It’s like, why is cheese delicious on Italian food, but when you put it on Chinese food it’s disgusting??

From: Fellow Webloggin contributor Bear at Absurd Report.

I saw this design on a tee shirt advertisement somewhere, and I’ve been looking and looking for it ever since. Still no go. Google is not built for searching for specific images. The tee shirt might’ve even been yanked down. I don’t want to steal a great idea like this, but it would be an even bigger crime to let it go to waste.

And we’re gonna need it. Big time.

Let all who doubt this will come in handy, feast their eyes on what John Hawkins found on YouTube. View only on an empty stomach.

It’s your favorite movie stars! And they’re going to do…a whole bunch of great, wonderful things…that they could’ve been doing anytime in the last eight years.

But they can only cure diseases and end hunger when a democrat is running the show.

Boys and girls, that is today’s lesson in how to make others look like a wild-eyed, overly-zealous, partisan hack — when it’s really you.

Well, I pledge to remain consistent. I bitched about George Bush’s policies when I disagreed with them. And I’m going to continue with my…whatchamacallit…”real patriotic dissent” or what-not, with the new guy.

Consistency. Let’s see the other folks pledge some of that.

Update: Via Gerard, a great argument from Victor Davis Hanson, writing in Pajamas Media “Works and Days” on why we might go inconsistent in the other direction.

It’s enough to send the Microsoft Word grammar-checker into an apoplectic fit. But it makes a great point. Worth a think or three —

If you are a civil libertarian, if you are in the ACLU or a law professor, or a liberal in good standing who swore that George Bush from Texas, with strut and twang and mangled vocabulary, destroyed your liberties with FISA, with the Patriot Act, and with Iraq, then please extend that outrage to Barack Obama, for whom all such shredding of the Constitution suddenly has become merely complex and problematic rather than fascistic. Please list, cite, name just one instance from 2002-8 in which you lost your freedom, or you were censored on the library internet, or you were followed around by the FBI, or your letter to the editor earned a wiretap, or even one instance of the loss of any freedom under Bush—and if so, just one example of how the election of Obama has once again restored your lost liberty. Nothing in the abstract, please—something concrete, an example both real and personal. [emphasis mine]

Update: Reader Jason wonders if this is what I saw.

Ah…gosh, it really doesn’t look like it. But it could very well be. So long as it’s noted that the idea wasn’t originally mine, as inspired as it is, I’m happy.

And I’m looking forward to adding that shirt to my collection. All those other tee shirts I have imploring people not to vote for liberals — they seem a tad bit dated now.

Me, droning on about Atlas Shrugged coming true:

The phrase “In Times Like These” is repeated over and over and over again. Invariably, it’s placed in front of a proposal that, in another setting, would make no sense at all. And still doesn’t. It’s only discussed in vague, highly generalized terms…right after that magical phrase, “In Times Like These.” We have to “stick together,” “in times like these.”

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, defending his decision to join all his fellow democrats in voting to recommend tax cheat Timothy Geithner to become Treasury Secretary — running, among other things, the IRS in the new hopey-changey administration:

One committee member, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a former tax commissioner, said in normal times, Geithner’s failure to pay his taxes would have led Conrad to oppose the nomination.

“But these are not normal times,” Conrad said. He said the economy’s not “out of the woods” and touted Geithner’s extensive experience at a time when the country needs a treasury secretary imminently.

These are not normal times. These are whacky times. These are such strange times, that I have to vote to dump a bucket of gasoline on this burning house, that’s just how bad the house is aflame. Wet is dry, up is down, stupid is smart, kids are wise and experienced, and darn it we just gotta have a tax commissioner who could’ve settled his bills with the IRS any time, and chose to finally get ‘er done when Obama was about to nominate him. That actually makes perfect sense, when it otherwise would not, because these are the times that try mens’…brains.

Why not just come out and say it?

In times like these, we need a monarchy. We need paupers and peers. We need two sets of rules, one for the upper-crusters and one for the riff-raff.

This “nation of laws, not of men” stuff is a luxury we can no longer afford, right?

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

We need one. The comin’-together has gone beyond what’s helpful, and yes I really, really mean that. I’ve been told for the last eight years that the 43rd President was stigmatizing dissent, and now that he’s gone just three days his predecessor’s administration is “quashing” dissent more completely and more effectively than Bush could’ve ever dreamed.

Trouble is, life is motion — eliminate motion, you have to eliminate life. If we’re all sitting around waiting for the Godlike Being at 1600 Pennsylvania to come up with the ideas, there’s no point for any of the rest of us to be here. Deep down, we all know this is true whether we want to admit it or not.

But we aren’t being given the information needed to argue about anything.

So what do we argue about? Here’s a great idea from Buck.

…there was a recurrent theme in the posts the milbloggers I read put up yesterday, and that thought is… “Mr. Obama is MY president, regardless of whether I voted for him or not.” The attitude is both recognizable and understandable to anyone who’s ever served, mainly because the president is also the Big Boss when you wear the uniform. As such, respect for the Commander-in-Chief isn’t just desirable… it’s mandatory… and that respect is something that is instilled in every person who wears the uniform from Day One.

I’m beginning to think Universal Service isn’t such a bad idea, after all. But then again, some people just can’t be taught manners… which includes respect… no matter how hard you try. And don’t feed me any ifs, ands, or buts about someone, anyone, who serves in a position of authority not deserving your respect. I’ve worked for a whole helluva lot of people in my life I didn’t like, including a couple of CinCs, but I damned sure respected their position and authority. It’s all part of being an adult, yanno?

Do we want Obama to fail?

That question deserves much better elaboration before it can be answered. The job is a large, important, complex one. The President is Commander-in-Chief. He is also Propagandist-in-Chief. Obama has the responsibility to see to it the country can weather the latest storm. He will also do his darndest to make sure we have a new generation of people who think it’s good to “spread the wealth around.” The first of those is the continuing survival of the nation; the second of those is toxic to the continuing survival of the nation.

It is therefore self-contradictory to hope Obama succeeds at everything.

My prayer?

That his fuck-ups be confined to the trivial things that don’t matter. And that the citizens take full advantage of this four-year opportunity for learning.

Victor Davis Hanson sums up this week nicely. Hat tip to Rick.

As Obama begins to govern and as the public sees that he simply borrowed Bush’s foreign policy rhetoric, jazzed it up with his cadences and pauses, and then took either Bushites or Democratic centrists and called them hope and change…and as the gaffes begin…the fawning media will begin to look embarrassed, then ridiculous, and finally completely bankrupt. They offered no audit of Obama, no tough treatment, no honest examination of his flips, no balance in their treatment of Bush, and they will soon pay a terrible price for that derelection and worse, as the public sees them as the state megaphones that they have so sadly become.

The running family joke is that each morning, as I pull the complimentary newspaper into the hotel room and read the headline on Page A1 above-the-fold, it’s always the same: “He’s Still Awesome!” But there really isn’t too much joke to it. Truly newsworthy events? Just one: He signed something about closing down Gitmo in a year.

The rest of it is just fluff. All of it. New era, Michelle’s gown, hope is in the air, so much work to do, He confronts a crisis.

It has been a long-held tenet within the leftist schools-of-thought that a truly independent and free press is vital to the liberty of those who consider themselves to be living within a free society. This is one of the more respectable leftist axioms (it certainly beats the snot out of — When you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody).

Well, if that’s true then we just lost our liberty.

If I simply traveled back in time a year or two with video footage and archived newsclippings of this nonsense, the people back then would consider it to be humor. And not good humor. The left-wingers back then would pronounce it to be parody, unacceptable parody, ridiculous parody, “beyond the pale.” It would never happen, they’d intone.

And yet here we are.

We aren’t big on the SNUL (“Sorry No Updates Lately”) here at The Blog That Nobody Reads. However, some of the reasons for our light blogging lately are worthy of comment.

First, we’re on vacation. It’s not that we’re being militant about our relaxation, far from it. Folks who’ve been on vacation will know what I’m talking about; the hours have a way of just going somewhere, y’know?

But the other reason is a bit more important, we think. Millions of others see cause for hope, where we see cause for dread. The sense of urgency we feel in posting the latest thought is much greater, on those other occasions on which others see dread and we’re the ones seeing the hope. Hope is a far greater help than hindrance. You folks are feeling all hopey about your hopey-changey-goodness — far be it from us to urinate upon your parade.

However, along those lines…it’s worthy of pointing out once again. Responsible hope is a product of thought and not feeling. That goes for responsible dread, too. What we have here is a situation in which feeling inevitably leads to hope, and thought inevitably leads to dread.

Let’s comment specifically on some of the news bits. There aren’t very many of them this week, in fact, I think this list will be easier to make now than it ever will be again in my lifetime.

Millions Feel Hope: Yeah, because they were told to. Let’s ‘fess up: The news writer who jots down something that is entirely unrelated to You-Know-Who will become a pariah in the journalism community (something that shouldn’t exist in the first place); we will hear nothing about starving people in Burma, drought in Chad, earthquakes in India. A meteor could be thirty hours away from Earth, with apocalyptic consequences for us — and we’d never know. Let’s get candid about something else: If a news guy does jot down something about Whats-His-Face, and it isn’t flattering, that guy will be “on the outs” as well. Every single newspaper looks like the most-popular-kid’s yearbook at graduation time. Hugs! Kisses! That’s news now; may it rest in peace.

Government Will Become Transparent: Could be a good thing. But it doesn’t start-and-stop with transparent government. It’s intended to reduce the tactics and methods available for keeping the nation safe. To provide income for lawyers. Injunctions, suits, writs, et al, about to rise exponentially. That is the point.

The “Angry Black Man” Theme Being Put Out To Pasture: Yes, here, I’ll say something nice about Barack Obama and His Holy Event of being crowned as our new Holy Emperor. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes…A-freakin’-men. Young men of all races, stop pretending you’re Tupac Shakur or Notorious B.I.G. when you’re not Tupac, you didn’t know Tupac, you don’t know anyone who really is like Tupac, and nobody wants you to end up that way. Look people in the eye, stand up straight, say please and thank-you — and if your feet are size eighteen, people will see that without you fanning them out when you sit down like some urban peacock. Stop strutting. Offer those around you some identity (since you’re so desperately in search of one) that has something to do with something besides rage — your President can do it, you can do it. This is a great contribution The Annointed One has made to our culture, and we should make the most of it.

Curious, Introspective, As Contrasted With His Predecessor: I’ve been showered for two years with quotes from speeches, Dreams of My Father, Audacity Of Hope, et al. I’ve yet to hear of a single thing Barack Obama knows about anything culminating from some tidbit of information some person, named or unnamed, gave him. To the best I can find out, He simply “knows” stuff and “thinks” stuff. Is there some anecdotal evidence to the contrary? There is much being written about Him this week, and I have yet to see any of it. It comes down to this: I don’t really know this is a guy who can be told anything He isn’t already prepared to hear.

Information Revolution: With all due respect, don’t be such a silly ass. Obama as an electoral phenomenon, as I’ve been pointing out for the better part of a year, is the antithesis of specificity. How does even the laziest mindset reconcile this? Details flying around in the air, thick and fast, during the Bush Presidency…Katrina…Waterboarding…Weapons of Mass Destruction…North Korea…380+ ppm of carbon in the atmosphere. Suddenly, now that we’ve got a new guy in, it’s all just good feelings — NO hard data anywhere. But we’re supposed to believe facts are being grappled-with now, and weren’t before? How ya figger? Seriously? The only answer I can produce, is that these are grown-up children doing the talking. They want the facts confronted and used for responsible decision-making, but they want them confronted and used by someone else — some “daddy” somewhere — keeping all that hard work away from them. Proxy thinking. We’re being told what to think, by people who are accustomed to dutifully thinking what they’re told to think by yet others.

Michelle Wore (Fill-in-the-Blank): Gag. The sidebar that mentions this should be a sidebar and nothing more, the size of a book of postage stamps. The stories that mentioned this about Laura Bush, if I recall, were the size of a large cup of coffee lying on its side. These stories about Michelle’s dresses cover multiple pages. I don’t really know what her husband is going to do about Guantanamo, or global warming, or what his position is on bailouts, or the Fairness Doctrine, and neither do you. I’m told people shouldn’t be blogging because they don’t have the credentials to prove they’ll be doing journalism right. Is it too much to ask that we see some of that so we know what it looks like? I ask for specifics, I get a link to The Holy One’s web site. Web sites are the dream communicative medium of the public figure who wishes to avoid specific commitments; they can be changed overnight, in an hour, in the blink of an eye. And Obama has a history of such deceipt. The history He does not have, is one of telling us specifically what He’s going to do, in such a way that He’ll be compelled to stick to what He says through thick & thin.

How (Obama/Michelle/Some Movie Starlet) Spent (His/Her/Its) Day, Hour-By-Hour: The demand for this kind of information must exist. It must be keen enough to supplant any demand for other more worthwhile bits of information, that have been evicted from these pages to make room. If you think that isn’t a problem of some kind, you’re nuts. This is why the bitching bloggers are doing their bitching. Yes, they have nothing to bitch about; that much is true. That’s why they’re/we’re bitching. And it’s worthwhile bitching, because things should not be this way.

So Busy, So Much To Do, He Confronts Long List, Confronting a Crisis, Lots of Work, et al: If I hear or read it one more freakin’ time…so help me…SO HELP me…

Not really green at all.

“Everybody wants to be part of history, but as a result you’re going to have people flying in on their private jets, limousines and SUVs cruising around Washington, D.C. keeping everybody warm, and that’s going to have a big carbon footprint,” said Brian Darling, director of U.S. Senate Relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

“For people to make believe that somehow they’re making this a carbon-friendly Inauguration is really just a joke. If they really care that much about the environment, they would not have these millions of people coming to Washington, D.C.”

Well that’s really unfair though, isn’t it? Barack Obama won’t be spending all four years having an inauguration ceremony every day. This is just the marking of a truly exceptional event, right?

Well if you have a working long-term memory, not really. One trait that binds all left-wing initiatives to a common theme is…commonality. How many ideas do they have over there that aren’t really ideas at all, just proposals to “come together” to do something unspecified? Yes, they will only be inclined toward a true inauguration once or twice. But the coming-together is constant and forever. It is a vital part of what they do. It is their prefered method for making bad ideas look good, and making bad ideas look good is something they have to do fairly often.

So it’s rather incriminating that the thing that spews all this carbon they say is so toxic, is the shuttling of butts to a central location. Is that something the Obama administration will be doing once-and-once-only?

Inquiring minds want to know. The survival of our planet depends on it…that’s what they tell me.