JABbering Stooge

Adorable Girlfriend at The Republic of Dogs posted this today. Following the link provided, I also found this item being advertised for sale:

Product Description

Every town has a Crazy Cat Lady. Shes the one who lives in a tiny house full of feral felines. This 5-1/4 inch tall, hard vinyl Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure has a wild look in her eye and comes with six cats.

Don’t get any funny ideas, people.

They’re talkin’ ’bout
The night Althouse went crazy
The night Althouse spewed pea soup
To get out of bein’ called on her bullshit
There’s no depth to which she wouldn’t stoop

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be trivializing the subject I’m about to rant about by putting it to “Weird” Al Yankovic lyrics, but there it is.

Yes, I’m going to be talking about the Ann Althouse vs. Garance Franke-Ruta dustup. In particular, I wanted to discuss one aspect of the Jessica Valenti Breast Controversy™. What really gets my goat about the whole exchange is that she seems to think that it’s okay for her to hyperventilate over the slightest criticism of her over-the-top ad hominem attacks on legitimate feminists for the crime of being seen with an alleged sexual harasser, and then turn around and dismiss out-of-hand complaints about actual felonious threats and general misogyny as <Althousian sneer>so much clutching at pearls</Althousian sneer>.

Listen Ann, let’s do a little thought exercise here. Those offensive comments over at AutoAdmit that you deride as “boys being boys” - comments that, quite frankly, make me ashamed to have a Y chromosome - aren’t as nonthreatening as high-school yearbook photos or appearances on Candid Camera, where the mark at least had some idea of what was going on and could thus be a good sport about it. Oh, no. This was clearly delving into Monty Python-esque “wink-wink-nudge-nudge-say-no-moah” territory. (Candid photographs, eh? He asked knowingly.) Exhortations of the sort that would earn the pervert a well-deserved scream of “Chikan!!!” on a Japanese subway.

So here’s the integrity check, Ann. If you had been subjected to constant online harassment that frequently goes below the belt, so to speak, along with threats against both your life and your person, to the point where you have to bow out of a technical conference you’re scheduled to speak at out of fear for your own safety, wouldn’t you “get a little hysterical” and demand police protection? Judging from your reaction to Garance’s probe, I’d say the answer is yes.

And yet you wonder why liberal bloggers consider you to be a strawfeminist.

Granted, the latest bit of George Will prattle has been expertly dissected by people more eloquent than I already, but I thought I would point out something that has been missed in all the snarky commentary on the column - something that David Neiwert has a particular expertise in identifying and analyzing.

Don’t believe me? Check out this passage and tell me that it’s not just a little bit eliminationist (emphasis mine):

Under the headline “San Franciscans Hurl Their Rage at Parking Patrol,” the New York Times recently described the verbal abuse and physical violence — there were 28 attacks in 2006 — inflicted on parking enforcement officers in a city that has a surplus of liberalism and a shortage of parking places. Parking is so difficult that George Anderson, a mental health expert, has stopped holding lectures there because his audiences arrive seething about their parking frustrations. Anderson represents the American Association of Anger Management Providers.

A surplus of liberalism? Mr. Will, is there something you’d like to tell us? Do you, in Jerry Duncan-esque manner, wish you had a dirty bomb handy to rid San Francisco of all the liberals? Do you see liberals as “surplus population” to be done away with at some higher authority’s discretion?

Come, George, sit on my (armchair psychiatrist’s) couch…

So, I finally got a letter to the editor published in the local fishwrap, almost two whole weeks after I sent it!

Here it is, in all its DeLayed glory:

Walter Reed is IAP failure

I have a newsflash for all of those rushing to blame government bureaucracy for the appalling conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. IAP Worldwide Services was given a contract to provide services at Walter Reed, including facilities management.

This is the same company that was entrusted to deliver ice to Hurricane Katrina victims but sent the ice trucks just about everywhere except New Orleans.

Next time, do some actual research before mouthing off about how every single thing government does is horribly wrong and every single thing the private sector does is absolutely right.

J. BAKER

*With apologies to Atrios

I thought that it would be a good idea to share the pictures I took of the vigil with you:

The group mills around for a few minutes before taking up positions along the Congress Avenue bridge

The owner of this very well-behaved and friendly Pyrenese-Labrador mix decked out his canine friend in anti-war parapharnalia.

My dream as well…

Taking back patriotism from the Reich-wing nutters who have usurped it…

Tyranny Response Team - very appropriate to the thugs in charge, even if the shirt comes from Alex Jones…

We’re also taking religion back from the righties…

Heh. Indeed.

By far my favorite sign from the vigil.

Although I feared violent confrontation, all we got was a Blathering of Smeagols (hat tip: Sadly, No! commenter kingubu) - a middle-aged black wonam who kept ranting incoherently and flipping us the bird. A group of us, including the Tyranny Response Team lady (see what I mean about how appropriate it was?) managed to talk her down from confrontation.

Four years ago today, this was happening:

MoveOn.org is sponsoring Iraq War vigils around the country today, and Austin is no exception. I’ll be down on the Congress Ave. bridge with the rest of the Austin MoveOn folks tonight. Given APD’s reputation in recent years for being a bit quick on the trigger, I’m hoping that this doesn’t turn into another Tacoma, WA, but we’ll see.

Another factor to consider in determining whether or not we can pull this off without interference will be the reaction of the pro-war crowd. If their thuggish behavior this past weekend is any indication, and if they show up in significant force, expect things to get real ugly, real fast.

Conservative incompetence knows no bounds, it seems. Roger Ailes (the good one) notes (via Lawyers, Guns and Money):

It’s taking longer than expected for Jonah Goldberg’s ghostwriter to finish his long awaited worstseller, I Heart Hitler: Without You, Adolf, I’m Nothing. Back in 2003, the Pantload’s publisher was promising a 2005 release date. As 2005 passed, Goldberg promised a March 2007 release date, and then a September 11, 2007 (!) release date.

The dupes at Doubleday are now announcing a December 26, 2007 release date which, no doubt, will roll over to a 2008 date by the end of Spring.

PA-THE-TIC.

If this were the software industry, particularly the computer/video game software industry, this project would’ve been declared vaporware after the third delay and two years with nothing to show for it.

Clinton’s Penis! Clinton’s Penis! Clinton’s Penis!

That’s the only possible explanation I can come up with when I see recent news items involving John Edwards. First professional outrage maven Bill Dono-spew goes apeshit over Edwards’ hiring of two feminist bloggers, flinging feces nonstop until the bloggers step down. Then Ann Coulter flings verbal feces in the form of a homophobic slur at Edwards at CPAC. Conservatives yuked it up and continued along that line every time they talked about Edwards. Then his virtual HQ in the MMOG Second Life was vandalized by right-wing thugs.

Now this: yet another hoax anthrax attack - this time against Edwards’ real-world North Carolina headquarters.

It’s just the latest round of right-wing eliminationist rhetoric, which follows a certain pattern:

1. Lie about or smear a liberal politician/celebrity/activist.

2. Up the ante by engaging in McCarthyesque suggestions that your target be blacklisted as insufficiently patriotic.

3. Make comments oozing with the Untermensch Syndrome aimed at dehumanizing your target in the eyes of your readers/listeners.

4. Suggest that your target is an immediate danger to America just by existing, and that “something needs to be done.”

5. Finally, when the inevitable happens, deny responsibility.

Back during the Chad Castagana affair, David Neiwert had this to say:

In the meantime, we all can probably look forward to a fresh round of white-powder-in-the-mail stories, all inspired by exploits of Chad Castagana. That’s the way it always seems to work.

This looks to be the first such story. God help us all.

Today, 3/14, was Pi Day - one of those obscure “holidays” that only nerds celebrate. At my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, people would write on the sidewalks in chalk the first 100 digits of the number π. Usually, this would be accompanied by anti-Euler “graffiti” (e.g., Euler suxx0rz!!!!!11!!1!!1!11!!) and lame sex jokes (*snicker* six nines *snicker*).

So, Happy Pi Day everyone!