[Minneapolis Star Tribune, via PourMeCoffee]

Rhode Island Democrat Peter Palumbo shows why satire is dead: “We’ve all heard of anchor babies. We have something unique to Rhode Island, and they’re called anchor embryos.” [ThinkProgress]

Our guest columnist this morning is Sherwood Anderson.

In the bed the writer had a dream that was not a dream. As he grew somewhat sleepy but was still conscious, figures began to appear before his eyes. He imagined the young indescribable thing within himself was driving a long procession of figures before his eyes.

You see the interest in all this lies in the figures that went before the eyes of the writer. They were all grotesques. All of the men and women the writer had ever known had become grotesques.

The grotesques were not all horrible. Some were amusing, some almost beautiful, and one, a woman all drawn out of shape, hurt the old man by her grotesqueness. When she passed he made a noise like a small dog whimpering. Had you come into the room you might have supposed the old man had unpleasant dreams or perhaps indigestion.

For an hour the procession of grotesques passed before the eyes of the old man, and then, although it was a painful thing to do, he crept out of bed and began to write. Some one of the grotesques had made a deep impression on his mind and he wanted to describe it.

Read more »

Just kill me now:

An outspoken opponent of the so-called ground zero mosque in Manhattan is also taking on Islam in Chicago. 

Pamela Geller, leader of a movement called Stop the Islamization of America, asserts that Muslims are increasingly taking over schools, financial institutions and the workplace.

Geller’s latest campaign against “Islamization” has appeared in ads this summer on top of 25 Chicago cabs. Beside pictures of young women who were allegedly killed by their Muslim fathers for refusing an Islamic marriage, dating a non-Muslim or becoming “too Americanized” is the message: “Is your family threatening you?” and the Web address of LeaveIslamSafely.com. Though the placards appear to offer a haven for young women who want to leave Islam, critics contend the signs stoke fear among passengers and passers-by about the way an estimated half of the city’s taxi drivers worship, and seek to suppress the religious liberty on which the nation was founded.

What is it about Chicagocentric stories about cabbies in August?  Last August, Blackhawk star Patrick Kane punched out a cabbie in Buffalo over… twenty cents.   (It turns out that Kane had a decent year after that — silver in Vancouver, Cup-clinching goal against Philadelphia in June.)  Now: this crap.

If this Geller [REDACTED] has a tenth of the success that Kaner got…. Jesus.  I need a drink.

Wonder why Republicans/Teabaggers/Conservatives are shitting the bed?  Well, there’s a black man in the White House, and the GOP’s white base is not pleased – they long for, and are receiving, a revised Southern Strategy from the GOP. And don’t forget – Nixon invented it, but their god perfected it:

On August 3, 1980, Ronald Reagan gave his first post-convention speech after being officially chosen as the Republicannominee for President of the United States at the Neshoba County Fair. The speech drew attention for his use of the phrase “states’ rights” at a place just a few miles from a town associated with the 1964 murders of civil rights workers. Reagan said, “I believe in states’ rights … I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment.” He went on to promise to “restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them”.^[2] The use of the phrase was seen by many as a tacit appeal to Southern white voters and a continuation of Richard Nixon‘s Southern Strategy, while some argued it merely reflected Reagan’s libertarian economic beliefs.

I got your Gipper right here, and he’s a racist. If you make your first campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, you admit as much.

The Beeb is reporting that more than 20 million residents in Pakistan have been forced out of their homes due to the widespread flooding that has left more than one-third of the country under water and an estimated 2,000 people drowned.

Cholera and other water-borne illnesses are widespread, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that more than 200,000 people are suffering from acute diarrhea and about that many people also experiencing acute respiratory problems.  Another 3.5 million children are at risk of water-borne illnesses, according to the United Nations.  The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that a quarter million farm animals have been killed to date in the flooding and 700,000 hectares of farmland are destroyed.  The Pakistani government has been unable to respond to the crisis, with more than 6 million citizens living in the open countryside with no potable water or food.

The weather forecast for the coming weeks is more rain during the monsoon season. Read more »

Title: “Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto”

Authors: Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe

Rank: 45

Blurb: “This groundbreaking manifesto is essential reading for tea party activists — or any American seeking to understand what the Tea Party is fighting for and what’s next for the movement.”

Review: “A WORD OF CAUTION: If you join the Tea Party movement and begin speaking out and taking action to defend our US Constitution, there is a very high chance that those who call themselves progressives (who fight to remove our Constitutional rights) will become offended. And because they don’t have a high regard for following laws, (because they equate liberty with the freedom from moral discipline), there is a high chance that they will treat you in the same way they treat conservative politicians and they will try to accuse you falsely of wrong doing. They will lie about you and perhaps call you a racist. All of these things are meant to harm your reputation.”

Customers Also Bought: “The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America,” by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer.

Footnote: You forgot the “Or”.

Give Us Liberty [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]