrrrr!!!

@baked: Walken is the least scary of that trio.

I can only imagine how surreal it is to live in The Holy Land ™. And I love you even more than I already did for the line “i have a new perspective of religion. it’s even more stupid than i thought.”

How’s the Q doing on your keyboard? How many minutes until you’re on your island?

@baked: Honey, you and me both.

@Promnight: OK, wait, now wait.

Professional comedians scare me. Because of their violence. As far as the genius of Chaplin goes, I admire it mightily but it gives me the creeps. That smile. Apart from Limelight. I start to weep 15 minutes in and have to be taken out of the cinema on a gurney. The scene with Keaton where their legs/arms/etc get short? I weep buckets. But the Stooges do not charm me. Again, I admire it mightily but am very glad I never had to talk to any of them. Once, when the world was young, I worked with Maureen O’Sullivan (I know I’ve been down this road before, bear with me) – a lady of surpassing generosity and wit (Tarzan’s first Jane?) – as an ingenue she was in A Day At The Races. One day at rehearsal a junior member of the cast – not me- said to her about said fillum “But wasn’t it hard to keep a straight face? Being around the Marx Brothers and such as?” Miss O’Sullivan gave her a sweetly dimpled smile and said “Oh no. But then I never thought they were very funny.” And she went straight to my heart.

I draw a distinction between professional comics who do gags and the real stuff of comedy. I would lump Marxists, Stooges into such gag category. Mr. Cleese is another creature altogether and one much closer my own heart: he is a farceur. Right after God created light and cable internet, he created farce. Farce is what comics would do if they knew how. It is silliness raised to bliss. Physical comedy, in the right hands, is the poetry of the soul.

To repeat: this is only my own somewhat crabbed take on the childhood gods of others. I wouldn’t blame you at all if you hauled off and took a massive dump on me. Most likely I deserve it. But- in my defense- (this is getting awfully Rumpole of the Bailey) I have spent most of my working life trying to work out why things are funny. And I have no idea. Which I like. It’s the comedians who have theories; the rule of three; the K sound. I hate it. I find it philistine. Comedy needs mystery if it’s to soar. And while I can admire those scenes with three of them poking each other’s eyes out I’d just as soon not have to watch. It scares me.

Oh and plus, I have a theory. (Hooray!) I have begun to wonder if comedey isn’t about showing us where the limits are, what can and can’t be said. So it is an essentially reactionary art. The stand-uppers (oh God, I wish they’d all sit down! Not Chris Rock) all retail views of what is permissable. They go to the edge of what can be said and the frisson produced makes us laugh.

All right. It’s late. You do better.

@blogenfreude: Oh, right, Roger Wilko.

@SanFranLefty:

i don’t know how that letter is doing…it still won’t talk to me!

i have so much to tell…yes, surreal,more later, now i have to walk the horse-dog.

what happened to our scrabble game? whoses turn is it?
you know, this is a BIG one for me!

lerves ya mama rabbi lefty! (didja know rabbi means teacher?)
IDNKT!