Well, maybe they are.

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen.

Bye Bye Barry

Joel S. Hirschhorn

The final results are in on this historic November day. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he raised, Barack Obama has lost the 2008 presidential election. American voters have boldly spoken truth to arrogance. Turned out that all those pre-election opinion polls that showed Obama’s inability to get over 50 percent support were prescient. Much of the public was never comfortable with Obama, though he clearly was so comfortable acting like he already was president.

George Carlin has died at age 71.

Fuck.

And I use that term very deliberately given that Carlin's "Seven words you can't say on TV" ultimately became the focus of a Supreme Court case about obscenity and censorship.

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-- Signed, The Author (On behalf of the site administrators and any offended community members.) [I concur with this statement. - Ender]

As many here at Swords Crossed are aware, I am a steadfast advocate for following the Golden Rule. So much so, in fact, that I assume that my political opponents are all honorable people who, themselves, likewise follow the Golden Rule. As such, I feel duty bound to treat Democrats and "liberals" the same way that they are treating people on my side of the political aisle. The logic being, of course, that since my opponents are following the Golden Rule that they must be treating me the way that they, in fact, want to be treated themselves.

I was surfing around the web looking for a piece of humor to mirror the satirical humor so often found on the liberal side of the web but from a right wing point of view. I found this piece from a random blogger who shall remain nameless on a website that shall likewise remain nameless, which fits the bill perfectly.

The author, not unlike myself, is angry about how cruel satirists can be when making their points. As such, the piece that follows targets left-wing satirists and their art by demonstrating the cruel realities of how their pieces are perceived by their political opponents.

Hat tip to my fellow traveler Ka1igu1a at Freedom Democrats for the following video of the breathless and moronic Kevin James, conservative talk show host and devout ditto head.

As I watched and chuckled, I recalled MacBeth for some strange reason:

"Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Says Ka1igu1a:

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen .

Ben Casnocha summarizes a speech by the NYT's David Brooks. See link for Quick Time video version of speech.

* "I'll be brief because many of you are academics, and you're not here to hear me talk, you're here to hear yourselves talk."
* He likes Edmund Burke.
* People learn when there's an emotional connection.
* All factions of conservative movement united around distrust of government - this ain't enough.

Promoted by Brendan (and timestamp changed) -- everyone get in on the fun!

There has been some interest in starting a stock market challenge over at Marketwatch . Of course, everyone who is interested in playing is welcome to join.

We do need to set some rules:

Starting cash amount [$100,000]:
Public portfolios [y]:
Portfolio resets [n]:

I admit it, I was totally wrong... he doesn't have a prayer in the general, should he be lucky enough to hold on to win the primary. My eyes have been opened by some top-notch reporting on his troubled past. These scandals aren't going to stay buried for ever, the MSM is just waiting to turn on him. We as Democrats need to do everything we can to force him from the race to avoid a humiliating defeat in November -- or worse, a win for this corrupt menace who doesn't even resemble the facade his speechwriters so carefully construct for the cameras. Cultists, put down the kool-aid before it's too late!

Politicians lie from time to time...some more than others. We all know that. Some others don't lie...they just don't tell the truth. And others do neither, they are just "equivocal". Yet others make claims and statements that look REALLY, REALLY bad when seen through the lens of history. Whether they are lying, not telling the truth, being equivocal or simply saying things that they don't necessarily agree with, it really doesn't matter. It still is worth a mention when we see one that jumps out with neon lights.

I have been traveling through Second Life checking out all the political sites and events, accumulating a lot of photos that I have yet to sort and categorize. But last night's meeting was well attended and FUN (after an hour plus of chat on the patio, we moved to the dancefloor and chatted some more), so I figured I'd just throw what I have ready so far into a slide show and post it. Lots more to come.

This slideshow version will stop if you run your cursor over it.

Greg Mankiw shows an interesting quote from an economics textbook in France:

"Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer."

What are they writing in health books? that masturbation causes blindness?

Quick effort I tossed up on dKos . Not sure it's all that applicable to this crowd.

There's been a lot of calls lately for Nader to drop out. Well, he's not going to, and good for him. There's also been a lot of calls for his supporters to vote for Gore. Let this supporter tell you, it's ain't happening, no how no way. And let me tell you why.

American Heritage Dictionary -
soph·ism (sŏf'ĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. A plausible but fallacious argument.
2. Deceptive or fallacious argumentation.

[Middle English sophime, sophisme, from Old French sophime, from Latin sophisma, from Greek, from sophizesthai, to be subtle, from sophos, clever, wise.]

This morning's New York Times carries a detailed account of how the U.S. relied on an Iraqi to distribute U.S.-supplied weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns, to Iraqi police forces. Needless to say, the Iraqi "turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives..."

...from, what else, an economist's point of view: link .

So let's do something to reform Halloween. The first step would be for Halloween donors to give kids money instead of candy. Kids could then go to the supermarket the next day and binge on the candies they really like.

And then there's Christmas: link (pdf)

Halloween is just around the corner and we all know that Halloween is just the first shot on the yearly War on Christmas. We’ll soon be hearing all about how atheist organizations like Sears and Macy’s are forcing their employees to greet customers with an all encompassing ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of a more narrowly focused ‘Merry Christmas’.

My friends, while traveling on my honeymoon, I was subjected to something much more devastating. The battle has begun against an even more fundamental greeting; I’m taking about the War on "Hello."

I'm not one to bash the "paper of record" or go on liberal media screeds but this NYT opinion column really is "jaw-droppingly dumb" in the words of Don Boudreaux.

Says Bourdeaux in this response to the NYT:

To the Editor:

why do those retards at dkos constantly need to point out to their dimwit readers what is "snark" and whatnot? Wait, I think I just answered my own question.

Example:

Halfwit with Kerry's intelligence writes up a non-humorous and incredibly obvious attempt at sarcasm. Something about evils of liberalism, while giving all the great liberal achievements as examples. He doesn't add "snark" as one of the tags for a couple of minutes. The following idiocy ensues:

Butthead: This better be snark, or get ready to get a buttload of donuts

(Alright, my second favorite thing)

the Boring Coalition Against Drug Crime

Boring, Oregon, is a small community outside of Portland. I have a friend who puts on community theater at the lcal grange hall (yes, Boring actually has a grange hall). While seeing one of his plays I found this pamphlet and fell deeply in love.

There's a part of me that wants to assume that the good simple folks of Boring are in on the joke, but having stood in that grange I suspect the opposite.

but it's not often you see a Duck kick a Cougar's ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_aaYih92ss

FWIW, the Duck was suspended.